Notes of Concern…
…Jackson Blair
The Lockerbie Numbers: 243 16 11
Wednesday, the 21st of December 1988, saw the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland. Terrorist bombs brought down the plane.
270 innocent souls lost their lives that day. There were 243 passengers on the plane, 16 crewmembers, and 11 people died on the ground when the plane fell.
It took the wheels of justice thirteen years to bring Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi to account for this crime.
He is a citizen of Libya and he was convicted after a three-year joint investigation run by British/Scottish authorities and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. During the investigation 15, 000 witness statements were taken.
The accused chose not to give evidence in his trial and on January 31, 2001 he was convicted of murder by a three-judge panel and sentenced to serve 27 years in prison.
27 years!
Frankly, 27 years seems a mild sentence to me, as it does not reflect either the barbarity of the crime or the massive loss of innocent lives. I suspect that there must have been a lot of wheeling and dealing between Scotland, England, Libya and the United States before this totally outrageous sentence was applied.
That said, eight years later the British/Scottish authorities shocked the world by releasing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi.
The reason given for the release was his deteriorating health and a finding that he had three months to live. When they described his condition there was mention of lack of sleep, inability to stand for any sort of lengthy period, lack of appetite, and other equally inappropriate concerns when viewed against the loss of so many lives.
So this poor fellow with three months left to live was taken to the airport, placed on a private airliner sent by the Libyan leader Khadafy, and returned to his homeland.
The guy who was reported to be so sick walked up the steps to the plane and when he emerged in his homeland he was greeted as a hero and met by the son of the Libyan leader. Waving and smiling he was the happiest guy who ever had a 90 day lifespan in front of him.
So the convicted terrorist spent eight years in jail and is now home to receive the laurels of his government and people. What are they celebrating? They are celebrating the fact that a mass murderer can kill 270 people and lose eight years of freedom.
Will he die in three months? Who knows? It will not matter because the “PR COUP,” the newest victory for terrorism, has occurred, handed to the terrorist countries by the leaders of Britain/Scotland.
We will not win a war on terrorism operating in this manner.
With this action the terrorist movements throughout the world have received an enormous boost. Volunteers will be signing up in huge numbers to strap bombs on themselves or hide explosive devices in planes or other modes of transportation.
It is a sad day for the families of the victims of this terrorist and a sad day in the history of Britain.
What were they thinking?
