Patterico's Pontifications

7/25/2010

Obama Preferred Lockerbie Bomber Release to Libyan Prison

Filed under: International,Obama — DRJ @ 2:15 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Doesn’t it seem like just the other day President Obama criticized our friends across the pond for releasing the Lockerbie bomber, al-Megrahi, to return to Libya?

“I think all of us here were surprised, disappointed and angry about the release of the Lockerbie bomber,’ he said.

‘We should have all the facts, they should be laid out there. I have confidence Prime Minister Cameron’s government will be co-operative.

‘The decision ran contrary to how we should be treating terrorists.”

That was President Obama in a White House press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron on July 21, 2010. What a difference a week makes, not to mention independent journalism:

“THE US government secretly advised Scottish ministers it would be “far preferable” to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya.”

H/T Dmac.

— DRJ

61 Responses to “Obama Preferred Lockerbie Bomber Release to Libyan Prison”

  1. Boy, they are running out of room under that bus.

    What a liar !

    Mike K (0ef8c3)

  2. I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt with the thought that they had a very good sniper in mind.

    Trying.

    em (ae4747)

  3. Transparency wins again!

    daleyrocks (940075)

  4. “Thank you for attending my press conference, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Richard LeBaron, and I would just like to say that FOX News is a hive of racism, and that they, along with Tea Party fuhrer Andrew Breitbart are solely responsible for my firing. If they had their way, they would take us all the way back to the Stone Age, and I think it is the patriotic duty of all Americans to oppose them until they are no more.”

    Icy Texan (ea1329)

  5. I am surprised, disappointed, and angry. It is exhausting, and there doesn’t seem to be any recourse. Guess I will paste a smile on, and plow through this $h1t.

    TimesDisliker (07963f)

  6. threatens to undermine US President Barack Obama

    He has already terminally undermined his credibility for those paying attention.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  7. I was wondering why the Taliban felt ok opening a negotiation for the dead body of a U.S. sailor.

    Well, at least I can take comfort that Charles Rangel will be dealt with appropriately.

    TimesDisliker (07963f)

  8. Brazen liar and incompetent. That’s going to be Obama’s legacy when he is a private citizen again in January of 2013.

    Can’t happen soon enough.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  9. Where are our heroes and heroines from JOURNOLIST to save the day?!! We need to hear the truth and only they are qualified to fully explain this in a way that helps us understand Obama’s brilliant feint of saying one thing to the American people and another to a foreign government. I await enlightenment from Dave Weigel.

    BT (74cbec)

  10. The document, acquired by a well-placed US source, threatens to undermine US President Barack Obama’s claim last week

    I like the “threatens to undermine” bit, which I think means something much different than what it is on it’s face, because the document does undermine the claim, just not with nuclear totality.

    So what does it really mean? Well, first one needs to keep in mind that no party likes being told by another party to keep quiet about the latter party’s complicity in an action and then have that latter party criticize the former about the action. The Brits didn’t like Obama’s spouting. This doc was leaked to send a message that this will not be tolerated.

    It’s likely the “threaten to undermine” isn’t a Casper Milquetoast understatement, but a notice that more communications that both know exist could easily be leaked to totally undermine Obama wrt his demagoguery on this issue, so “Shut the he$$ up, Barry!”

    Side note: It does say a well-placed US source, but I consider that to be either the AU or Brit embassy.

    Dusty (109a16)

  11. BT – JournoList’s collective response was, and I quote, ” Fred Barnes is a RACIST!!!!”

    JD (06f82d)

  12. this report is both unexpected and unprecedented.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  13. As if Libya would have ever followed through on a pledge to imprison the Lockerbee terrorist in a Libyan prison. The depth of naivite required to create that sentence is incomprehensible to anyone not a libtard.

    eaglewingz08 (326e65)

  14. We need to focus on jobs and not racisms and events of the past!

    daleyrocks (940075)

  15. Have we found a subject yet on which Obama’s word can be trusted. ?

    Mike K (0ef8c3)

  16. “We are people
    Moammar Khadaffi has
    long been waiting for”

    – President Barack Big Zero

    ColonelHaiku (ac3c3c)

  17. Hm.. the possibilities are endless:

    Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer of New York and Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez of New Jersey say they are concerned by reports that BP helped secure al-Megrahi’s release in order to finalize a $900-million offshore oil drilling deal with Libya.

    So, if BP was that seriously involved in securing al-Megrahi’s release and President Obama pushed for the release on compassionate grounds, where did President Obama and BP intersect in a common interest? And exactly *what* was their common interest and how far did it extend?

    Considering BP is the most loathed business around these days and our President is practiced in the art of deception, it will be interesting, and I suspect enlightening, to see the dots connected as this story unfolds.

    Dana (8ba2fb)

  18. Feh. Comma OD…

    Dana (8ba2fb)

  19. Gee. I would never have expected. Not in a million years. Oh, hell. It’s not true!
    Do I sound like a reporter yet?

    Richard Aubrey (2b1251)

  20. You know, as a lie, this really wasn’t a big one. But it was also not a necessary one; he could have simply said nothing. Yet, when it came to a choice between keeping his mouth shut and telling an unnecessary lie, he chose to lie.

    That says something about our President.

    The honest Dana (474dfc)

  21. Yet another impeachable offense.

    Kevin Stafford (abdb87)

  22. Mike K asked:

    Have we found a subject yet on which Obama’s word can be trusted. ?

    If President Obama told me that 2+2=4, I’d check the math.

    The calculator-using Dana (474dfc)

  23. it’s always about
    money even when it’s not
    it’s about money

    ColonelHaiku (ac3c3c)

  24. Then again, considering his budget figures, there’s no evidence that our President knows that 2+2=4. It seems more like 2+2=$2,000,000,000,000.

    The Dana who can do the math (474dfc)

  25. it like he always
    say Mike K make no mistake
    be perfectly clear

    ColonelHaiku (ac3c3c)

  26. To some up the fellow who ordered the operation, is now the Libyan Foreign Minister, he gave up AQ figures like Al Libi, who later gave false accounts
    allegedly about Iraq ties to AQ, under interrogation
    in Cairo, not far from where Obama gave his speech last year

    ian cormac (d407d8)

  27. Do I sound like a reporter yet?

    Yes; stay near your telephone, you should receive an offer from the NYT or LAT at any moment.

    Old Coot (fc2376)

  28. 12.this report is both unexpected and unprecedented. Comment by redc1c4 — 7/25/2010 @ 3:24 pm

    And I am sure that the President and his administration will not rest until the matter is resolved. (This is too easy).

    16.“We are people
    Moammar Khadaffi has
    long been waiting for”
    – President Barack Big Zero

    Comment by ColonelHaiku — 7/25/2010 @ 3:48 pm

    I think that’s one of your best

    20.You know, as a lie, this really wasn’t a big one. But it was also not a necessary one; he could have simply said nothing. Yet, when it came to a choice between keeping his mouth shut and telling an unnecessary lie, he chose to lie.
    That says something about our President.
    Comment by The honest Dana — 7/25/2010 @ 4:03 pm

    Exactly. One has to be quite pathological to lie when it “isn’t even necessary”. It was when Al Gore pulled one of those in the 2000 debate with Bush that I realized for sure the organization that supported such people was not to be trusted.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  29. Yet another impeachable offense.

    How so?

    AJB (d64738)

  30. As Beck said 2 plus 2 equals five if Obama says it enough, all the little Liberal Socialist Marxists will believe it…and they really really do! Bp gave over 2 million dollars to Obamas campaign hmmmmm

    saber (193d62)

  31. follow the money
    always follow the money
    Colonel got the time

    ColonelHaiku (ac3c3c)

  32. green for the money
    gold for the honey got to
    keep your pimp hand strong

    TimesDisliker (07963f)

  33. Colonel Haiku, yes, always follow the money but this just doesn’t make sense. Was Obama being duplicitous and possibly in collusion with BP, or was he trying to reach out to the Muslim community with his compassionate grounds release? Either way seems dangerously amateurish. Whatever the motivating factor was, the president had to know it would inevitably make it’s way to the surface and before the public eye.

    Dana (8ba2fb)

  34. where did President Obama and BP intersect in a common interest?

    That was the immediate thought I had as well, Dana. What the hell kind of sick kabuki is going on here?

    Dmac (d61c0d)

  35. I’m much more cynical than much of the right in their refusal to believe Obama could actually be trying to bring this country down from the inside. Because that is as likely as anything at this point.

    John Hitchcock (9e8ad9)

  36. “In the letter, sent on August 12 last year to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and justice officials, Mr LeBaron wrote that the US wanted Megrahi to remain imprisoned in view of the nature of the crime.”

    You rightwingers are just blatant compulsive liars. But you know, everyone is getting wise to you by now….

    JoeCitizen (1d5a10)

  37. JoeCitizen, actually “everyone” is getting wise to the lies of the Democrats and the White House.

    But you just keep chanting the talking points.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  38. JoeCitizen,

    The letter says the Obama Administration wanted Megrahi locked up, but doesn’t it also show Obama couldn’t have been “surprised” at Megrahi’s release — since his State Department had been discussing it with the Scottish government?

