Yahoo, via Michelle Malkin, reminds us:
Scotland freed the terminally ill Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds Thursday, letting the Libyan go home to die despite American pleas to show no mercy for the man responsible for the 1988 attack that killed 270 people.
The White House declared it “deeply” regretted the Scottish decision as Abdel Baset al-Megrahi left Greenock Prison and flew to Libya on an Airbus dispatched to Glasgow Airport, still insisting he was innocent.
Scotland’s justice secretary said freeing the bomber was an expression of the Scottish people’s humanity but U.S. family members of Lockerbie victims expressed outrage.
To recap, on December 21, 1988, the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 crashed near Lockerbie, Scotland, as a result of a terrorist bomb. Eleven townspeople were killed in Sherwood Crescent, where the plane’s wings and fuel tanks plummeted in a fiery explosion, leaving a huge crater. The 270 fatalities (259 on the plane, 11 in Lockerbie) were citizens of 21 nations.
Two men accused of being Libyan intelligence agents were eventually charged in 1991 with planting the bomb. It took a further nine years to bring the accused to trial. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was jailed for life in January 2001 following the 84-day Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial under Scottish law, at Camp Zeist, Netherlands. His co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted, and returned to Libya. On August 20, 2009 the Scottish Government announced that Megrahi was to be released from prison on compassionate grounds as he has terminal prostate cancer.
No word yet from the Scottish Government on whether the 270 dead innocent people were allowed to voice their opinions on the matter.
Stephan Tawney replies:
Scotland, evidently having lost all concern for international terrorism and its victims, decided to release the man responsible for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 (which killed 270 people over Lockerbie) this afternoon. Apparently out of “compassion” for the dying man who’s only served about 8 years from his horrific crime.
In the rest of the world, “compassion” disappears for an individual once he’s decided to brutally murder 270 people on behalf of a state-sponsor of terror. Evidently in Scotland, mass murder doesn’t disqualify you from being released because you want to spend time with your family and friends back home. Remind me to chalk the country off my list of places to go.
But this isn’t the entirety of the story. You see, when this mass murderer, who only served 11 days in prison for each innocent person he killed, returned to a hero’s welcome in Libya. Says Allahpundit:
Palestinians notoriously celebrated on 9/11 and Lebanese rejoiced at the release of Hezbollah child-killer Samir Kuntar. It’s one thing to welcome home a soldier who fought enemy combatants; these people welcome home terrorists who mass-murder civilians. Pure, unapologetic savagery.
And Dafydd ab Hugh tells us:
Early releases of a vicious killer on grounds of “compassion” directly contradicts the principle of equal justice under law, a fundamental axiom of legitimate government; our protest to Scotland should begin and end with that point: Denying equal justice to a popular killer and to citizens of an unpopular country (the United States), Scotland, even the United Kingdom itself, are sinking to the same level as Libya, no morally better and no more legitimate; and the Scottish and British people should be deeply ashamed of their tainted government.
To which I fully agree. 11 days in jail for every innocent person he killed. He didn’t kill enemy soldiers on a battlefield – he killed students and children going home for the holidays. There is absolutely no honor in what this butcher did.
And there is no honor in what the Scottish Government did. In my mind they have now become equal to the savagery of al Megrahi. Although I am from Scot ancestry, today I am deeply ashamed of my people. Typical of Euro-weenie beta males.
Scotland, Lockerbie, Libya, al-Megrahi, Flight 103
1 response so far ↓
1 Lisa // Aug 23, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Even though he is dying,he should not be trusted and he should still be monitored.