Straw refuses to go to the US

[rov1200]

Straw after reflection has decided to oppose the call for him to go to the US to face interrogation over the Libyan release on compassionate grounds. Do you believe he was right to refuse to go?
Mention of Blair being called were quickly dropped by the US because of the work he has done for them with Iraq even though it was him who arranged the prisoner swap with Libya in exchange for oil exploration.

[ludwig]

Yes he is right to refuse. The decision to release Megrahi was ridiculous, stupid, and shameful, but Jack Straw should feel under no obligation to go to America to explain his part in it.

All they want to do is have a few senators making themselves look good by kicking some limey ass on TV, like they did with the BP bloke recently. If anything, the people responsible should be made to explain themselves direct to the families of the victims, in private.

[rojash]

What do you think if a Commons Select Committee tried to summon a US Senator for interrogation?

[Hopkirk]

Elections are looming over there aren't they?

[123everton]

He's got every right to refuse, he should offer the yanks a deal, he'll answer their questions if they send over the board of Union Carbide to India, perhaps we should remember what George Bush senior said often "I will never apologise for anything the United States has done, regardless of the facts", quite.

[Gromit]

I would much rather he went and told the Yanks the FBI fitted up Al Megrahi and Libya, and the evidence was fabricated. The US shoots down an Iranian Passenger Plane, and shortly after, an American Plane is attacked. All the evidence led to Iran, but the US were arming Iran against Saddam, and Gaddafi was the bogeyman at the time, so they got the blame

http://www.lrb.co.uk/...framing-of-al-megrahi

[Quizmonster]

I think these senators should be told in no uncertain terms to copulate in an offwards direction! The governments of Scotland, Britain and America as well as the United Nations agreed that the trial should be held in a Scottish court under Scottish law and that any sentence handed down would be served in a Scottish prison. Now, because they have it in for BP, the Yanks expect us all to subscribe to their own dotty interpretation of how things should be handled. NO British politician, doctor or anyone else involved should give their request the time of day, end of.

THEY never put themselves in such a position. For example, when a coroner enquiring into the deaths of British soldiers in a 'friendly-fire' incident in Iraq said he had to question American pilots, ground controllers etc, he was flatly refused. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Simples.

[Quizmonster]

Actually, there wasn't a Scottish government at the time of course, so I should really have referred above to the Scottish legal establishment.

[dyslexiauntied]

Could anybody out there realistically see a US politician stooping low enough to attend a government select committee if summoned here?! Please.
Who do these Yanks think they are? When summoned to Europe in 1914-18 and 39-45 they did come EVENTUALLY, just a tad late TWICE!!

[dyslexiauntied]

And another thing, just remember how our colonial friends tried to vilify Harold Wilson for many years after he had the audacity to decline their request for troops to go to Vietnam.Mr Wilson the man who had the strength of his convictions to do the right thing unlike Mr Blair!!

[ludwig]

Interesting piece in the sunday times this morning about how the USA Government 'secretly advised Scottish Ministers that it would be "far preferable" to free Megrahi than jail him in Libya....undermining Obama's claim that all Americans were surprised disappointed and angry to learn of his release'.