Back on the CT, the main question coming uppermost in my mind is whether there has ever been an actual conspiracy, even if we assume Megrahi is innocent.
Some fairly heavy circumstantial evidence pointed to the Palestinians. (Working for money on behalf of Iran, as I most often encounter it, though others say Syria.) However, no actual evidence was presented to incriminate the Palestinian group, and the focus of investigation shifted to Libya.
There have been suggestions that evidence of Palestinian involvement was deliberately suppressed, allegedly to prevent the chain leading to Iran, because Bush senior wanted Iran onside at the time one the first Gulf War which was happening at that time. And that Libya was a much more convenient scapegoat.
However, I've mentioned the Barry George case in this context before. Jill Dando's murderer left virtually no clues at all. It was an extraordinarily slick operation. There were suspicions relating to some sort of Serbian reprisal for her support of Kosovo (or something like that), but no evidence was found. Police then turned to George, who was a complete inadequate who had been nearby and had been acting strangely. And they fitted him up, basically by massively exaggerating the significance of things which had nothing to do with the murder. The motive for this was simply that they felt they had to get someone for this high profile murder, and George was the best they could come up with. It took two appeals before he was released.
And then there was the Damilola Taylor murder. The first set of accused were again essentially fitted up by police desperate to get a conviction. The evidence was rightly thrown out by the jury, because the alibi was sound. That didn't stop the red-top press screaming for their blood, and asserting that the acquittal was a disgrace. Fortunately a re-examine of the forensics turned up the real culprits.
I wonder if the "conspiracy" here might be as simple as these. The real bombers (possibly the Palestinians) covered their tracks extremely well, and investigators were getting nowhere trying to construct a case. Meanwhile there were 270 dead people, and a lot of heavy public pressure to pin it on someone. Oh, here's these Libyan guys who were there or thereabouts at the right time....
Then the system goes into action, and the USA offers $4 million to one witness if they give evidence that leads to a conviction, and $2 million to another (and $1 million to his brother). So then that second witness, who is "an apple short of a picnic" anyway, somehow manages to decide that the person he saw wasn't over 6 feet tall and in his fifties after all, but was Megrahi (5' 8" and 36), and actually it was definitely 7th December, because that's the date that will get me untold wealth....
And there you are. Not clean, but not anything out of the ordinary
Rolfe.
|