Lockerbie Bomber released

[Galaxy]

The Lockerbie Bomber was released in Scotland on "compassionate grounds" was flown home to Libya on a private jet.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Lockerbie bomber arrives in Libya

[EagleFan]

Compassionate grounds? Let the fucker rot in jail. He had no compassion for his victims the spineless coward.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'd roll my eyes but it wouldn't do any good so I'll save the energy.

I will say that I couldn't help but chuckle at the phrasing in some of the wire copy Obama warned Libya not to give him a hero's welcome and the subsequent line about how he was greeted at the airport by thousands of youth as well as Gadhafi's son. Unless he shortly succumbs to his illness (with a gigantic assist from some Libyan gov't doctors) then Libya played their hand quite nicely and played Scotland for suckers. And if he does suffer a "sudden worsening of his condition" then perhaps Libya played it even better.

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I'd roll my eyes but it wouldn't do any good so I'll save the energy.

I will say that I couldn't help but chuckle at the phrasing in some of the wire copy Obama warned Libya not to give him a hero's welcome and the subsequent line about how he was greeted at the airport by thousands of youth as well as Gadhafi's son. Unless he shortly succumbs to his illness (with a gigantic assist from some Libyan gov't doctors) then Libya played their hand quite nicely and played Scotland for suckers. And if he does suffer a "sudden worsening of his condition" then perhaps Libya played it even better.

Read the BBC Have your say (a comments). It's rather interesting.

hxxp://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&forumID=6897&start=30&tstart=0&edition=2&ttl=20090820213318#paginator

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Compassionate grounds? Let the fucker rot in jail. He had no compassion for his victims the spineless coward.

X2

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Read the BBC Have your say (a comments). It's rather interesting.

Eh, not really surprised. The only entities I trust less than the American government & the judgment of the American people are every other government in the world & the citizenry of every other nation.

I did get a chuckle out of one of them though

What will happen? The Americans will complain and the Scots will blame the English.

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Eh, not really surprised. The only entities I trust less than the American government & the judgment of the American people are every other government in the world & the citizenry of every other nation.

I did get a chuckle out of one of them though

I love all reading it:

"The right decision was taken, it was a moral decision and let's face it, this man is no more responsible for this atrocity than I am! Like the assasination of JFK, the truth will come out after our lifetimes. If the USA feels so strongly then why wasn't he in a US prison, why should we have to foot the bill as taxpayers for someone who is no more than a scapegoat to be housed in our jails and more to the point receive round the clock healthcare?!

gail, aberdeen "

Last time I checked, the crime happened in Scotland, not the US. Love the comments how this is the fault of the US.

I also loved how this will somehow "create" a more peaceful world. Terrorists and the strong anti-Western emotions won't change (I don't ever see it changing). In fact, why did he get a hero's welcome when he landed in Libya?

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Eh, not really surprised. The only entities I trust less than the American government & the judgment of the American people are every other government in the world & the citizenry of every other nation.

Doesn't leave much left does it?

[Landshark44]

my cousin was on that flight. the family hasn't been the same since the tragedy, and i was hoping that f*&^%$ would rot in jail forever....

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RomaGoth

Doesn't leave much left does it?

It's lonely at the top, what can I tell ya

[molson]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Last time I checked, the crime happened in Scotland, not the US.

I do wonder about that. Why is prosecution limited to wherever the plane happens to crash? Obviously there were steps taking in Libya, several points in Europe, and the victims were mostly Americans. I don't know much of the procedural history of this case, but that just seems off. It could have easily landed in the ocean, what then?

Just an appalling decision by the Scotish court. I wonder if this was at all motivated by Libya's gradual acceptance back into the international community.

[molson]

Yay! You killed 270 people! Yay!

I guess the only consolation is that those people have to live in a shithole desert.

[RomaGoth]

Why didn't we blow up his airplane while it was enroute? Oh wait, we are the U.S.......we wait until shit happens to us first, then decide upon a course of action that is inevitably too little, too late.

[molson]

Now watch him live another 10 years.....

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by molson

Now watch him live another 10 years.....

.....in that shithole desert. Hopefully he will get run over by a renegade camel.

[Peregrine]

Keep in mind, I think a big part of it is the major controversy over the fact that many people, including some of the families of the victims, believe he wasn't even the right guy. The British courts did a big investigation a couple years ago and showed there was major doubt that he was even guilty - so I think that lies behind this compassionate release to some extent.

