Libyan Bomber Release: Allies At Odds
As I promised in my post yesterday, I was going to continue looking for other points of view on Scotland’s release of the Libyan man convicted in the Lockerbie Pan Am bombing. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi returned home to Libya to a hero’s welcome, after being freed on “compassionate” grounds because he has terminal cancer. I wrote about the difficulty I and most Americans have understanding Scotland’s mindset in granting the release, when it seems to so clear to us that someone convicted of killing 270 innocent people deserves just as much compassion as he showed his numerous victims; that is, exactly none.
I came across this good piece on “The Daily Beast” by a prominent BBC reporter. She describes how, contrary to the majority American point of view, most people in Scotland--the country where the mass murder took place--actually supported al-Megrahi’s release:
As the reporter goes on to say, the al-Megrahi story “reveals a surprising trans-Atlantic gulf” between two nations we generally assume are on the same page politically, culturally, and morally. This gulf is more noted than explained in the piece, but it’s still illuminating. It doesn’t change my opinion in the slightest , but at least I’m more aware of the perspective from the other side.
Comments: 7
As one of the residents of Lockerbie told my colleague, "We just don't see these things in black and white."
translation: We just want to be PC, don't want to be too harsh on terrorists.
May be, God forbid, another 9/11 happen on their soil will change this culture.
By the way, the ACLU and lawyers now are defending the terrorists from Gitmo bay, by tracking and ID CIA agents and their operation, showing their pictures to the terrorists, and possibly let the agents out to cross examine with the terrorists, since they think those terrorists' rights were violated.
Really, I don't see how much better these ultra liberals deal with terrorists than the Scotland justice dept. They seem to be more humane to the terrorists than to the Americans.
Britain rejects talk of deal in Lockerbie bomber release
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090822/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lockerbie
Jim, I am appalled that Libyan bomber, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi has been freed This is because this monster has only a few months to live. Well what of all the lives he took. I think there should be such a world outcry that he is put under house arrest and that he be forced to listen to taped statements from the families who lost their love ones. I think this should continue to the day he dies. Than maybe true justice will be served.
Where are Lord and Lady Macbeth now when we need them? Actually, I sent this remark into the Telegraph.co.uk but it was not published. Those stiffs over there have the sense of humor of a walrus! But what they've always lacked most of all is a sense of punitive justice. After all, this is the civilized nation that hanged pickpockets until 1808! So what can be a more logical way to balance the historical scales than to free mass killers now?
OK, if this guy really only has a few months to live, let him spend it with his family, if it makes the "free" world look civilized. But what if the doctors are wrong? If he lives beyond, say, six months, can I go over there and blow HIM up?
"OK, if this guy really only has a few months to live, let him spend it with his family"
Lucky for him, those he killed didn't have this luxury whatsoever...
And I don't see how civilized we look when we don't enforce justice to the end (mostly likely) because of oil deals.
I mean, if we do the same to Madoff, even no human life involved, what would his victims think? Madoff is old also, and won't be around for long, so let's be merciful on him.
Often time people lack of common sense, it is not rocket science.