The al-Megrahi affair continues to dominate the headlines, as it surely will for some considerable time yet.
It has now emerged, however, that there was a conversation about the case between Gordon Brown and Col Gaddafi on the periphery of the G8 meeting in early July, when they discussed the possibility of al-Megrahi’s release and Brown urged Gaddafi to ensure that the terrorist’s homecoming, if it happened, was a “purely private, family occasion” – a stricture conspicuously ignored by Gaddafi.
Gaddafi’s son, Saif, also says that he discussed the case with Peter Mandelson, with whom he met on at least two occasions earlier this year, most recently on Corfu, a matter of days before al-Megrahi’s release was announced.
Saif Gaddafi, indeed, has gone further and claimed on Libyan TV that there were extensive negotiations between Libya and Britain over the al-Megrahi case:
“It is to be said for the first time, you were present on the table in all commercial, oil and gas agreements that we supervised in that period,” he told Megrahi, as the pair sat together in the private jet’s luxury lounge. “You were on the table in all British interests when it came to Libya, and I personally supervised this matter.”
The potentially incendiary danger to the Government of Saif’s claim needs hardly to be pointed out. Mandelson, however, firmly denies the allegation; he calls the suggestion of any deals between Libya and Britain “offensive” and repeats the Government’s mantra that the issue of al-Megrahi’s release was “entirely a matter for the Scottish justice minister”.
Acknowledging the meeting with Saif Gaddafi, however, he says:
“They had the same response from me as they’ve had from any other member of the government.”
As statements go, that must be considered one of the most quintessential Mandelsonian purity. Given that we have not been told what response, if any, “they” have had from any other member of the government, all of whom are still seemingly observing a rigid vow of silence, it really doesn’t take us any further at all. It may be true, it may not; but there’s really no way of telling.
Sometimes you really do have to take your hat off to him.
The Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, has released the text of a 
The curious, blustering performance by David Miliband on yesterday’s Today programme – in which he referred to the return to Libya of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi as “deeply distressing” but refused to criticise, or even comment on, the decision of the Scottish Executive to release the terrorist – has served only to highlight the mess that Labour has made of devolution in Scotland.
