Scotland Releases Lockerbie Bomber
[Guest post by DRJ]
Scotland has freed Lockerbie bomber and former Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Baset al-Megrahi on compassionate release grounds. Al-Megrahi served only 8 years of a minimum 27 year sentence but he is terminally ill with prostate cancer and has been given less than 3 months to live.
The United States government objected to al-Megrahi’s release, noting he did not show compassion to his victims. Many were college students on their way home for the Christmas holidays.
Al-Megrahi has expressed no remorse for the bombing but he did ask the Scottish government for mercy … for himself:
“I am a family man: first and foremost I am a son, husband, father and grandfather,” al-Megrahi wrote. “I have been separated from my family as a result of what I consider and unjust conviction. I have tried to bear that with a degree of equanimity and dignity.”
The article notes al-Megrahi is “visited often by his wife and children, who lived in Scotland for several years.” He is considered an innocent victim by some in Britain and many Libyans:
“Al-Megrahi’s return will be a landmark event in Libya and a cause for celebration. His countrymen see him as an innocent victim scapegoated by the West in a campaign to turn their country into an international pariah. Many will also view his release as a moral victory for their country.”
According to the article, “[f]reeing al-Megrahi divided the Lockerbie victims’ families, with many in Britain in favor and many in the U.S. adamantly opposed.” This evidences an interesting divergence between English culture and common law, on which American law is based, and American laws and values. Americans typically expect remorse from wrongdoers before they are willing to be compassionate. Compassionate release is a feature of British law but I wonder to what extent the growing British Muslim population has contributed to the divergence in this case.
EDIT: In the comments, EricPWJohnson notes the positive impact al-Megahri’s release may have on British oil interests in Libya. Here’s the British Petroleum press release regarding its Libyan agreement.
— DRJ
Here’s the reason – and I
EricPWJohnson (f4c67b) — 8/20/2009 @ 10:59 amm not kidding these guys are the biggest hero’s in Libya and bringing in Western companies have NOT been popular on the street
Is the UK Health Care System going to deny Al-Megrahi health care coverage?
Michael Ejercito (833607) — 8/20/2009 @ 11:03 amEPWJ – That is just revolting.
I can’t believe they let this guy walk.
Vivian Louise (eeeb3a) — 8/20/2009 @ 11:07 amAnybody want to bet against this mutt going into complete ‘remission’ the second he sets foot in Libya?
But remember, the Tea Party protesters and veterans are the REAL terrorists, according to the WH and DHS.
Gonad the Testicularian (b90bc6) — 8/20/2009 @ 11:07 amPerhaps Obama shouldn’t have insulted PM Brown with DVDs he can’t play and an IPOD for the Queen that she wishes didn’t play (It’s filled with wall to wall Obama photos and speeches). Next time the First Lady should remember, never touch the Queen.
Payback is a bitch.
(The oil deal may just be a perk – Scotland has North Sea oil fields after all.)
Carmelita (e0be89) — 8/20/2009 @ 11:07 amEPWJ – citation please.
Vivian Louise (eeeb3a) — 8/20/2009 @ 11:08 amThey should have set this son of a bitch on fire the second they got their hands on him.
You blew up a PLANE you son of a bitch. I hope whatever your cancer causes you a slow – oh so very slow – and painful – my GOD oh so painful – death.
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 8/20/2009 @ 11:10 amThe U.K. is a cowardly and amoral nation but Prince Harry can pop a balloon with his ass!!
So don’t go giving up on them.
happyfeet (71f55e) — 8/20/2009 @ 11:16 am… But a 2007 review of his case found grounds for an appeal of his conviction, and many in Britain believe he is innocent.
James B. Shearer (5bacad) — 8/20/2009 @ 12:07 pmIsn’t this the main reason for the more sympathetic attitude in Britain?
James B. Shearer,
I’m sure it is with some people but I doubt it is for all.
DRJ (d8773e) — 8/20/2009 @ 12:21 pmI have a little familiarity with how painful a full and extended course of chemo can be – so let’s fill him up to the brim and watch his organs and bodily functions slowly destroy themselves. He’ll end dying in a pile of his own excrement – Amen.
Dmac (e6d1c2) — 8/20/2009 @ 12:26 pmMaybe the real reason for his release is that treating his prostate cancer would be too expensive for the government.
Michael Ejercito (833607) — 8/20/2009 @ 12:30 pmhttp://wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/lock-a20.shtml
EricPWJohnson (f4c67b) — 8/20/2009 @ 12:37 pmThis was pure geo oil politics
Now Reuters confirms Britain releases prisoner to get ahead of the others in the circus that is Libya – I know because we maybe be heading there after the Qatar projects are finished.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE57J3K720090820
EricPWJohnson (f4c67b) — 8/20/2009 @ 12:41 pmHere is the link to the Dubai papers who have reporters in Libya
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Libya/10341916.html
EricPWJohnson (f4c67b) — 8/20/2009 @ 12:44 pmMan on the street interviews in Libya
EricPWJohnson (f4c67b) — 8/20/2009 @ 12:47 pmhttp://www.gulfnews.com/region/Libya/10341916.html
EricPWJohnson (f4c67b) — 8/20/2009 @ 12:48 pmhttp://www.tripolipost.com/
EricPWJohnson (f4c67b) — 8/20/2009 @ 12:51 pm“So?”… as Dick Cheney might say. The silence from our former vice president and ex-CEO of Halliburton is deafening. But then, he has reason to keep quiet on all matters oil, especially with Libya. After all, as Michael Corelone would muse, “It’s not personal. It’s business.” Even if it involves a nation that sponsored terrorism and in this case, killed a plane load of passengers, people on the ground and an airline.
An influential energy task force headed by Vice President Cheney has broached the possibility of lifting some economic sanctions against Iran, Libya and Iraq as part of a plan to increase America’s oil supply. Washington Post 4/19/01
Libyan dictator and suspected anti-U.S. terrorist Moammar Gadhafi engaged a foreign subsidiary of Halliburton company Brown & Root to perform millions of dollars worth of work. According to the Baltimore Sun, Brown & Root was fined $3.8 million for violating Libyan sanctions. (Although Cheney wasn’t leading Halliburton when these sales started, subsidiaries’ sales to Libya continued throughout his tenure.) MoveOn.org 7/11/02
-Cheney’s 2000 income from Halliburton: $36,086,635
-Increase in government contracts while Cheney led Halliburton: 91%
-Minimum size of “accounting irregularity” that occurred while Cheney was CEO: $100,000,000 (One hundred MILLION dollars)
-Number of the seven official US “State Sponsors of Terror” that Halliburton contracted with: 2 out of 7
-Pages of Energy Plan documents Cheney refused to give congressional investigators: 13,500
Amount energy companies gave the Bush/Cheney [2000] presidential campaign: $1,800,000- source, MoveOn.org 7/11/02
The [Bush] Administration … moved to normalize relations with Libya – a move long pushed for by Halliburton. As CEO of Halliburton, Cheney lobbied to lift sanctions on Libya. In May of 1997, Oil and Gas Journal reported, “Cheney said oil and gas companies must explore where the reserves are, and that means doing business in countries that may have policies that the U.S. does not like.” Cheney said, “The long-term horizon of the oil industry is at odds with the short term nature of politics.” The next year, Cheney ratcheted up his campaign, once again criticizing the U.S. security policy on foreign soil. According the Malaysian News Agency reported, “Cheney hit out as his government for imposing economic sanctions like the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act.” He told the state news agency on a visit there that U.S. sanctions on Libya are “ineffective, did not provide the desire results and are a bad policy.” – source. CFAP
But hey, it’s not personal. It’s business. Tell that to the families of PanAm 103, Dick.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 8/20/2009 @ 1:09 pmCan there be any doubt that the administration knew and approved of this move? Is it conceivable that Scotland and the UK would take a foreign policy move of this magnitude over the heartfelt objections of the United States? No, to both questions. Shaking hands with Gadhafi came at a price paid in national honor.
MTF (551a4b) — 8/20/2009 @ 1:17 pmToo stupid for words, Musa Kusa, the Libyan spymaster who likely gave the order, to blow up Pan Am 103 made a deal with his opposite number and fellow Michigan State graduate, Ben Bonk to get a few of these terrorists like Ibn Al Libi, so the deal was set forth long ago, doesn’t mean we have to like it
narciso (996c34) — 8/20/2009 @ 1:29 pmMTF,
The American government relocated the Gitmo Uighars to Bermuda without consulting the British government.
Anon (8b9d41) — 8/20/2009 @ 1:47 pmSeeing the hero’s welcome he got upon landing in Libya disgusts me in a deep place and in a most visceral way.
