Tired of ads? Want to support our progressive journalism? Click to learn more.LEARN MORE
Enjoy good journalism?
… then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.
Raw Story is independent. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.
We need your support in this difficult time. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click to donate by check.
Value Raw Story?
… then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.
Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you.
  |  |
Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
Five judges at Scotland's highest court of criminal appeal on Friday upheld the conviction of the only man found guilty of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing after a posthumous legal challenge.
The family of former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, which brought the case, said they were "heartbroken" at the decision, their lawyer Aamer Anwar said.
<p>They will apply to appeal to the UK Supreme Court within 14 days, he added.</p><p>The ruling at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh comes just over 32 years after what remains Britain's worst terrorist attack, with long-held doubts about Megrahi's involvement.</p><p>Megrahi spent seven years in a Scottish prison after his conviction in 2001 for the mass murder of 270 people, when Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over the Scottish town on December 21, 1988.</p><p>The Libyan regime of Moamer Kadhafi officially acknowledged responsibility in 2003, and paid $2.7 billion in compensation to families of the victims.</p><p>Megrahi was released and returned to Libya in 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died in 2012, protesting his innocence.</p><p>An initial appeal against his conviction and sentence was rejected, while a second was abandoned after his diagnosis. </p><h1>'Suffered enough'</h1><p>Anwar said Megrahi's son Ali and the family would still fight to quash the conviction.</p><p>"All the Megrahi family want for Scotland is peace and justice, but as Ali stated today their journey is not over, Libya has suffered enough, as has family for the crime of Lockerbie, they remain determined to fight for justice," he said.</p><p>The family wants the British authorities to declassify documents that are said to allege that Iran used a Syria-based Palestinian proxy to build the bomb that downed the Boeing 747.</p><p>The documents are thought to allege a Jordanian intelligence agent within the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) built the bomb.</p><p>The PFLP-GC has been designated a terrorist group by several countries, including Britain and the United States.</p><p>The Lockerbie bombing is alleged to have been carried out in retaliation for the downing of an Iranian passenger jet by a US Navy missile in July 1988 that killed 290 people.</p><h1>Identification evidence</h1><p>The case came back to court in November last year after an independent criminal case review body said a possible miscarriage of justice may have occurred on the grounds of "unreasonable verdict" and non-disclosure of evidence.</p><p>But the judges rejected both grounds of appeal.</p><p>"The appeal against conviction is refused," they said in a 64-page ruling.</p><p>Central to his family's case was the testimony of Tony Gauci, a Maltese shopkeeper, who identified Megrahi as the man who bought clothes found in the suitcase that contained the bomb.</p><p>Lawyers argued his eye-witness evidence should have been discounted and was "highly prejudicial" because he had earlier seen a photograph of Megrahi as a suspect in a newspaper.</p><p>They said Gauci was motivated by reward money, that there was no proof Megrahi bought th clothing, and that dates of his supposed visit to Malta did not fit the timeline.</p><p>The suitcase was loaded onto a plane from Malta to Germany, then transferred to the ill-fated flight that left London Heathrow bound for New York.</p><p>The government's case was that Megrahi used a false passport to travel to the Mediterranean island, and that Gauci did not receive any remuneration.</p><p>Crown lawyers said the three judges who tried and convicted Megrahi were entitled to infer he was involved, and the fake document was part of a "significant chapter of evidence" supporting that.</p><h1>New suspect</h1><p>On the 32nd anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing in December, the US Justice Department announced a new indictment against another former member of Kadhafi's intelligence services.</p><p>It alleges that Abu Agila Mohammad Masud assembled and programmed the bomb.</p><p>The investigation was relaunched in 2016 when Washington learned of his arrest after Kadhafi's ouster and death in 2011, and his reported confession of involvement to the new Libyan regime in 2012.</p><p>Investigators also relied on his travel records, including a flight from the Libyan capital Tripoli to Malta.</p><p>Masud is currently being held in Libya for his alleged involvement in a 1986 attack on a Berlin nightclub that killed two US soldiers and a Turkish citizen.</p><p>Tripoli in 2004 also agreed to compensate the families of the victims of that attack.</p>
CONTINUE READING
Show less
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) has been getting a furious backlash from some of her Trump-loving constituents about her vote to impeach President Donald Trump this week, which is why she put together a lengthy Twitter thread explaining exactly why Trump deserves to be removed.
