August 23, 2009

Ruth Wedgwood details the evidence, the trial, and the consequences of the supposedly humanitarian release of the Lockerbie bomber.

Excerpt:
When the prospect of the release of this convicted murderer became widely known this week, the president of the United States told a radio interviewer he had "objected" to the release. But he did not say how much body English had gone into this objection. President Obama warned that al-Megrahi should not be given a "hero's welcome" by Libya. But this thought too was, as diplomats like to say, "overtaken by events."

Meanwhile, British Foreign Minister David Miliband says it is a "slur" to speculate that the release of a mass murderer was influenced, even at the margin, by the bidding for oil extraction rights in Libya. One of England's princes has been to Libya three times recently to talk about oil.

32 comments:

The Drill SGT said...

It looks like the Libyan's have forgotten some of the lessons that Reagan tried to teach them.

Unfortunately Obama is not Reagan. I expect they'll get even cockier over the next 3 years.

On the other hand, though I didnt know much about them, I used to be sentimental about the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP). Now I'm just mental about them.

wv: fersesser = a Professer of Fer

The Drill SGT said...

PS: I understand from another story that the bomb was very small and the plane came down in several large pieces.

Passengers rode it down 45 seconds from 31,000 feet. a witness on the ground reported rows of passengers upright, strapped in their seats, all with their fingers crossed.

I would have hung the SOB.

wv: reboat = boat all the Libyans, offshore, turn the country into a sheet of glass, the go back and sink the boats.

alan markus said...

Whore for Oil!!

John henry said...

No blood for oil?

That is so yesterday.

John Henry

G Joubert said...

Me, I'm not even necessarily buying the "advanced prostate cancer" thing. This release request goes back to at least last November and they were calling it grave then, with weeks or months to live. A trade for oil under the cover of a "humanitarian" release is more what it looks like.

Scott M said...

Surely one of the darkest days of progressive idealism.

"When students are taught about the Progressive Era (roughly 1916-2010) they sometimes fail to understand the deep psychosis that permeated the leaders of the once free democratic Scotland. Students should be reminded that Scotland was, at the time, part of Great Britain and not, as it is now, a vassal state of the Caliphate. Thus, the leadership was free to make it's own mistakes, however wrongheaded and dangerous we would now consider it."

Harvard University
Department Of Government
Chicago, GLA
June 15th, 2041

bearbee said...

Wonder if O regrets the cheesy DVD gift to Brown.

AllenS said...

The wife of former North Carolina Sen. and presidential candidate John Edwards has opened a furniture store. I thought that she was dieing of cancer. Stories like this reminds me of Obama's nonsense about the last six months of life costing so much. How do you know?

Scott M said...

@bearbee

You know, in the grand scheme of things now, nobody talks much about the unbelievably lame gifts our president was lavishing on other heads of state in the early days of this administration.

I thought it exceedingly odd at the time, but it was necessarily drown out by far more important matters.

That said, in hindsight it was a huge klaxon and we should have paid more attention to it. There are things going on within the thinking of the inner circle that just don't seem to make sense.

paul a'barge said...

Screw this.

Let's talk about Project Runway!

The Drill SGT said...

Drudge has a link to a UK article that says:

However, the Scottish government last night responded defiantly, insisting the US had made clear in discussions that, while it opposed Megrahi's release, it regarded freeing him on compassionate grounds because of his terminal cancer as "far preferable" to a prisoner transfer deal that would have seen him in custody.

Fears that the US could retaliate against the British government were eased when Whitehall sources disclosed that the White House had made no complaint to Downing Street, reserving its ire for the Scottish administration.


so we sorta were against letting him out of Scotland, but if he went back to Libya, we certainly didnt want him to be in jail?

Seems Obama and Brown want to blame those Scots

SteveR said...

Could have sent him back to Libya when he died, real quick, IAW Muslim rules.

That's more compassion than he deserved.

Unfortunately for Obama, this will be far down the list of questionable actions in the first 8months of his term.

Alex said...

When there is no justice provided by the government, citizens will take matters into their own hands.

Ralph L said...

"far preferable" to a prisoner transfer deal
The Brits rotting in Libyan jails are glad to hear that.

William said...

Milosevic lived in a prison cell with a kitchenette and a pleasant view. In Rwanda, people go to market and get to greet those who chopped their mother to death with hoes. Only a few people in Cambodia have been tried for their participation in the murder fest there....The quality of mercy does not fall like the gentle rain from heaven but rather like fragmented body parts from an an IED.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Libya saw how Obama responded to the Iranian crackdown. This is what "hope and change" means to them.

