Libyan Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, found guilty of the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, top left, is accompanied by Seif al-Islam el- Gadhafi, son of Libyan leader Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi upon his arrival at airport in Tripoli, Libya, on Thursday. (AP Photo by Amr Nabil)
by Mark Silva
President Barack Obama, who has voiced his objections to Scotland's release of the terminally ill Libyan convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, had this to say about the cheering welcome that Abdel Baset al-Megrahi got upon his return to Tripoli:
"I think it was highly objectionable,'' Obama said, asked the question at the end of some comments on the Afghan elections and before he departed for a week's vacation.
Great Britain also has condemned the "upsetting" scenes of jubilation in Tripoli that greeted the convicted and freed bomber's return.
Thousands of young men greeted al-Megrahi's plane at a Tripoli airport after he was released from a Scottish prison Thursday on compassionate grounds -- he suffers from a terminal case of prostate cancer and is given months to live. Some threw flower petals as the 57-year-old former Libyan intelligence agent stepped from the jet.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned the scenes as "deeply distressing," and said the way Moammar Gadhafi's government behaved in the next few days would help determine whether Libya is accepted back into the international fold. Prime Minister Gordon Brown had written to the Libyan leader before al-Megrahi's release urging Libya to "act with sensitivity" upon his return.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said footage of al-Megrahi's arrival was "tremendously offensive to the survivors that, as I said, lost a loved one in 1988....I think the images that we saw in Libya yesterday were outrageous and disgusting. We continue to express our condolences to the families that lost a loved one as a result of this terrorist murder.''
The explosion of the bomb-carrying airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988 killed 270, all aboard the aircraft and several on the ground.
Wire services contributed to this report.
Comments
Another problem with treating terrorsim as a law enforcement issue
Posted by: Terry | August 21, 2009 7:04 PM
The real reason they let him crawl off to find a hole to die in is:
Scots are, er, well, ah,
cheap.
Look at all the "end of life" medical expenses they saved.
Posted by: ornery | August 21, 2009 9:05 PM
My heart goes out to the families of the victims. It must be very difficult for them to watch al-Megrahi getting a hero's welcome on his return to Libya.
Posted by: Pierre | August 21, 2009 10:40 PM
Even though he is dying,he should not be trusted and he should still be monitored.
Posted by: Lisa Stone | August 21, 2009 11:25 PM
Seif al-Islam has just earned himself a place on the "personae non gratae" list.
Yes, they've got a little list...
They'd none of them be missed.
Anyway, Lockerbie was payback for Ronnie Reagan's April 1986 attack on Seif's daddy's compound....Ronnie killed one of his daughters.
Read that book "Blowback" by Chalmers Johnson.
Actually, all Chalmers Johnson's books should be required reading.
Posted by: ornery | August 22, 2009 8:02 AM
Probably plotting his next attack with his warm welcomers as we speak - go out with a bang and all that. Free the Gitmo detainees! Bring them home. Alive. Now.
Posted by: ThepartyofOWE | August 22, 2009 9:43 AM
Ornery,
So the bombing is Reagan's fault? Why not take this back to the fault back to the creation of Isreal and be done with it.
Posted by: Terry | August 22, 2009 11:35 AM
Ornery,
So the bombing is Reagan's fault? Why not take this back to the fault back to the creation of Isreal and be done with it.
Try the creation of ISLAM, and put the blame where it belongs.
Posted by: ooddballz | August 22, 2009 4:49 PM
I think it is general knowledge that Gadhafi took revenge on the US for Reagan's attack on his compound in which his daughter was killed, and took it by arranging the Lockerbie bombing.
In certain circles this is referred to, rather clinically, as "blowback".
And Reagan called the strike on Gadhafi because intelligence sources were convinced Gadhafi had orchestrated the killings of some off-duty US servicemen.
That's my recollection of how it went down.
As to Terry and Oddbalz, well, I think 100 years from now the population dynamics of Islam will dictate the fate of Israel.
Posted by: ornery | August 22, 2009 9:45 PM
Ornery,
I guess those "population dynamics" will justify it all.
Posted by: Terry | August 23, 2009 12:55 PM