If I am hawkish pol, I make damn sure that this video is replayed on an infinite loop to remind the American people what we are up against. The next time BHO and/or HRC insist that engagement is the correct course, play the damn video.
This is a dark day.
Ed from SFV (c4544e) — 8/20/2009 @ 1:53 pmInternational Man of Parody’s BDS is end-stage. Coupled with its Sullivan-esque dementia, it is not at all pretty.
JD (783baa) — 8/20/2009 @ 1:59 pmI’m trick-or-treating a W this year, and I’m make a special trip to DCSCA’s house.
I’ll video tape his girlish shriek of terror when he sees Bush on his door-step…
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 8/20/2009 @ 2:18 pmThis “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
=======
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.
=====
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
/once again, terrorism pays… handsomely
Kaddafi delenda est (b0ead9) — 8/20/2009 @ 3:07 pmSo 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]
Kaddafi delenda est (b0ead9) — 8/20/2009 @ 3:10 pmAnother 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?
Kaddafi delenda est (b0ead9) — 8/20/2009 @ 3:13 pmi fully support releasing this dirtbag back to his home in Lybia…..
as long as they release him out the back of a C-17 at the same altitude the PanAm flight was at when the bomb went off.
it seems only fitting, and they can pin his HANO wings on him for the funeral.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 8/20/2009 @ 3:26 pmBe a real pity if he had somehow picked up a drug-resistant Staph infection……………
Techie (482700) — 8/20/2009 @ 3:41 pmJust a thought – but would you rather receive your treatment for terminal prostate cancer in a UK hospital ??? Or in a Libyan one ??? As cancers go, it seems to be a painful one for most people who have the terminal version of prostate cancer …
I’m not so sure that al-Megrahi will suffer less in Libya than he would have in Scotland …
And, at the risk of being cynical, as and when al-Megrahi dies, he dies in Libyan hands, not as a martyr in kufri Scotland … (and, yes, I would not put it past the UK Labour Government (and to a lesser extent, the Scots SNP Government) thinking how much money can be saved by not having to provide expensive treatments to the prisoner al-Megrahi) …
Alasdair (e7cb73) — 8/20/2009 @ 4:16 pmHey, Scott…
When you write…
…about a certain serial fabulist:
Do you think that that he ever has? IYKWIMAITYD?
That one was for you JD!
Eric Blair (0b61b2) — 8/20/2009 @ 4:24 pm“Scotland has freed Lockerbie bomber and former Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Baset al-Megrahi on compassionate release grounds.”
Sounds like phony compassion to me. If you’re going to be compassionate to the convicted mass-murderer by freeing him, then you’re INEVITABLY going to be cruel to the survivors of the innocent victims (unless they all want the guy freed…which they don’t), and any act that hurts the innocent, while helping the guilty doesn’t even come close to being describable as an act of compassion.
Dave Surls (13f1e4) — 8/20/2009 @ 4:43 pm[…] As usual, Hot Air is all over it like a cheap suit. Looks like it might be all about the oil over at Patterico’s. […]
Gazzer’s Gabfest » For once, I agree with Obama, but even when he is right, he is still wrong… (b98ad6) — 8/20/2009 @ 6:42 pmBLOOD FOR OIL – IT’S WHAT’S FOR DINNER!
daleyrocks (718861) — 8/20/2009 @ 7:29 pmScottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill:
“Our justice system demands that judgment be imposed but compassion available,” MacAskill said.
It’s interesting that the Justice believes that the compassion should be extended toward the criminal in releasing him, and yet by this very act, he then willfully chooses not to extend compassion to the grief stricken families.
“Our beliefs dictate that justice be served but mercy be shown.”
Mercy at what price?
Dana (57e332) — 8/20/2009 @ 7:45 pmShame on Scotland. One of the ‘benefits’ of Scottish autonomy within the UK is that you get lefty crap like this happening, and not much even Westminster can do about it (unless is really was quid pro quo for the oil deal). The SNP is probably mainstream for Europe, which is to say, hard-left socialist. The Liberal Democrats, even leftier. I’m pretty sure that their party platform is ‘no man should be enslaved by ignorance, poverty or conformity.’ That mindless pap gets them around 15% of the seats.
carlitos (b5ed79) — 8/21/2009 @ 12:00 pmEven though he is dying,he should not be trusted and he should still be monitored.
Lisa Stone (5f758f) — 8/21/2009 @ 8:19 pm