[Autumn]

Originally Posted by RomaGoth

Why didn't we blow up his airplane while it was enroute? Oh wait, we are the U.S.......we wait until shit happens to us first, then decide upon a course of action that is inevitably too little, too late.

Probably because we aren't that immune to the barbs of irony.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Originally Posted by molson

Yay! You killed 270 people! Yay!

I guess the only consolation is that those people have to live in a shithole desert.

Isn't this what they designed Napalm for?

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Compassionate grounds? Let the fucker rot in jail. He had no compassion for his victims the spineless coward.

+1

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by molson

Yay! You killed 270 people! Yay!

I guess the only consolation is that those people have to live in a shithole desert.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

Keep in mind, I think a big part of it is the major controversy over the fact that many people, including some of the families of the victims, believe he wasn't even the right guy. The British courts did a big investigation a couple years ago and showed there was major doubt that he was even guilty - so I think that lies behind this compassionate release to some extent.

This is the most troubling element, to me. I know that those who feel aggrieved by a seemingly great wrong look for a great evil to offset it, and that leads toward conspiracy theories and so forth... and maybe many of us who felt this tragedy are victims of that psychology. But the Libyan connection just seemingly came out of the blue, and wrapped up the whole scenario so tidily, and just happened to perfectly advance an American foreign policy desire at the time... that it almost has to ring hollow. There are a lot of intelligent, sensible people who basically feel that the government is completely lying about this, and that the real culprits are much more likely to have been Syrian, for instance.

So, on one hand, I'm upset about this guy being let go early, and basically support the "let him rot" contingent. But I still am aware that some people who have invested more into this than I have feel we're just playing out the string in an elaborate ruse, and that what we do with/about Libya is just a sideshow.

Nothing happy about the whole thing.

[flere-imsaho]

I was going to post basically exactly what QS wrote. I'd be OK in the "rot" brigade, but you talk to anyone who's seen the various documentaries/investigations in England/Scotland over the years and it's pretty clear they view this guy as the fall guy/scapegoat, with the real perpetrators being inadvertently release by (I think) the Germans years ago.

[flounder]

Ruh-roh

LONDON — In an admission likely to prolong the controversy over the release of the only man convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, Britain’s justice minister told an interviewer that trade deals, especially in oil, had been a “very big part” of Britain’s decision to include the bomber in a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya.

In an interview published Saturday by The Daily Telegraph, Jack Straw, the justice minister and a senior member of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s cabinet, said trade deals with Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s government in Libya weighed heavily in his decision to abandon his opposition to the release of the bomber, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi.

...

The reference was to a $900 million oil exploration agreement between Libya and BP in January 2008. BP, Britain’s largest company, beat out a field of other international energy companies seeking to gain a foothold in Libya’s rich oil fields after the lifting of international sanctions — imposed in part because of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, a Scottish border town, on Dec. 21 1988, which killed 270 people, including 189 Americans.

[QuikSand]

That's pretty distressing. I'm honestly trying to stay calm about this topic, but this twist can't help on that front.

[lighthousekeeper]

WWJD?

[flere-imsaho]

I'm not surprised, and I have no reason to believe Jack Straw, who never struck me as overly bright and always seemed to have a weak point in either a) keeping things mum or b) not looking like a tool in interviews. Plus, you have to wonder if he's vindictive at all about not being the one to succeed Blair.

Of course, I wonder how many people will happily believe that the U.K. government did this deal for oil, but can't bring themselves to believe that the U.S. invaded Iraq in a large part to secure oil interests for U.S. companies....

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

I'm not surprised, and I have no reason to believe Jack Straw, who never struck me as overly bright and always seemed to have a weak point in either a) keeping things mum or b) not looking like a tool in interviews.

+1 I'm trying to think of a good American counterpart to Jack Straw... a combination of Joe Biden and Dan Quayle maybe? He just seems incapable of not putting his foot in his mouth.

[TroyF]

hxxp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1291939/Fury-Lockerbie-bomber-doctor-Karol-Sikora-admits-live-decade.html


Still alive and kicking and he may be able to live for a decade more. Ugh.

[cougarfreak]

They should have put a bomb on his plane for the ride home.

[SackAttack]

Anybody else notice that it was specifically BP involved in the oil deals that ended up getting him released?

Not a good PR year for those guys.

[QuikSand]

*bump*

[stevew]

Someone could offer him a flight out if the country on Lao Che airlines.

[cartman]

CNN Exclusive: Lockerbie bomber comatose, near death, family says - CNN.com

[cartman]

He didn't quite make it to that predicted '10 more years'.

Reports: Lockerbie bomber dies in Libya – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs