Eight fairly easy years in prison is now the United Kingdom's going rate for the murder of 270 men, women and children.
The tale of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi is a horribly sordid tale that highlights the disconnect between governments and the people in what passes for free societies in the world today. The first attempt to explain the Scottish government's incomprehensible move last week in freeing the monster bomber of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie was to call it an act of compassion for a terminally ill cancer afflictee. How rife with irony is that? How insulting is that? Is there any act that could have been added to this decade old tale of woe and injustice that could have been less compassionate? It is an unspeakable travesty that the wounds born by thousands affected by the loss of 270 lives over Scotland have been ripped open by an unsympathetic government that lacks the sense to avoid compounding the blow by pouring the salt of it's misplaced 'compassion' into those very wounds.
UK officials went into crisis management mode almost immediately after the release as they were faced with the images of the hero's welcome al-Megrahi received in Tripoli upon his return home and rumors began to stir of a boycott of UK goods by consumers in the US. The explanations came quickly that officials had requested that the return be kept low key and not allowed to be turned into the celebration for a returning hero that it became. There is something fundamentally disturbing about the fact that any official would think it was the welcome al-Megrahi received in Tripoli that caused so many to be outraged and offended. What they did in Libya to welcome him home is what any reasonable observer would have expected. What they did in Scotland to send him home was the crime.
The news of the event and the confusing swirl of governments and corporations exchanging prisoners and oil contracts have been covered for days. When the dust settles there may be some resolution of who did what for what reasons. On the other hand the whole affair may just end up absorbed by a government-industrial-complex-bureaucratic-morass that is never completely untangled. It is clear that Oligogues thrive in governments around the world and pursue the path of greatest expedience towards their own ends at the expense of the people they are supposed to represent.
Unfortunately, it is also clear that the UK governments had no expectation of being held accountable by the people. It is nothing short of bizarre that the chagrin that has been expressed has been on the behalf of the Libyan's over the way they received al-Megrahi, as if everything would have been just fine if they had kept it low key. This is evidence of a government that is out of touch with, and out of reach of, its people. A government that would abuse its people in the name of compassion for a dying mass murderer and not realize the sick irony of such an act should serve as a warning for us all.
Whether they realize it or not, this has been a sad turn of events for the citizens of the UK. Liberty can not thrive where the government is not kept close to the people, and accountable to them.
The tale of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi is a horribly sordid tale that highlights the disconnect between governments and the people in what passes for free societies in the world today. The first attempt to explain the Scottish government's incomprehensible move last week in freeing the monster bomber of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie was to call it an act of compassion for a terminally ill cancer afflictee. How rife with irony is that? How insulting is that? Is there any act that could have been added to this decade old tale of woe and injustice that could have been less compassionate? It is an unspeakable travesty that the wounds born by thousands affected by the loss of 270 lives over Scotland have been ripped open by an unsympathetic government that lacks the sense to avoid compounding the blow by pouring the salt of it's misplaced 'compassion' into those very wounds.
UK officials went into crisis management mode almost immediately after the release as they were faced with the images of the hero's welcome al-Megrahi received in Tripoli upon his return home and rumors began to stir of a boycott of UK goods by consumers in the US. The explanations came quickly that officials had requested that the return be kept low key and not allowed to be turned into the celebration for a returning hero that it became. There is something fundamentally disturbing about the fact that any official would think it was the welcome al-Megrahi received in Tripoli that caused so many to be outraged and offended. What they did in Libya to welcome him home is what any reasonable observer would have expected. What they did in Scotland to send him home was the crime.
The news of the event and the confusing swirl of governments and corporations exchanging prisoners and oil contracts have been covered for days. When the dust settles there may be some resolution of who did what for what reasons. On the other hand the whole affair may just end up absorbed by a government-industrial-complex-bureaucratic-morass that is never completely untangled. It is clear that Oligogues thrive in governments around the world and pursue the path of greatest expedience towards their own ends at the expense of the people they are supposed to represent.
Unfortunately, it is also clear that the UK governments had no expectation of being held accountable by the people. It is nothing short of bizarre that the chagrin that has been expressed has been on the behalf of the Libyan's over the way they received al-Megrahi, as if everything would have been just fine if they had kept it low key. This is evidence of a government that is out of touch with, and out of reach of, its people. A government that would abuse its people in the name of compassion for a dying mass murderer and not realize the sick irony of such an act should serve as a warning for us all.
Whether they realize it or not, this has been a sad turn of events for the citizens of the UK. Liberty can not thrive where the government is not kept close to the people, and accountable to them.
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