‘The tiny little shred of justice we had is gone’

Pan Am Flight 103 was on its way from London to New York on Dec. 21, 1988, when it exploded over the skies of Lockerbie, Scotland.

All 243 passengers and 16 crew were killed, either as the plane disintegrated in the air or as pieces of it plummeted 31,000 feet into the ground.

In addition to the total loss of life on the plane, debris and debris-related explosions on the ground killed 11 people, including complete families, in Lockerbie.

Extensive investigation revealed that the explosion that blew up the plane was caused by a suitcase bomb, which had found its way onto Flight 103 in London via baggage services after being transferred from a flight from Malta to Frankfurt.

It took until 2000, but two people were tried for this act of terrorism. One was convicted: Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, charged by prosecutors with being a Libyan intelligence agent, was found guilty in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison.

All of that brings us to today.

From CNN:

Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, 57, sick with advanced prostate cancer, was released on compassionate grounds and sent home to Libya to die, Scottish authorities said. Megrahi, who prosecutors said was a Libyan intelligence agent, was convicted in 2001 of placing a bomb on the Boeing 747.

Libya has formally accepted responsibility for the bombing and has compensated the families, although longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi denied any culpability in the attack.

Our of curiosity, I’d like to know: How many other cancer-striken inmates are incarcerated in Scotland? I know they can’t have anyone else who has killed 270 people, so the answer had better be zero, if they are letting this guy go.

I understand compassion. But I also understand justice—and the two are not the same.

Read this section and this section of Wiki’s account of Flight 103. Please tell me if you believe that the terrorists who killed 270 innocent men, women and children showed them any compassion.

Consider this:

For many days, Lockerbie residents lived with the sight of bodies in their gardens and in the streets, as forensic workers photographed and tagged the location of each body to help determine the exact position and force of the on-board explosion, by coordinating information about each passenger’s assigned seat, type of injury, and where they had landed. Local resident Bunty Galloway told authors Geraldine Sheridan and Thomas Kenning (1993):

“A boy was lying at the bottom of the steps on to the road. A young laddie with brown socks and blue trousers on. Later that evening my son-in-law asked for a blanket to cover him. I didn’t know he was dead. I gave him a lamb’s wool travelling rug thinking I’d keep him warm. Two more girls were lying dead across the road, one of them bent over garden railings. It was just as though they were sleeping. The boy lay at the bottom of my stairs for days. Every time I came back to my house for clothes he was still there. ‘My boy is still there,‘ I used to tell the waiting policeman. Eventually on Saturday I couldn’t take it no more. ‘You got to get my boy lifted,‘ I told the policeman. That night he was moved.“

Compassion? Of course not. It’s contrary to everything about being a terrorist.

Justice demands that the guilty pay for their crimes, and not just when it’s convenient or comfortable.

That’s why the phrase is, “Crime and punishment.“

Susan Cohen lost her 20-year-old daughter, Theodora, on Pan Am Flight 103.

“I feel sick. I feel depressed and outraged. I mean, I am just heartbroken,“ she said, reflecting on what CNN describes as “thawing relations” between the United States and Libya. “I feared they would do this,“ she said. “Now that they’ve made friends with Gadhafi ... the Western countries want to give him everything that he wants, appease him. He wanted Megrahi, they are rushing Megrahi out; they aren’t even giving this a day.

“And the tiny little shred of justice we had is gone.“
Read that last line again.

If that isn’t enough, consider this, from FoxNews.com:

The man responsible for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing returned home to Libya on Thursday to cheering crowds, and throngs of people waving posters of the convicted killer, who flew to his native country to die after Scotland released him from prison.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, 57, spent roughly 11 days behind bars for each victim in the bombing. President Barack Obama said the decision to free the terminally ill bomber on compassionate grounds was a mistake and warned Libya not to give him a hero’s welcome.

But thousands were on hand to greet him warmly when his plane from Scotland touched down at a military airport in Tripoli. There was a festive atmosphere with some wearing t-shirts with al-Megrahi’s picture. Others waved Libyan and Scottish flags while Libyan songs blared.

The terrorist returned to cheering throngs of thousands.

Yep. That sounds just like a nation that has renounced terrorism.

This is outrageous. It is nothing less than a slap in the face from Scotland to the United States: 169 of the 270 victims were Americans, and the American government had repeatedly implored the Scots not to accede to the request for al-Megrahi’s compassionate release.

It is disgusting.

One of my Twitter friends wrote earlier today, “If you’re going to be a terrorist make sure you do it in SCOTLAND. If you get sick they’ll let you go!“

You know. For compassion’s sake.