    DRJ (d43dcd)

  39. I saw a name “joe citizen” in the recent comments, and just knew it was a lying troll.

    JD (04ebf2)

  40. You rightwingers are just blatant compulsive liars. But you know, everyone is getting wise to you by now….

    Comment by JoeCitizen

    I certainly hope they are getting wise to all of us. Then they can decide who is lying.

    Mike K (0ef8c3)

  41. Obama’s interests and BP’s interests intersect in the Gulf of Mexico. The warning signs that the well was unstable and about to blow were unmistakable. Obama’s MMS had looked the other way so often and so completely it was practically a foregone conclusion.

    The blow-out preventer was non-functional and the pressure reading showed it. BP pulled the trigger when they skipped critical safety steps and then substituted sea water for drilling mud.

    Then after the blow-out Obama did everything in his power to prevent a timely response and effective clean-up operations.

    Hell, he even went so far as to ban other ongoing drilling operations in the Gulf. So, what the problem in drawing the obvious conclusion?

    ropelight (1e7870)

  42. So, what the problem in drawing the obvious conclusion?

    Maybe it’s just too incredible…and, to what end?

    Dana (8ba2fb)

  43. dont know Dana but
    with Big Zero it always
    about Benjamins

    ColonelHaiku (ac3c3c)

  44. #43 Dana:

    Maybe it’s just too incredible…and, to what end?

    He’s a religious nutcase who believes a socialist utopia will spontaneously arise out of the ashes of a destroyed Western Civilization.

    Just like his buddy Bill Ayres has been preaching since the 70s.

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  45. Dana wrote, “Maybe it’s just too incredible…”

    Well, no less an authority than Sherlock Holmes said that when you’ve exhausted all other possibilities, the one remaining, no matter how improbable, must be it. Or something close.

    And, “…to what end?” has already been answered, especially if Obama’s father was the communist Frank Marshall Davis, and Obama has been concealing the place and the circumstances of his birth in order to hide the documents which would reveal the truth of his red heritage.

    ropelight (1e7870)

  46. Oh, please! Did any rational human being EVER think for even a moment that the UK would have released the Lockerbie bomber without tacit approval from the White House? It is unthinkable. The action would obviously have a negative reaction in the US, and we had a new President with whom the UK would have to deal for at least four years, under what imagining could it have been done without the nod from Washington?

    Adjoran (ec6a4b)

  47. release him under
    humanitarian grounds?
    victims below ground!

    kung-fu-ku (757fb0)

  48. i wonder if my elected officials here in new jersey are going to ask for an investagation of the obama administration like thay asked for one of the british government. i don’t think so they are all democrats. the party loyality is too strong.

    thomas mc donnell (397858)

  49. Obama Preferred Lockerbie Bomber Release to Libyan Prison

    This makes it sound as if Obama would have been sent to a Libyan prison if the bomber had not been freed.

    Sabba Hillel (dd522e)

  50. c’mon, Joe Citizen. Defend your lies.

    JD (a6e035)

  51. Mass murderers will get their reward eventually.

    It’s a shame he escaped justice on Earth, but there was no justice on Earth for what he did.

    There is some goodness to this story. One example is how proud Libyans are of a man who murdered innocent families. He killed babies and mothers and grandparents. And they are treating him like he’s Lady Gaga.

    Say what you will about America’s tastes, but we have never and will never praise someone like al-Megrahi. It’s a shame, but we probably need reminders of what we’re up against in the GWOT. And, as usual, one substantial problem is political expediency from the White House.

    Bush could be described as politically inexpedient. I’d take that over this.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  52. Say what you will about America’s tastes, but we have never and will never praise someone like al-Megrahi.

    HAHAHAHA

    America just killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in an aggressive war based on false pretenses. America tortured innocent people. America never met a right-wing death squads it didn’t like.

    America also doesn’t have a problem with attacking civilian aircraft either:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Posada_Carriles
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655

    AJB (d64738)

  53. America just killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in an aggressive war based on false pretenses. America tortured innocent people. America never met a right-wing death squads it didn’t like.

    Hey man, do we treat the torturers, be they the CIA waterboardists or the Abu Ghraib nutcases, like Lybia treats this monster?

    And we didn’t kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. We saved probably half a million by now. You may not know this, but the greatest killer of Middle Eastern people in world history was Saddam. The Iran Iraq war that he started for very screwy reasons killed 2 million people. Estimates vary as to how many people he gassed and how many starved because of the Oil for food scam, but it’s in the 6 digits for domestic deaths outside of warfare.

    You know, you kinda prove my point. You cite a couple of cases where we were humbled or angry. That’s the closest you can come to a deliberate murder or many innocent people, where the killer is adulated? Are you kidding me?

