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| Scotland defends decision to free Lockerbie bomber | ||
| 2011-08-21 | ||
| EDINBURGH, Scotland: Scottish officials said Saturday they were right to release a Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing because he was dying of cancer, even though he is still alive two years later. Abdel Baset Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of murdering 270 people, most of them American, by blowing up a Pan Am plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988. He was freed on Aug. 20, 2009, after prison doctors said he had prostate cancer and estimated he had only three months to live. He is still alive, and last month he appeared at a televised rally in Tripoli alongside Muammar Qaddafi.
"Whether people support or oppose the decision, it was made following the due pro-cess of Scots law, we stand by it, and Al-Megrahi is dying of terminal prostate cancer," he said.
Prof. Roger Kirby, a consultant urologist at the Prostate Cancer Center in London, said, "He has long outlived the speculative three-month prognosis, and it appears he may continue to do so for a while yet." Al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, is the only person convicted over the Lockerbie bombing, Britain's worst terrorist attack. | ||
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #9 Mmmm, poetry! We've had a rash of that lately, and I am truly grateful. :-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-08-21 18:07 |
| #8 If Robert Burns was alive today. Fareweel to a' our Scottish fame, Fareweel our ancient glory, Fareweel ev'n to the Scottish name, Sae fam'd in martial story. Now Sark rins o'er the Solway sands, And Tweed rins to the ocean, To mark where Eurabia's province stands - Such a parcel of rogues in a nation. What force or guile could not subdue, Thro' many warlike ages, Is wrought now by a coward few For hireling traitor's wages. The foes steel we could disdain; Secure in valour's station; But Libyan gold has been our bane - Such a parcel of rogues in a nation. O would, or I had seen the day That treason thus could sell us, My auld gray head had lien in clay, Wi' Bruce and loyal Wallace! But pith and power, till my last hour, I'll mak' this declaration; We're bought and sold for Arabs' gold - Such a parcel of rogues in a nation. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-08-21 15:08 |
| #7 In a statement, a spokesman for Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said the decision to release Al-Megrahi was made "on compassionate grounds and compassionate grounds alone" and was not influenced by economic, political or diplomatic factors. You have more "compassion" for a convicted mass murderer than for the hundreds of surviving family members of Pam Am 103 victims, or your own citizens slain in the village of Lockerbie? Typical political statement. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2011-08-21 11:23 |
| #6 Amazing how all those Scots are post-union. It did a lot for Scotland and the world, but for England not so much. And Jackie's name is Stewart, not Stuart. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2011-08-21 11:01 |
| #5 Stuarts, not Scots. Jackie made the world safe for Formula Uno. |
| Posted by: S 2011-08-21 09:47 |
| #4 Scotland? Adam Smith. David Hume. Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir. Jphn Paul Jones. James Clerk Maxwell. More at http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/scotland/greatscots.html. |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2011-08-21 09:46 |
| #3 Made F1 safer. |
| Posted by: S 2011-08-21 09:42 |
| #2 I'm beginning to understand why the English were always at war with the Scots. Did the Stuarts do anything of value? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2011-08-21 09:07 |
| #1 I think it would be hilarious if he was caught by another European nation, who then offered him back to Scotland, assuming Qaddafi was no longer in power. Or it would be especially funny if they offered him to he US instead. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-08-21 00:43 |