Handing Over Libyan Citizens

There was NATO, dedicated to aiding Libyan rebels in their determination to overthrow the Libyan government of Moammar Gadhafi. There is Canada, proud of its ability to "punch above its weight" and making a difference, as it were, with the number of its flights and bombing missions, even though NATO's air war has far more numerous and better-equipped members doing their bit, like France and England.

Canadian airmen flew quite a number of missions to attack the regime's tanks and military installations in protection of the rebels advancing slowly but surely on the towns and cities of Libya. Canadian fighter pilots aimed laser-guided bombs to hit their targets explosively. And then the no-fly zone - code for aiding a foreign civil war - became a campaign to assist the rebel army to unseat Moammar Gadhafi.

A Canadian warship aided in the blockade around Libya. Canadian CF-18s trolled for self-propelled artillery guns and tanks. And if they came across rebels being hard-pressed by government troops they moved in to bomb the troops and give the rebels a leg up. After their initial sea-to-land cruise missile bombing of the Libyan government air defences, U.S. forces withdrew to the sidelines.

Libya now has a new government, with the fall of the Gadhafi regime, and its principals' flight to Algeria. The National Transitional Council is asserting itself as the new, internationally-acknowledged government of Libya. Enquiries were being made of it with respect to a rather delicate topic: the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing who had served 8 years of a life sentence in Scotland, then was released on compassionate grounds and returned to Libya in 2009.

He had been tasked by Moammar Gadhafi to strike a blow at the West, and he had succeeded very well indeed. No one with the exception of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi had ever been revealed to have been involved in that terrorist atrocity. Gadhafi had surrendered al-Megrahi to Western justice after reaching an accord with the West, giving up his nuclear ambitions, declaring himself prepared to become an ally in the battle against 'terrorism'.

There's an absurdity, yet the Western governments fell all over themselves in praise of Gadhafi having found the road to Damascus at last. And therein lies another little irony. When al-Megrahi was released by Scotland which declared he had only three months left to live as a result of a rampant, deadly prostate cancer (and a covert deal BP made with Gadhafi) he was hailed countrywide as a returning hero.

Most of the 259 victims of Pan Am Flight 103 were American citizens. The prevailing fact is that this act of terrorism was, and still is seen as a victory for Libya over the West. And Abdel Basset al-Megrahi celebrated as a patriot, a Libyan hero. And the National Transitional Government has made it abundantly clear that they have no intention whatever of returning the man to Scotland. For Libyans do not surrender Libyans to the West.

Nor does Scotland have any intention itself of requesting his return. Never was it resolved who had joined al-Mehrahi in that atrocity, nor who authorized it, although the assumption is well entrenched that it was Gadhafi, needless to say. Al-Mehrahi was a loyal Libyan and will take his secrets with him in death. Libya celebrates him as a martyr.

What is the West celebrating Libya for? What has NATO, in fact, achieved in liberating Libya from Gadhafi and helping to ensconce another regime it knows nothing about? Libyan rebels were happy to use NATO. And, having done so, and having achieved their victory, not on their own, as they originally boasted they would, but with the considerable assistance of Western auspices, the contempt that Libyans have for the West appears to be seeping into view once again.

"Al-Megrahi has already been judged once and he will not be judged again. We do not hand over Libyan citizens. Gadhafi does." Thus advised Mohammed al-Alagi, a minister in the new National Transitional Council.