Senate Inquiry
Scottish Ministers and officials have refused to appear before the U.S. Senate inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the release of the Lockerbie bomber. This is the right. The decision to release Al Magrahi, whether you like it or not and whether it was lobbied for or not, was taken by Scotland, under its own law, within its own jurisdiction about a convict serving a sentence in that country for a crime committed in its airspace and on its land beneath.
Whatever the feelings of the American Government, Congress, or people, however outraged they are and however righteously these feelings are held, the plain fact of the matter is their nation, which is still recognised as the most powerful in the world, has no jurisdiction whatsoever in these islands. Once they too were part of us, but they took up arms and kicked us out. So that is that.
Of course we are friends and, yes, there is the Special Relationship and we know how they are hurting and we want to be kind and help. But as they very well know, there are lines in the sand, perhaps none greater than due respect for national sovereignty. This is why we did not summon George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld to appear before the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war.
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