| There have been
those who, wishing to make light of our campaign, have suggested that Americans seeking to
boycott Scotland should also boycott
everything and anything Scottish, including inventions conceived by people of Scottish
heritage and descent, such as the telephone. This reveals a dangerously flawed and blindly nationalistic mindset. The contributions of individuals such as Alexander Graham Bell are not the property of Scotland. As an interesting aside, the Canadians claim the invention of the telephone as their own, since Bell lived in Canada and died in Nova Scotia. Regardless, the notion of boycotting inventions is absurd. People who make these sort of arguments seem to be ignorant regarding the purpose of boycotts and why they are necessary. To clarify things, the purpose of any boycott targeting another nation is to exert enough economic pressure upon that country in order to get their government to admit they were wrong and to take the appropriate actions to resolve the injustice. Boycotting is an entirely peaceful and legal means for ordinary citizens to protest the actions of a particular country or corporation. It is, in fact, one of the few remaining forms of protest available to ordinary people, who otherwise hold no political power. As a side note, we have recommended Nova Scotia as an alternative to those wishing to visit Scotland, since the Canadian province offers a wealth of Scottish heritage and culture. We do not agree with any attempt to denigrate the Scottish culture, and anyone can take a look at our campaign website and see for themselves that there are no jokes about Scotland or the Scottish people or anything of that nature. Indeed, while we have not engaged in such foul behavior and would never do so, we have had to endure such childish antics by people claiming to be standing up for Scotland, who have gone out of their way to ridicule us for being Americans. One need only look at websites opposing our campaign to see the level of anti-American hatred that they spew towards us. The fact that they are spewing this hatred towards people who have very personal connections to the Lockerbie tragedy eludes them. This particular boycott was not initiated out of patriotism, which makes the arguments and behavior of the anti-boycott crowd ironic (most of them appearing to be supporters of MacAskill and the Scottish National Party.) This campaign was initiated and is maintained by several relatives and friends of the Lockerbie victims. The purpose of the campaign is to push for the resignation of Mr. MacAskill and statements of apology from both Mr. Salmond and Mr. Brown for their complicity in this matter. For Americans, this is not a partisan issue. It is not a matter for the right-wing or for the left-wing. It is a matter that affects all Americans. It is a matter of justice. In 2001, when Megrahi was sentenced and convicted by the Scottish legal system, we had thought the matter resolved and concluded. After so many years, our hearts and minds could finally be set at ease. We were wrong. After serving only eight years of his sentence, Megrahi was freed by Mr. MacAskill using the excuse of "compassionate release." From the beginning we stated that this was not done out of compassion, but out of greed, to further the commercial interests of the United Kingdom in Libya. In recent days, our assertions have proven to have been correct and the facts of the case are beginning to unravel. The fact is that the governments of Scotland and the United Kingdom gave up Megrahi as a concession to Gaddafi. The greatest irony is perhaps the manipulation of the allegedly independence-minded Scottish National Party by the Labour government in Westminster. To have released a convicted terrorist in order to secure lucrative trade interests is a travesty of justice. There is no other way to describe this situation. To those who cling to the tragically ill-conceived notion that Megrahi was somehow innocent, the man was an agent of Gaddafi's intelligence service. However anyone wishes to spin the reality, the fact remains that this is not a good person. This is not a person whose hands are clean. This is a person who was an agent of a dictator who for years sponsored acts of terrorism against innocent civilians. The real culprit, of course, is Gaddafi himself. Megrahi carried out the bombing, but it was Gaddafi who was the mastermind, and who also should have stood trial for his crimes against humanity. However, to think that any Western government would attempt to arrest Gaddafi and put him on trial is unfortunately wishful thinking. The government of the United States is not entirely innocent in this affair. No government ever is. It was the Bush Administration in 2006 that took Libya off the list of state sponsors of terror and paved the way for trade relations between the U.S. and Libya. We emphatically disagreed with this decision and protested, but to no avail. However, unlike the United Kingdom, the United States government did not release any convicted terrorists as a concession to Gaddafi, nor did any U.S. administration give in to any of Gaddafi's outrageous demands. Some in the United Kingdom have attempted to make the tragedy of Pan Am Flight 103 an entirely British affair. We have to ask, if the bombing had occurred over New York, what would these people say? The majority of the victims were Americans, and clearly the target was America, not the United Kingdom. That the bombing occurred over British soil was an issue of timing. Some of us who are part of this campaign were personally affected by 9/11. If the United States government had captured Osama bin Laden and then after several years, decided to release him on "compassionate grounds" due to illness, all Americans would be righteously outraged and likewise, most rational people elsewhere in the world would be angered. If such a release had been granted in order to fulfill lucrative trade interests with Saudi Arabia, we would be calling for the individuals in government responsible for such a travesty to resign. By releasing a convicted terrorist and caving in to the demands of a tyrant who continues to deny any responsibility for the acts of terrorism he sponsored and who continues to terrorize his own people, Mr. MacAskill and the Scottish National Party, as well as the government of Gordon Brown, have harmed not only their own national interests and security, but also the Western world as a whole. That there are those in Scotland and elsewhere in the United Kingdom who would blindly accept the actions of their respective governments without question is frightening.
The Boycott Scotland Campaign
CONTACT: boycottscotland@gmail.com |