Pan Am 103 Bomber Reportedly On Death's Door

The Libyan former intelligence agent convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is in a coma and close to death, according to reports Thursday. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi was released from Scottish prison back in August 2009 and Libya welcomed him with open arms, and the circumstances of that release are questionable. He was given a compassionate release based on his medical condition, prostate cancer, for which doctors supposedly gave him just weeks to live.

Relatives told Britain's Sky News that al-Megrahi has been in a coma for about a week.

"He is on life support and has been for some days. Many people have been waiting for him to die," a source close to his family told the broadcaster. "That day is coming very soon. Every day, his loved ones expect it to be his last."
Britain's Daily Telegraph quoted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi as saying al-Megrahi's health has "deteriorated badly." Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said it appeared unlikely that the bomber would be alive to see the Dec. 21 anniversary of the 1988 attack on Pan Am Flight 103.

The release of al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in the bombing, fueled anger in the U.S. as 189 of the 270 victims were American.

A cache of cables from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli describing the run-up to the decision to free al-Megrahi was released Wednesday by WikiLeaks .

Yet, after his release he was seen living large and in apparent good health. His condition apparently caught up with.

Justice was not served in this case as Megrahi served just a few days for each of the 270 people murdered when Pan Am 103 was blown up. He was supposed to have served life in prison.

So How Was Convicted Lockerbie Bomber Released?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that its investigation into the circumstances surrounding the release of convicted terrorist Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi finds that there was no grounds on which he should have received the compassionate release.

Megrahi supposedly won a "compassionate release" in August 2009 because of a medical report that predicted that he'd be dead in three months from prostate cancer. So how is it that we've got reports from some of those involved in his case that he may live 10 or more years?

While there was no question that Mr. Megrahi's cancer was terminal, there is no evidence that any of his specialists—two urologists and two oncologists—gave or signed off on a three-month prognosis, a review of the records and interviews with people familiar with the case indicate. According to people familiar with the matter, neither of the urologists offered any prognosis or was asked for one.

Dr. Fraser's report says "no specialist 'would be willing to say'" whether Mr. Megrahi had more or less than three months to live. The report cites the observations of Mr. Megrahi's primary-care physician at Greenock prison, a young doctor who reported that Mr. Megrahi's clinical condition "declined significantly" during a one-week period in late July and early August last year. That clinical decline is not described in detail.

If no one was willing to sign off on the three-month prognosis that was central to his case for a compassionate release under Scottish law, how did he receive it.

This is a galling miscarriage of justice and goes to show that he should never have been released from prison in the first place. The condition and the extent of his cancer appear to have been greatly exaggerated, leading to his release.

Moreover, it doesn't appear that there was any kind of consensus about his actual condition, let alone how much time he had left.

Abdel Baset Al-Megrahi, the convicted Lockerbie bomber, argued a year ago that he should be freed because his doctors said he was on the brink of death with prostate cancer. "All the personnel are agreed that I have little chance of living into next year," he said last August in a meeting with the Scottish justice minister.

In reality, no such consensus existed among Mr. Megrahi's doctors. Mr. Megrahi remains alive back in his homeland of Libya, freed after a Scottish doctor said a reasonable survival time for him was three months—a key threshold for "compassionate release."

But there is no evidence that any of the four specialists who treated his cancer—two urologists and two oncologists from the U.K.'s National Health Service—assented to the three-month prognosis Mr. Megrahi needed to go free.

One of the oncologists reported that he had 18-24 months to live depending on his response to treatment based on his tumor rating a Gleason score of 9 on a 2-10 point scale.

The Time To Complain and Investigate Was Before Lockerbie Bomber Was Released

It's a little late to investigate how and why Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, the convicted terrorist who murdered 270 people in blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, was released. Was it because BP was pressuring the British government to make any kind of a deal in order to secure drilling rights in Libya? Was it because the British government saw an opportunity to open up a new relationship with the Libyan regime? BP admits that they lobbied to get the British government to make some kind of deal, but didn't specifically call for Megrahi's release. The British government has repeatedly admitted that they were trying to make an oil deal, but weren't influenced by BP.

What about justice?

Justice was denied in this instance. Scotland enables convicted felons to be released if they can show that they are in ill-health. Megrahi was supposedly released because he was suffering from terminal cancer and had just months to live according to doctors. One of those doctors turned around and now says that Megrahi could live 10 years or more. He ended up serving less than 8 years in prison - or 11 days for each victim he murdered.

The fact is that Megrahi should never have been released - whether under some misguided notion of compassion or because of lobbying to get oil rights in Libya. The man was culpable for murdering 270 people and his sentence should never have been cut short.

The current move to launch still more investigations will not show anything that we don't already know. We know the British and Scottish governments screwed up. We know that oil deals played a role. We also know that the British government is trying to pass the buck on to the Scottish government and the judges who ruled for his early release. BP was trying to secure oil deals and the British government was working to smooth things over with the Libyans, who were busy trying to get Megrahi back.

UPDATE:
Here's New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand talking about the situation:

Lockerbie Bomber Should Never Have Been Released

It was a travesty of justice when a Scottish judge ruled that the convicted bomber of Pan Am Flight 103 was allowed to be released back to Libya. The judge had enabled his release for health reasons - taking into account that he had prostate cancer. It is even more so when you have reports that his health situation is such that he might now live another 10 years.

Professor Karol Sikora, who assessed Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi for the Libyan authorities almost a year ago, told The Sunday Times it was "embarrassing" the bomber had outlived his three-month prognosis.

Megrahi, 58, is the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing of a US Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, which left 270 dead.

The Scottish government provoked outrage from the United States when it released him from prison in August 2009 on compassionate grounds because he dying of metastatic prostate cancer.

