qadaffi is a madman...confirmed, page-25

Hi SBB

I find that statement"Gadaffi admitted that he ordered the Lockerbie bombing" quite curious. I know that they paid compensation but that could quite possibly have been just a business decision. That enabled certain restrictions to be lifted and led to the normalisation of relations with Libya by the rest of the world.There was no point bleating about their innocence, just shut up, pay the money and move on. It's just business.

I understood that the real reason that the so-called Locherbie bomber was released was that he was about to appeal the verdict with new and very strong evidence that may have been quite embarrassing. It's quite possible that he had the goods as plenty of people are left to die in gaol and no one cares one little bit. There must have been a very good reason for Britain to take the heat of public outrage at his release.The obvious thing to do to avoid major loss of face was make it clear that if the appeal were dropped then a release might be in order, dressed up as compassionate leave or something like that.Everyone is happy(ish) the Libyan is still technically guilty(so no further investigation is required), but free, those who may have fitted up him and his co accused get away unnoticed, the victims support group still believes there has been a coverup but they will get sick of it and/or die off in time and life goes on.

I have no need to defend Gaddafi but I do notice the obvious demonisation + bombing game. A little context is also useful.All societies can be pretty brutal when the chips are down, think US civil war 600k dead because the south wanted to do its own thing, French revolution, English civil war etc. Or a bit closer to home, how would the British or US government handle a major armed uprising now?My guess would be in pretty much the same way as Gaddafi is doing if the threat were serious enough.All these previous conflicts were resolved within those societies by the players themselves. Sure there's plenty of blood shed, but when has that not been the case in history?

I will be very interested to see how this escalates and how involved the Anglo powers get.That may well tip their hand as to their real motivation, ie oil price manipulation/ control, geopolitical influence re the Maghreb etc.

I say their real motivation because obviously no one goes out bombing for the fun of it or even to protect a few rebels/freedom fighters(take your pick). If that were the case Mugabe would be long gone, along with a dozen more African dictators, but they're still there(clue: they don't have anything that anyone else wants).
I will be very interested to see how committed to human rights the Anglo powers will be should the same thing happen in Saudi Arabia. My guess is that their new found concern for human rights will evaporate and the rebels will be labelled Al Qaeda and exterminated like rats. Popular uprisings are one thing but will only be allowed to succeed if they serve the interests of other interested and powerful players and it wouldn't be in the interests of the Anglo powers for that to happen in Saudi Arabia.

cheers