Megrahi
Posted on August 21, 2009
Filed Under A Progressive Viewpoint | Leave a Comment
U.S. Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman stepped into the row about the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi earlier in the week to add their voices to the growing demands, especially from America, that Megrahi be left in prison to die of cancer, rather than be allowed to return home on compassionate grounds.
The two Senators made their complaint in Tripoli, where they were trying to sell defence equipment to the Gadaffi regime. The same regime, in fact, that Megrahi was serving in blowing up PanAm 103 over Scotland twenty-one years ago.
Libya in 2009 is clearly a very different place from Libya in 1989.
Those who have loudly condemned the Scottish Executive for letting this man go home need to state their reasons precisely. Does he pose a continuing threat to any0ne? Is national security jeopardised because of this one case? Does it even matter (except that it’s offensive to the families of the victims) that this man was given a hero’s welcome on return to Libya? When the calls go up about justice having to be seen to be done, it needs to be stated how exactly justice is served by keeping the man in prison when he is, to all intents and purposes, practically dead already.
If the people making these noises can’t provide sound justification then we have to conclude that what this was all about was pure vengeance. Vengeance is sometimes necessary to deter future aggression, but vengeance for its own sake is ultimately self destructive. Megrahi showed no mercy to his victims. We should be better than that.
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