In Scotland, prisoners are eligible for release on compassionate grounds if they have fewer than three months to live.

A report in the Sunday Times said Libyan authorities, keen to secure Megrahi’s release, asked several experts to put a three-month estimate on the bomber’s life but Professor Sikora was the only one to agree.

Professor Sikora, the dean of medicine at Buckingham University and medical director of CancerPartnersUK in London, was paid for his medical assessment of Megrahi at Greenock prison on July last year.

Sikora is embarrassed that he got this terrorist's prognosis wrong. Thanks for that. His misguided decision enabled a convicted terrorist to go free. Scotland should seriously reconsider its "compassionate" release program.

The decision to release this terrorist was made in part because of oil and gas deals between the British government and the Libyan government. The compassionate release program enabled all this - and in the process the only convicted terrorist involved in the murder of 270 people got just a few days in prison per each victim.

Gordon Brown Has a Libya Problem

On top of revelations that the British government basically traded a convicted terrorist to fulfill their end of a bargain to have a major oil contract with Libya, we now learn that current British Prime Minister Gordon Brown vetoed Libyan reparations for victims of IRA terror attacks that utilized Libyan explosives.

Documents passed to The Sunday Times reveal how the prime minister took a close interest in a campaign to secure payouts for the 2,500 families of those blown up by the Libyan-supplied Semtex explosive used by republican bombers.

However, Brown refused to help the victims because of government concerns that putting pressure on Gadaffi might lead to Libya withdrawing co-operation over trade and the war against Islamic terrorism.

The documents will cause embarrassment for Brown as he faces new questions over the early release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.

In a further damaging twist, Jack Straw, the justice secretary, was last night accused by the Tories of misleading the public over the prime minister’s role in talks about the decision to free the terminally ill Libyan terrorist.

The Sunday Times has established that Straw wrote to Brown warning the Libyans might block a multi-million-pound BP oil deal unless the bomber was released. The disclosure contradicts remarks Straw made in a newspaper interview published yesterday in which he insisted there had been “no paper trail” to No 10.

Campaigners claim the official letters about IRA compensation highlight the government’s preoccupation with trading relations with Libya at the expense of bomb victims.

A letter from Bill Rammell, then the Middle East minister, sent on November 6, 2008 to Jonathan Ganesh, who was injured in the 1996 Docklands bomb and now campaigns for IRA victims, states that oil contracts were a factor in the government’s failure to act.

There is a mountain of evidence linking Libyan explosives to IRA bombings that killed and wounded British citizens, and Brown did all he could to thwart efforts to compel Libyan compensation to those terror victims. That compares poorly with US efforts that led to compensation of American victims of IRA terror attacks by Libya.

UK Admits Oil Played Big Role In Release of Libyan Terrorist

You could see this coming a mile away, but the British Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, admitted that the possibility of oil contracts with Libya played a big role in the release of a Libyan terrorist convicted in the murder of 270 people bombed out of the sky on Pan Am Flight 103.

The Justice Secretary told The Daily Telegraph his decision to include Abdelbaset al Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) with Libya two years ago was influenced by commercial interests.

He cited a lucrative deal which was being sought by British oil giant BP at the time Megrahi was included in the PTA, adding of the trade consideration: "I'm unapologetic about that.

"Libya was a rogue state," Mr Straw told the newspaper.

"We wanted to bring it back into the fold. And yes, that included trade because trade is an essential part of it and subsequently there was the BP deal."

His comments risk reigniting the row over Megrahi's release, after Gordon Brown insisted earlier this week there was "no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double-dealing, no deal on oil."

Commercial interests trumped justice and law and order. Despite the photos that make Megrahi appear sympathetic, he should have served out his sentence in prison, rather than be released to a heroes welcome in Libya.

This had been in the works for more than two years - a prisoner transfer agreement had been made part of a comprehensive deal with Libya, that included a £550m oil deal with BP.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had claimed that there was no link, and that oil deals were not part of the bargain. Right.

Justice Unserved: Scotland Releases Pan Am Flt. 103 Bomber

This is compassionate? A convicted terrorist walks free out of some misguided notion of compassion.

Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, 57, is suffering terminal prostate cancer and has three months to live. Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill ordered al Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds, saying he will be "going home to die."

"Our justice system demands that judgment be imposed but compassion available," MacAskill said. "Our beliefs dictate that justice be served but mercy be shown."

The White House, which has urged Britain to keep al Megrahi behind bars, said it "deeply regrets" the decision.

MacAskill said he accepted al Megrahi's 2001 conviction for the Lockerbie bombing, the worst terrorist atrocity ever committed on UK soil. He also said he supported a severe sentence. But he said al Megrahi's lack of compassion for his 270 victims should not be a reason for Scotland to deny compassion to him.

He served all of 11 days for each of his 270 victims.

He just as easily could have died in prison, which was befitting of an unrepentant terrorist who murdered 270 people on board Pan Am Flight 103, which on December 21, 1988, exploded in the skies over Lockerbie, Scotland killing all 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground.

I'm supposed to be swayed by the fact he's suffering from terminal prostate cancer?

Also, Secretary of State Clinton should be ashamed of the statement she released in connection with the Administration's response to Scotland's actions:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who last week stressed U.S. opposition to a release, issued a similarly worded statement.

"Today, we remember those whose lives were lost on December 21, 1988, and we extend our deepest sympathies to the families who live each day with the loss of their loved ones due to this heinous crime," Clinton said.

These lives weren't merely lost - they were murdered in cold blood by this terrorist. Most of those on board the plane were Americans, including 35 students from Syracuse University, four from Colgate University, four from Brown University, and two from the State University of New York at Oswego. All were studying abroad and were heading home for Christmas.

UPDATE:
As if you expected anything different from Libya, Megrahi was welcomed back with a heroes welcome.

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