THE TELEGRAPH – Telegraph View: It is utter nonsense to suggest that the release of Megrahi is purely a matter for the Scottish justice system.
As the controversy over the release of Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi continued to rage yesterday, seriously damaging relations between Britain and America, Government ministers stuck to the line that the decision was purely a matter for the Scottish justice system. That is the most utter nonsense, and as more details of the case emerged over the weekend Gordon Brown's silence generated increasing public anger, in Britain and the United States.
President Obama has said that the release of the Lockerbie bomber to a hero's welcome in Tripoli was a "mistake". The head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, called it a "mockery of justice" that had "given comfort to terrorists around the world". Not everyone will agree that America has the right to take such a lofty view: after all, it was not troubled by (and even helped to facilitate) the release of hundreds of Northern Irish terrorists, including the most vile murderers, as part of a US-supported peace process. So America is open to a charge of hypocrisy – but not naivety. It suspects that the "compassionate" release of a dying man has a political dimension. Plenty of Britons think the same. >>> Telegraph View | Monday, August 24, 2009
