a civilian airliner Pan American Flight 103 . The bomb blew up on 21 December 1988 when the airplane was flying over the beautiful little town of Lockerbie in Scotland. The Libyan intelligence officer and mass murderer Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was convicted in the death of the 259 innocent people on board the airplane and another 11 
innocent people who were on the ground. He was given a life sentence by the Scottish legal system.He was granted a compassionate release from prison earlier this week because he has terminal cancer. He returned to Libya where he was welcomed home as a hero by cheering crowds.
My ancestors are from Scotland. I have visited Scotland many times. On important ceremonial occasions I wear a kilt with my
family’s tartan which I bought in the town of Ayr in Scotland located on the Firth of Clyde, less than five miles from where William Burns was born. I have visited my ancestors’ graves outside the church in Clunie (N56.579400, W-3.451247) in Perth and Kinross, right next to the beautiful little Loch of Clunie.LINK: http://paulgarland.blogspot.com/2006/04/scottish-ancestors.html
I have also spent some teary eyed time in the graveyard at Lockerbie. I give all of this background because I think this gives me the right to express my honest opinion about the people who made the decision to release this fellow.
When you are given a life sentence in connection with the death of 270 people that means that you die of natural causes in prison. The other option is a death sentence where you are killed in prison, somewhat earlier. It is horribly uncompassionate to the families and friends of
all the innocent people who were killed to let this punk out of jail just because he has prostate cancer and is dying.The Scotsmen who made the decision to let this guy return to Libya as a free man are clearly suffering from brain damage due to excessive consumption of alcohol over a lifetime. They should be put in jail to serve out the remaining portion of this guy’s life sentence. When he dies they can be released. If he lives a long time then they lose.
What an incredibly bad decision. No wonder the British defeated these losers. I am so glad that in 1840 my 24 year old great-great-grandfather Edward Malloch decided to move to Texas.
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