Senators Sucked Up to Qaddafi, Now Call For His Head - The three amigos

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/senators-sucked-up-to-qaddafi-now-call-for-his-head-20110401

POSTED: April 1, 1:20 PM ET | By Tim Dickinson

In the Senate, those demanding even harsher prosecution of the Libya war include the three amigos. John McCain, warning that "the blood of Americans is on Qaddafi's hands," has called for arming the insurgents, whom Joe Lieberman has praised as "freedom fighters." Lindsey Graham wants to know why we don't just take out the Libyan leader like Reagan tried to do: "Who would be mad at us," he pressed Pentagon chief Robert Gates yesterday, "if we dropped a bomb on Qaddafi?"

Here's the curious thing about their hawkish swagger: In August of 2009 — not even two years ago — McCain, Lieberman, Graham traveled to Tripoli to shake the bloody hand of the freedom-depriving dictator they now want to assassinate. It was the highest-level meeting of Libyan and American officials since Condi Rice's state visit in 2008. (The amigos were joined by Susan Collins who has questioned the wisdom of the war.)

As this WikiLeaked cable details, the three amigos had a chummy visit with the Qaddafi clan: Lieberman expressed delight at the thaw in U.S.-Libyan relations: "We never would have guessed ten years ago that we would be sitting in Tripoli, being welcomed by a son of Muammar al-Qadhafi," he said to Muatassim, the regime's National Security Advisor. The Connecticut independent praised Libya as an "important ally" in the War on Terror, adding that "common enemies sometimes make better friends."

[Old and In the Way]

1. The principle of opportunism.

Maybe Gregory will ask them about that on their next regularly scheduled visit on MTP. Won't hold my breath, though.

[tularetom]

2. The only good thing about the 2000 election

Was that one of those amigos never got to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

And one of the best things about the 08 election was that another amigo never got to be a heartbeat away from a Sarah Palin presidency.

[Ian David]

3. Would you say we have a plethora of Predators? n/t

[Arctic Dave]

5. Snarf. nt

[Trajan]

4. Picture ?

I wish there were one of them hanging out with the ole Colonel .... All lip-smackedy delicious joy at being so close to the madman !

[Mz Pip]

6. Three amigos

I just knew McCain would be one of them when I read the headline. No surprise about the other two, either. Fickle friends, each one of them.

I doubt Qaddafi will so easily let himself be "taken out" but us or anyone else.

[LaurenG]

7. I think the moral to this story is never to make friends with certain senators

or special envoys of Presidents because you never know when their purpose for you is over.

[leveymg]

8. The 3 Amigos love Qadhafi because he helped pave the way to WMD charges against Iraq and Iran

Simple as that, plus the fact that the 30% of Libyan oil supplies set aside by Qadhaffi for western oil companies have been making people around the world very, very rich for decades.

[sabrina 1]

9. They were there to help Qadaffi get the military equipment he

wanted.

Tweet from McCain after spending an evening with Qadaffi:




I've come to the conclusion that this country is being run by morons, greedy and ruthless oportunists who cannot be trusted by anyone, let alone the American people.

Back then when Lieberman, McCain, Graham and Collins were kissing Qadaffi's feet, just a short time ago, did they care what the American people thought of that?

Who is pulling the strings, that is the question. McCain and Lieberman are just puppets which is obvious from the way they are FOR something one day, and completely AGAINST the very next day.

[JohnyCanuck]

10. So the 3 stooges also advised Gaddafi on how to handle the Pan Am 103 terrorist's welcome home

From the Rolling Stone article linked in the OP:

More troubling, the senators advised Qaddafi on how to "manage" (Lieberman's word) the homecoming of a man with American blood on his hands — the terrorist convicted in the PanAm bombing, whom Scottish authorities would soon release under dubious medical auspices.

Maybe they knew already what John Pilger and others know as well, Megrahi was framed.

Megrahi was Framed
by John Pilger

snip

No one in authority has had the guts to state the truth about the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 above the Scottish village of Lockerbie on 21 December 1988, in which 270 people were killed. The governments in England and Scotland in effect blackmailed Megrahi into dropping his appeal as a condition of his immediate release. Of course there were oil and arms deals under way with Libya; but had Megrahi proceeded with his appeal, some 600 pages of new and deliberately suppressed evidence would have set the seal on his innocence and given us more than a glimpse of how and why he was stitched up for the benefit of "strategic interests".

“The endgame came down to damage limitation," said the former CIA officer Robert Baer, who took part in the original investigation, "because the evidence amassed by appeal is explosive and extremely damning to the system of justice." New witnesses would show that it was impossible for Megrahi to have bought clothes that were found in the wreckage of the Pan Am aircraft - he was convicted on the word of a Maltese shopowner who claimed to have sold him the clothes, then gave a false description of him in 19 separate statements and even failed to recognise him in the courtroom.

The new evidence would have shown that a fragment of a circuit board and bomb timer, "discovered" in the Scottish countryside and said to have been in Megrahi's suitcase, was probably a plant. A forensic scientist found no trace of an explosion on it. The new evidence would demonstrate the impossibility of the bomb beginning its journey in Malta before it was "transferred" through two airports undetected to Flight 103.

A "key secret witness" at the original trial, who claimed to have seen Megrahi and his co-accused, al-Alim Khalifa Fahimah (who was acquitted), loading the bomb on to the plane at Frankfurt, was bribed by the US authorities holding him as a "protected witness". The defence exposed him as a CIA informer who stood to collect, on the Libyans' conviction, up to $4m as a reward.

http://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2009/09/pilger-megrahi-justice

[butterfly77]

11. I knew who they were before ..

I clicked on it. When I saw McCain in Libya this week,I knew Graham and LIEberman wouldn't be far behind..