Obama: Compassion, Not Incarceration For Lockerbie Bomber

While the main story seems to be that Gordon Brown cut a deal to release the Lockerbie bomber out of compassion for his terminal cancer and who knows what else, it appears as though Obama is fine with the decision. True, the FBI's Mueller objected. But he did lead the investigation. So, where is Obama's compassion for all of the American families who lost loved ones in the terrorist act? And it seems the new Homeland Security motto is, Compassion over incarceration! How special, if not unexpected, is that?

Fears that the US could retaliate against the British government were eased when Whitehall sources disclosed that the White House had made no complaint to Downing Street, reserving its ire for the Scottish administration.

Comments

[mark l.]

mercy for a murderer, but not for tax payers.

it wasn't even as if we made money off the deal. If the govt of lybia was so desperate to greet the guy, we could have squeezed them for a couple of million for the families of the victims.

instead we get a coupon for "good will", redeemable at our nearest mosque. sadly, the coupon has no cash value.

at least the brits turned a few bucks. not like they'll be spending it on dental care.

[Pyous]

"it wasn't even as if we made money off the deal. If the govt of lybia was so desperate to greet the guy, we could have squeezed them for a couple of million for the families of the victims."

Why, let's blame Obama--thanks for the opportunity Scotland!(and Libya, of course)--for the executive order signed by Bush giving immunity to Libya from any further compensations (read: showing of compassion) for families of the terror victims. And also for enriching Americans by a few billion dollars in exchange for lifting sanctions against Libya, thereby making even MORE money for the American Tax Payer!

[Dan Riehl]

Yeah, nice try Pus - too bad you left out the dismantling of a weapons program thought to involve several terrorist states. Your too convenient mis-remembering of history won't make it here. Save it for the DU where you belong.

[The Gonz]

Liberals aren't interested in facts. I thought that was pretty much common knowledge by now.

[Pyous]

Apart from Bush's strategic decision to invade and his subsequent handling of Iraq, I am in general agreement with Bush's other foreign policy initiatives. I actually applaud the manner in which he dealt with Libya and other rogue regimes.(He could have done better with Pakistan though.)

Had Obama made all those deals with Libya instead of Bush, he would be called a terrorist and what not by the same people who are now criticizing him for "not showing compassion" for the terror victims. You just need an excuse. That was my point.

Anyway, I give credit to Bush for governing under enormous pressures... from the Tea Party Tax protesters and Patriotic Americans who would have never allowed him to burden them with any increase in taxes if some socialist American families of the terror victims chose to sue their own government for not agreeing with the conditions laid out for compensations by the govt that sponsored the terror act.

[13yankeebravo]

Dan, American Thinker has a interesting artical on Federal debt today, 9/23/09. Could we have your thoughts on this artical?
Thank You.

[Pyous]

DU? I may have visited that site once a month on an average in the past couple of years, way way less than I visit FR. (I visited DU mostly via links from FR btw.)

[Lala]

FR never links DU.

[Dan Riehl]

Which article 13YB? Couldn't tell by scanning the headlines there today.

[Pyous]

"FR never links DU."

Just one instance of a direct DU forum post reference quoted and linked in comments from 5 days ago:

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2320018/posts

Nevertheless, not linking could be their "official" policy/guidelines but I have seen some links to DU forums from FR thread starters (like this for ex: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2077558/posts) discussing a particular thread on DU, and many many threads tagged as DemocraticUnderground /DU. The DU forum links on FR are more widespread in FR comment discussions. (I learned about the existence of DU from FR btw.)

[Pyous]

My understanding is that Freepers' first obsession is Obama and his family, second is dailykos and third DU.

"FR never links DU."

Btw Lala, on what Forum do you spend much of your time on? Thank God certainly not FR, otherwise to have a conversation would be like arguing with a Librul. :)

--Pyous Barney

[Pyous]

Edit @ Pyous above "Lala, on what Forum do you spend much of your time on? Thank God certainly not FR, otherwise to have a conversation [with you] would be like arguing with a Librul. :)"

[Able Stanton]

To be fair, there were problems with the trial.

[mark l.]

"the executive order signed by Bush giving immunity to Libya from any further compensations"

"further"...

