The release on humanitarian grounds of Lockerbie bomber Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi from his Scottish dungeon is as popular with the people of Scotland as it is with Americans. A showdown is shaping up between the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) and all three oppositions parties. Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott said:
The SNP’s credibility at home and abroad is in tatters. Scotland’s must not be allowed to follow with it.
Down south in London Town, Gordon Brown’s Labor government is taking a beating as well. It’s been reported that Business Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson met twice with Saif Gaddafi – son of the Libyan dictator – to discuss the release of al-Magrahi.
The Europeans are running a little scared where the Gaddafi clan is concerned. Last July, Hannibal Gaddafi – yet another son of the great dictator – was arrested, along with his wife, for beating their two servants while staying at a posh hotel in Geneva, Switzerland. The Gaddafi’s cooled their heels for two days in a Swiss lockup. Needless to say, father Muammar was furious; not with the barbaric actions of his son and daughter-in-law but with Swiss authorities. The Libyan strongman showed his displeasure by withdrawing $5 billion from his Swiss bank accounts, stopping all flights to and from Switzerland and suspending oil exports to the tiny land-locked nation, cutting its oil needs by half.
Max Goeldi knows first hand how nasty Colonel Gaddafi can be. Goeldi, who heads the Swiss engineering firm ABB currently building Libya’s oil infrastructure, has spent months hiding in the nearly vacant Swiss embassy in Tripoli. Libyan authorities arrested Goeldi and an associate for alleged immigration violations. When they were released ten days later the pair was prevented from leaving the country. Fellow ABB employees bring food keep the hostages alive.
Meanwhile, as terrorist bomber al-Megrahi was deplaning to a hero’s welcome, the Swiss president was in Tripoli to deliver an “official and public apology for the unjustified and unnecessary arrest” of Hannibal and his missus. The Swiss newspaper Le Temps said, “In this crisis Switzerland loses more than honor. The country has slowly taken stock of its powerlessness.” Of course, the powerlessness is self-inflicted.
While Europe’s ruling parties quake in the shadow of Gaddafi, their constituents are getting fed up. The three Scottish opposition parties, which control 129 of the 176 seats in the Scottish Parliament, are threatening a vote of no confidence if Scotland's Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill (who ordered the release of al-Megrahi) does not resign.
Twenty years ago, President Ronald Reagan responded to Gaddafi’s terrorist attacks against American military and civilian targets in Europe by sending U.S. attack aircraft to bomb the Libyan capital, its terrorist training camps and to sink what passed for its navy. It’s believed Gaddafi’s 15-month-old adopted daughter was killed in the raid. France, Spain and Italy refused to allow U.S. warplanes to pass through their airspace. In fact, Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalgam recently admitted that while he was serving as Gaddafi’s ambassador to Rome, Italy’s government warned him of the impending U.S. attack. “I don’t think I am revealing a secret if I announce that Italy informed us…that there would have been an aggression against Libya,” he told the press.
Gaddafi seems to be begging for another lesson. But Europe craves Libyan oil and the U.S. no longer produces Ronald Reagans. Gaddafi and his like will flourish in this less than brave new world.
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