Freed Lockerbie Terrorist's Latest Time-Bombs

Relax? Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi boarding a plane at Glasgow airport in Scotland after his release from prison on Aug. 20. He served eight years of a life sentence before being allowed to return to Libya. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Libya's Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988, killing 259 people on board and 11 on the ground. He may well bring down the Scottish government before he's through.

Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, decided to free al-Megrahi on humanitarian grounds last week. Al-Megrahi is suffering from prostate cancer and was told he has three months to live--not often grounds for release for mass murderers serving out a life sentence. The Libyan proclaimed his innocence all along and was preparing an appeal based on large amounts of new evidence when he switched tracks and dropped the appeal so he could qualify for a compassion discharge.

He received a hero's welcome back in Libya, where he was met on the airport tarmac by cheering crowds and victory signs. "We as Libyans," a Libyan told a British broadcaster, "feel happiness and pride because one of our sons is returning home after imprisonment."

In the United States, it's been virtually all fury and fire-breathing. President Obama, FBI Director Robert Mueller, Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the inevitable parade of senators and House members jumping on the outrage wagon have kept the firestorm stoked and smoking. But it's not as simple as they're making it out to be.

There was the matter of an appeal--an appeal whose conclusions were nowhere near predictable. In a review of the case last week, the Times reported, "the Scottish broadcaster STV reported that Mr. Megrahi’s appeal was filed in 2007 after 'a four-year review by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Committee (S.C.C.R.C.), who concluded that a miscarriage of justice could have occurred.'" The committee had six--six--grounds for appeal.

The problem with al-Megrahi's release is that now we'll never know what that appeal may have revealed. And it could have revealed plenty, including the real possibility that, as the Rev. John Mosey, father of one of the victims, told the Guardian, the man convicted of the bombing may not have had anything to do with at all.

There was also the matter of British mendacity. Britain is interested in exploring Libyan oil and gas. Seif al-Islam, the son of Libya's Muammar el Qaddafi, openly spoke of the convicted terrorist's fate as being "always on the negotiating table" in energy talks between Britain and Libya. If so, the stink from this affair is just beginning.

More important than the emotions surrounding al-Megrahi's release--in Libya or in the United States--is the question of whether justice really was served by his original imprisonment, or if Scottish authorities flubbed the case, and now flubbed it again to evade embarrassing truths by releasing the man.

There's plenty of reasons for outrage from the Mediterranean to the shores of the North Atlantic. But the outrage may be misplaced. Before all this is over, the ruling Scottish National Party, responsible for all this tragedy of errors, may be booted out of office. It won't amount to much more than political gamesmanship if the truth about the bombing isn't settled conclusively and irrevocably.

See Also:

• Muammar el Qaddafi: Profile
• Libya: Country Profile
• When Ronald Reagan Called Libya's Muammar el Qaddafi the "Mad Dog of the Middle East"
• Qaddafi a Roma
• Outraged for the Wrong Reasons