FBI Doesn't Do Diplomacy

The FBI phoned a Scots police force in the middle of the night and demanded Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill's address after he freed the Lockerbie bomber.

The Lothian and Borders force was told at 2am an official from the US embassy wanted to deliver a letter from FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Mr Mueller was so furious at the decision to release the bomber he wanted the letter hand-delivered. He had ordered an official from London to travel to Edinburgh, hand over the letter and wait while Mr MacAskill gave a response.

Lothian and Borders police refused to give out the details but contacted officials at the Justice Secretary's private office. They informed the FBI there were set procedures in such cases and delivering a message to Mr MacAskill at his home in the middle of the night was out of the question.

The FBI chief's actions have sparked political fury at Holyrood. They were told they couldn't phone up and demand the home address of a cabinet minister of another country. Also they were informed that the letter could be handed to the night doorman at St Andrew's House, the HQ of the Scottish Government in Edinburgh, and it would be passed to Mr MacAskill in the morning.

In the event, Mr Mueller's angry letter was emailed to Mr MacAskill's office next day.

Christine Grahame, SNP MSP, sums up my opinion about Mr Mueller:

The last few weeks have clearly been a wake-up call for certain establishment figures in the US, including Texan Mr Mueller, who are clearly used to throwing their diplomatic weight around on the international stage, she said.

That might work in Texas but it won't cut much ice in West Lothian.

It will fuel doubts over the FBI's competency if it has to phone a poor duty sergeant at Lothian and Borders Police in the early hours to secure the address of Scotland's Justice Secretary.

Trevor Royle writes about the US/UK's 'special relationship' in today's Sunday Herald.

Source: Sunday Post

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Megrahi Decision

The decision to release Al Megrahi on compassionate grounds continues to create a furore in the MSM. Today a former diplomat with close business links to the Gadaffi regime has said that the Scottish and UK governments may have done "some kind of deal" with Libya to release the Lockerbie bomber.

Oliver Miles (pictured above), a former UK ambassador to Libya, said that there was "something fishy" in the coincidence that Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi's lawyers filed his application to the Scottish court to drop his appeal on 12 August, the same day that the BBC broke the story of his imminent release. "I cannot know what exactly happened but I believe that the UK and Scottish government wanted the appeal to be dropped and somehow it was dropped," said Mr Miles. Mr Miles doesn't appear to be saying anything of substance which makes me wonder if he why the Times bothered to quote him. Maybe he has a book in the offing.

The Scotsman is reporting Whitehall is prepared to publish, later today, 'all relevant' correspondence with the Scottish government in regard to the release of Al Megrahi. More background papers are also due to be published by the Scottish government, before tomorrow's debate on the issue. Let's hope the redacting is not excessive.

I must draw your attention to this excellent post by Calum Cashley. Calum has taken a serious interest in this subject and explains the reasons why Kenny MacAskill's meeting with Megrahi was legal as well as being right.

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Labour and the Megrahi Decision

Many of you will have read this article in today's Scotsman from David Maddox. His ability for the over-dramatic knows no bounds.

'The parties have also raised questions over whether the doctor was employed by the Libyan government or Megrahi's legal team, which could have influenced the judgment.'

I was starting to dig for accurate information when Calum's post arrived in my reader. He has analysed the article piece by piece in a clear and concise manner. Do have a read.

For the sake of balance, today's Herald is suggesting the attempt by the opposition parties to bring down Kenny MacAskill has been kicked into the long grass. Am I the only one becoming irritated by Ian Gray and his constant whining? Labour would benefit from buying a positive attitude from Debenhams or another source, then approaching matters like this without the negativity.

Magnus Linklater's piece in Tuesday's Times was missed in my post yesterday. Sometimes the comments are more enlightening that the journalist's composition.

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The MSM and Yesterday in the Scottish Parliament

How disappointed I was this morning to read the dead tree press reports on yesterday's Ministerial Statement. I'm convinced few journalists watched the whole broadcast or have been following the Magrahi issue carefully.

The Guardian reports Mr MacAskill was 'discomforted' by Ian Gray's 'attacks'. Mr MacAskill didn't look uncomfortable to me, just irritated by the quality of Mr Gray's questions. The labour leader's constant call for the Scottish government to publish everything could well backfire on him because, much as the present government is doing its best to be transparent, some documents and details must be kept confidential for all our sakes. The Scotsman concentrated on Mr Gray's demand - no surprise there then. The Herald's account was unbiased and of the Scottish newspapers, the most accurate.

