LONDON — The Scottish government announced Thursday that it was freeing the only person convicted in the Lockerbie bombing, permitting Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a 57-year-old former Libyan intelligence agent, to return home on compassionate grounds after serving eight years of a 27-year minimum sentence on charges of murdering 270 people in Britain’s worst terrorist episode.
The decision to release him early on compassionate grounds was made against strenuous American opposition after Mr. Megrahi’s lawyers said he had little time left to live because he is suffering from terminal prostate cancer.
The announcement at a news conference by Scotland’s Justice Minister, Kenny MacAskill, came almost 21 years after a bomb smuggled onto Pan Am Flight 103 exploded at 31,000 feet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988, killing 259 people on board and 11 on the ground.
Of the dead, 189 were Americans. The Scottish decision was certain to provoke anguished protest from American families of the victims who had demanded that he serve his full sentence.
It was his decision, Mr. MacAskill said, that Mr. Megrahi “be released on compassionate grounds and allowed to return to Libya to die.”
He said the decision to free him was his alone and “I have followed due process.”
Mr. MacAskill acknowledged that Mr. Megrahi “did not show his victims any comfort or compassion” and they were not allowed to go home to their families. “No compassion was shown by him to them,” he said. “But that alone is not a reason for us to deny compassion to him.”
As court rulings go, this one is fairly despicable. Megrahi committed an act that resulted in the death of 270 innocent human beings. As far as compassion goes, he should be glad he’s alive. Will he commit another crime ? Unlikely. Has he paid for his crime ? Absolutely not.
If this is how the Scots fight the War on Terror, they may as well start putting on the hijab.
Where was the compassion when the 215 passengers died without their family and friends around them. He should die alone in prison.
We have just cancelled plans for a two week golf trip to Scotland. We are now having our travel agent book us to Ireland instead. Let them be compassionate about the,$14,000.00 our foursome would have spent in Scotland and will now be spent elsewhere. You have to hurt them in their pocketbooks if you are going to get their attention. They let a mass murderer just walk away.
Great news! The world started seeing through your lies.
What war on terror? War by American racists against civilized world? Sorry for those killed, that’s collateral damage…American terminology, isn’t it? Who cares…they were flying the wrong plane at the wrong time))
You guys have a definite islamophobic, anti-Arabic attitude…
Isn’t that a hate speech?
and to the guy who goes to Ireland…good riddance… there are quite many guys who’d go to Scotland now, instead of going to your Nazi land. ..so, take your money and leave
Allen,
هل انتهيتم؟ بالنسبة لِ انت تينا،كلب، و انت حرج أمريكَ.
You understand that? Take your sorry body out of our country and go to your Arab loving world. I’m sure you will fit in great with your Islamic beliefs and us Nazi’s won’t have to waste any lead on you, or worry about you flying a plane into one of our buildings.
Hope to see you someday ………
Kill ‘em all. Let allah sort ‘em out.
Oh, Allen, fuck you.
29.Another U.N. outrage: Gadhafi visits
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_636214.html
Moammar Gadhafi just can’t buy himself a break. Despite spending billions trying to blot out Pan Am Flight 103’s bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, the Libyan strongman still struggles to shed his blood-stained legacy.
In September Mr. Gadhafi will be given a world audience at — where else? — the United Nations during its annual session in New York. In fact, Gadhafi is scheduled to speak right after President Barack Obama.
This has outraged the families of Flight 103’s victims — among them, four Western Pennsylvanians who perished in the December 1988 jetliner bombing.
“I know our government is trying to get Libya back into the family of nations. I do not think that translates into welcoming a murderer,” Frank Duggan, president of the victims’ group, told The Times of London.
Yet their outrage is met by the smirk of a scoundrel. Instead of full disclosure, the “rehabilitated” Gadhafi sought first to limit Libya’s exposure to terrorist acts, then tried to get the lone Libyan agent convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, Abdel Basset al Megrahi, out of a Scottish prison. Libya recently applied for a “compassionate release” for Mr. Megrahi, who reportedly is dying of cancer.
Gadhafi has made clear his priorities. And it’s no surprise that the United Nations of world reprobates would give him a podium. The question is, does President Obama want to be his opening act?
This “compassionate release” lie is a thin veil for the real quid pro quo. The Lockerbie bomber’s release is one more payment on Kaddafi’s terrorist extortion demands that secured release of his brutally prison raped and tortured EU nurse hostages.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6939216.stm
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FLASHBACK 2007: Qaddafi Wants Money and Lockerbie Attacker for Nurses’ Release
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=75328
Muammar Qaddafi has officially stated his conditions for the release of the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in Libya, a website of the Libyan opposition claims.
Cited by the Bulgarian national radio, the site claims that Qaddafi has sent an official note to the EU country members and the US, requesting compensations for the families of the HIV-infected children and the release of the terrorist from Lockerbie… The UK should help with the release of the Lockerbie bomber, the note also says. He could be released because he has already served his sentence, or he could receive amnesty, or be extradited to Libya, Qaddafi suggests.
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This bald-faced hostage extortion payoff does not bode well for Iran’s three American hostages.
http://www.fox43.com/news/sns-ap-ny–iran-missingamericans,0,2321685.story
So let’s add up some of Kaddafi’s hostage extortion booty for brutally prison raping five EU nurses;
EU $400 million (includes Bulgaria’s $57M ransom)
French nuclear reactor deal (+ military hardware)
EU free trade (+ political normalization)
Brand new US Ambassador + date w/ Condi
An historic handshake and UN podium w/ Obama for Ramadan
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_636214.html
Lockerbie bomber’s release… PRICELESS
/oh yes, terrorism still pays… handsomely
wonder how this maccassel pumk would have acted had some of his family members had been on the flight??? as for the ” mouths ” from scotland and elsewhere whom defend this act – fuck you , we , as a nation are tired of bailing out all you losers only to have you badmouth us…..next time your bitch ass is in the fire , call libya to bail you out…..ANY POLITICIAN FROM THIS COUNTRY WHO VOTES AND / OR GIVES ANYTHING TO YOUR LOSER NATION GETS A NO VOTE FROM ME……….FUCK SCOTLAND!!!!
I am a MODERATE, educated (or so I thought), and I just plain don’t get this!!! If this guy had ANY connection with the bombing, he should be toast. No trips back home. Let his family come see him before he dies. The victims of the bombing didn’t get that chance. This decision has hurt Scotland, the EU, the United States, and the Western World as a whole! And, if this was the “wrong guy,” somebody damn well better point out who the “real” culprits were. Even if the moral issue of addressing surviving family members’ concerns is not addressed, a clearer picture of WHO did it, WHO should have been prosecuted, and WHO dropped the ball and HOW is now a must! Need I even explain further? Good God!!!
We should ban the royal family from visiting America
we should ban the royal family from visiting America then britain will change its mind
Monbiot is clearly trying to narrow the terms of the debate unilaterally and unfairly, blah blah blah. ,