Beutler begins by noting the numerous times that Trump promoted the January 6th rally that turned into a deadly insurrection at the Capitol building, all while using incendiary language telling his supporters that the election had been "stolen" from them.
<p>Even more damning, in Beutler's telling, was the president's decision to lie to supporters that Vice President Mike Pence had the power to singlehandedly reject the election results.</p><p>"He led Americans to believe that Mike Pence could overturn the Electoral College results, even though the VP does not have that power," she writes. "On Jan. 5 he tweeted, 'The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.' He told supporters at Georgia rally that day, 'I hope Mike Pence comes through for us, I have to tell you.'"</p><p>Then, during the January 6th rally, Trump told supporters that "when you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules" while warning them that "you'll never take our country back with weakness."</p><p>And to top it all off, writes Beutler, Trump continued lying about Pence's ability to overturn the election even after the Capitol building came under attack from his supporters.</p><p>"While the riot was in full swing and a mob was in the Capitol hunting Mike Pence, the president tweeted: 'Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution,'" she writes.</p><p>Shortly after this, the Trump supporters in the Capitol began chanting, "Hang Mike Pence."</p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/HerreraBeutler/status/1349959275922206721" target="_blank">Read the whole thread here</a>.</p>
CONTINUE READING
Show less
GOP's Lauren Boebert denies that she led 'insurrectionists' on Capitol tour ahead of violent assault
January 15, 2021
A newly elected Republican congresswoman denied leading a tour last week for "insurrectionists" who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol the following day.
Democrats have called for an investigation into claims that some GOP House members gave "reconnaissance" tours to groups on Jan. 5, the day before President Donald Trump's supporters burst into the Capitol in an effort to overturn his election loss, and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) pushed back against suspicions against her, reported the Washington Post.
<p>"You said that you could 'confirm' a Member of Congress gave Capitol tours to 'insurrectionists' and implied I was that Member of Congress," Boebert said in a letter to Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), who has called for criminal charges against lawmakers who allegedly led those tours. "Your comments are extremely offensive, shameful and dangerous."</p><p>Maloney, however, responded by pointing that he hadn't identified anyone by name suspected of assisting the insurrectionists.</p><p>"Um, I've never said your name in public, @RepBoebert. Never. Not once," Maloney <a href="https://twitter.com/RepSeanMaloney/status/1349906702515269641?s=20" target="_blank">said in a tweet</a> late Thursday night. "(If you're going to be a gun nut, you probably shouldn't go off half cocked.) I'll tweet the transcript so you can see … but that might be like 'a fact', so might not help you."<br/></p><p>Rep. Mikie Sherill (D-NJ) said Tuesday that she saw another House member leading groups through the building one day before the Jan. 6 insurrection that left one police officer and four rioters dead, and Maloney accused an unnamed GOP lawmaker of assisting the protesters.</p><p>"Some of our new colleagues," Maloney told MSNBC, "the same ones, of course, who believe in conspiracy theories and who want to carry guns into the House Chamber, who today — today — have been yelling at Capitol Police, shoving Capitol police — who a week ago right now were risking their lives to save ours. This conduct is beyond the pale and extends to some of this interaction with the very people who attacked the Capitol."</p><p>Maloney did not identify Boebert or anyone else by name, but the Colorado Republican -- who has expressed support for the Qanon conspiracy theory -- said his remarks led many to suspect he was speaking about her, and she said the comment had prompted death threats against her.</p><p>"I did not conspire with criminals that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6," she told Maloney in the letter. "I have never given a tour of the U.S. Capitol to any outside group or 'insurrectionists.'"</p>
CONTINUE READING
Show less
Trending
Latest
Videos
Copyright © 2021 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 | Masthead | Privacy Policy | For corrections or concerns, please email corrections@rawstory.com.