One of our dearly beloved unionist journalists, Angus Macleod, reports in The Times 'It is the first time that Scotland's Nationalist administration has joined the condemnation of the triumphal scene'. Where has Mr Macleod been all weekend? Alex Salmond was like the proverbial bad penny both on Saturday and Sunday when he continually decried the behaviour of Gadaffi and the stage-managed welcome Megrahi had on his return to Libya.

Ian MacWhirter gave a more balanced summary and opinion, while Alan Cochrane's medication must be taking effect as his account is distinctly more or less rant free.

Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting hopes yesterday's Statement, questions and answers will bring the matter to a close. I disagree. We cannot have the last public perception of this affair being the image of Megrahi arriving in Tripoli to a rent-a-mob waving possibly homemade saltires and if only for that reason the issue needs to be further investigated. Kenny MacAskill insists the Scottish government does not have the powers to do this but surely unionist MSPs could motivate their London bosses into calling for an inquiry. I certainly think there may be some political mileage for the tories and libdems if they can uncover some of the backroom deals made in recent years by the labour government.

By all accounts the opposition parties have retracted their enthusiasm for a vote of no confidence in Kenny MacAskill and therefore next Wednesday's debate may be mundane, although Christine Grahame is reported to have something of interest to say. Maybe even Jack McConnell, who was exceptionally vocal on Sunday about the decision 'damaging Scotland', may grace the Parliament with his presence. Perhaps his absence yesterday was due to his barber's appointment taking longer than expected.

Today I found the above photograph of the Scottish Parliament and rather pleasing to the eye it is too. Wardog thinks the Parliament is truly remarkable and I'm doing my very best to see his point of view.

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The Statement and the Questions

I arranged my afternoon in order to watch Kenny MacAskill's statement on the Megrahi decision and the subsequent MSP's questions.

His statement was a repeat of his statement last Thursday but he was much more relaxed.

The questions varied in quality with Ian Gray later insisting, on Sky News, that none of his questions was answered. Perhaps he wasn't listening because in my opinion they were answered fully.

Annabel Goldie's idea that Mr Megrahi could have been transferred to his temporary home in Newton Mearns, a hospice or a hospital was quite ridiculous. Even to the most disinterested person the policing of any of these situations would be a nightmare. I'm sure Ms Goldie doesn't live in Newton Mearns or has ever been in a hospital when a criminal is also a patient. The freedom of patients is seriously curtailed and inconvenience is caused to staff, visitors and patients. With a man of Mr Megrahi's criminal status it would be quite impossible to ensure security and allow normal business to proceed. The same would apply to a hospice situation.

The least said about Tavish Scott and Nicol Stephen's contributions the better. Very disappointing performances from both whose desperate attempts to score political points drifted into the ether. The subject matter is far too important for this type of behaviour.

The MSP who deserves a mention is Malcolm Chisholm, a man not unused to sticking his head above the party line and voicing his own opinion - dignified, brief and to the point. I see others agree with me.

As a result of this afternoon it would seem the unionist parties intend to push for a full debate in the Parliament next Wednesday and a vote thereafter. Interesting times indeed.

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Holyrood Parliament - Ministerial Statement on the Megrahi Decision

This afternoon at 2.30pm in the Scottish Parliament, there is to be a Ministerial Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice on the decision on Mr Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi.

As I cannot find this in television schedules, I thought readers who were interested would like to know it can be viewed on Holyrood Live TV. Takes a few minutes to connect so I suggest you log on about 5 minutes beforehand. For those of you who haven't used the site before you're looking for the live stream in Chamber Live.

On a lighter note, doesn't the Parliament look good from the air? Now I can see the 'upturned boats' the architect talked about. Shame the public don't see that angle, but perhaps the parliament should organise helicopter flights for say £1 a head.

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The Reverberations

'Bomber row could bring down Scots government' is the headline in the Sunday Post this morning.

Parliament is to be recalled tomorrow and Kenny MacAskill will make a statement plus answer questions from MSPs.