    You’re insane if you think the American people love people who blow up airliners full of innocent people. I didn’t say we didn’t have a few nutcases… I said we don’t adore them.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  54. AJB sure does lurv his anti-American vitriol mixed in with an army of strawmen.

    JD (d5d7c2)

  55. Possibly after reading what the London Times actually wrote you would all like to add Joe Citizen to your “Sherrod Apology List”:

    “Sunday Times: “[T]he United States wanted Megrahi to remain imprisoned.” The Sunday Times article made clear that the administration supported keeping Megrahi imprisoned, but that in the event he was released, they preferred to release him in Scotland rather than send him to Libya. From the Sunday Times (accessed via Factiva):

    “In the letter, sent on August 12 last year to Alex Salmond, the first minister, and justice officials, [deputy head of the London US embassy Richard] LeBaron wrote that the United States wanted Megrahi to remain imprisoned in view of the nature of the crime.

    “The note added: “Nevertheless, if Scottish authorities come to the conclusion that Megrahi must be released from Scottish custody, the US position is that conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer, which we strongly oppose.” LeBaron added that freeing the bomber and making him live in Scotland “would mitigate a number of the strong concerns we have expressed with regard to Megrahi’s release”.

    What? You mean the State Department letter stated the exact opposite of what Rush claimed? You mean the letter from the State Department said the terrorist should remain in jail?! But, if Scottish authorities decided to release him, they should make him live in Scotland, rather than letting him return to Libya? Why are the Fox Newsers saying the exact opposite thing?

    What? Our conservative media darlings have lied to again and we’re too lazy to check?!

    Seriously, you people need to try and overcome “epistemic closure.” Try and use Goggle for a change to investigate how often you are fooled by your media leaders.

    And, please, take note of how DRJ walks the claims back a bit. When one is caught in such mistake, the appropriate thing to do is allege you are actually angry because the President said “surprise.”

    Nonetheless, that’s two clumsy lies from conservative media types in the last two weeks….I wonder if they are running out of things to distract y’all with.

    timb (449046)

  56. i think the basic idea that it would be better to release him, but force him to remain in scottland, rather than give him over to the libyans. If you assume the libyans would have freed him, that’s actually a defensable position. Jonathan Hunt, on Fox, who has been very good in exposing international corruption says that its a little harsh to highlight that part of the letter, because the rest of it was saying, “don’t release him at all, you idiots.” okay the last two words are my flourish, but there you go.

    Aaron Worthing (A.W.) (f97997)

  57. I don’t like Explorer

    timb (449046)

  58. timb, I don’t see the ‘lie’. I think you’re accusing DRJ of lying but citing something Rush said? It’s kinda hard to follow your logic.

    Did DRJ accurately quote the links she cited? It looks like she did, proving that Obama lied to the American people about his awareness of the terrorist release because they even indicated their preferences for a release if it takes place (which they didn’t want).

    Is this really so difficult? It seems like you are motivated to prove that DRJ and ‘conservative’s are always lying. You say she is walking her claims back when she is simply repeating something at the top of the page, that Obama expressed surprise. He wasn’t surprised.

    You need to be more careful about who you accuse of lying. Quote the comment DRJ made that was a lie. Her post proves two things: that Obama claimed he was surprised by something. And that Obama knew about that something ahead of time.

    “You rightwingers are just blatant compulsive liars. But you know, everyone is getting wise to you by now….

    Comment by JoeCitizen

    You say we owe him an apology for this completely unjustified attack? Did DRJ accuse Obama of lobbying for a terrorist’s release? I didn’t see that. I think you’re making that up.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  59. How much more egregious a straw man could you possibly see?

    We have one idiot saying that Americans love blowing up airplanes and another saying if Obama didn’t personally try to release this guy, he’s the victim of this VRWC smear.

    Next thing you know, timb will pretend that we’re accusing Obama of blowing up planes, too. If you need that kind of strawman to defend your guy… if you think it’s plausible at all, you need to reevaluate your life.

    Did Rush Limbaugh even bring this up? I didn’t hear him today, but timb claims he made this huge accusation. Timb, did you hear Rush make this accusation? Nothing like that on his webpage. Only person even citing Rush is you.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  60. “…Nonetheless, that’s two clumsy lies from conservative media types in the last two weeks….I wonder if they are running out of things to distract y’all with….”

    You truly don’t see why that is ironically funny, coming from you? Given the way this administration has been going. Especially all of your accusations of anger.

    I’m trying to think of the last time you have ever said you were wrong about anything, incidentally.

    But you know what? I don’t want to fight with you. You should just think about your own anger issues before bringing up others. And you should be nice to DRJ. She has been far more polite to you than you have to her.

    Eric Blair (c8876d)


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