The image of the United States has improved markedly in most parts of the world, reflecting global confidence in Barack Obama.

They'll really like us when Obama releases the Gitmo - pardon - the goulag prisoners.

The Drill SGT said...

They'll really like us when Obama releases the Gitmo - pardon - the goulag prisoners.

NO

They'll really be pleased when Obama releases the Gitmo - pardon - the goulag prisoners.

Cedarford said...

We openly talk about the eroding of major institutions in the West. Our ability to manufacture and compete. Once proud, shining cities reduced to squalor and danger and decay as dysfunctional minority parasites take over. Our inability to have a financially stable system. Decline of our schools, volunteerism, the ability of our system to honor voters instead of DC insiders or Eurocrats manipulated by special interests.

Lets add the legitimacy of the civilian criminal law and tort system to that.

rhhardin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Crimso said...

"The image of the United States has improved markedly in most parts of the world, reflecting global confidence in Barack Obama."

Interesting how our popularity with the world supposedly rises due to Obama, but he's tanking here. Before the Obamaites start howling and citing poll numbers, I said "tanking," not "tanked;" he's still got a ways to fall. That fact reminds me of the verses about Muad'dib:
Here's lies a toppled god
His fall was not a small one
We did but build his pedestal
A narrow and a tall one

Scott M said...

Ah...one can never go wrong with a Dune reference.

WV: synards - the sinners that hang off the main fuselage to provide extra lift and control surfaces.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

There has to be a middle ground between waterboarding these people and giving them first class airfare back home where they're welcomed by cheering mobs.

Dunno, coach? With a real fat sweaty guy sitting next to them.

Absurdities require absurdities...

chuck b. said...

The Lockerbie bombing should have been treated like an act of war in the first place.

But then I'm very pro-war.

More war, please.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

Here's an excellent overview over at the Volokh conspiracy by Kenneth Anderson: Release and UN Politics.

He argues, inter alia, that this was "an indirect move to alter power relations among the P5 [permanent security council members] by judicializing them."

That is, take the decisions out of the UN and place them in the court system.

Not a good trend.

Penny said...

"Not a good trend."

Frankly, I am not sure it is a bad trend either. The UN reminds me of some pomp and circumstance group that shows up in uniform on major occasions, only to go away again once the day's festivities are over. Everyone knows they are not the REAL movers and shakers.

Let this pendulum swing.

When it comes center at some future time, we just might have a much improved organization that all countries will take seriously.

Penny said...

While we all can empathize with the families of the victims here, if any fingers are to be pointed, let's point them at Scotland. Any verbal heat we put on Obama in this country or Brown in GB takes the heat off where it belongs.

Without trying to simplify this too much to make a point, Scotland needs to learn that the stove...it is HOT!

hombre said...

The image of the United States has improved markedly in most parts of the world, reflecting global confidence in Barack Obama.

The predictable reaction of mediocrities to tall poppies in decline. They are confident that Obama is the instrument of decline.

josil said...

He should have been returned by air to Libya on compassionate grounds, and from about 28,000 feet.

Revenant said...

The image of the United States has improved markedly in most parts of the world, reflecting global confidence in Barack Obama.

That should be "reflecting global confidence that Barack Obama is an impotent milquetoast who won't get in other countries' way". America's "image" has always "declined" when the US actually asserts its power. :)

Methadras said...

The Drill SGT said...

PS: I understand from another story that the bomb was very small and the plane came down in several large pieces.


The bomb was speculated to have been smuggled aboard a radio in the luggage compartment and that it when it exploded it blew out the side of the craft and massive decompression occurred at that point.

wv = explous = man, what is it with the wv lotter for me lately.

Methadras said...

Cedarford said...

We openly talk about the eroding of major institutions in the West. Our ability to manufacture and compete. Once proud, shining cities reduced to squalor and danger and decay as dysfunctional minority parasites take over. Our inability to have a financially stable system. Decline of our schools, volunteerism, the ability of our system to honor voters instead of DC insiders or Eurocrats manipulated by special interests.

Lets add the legitimacy of the civilian criminal law and tort system to that.


What do you expect when 40 years of multiculturalism and political correctness are injected into the American societal fabric via government mandate, hmmm?

wv = boning = something my government has been doing to me since the day I was born. pedos.

X said...

The law enforcement method of combatting terrorism.