However, according to Campbell Gunn, opposition leaders are now understood to be seriously considering calling a vote on the issue, although no vote is scheduled for the end of the session and opposition leaders will wait until it is over before deciding whether to call one.

The likelihood is this would be a vote of 'no confidence' in Mr MacAskill following the full return of Parliament after the end of recess, next week. In that cast Alex Salmond would consider it a vote of no confidence in his Government, as he cannot be put in the position where opposition parties say who can and who cannot be members of his ministerial team.

All three main opposition parties opposed Mr MacAskill's decision so the 47 SNP MSPs would be heavily outnumbered in any vote.

Jack McConnell and Ian Gray bestowed their verbal contributions to the argument.

Whilst the reverberations continue the Prime Minister enjoys the seclusion of his well guarded home in the Kingdom of Fife confident that his new mantra 'silence is golden' will pay off.

Since I starting writing this there have been some good posts published on the same subject. They can be read here, here and here.

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MacAskill visits Megrahi

Kenny MacAskill, Justice Secretary in the Scottish government, has visited Greenock prison this morning to speak to Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi. Mr Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of 270 counts of murder for his part in the bombing of the Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988. He has maintained his innocence.

Mr MacAskill has received a request from Libya for Mr Megrahi to be returned there to finish his sentence. He has spoken with the families of those who were killed and others connected with the case. The visit this morning was private and it is reported Mr MacAskill will not be giving interviews.

Mr Megrahi was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2008.

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Scottish Police Numbers Reach a Record High

Kenny MacAskill claimed yesterday that the Scottish Government was on target to meet its commitment of 1000 extra police after new figures showed that the numbers of officers in Scotland had risen above 17,000 for the first time.

After a sluggish start, caused by the retiral of many officers, considerable progress has been made and yesterday's figures now suggest that the 1000 officer pledge is likely to be met in time for the next election in 2011. The statistics showed that, at the end of March this year, there were a record number of 17,408 police officers employed across the country. That is 373 more than at the end of December last year and is a rise of 821 from March 2008.

The figures showed that the number of officers had increased in all eight of Scotland's police forces.

Congratulations Mr MacAskill.

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Keep Politics Out of the Scottish Police Service

The opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament seem hell bent on getting the resignation of an SNP minister and Kenny MacAskill's been in the frame the past week.  They've given up for the moment on Fiona Hyslop the education secretary I see.

It appears the First Minister knew, at FMQs yesterday, that another prisoner had absconded from Castle Huntly in Tayside but did not inform the parliament.

A spokesman for Alex Salmond insisted he had been absolutely right not to mention the latest absconder in the Parliament because it was up to police when information on absconders was released and Tayside Police had not yet publicised the information.  He admitted Mr Salmond had known about Brown (the latest absconder) on Wednesday night, but added : "It would be utterly extraordinary to suggest that any minister should interfere with an operational matter for Tayside Police."

I entirely agree with the First Minister's stance.  We don't want politicians interfering with our police service.  One look at the Metropolitian Police should be enough to remind us what happens in these circumstances.

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Half of Prosecutor Fines Unpaid

More than half the fines imposed by prosecutors last year have not been paid in full and as a result more than 57,000 warning letters have been sent out.  Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill provided this information to a tory MSP who said the figures were an "absolute disgrace" and our criminal justice system is in "meltdown."

The statistics given to the MSP show penalties worth £3.7m were imposed by prosecutors last year as an alternative to court action.  Of this total, £1.3m had been collected, a further £1.2m was being paid by agreed instalments and the remaining £1.2m was in arrears.  No payments at all had been made in the case of 14,741 fines or 41% of the total, while a further 4,769 or 13% were in arrears.  More than 3,000 enforcement orders were applied but in only 754 cases were the fines deducted from benefits and there were only 40 earnings arrestments.

I agree with MSP Margaret Mitchell that these figures are a disgrace but it would have been more interesting to have details of previous years for comparison.

The amount of public money spent chasing these unpaid fines must be vast.  The cost of sending out 57,000 letters alone is possibly in the region of £100,000, including administration.  We have laws which include enforcement orders so why aren't they being used?  Fines are regarded by many continual offenders as a joke and it's long past time this matter was brought under control.

Mr MacAskill, do something about it, you have the law of the land on your side.  Stop the softly softly approach and bring a halt to this ludicrous waste of public money.

Source Sunday Times 

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