[mark l.]

pyous, you make it out like bush signed away their rights, which, technically he did, but without compensation.

the only problem is that he negotiated the "Libyan Claims Resolution Act"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103#Compensation_from_Libya

10 million per family?

my only point is that the release of this pig should have held a further price. if this turd had value, obama should have squeezed lybia like a turnip.

[mark l.]

read the link...

bush apparently also negotiated compensation, in addition to the flight 103 victims...

"In October 2008 Libya paid $1.5 billion into a fund which will be used to compensate relatives of the

1.Lockerbie bombing victims with the remaining 20% of the sum agreed in 2003;
2.American victims of the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing;
3.American victims of the 1989 UTA Flight 772 bombing; and,
4.Libyan victims of the 1986 US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi"

note the last one. lybia had to pony up for reagan blowing up its own citizens. chutzpah.

[13yankeebravo]

Dan, it is in the recent articals section and the title is Cognitive Dissonance:A Case Study. Am not smart enough on cumputer to embed a link to it for you. I just found it interesting and thought that you would too.

[Rich K]

To bad that plane didnt have a terminal disease on the way back to Libya. Looks like Karma missed this time,So far anyway.

[Vic]

OMG. Please tell me that this is not another blog, like FreeRepublic, where every inconvenient poster is heckled for being a plant from the Democrat Underground.
Mr. Riehl, is this blog also a Bushbots only club?
Good God, you jump all over Pyous who sounds as though he himself is a neocon.

I am DAMNED PROUD to have been kicked off of FreeRepublic. If you are a bunch of nihilistic Bushbot neocons, then I'll be DAMNED PROUD to be booted from this forum too.

Please advise.

Vic

[Dave B]

Vic: Bushbots? Are you kidding me? Most conservatives were so pissed off with him that we were screaming to no one in particular. A terrorist that killed a sh.tload of innocent people should die in jail... that's pretty easy to understand. How would you feel if your child was murdered by some religious zealot and served twelve days for it? How would you feel watching the person that reduced your little child to pieces of flesh and bone fragments scattered in the atmosphere treated and welcomed as a hero? We might be human and have the capacity to forgive but please don't mistake that for validating the murder of your child.

[Able Stanton]

al-Megrahi didn't receive a fair trial.

It wasn't the *worst* trial to have ever taken place, but it wasn't a trial to be proud of, either.

Some highlights:

1. The Prosecution's "star witness" (who merely testified that he sold al-Megrahi some clothing that was linked to the bomb) was revealed post-trial BY THE PROSECUTOR to be a mentally ill attention-seeker.

2. The Prosecution withheld possible exculpatory evidence from the CIA about the type of timing device thought to be used in the bomb.

3. An appeal based on the withholding of evidence was procedurally incorrectly denied.

4. Another suspect, this one an actual known Palestinian terrorist, was later arrested and identified as a more likely suspect.

Also let us knot forget that al-Megrahi is, indeed, dying.

[mark l.]

"If you are a bunch of nihilistic Bushbot neocons, then I'll be DAMNED PROUD to be booted from this forum too.

Please advise."

can't say that dan doesn't censor, upon the rarest of occassions, but to be quite honest, this is probably the most liberally run forum you can find. I've toured the lib blogs, but inevitably, you get blocked. not for profanity, but for screwing up the circle jerk...

if you have a reasoned argument, i'd love to see it...can't speak for dan, but I'd imagine it is his sentiment as well.

"If you are a bunch of nihilistic Bushbot neocons" wouldn't suggest you have much of a reasoned argument, but if you chill a little, you'll find someone to argue with, i'm sure.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

mark: When I see some of the trolls like Vic who come through here. Apparently hoping to be banned so they can go back to huffdoh to brag about it. It just makes me miss my furry little llama and a couple others who could at minimum google up something to support their point and at least in LLama's case, lay out some sort of argument.

[mark l.]

it does get to a point where they should just cut and paste an atrios "stream of liberal consciousness"...

i think of the al franken/stuart smalley character, with his daily affirmation:

"I deserve good things, I am entitled to my share of happiness. I refuse to beat myself up. I am an attractive person. I am fun to be with."

"I'm going to do a terrific show today! And I'm gonna help people! Because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and, doggonit, people like me!"

seriously, if vic needs affirmation, he should probably look elsewhere.