THE LOCKERBIE RELEASE - AT 6:01 P.M. ET:  The release of the Lockerbie bomber last week by Scotland is producing a growing scandal in both Scotland and England.  This is joined by American reaction.  Some 82% of Americans in a new poll oppose the release.

British journalists, often far more blunt than their American counterparts, are on the case, and their verdict is scathing. Leo McKinstry of the Daily Express nails it:

THE decision by the Scottish Government to release the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi marks a new milestone in the decline of our nation.

The whole sickening episode has brought shame on Britain, exposing the moral cowardice and cynicism at the heart of our political elite.

Most of the civilised world felt only revulsion at the hero’s welcome given to Megrahi on his arrival at Tripoli airport, Libyan and Scottish flags waving in celebration at our country’s pathetic self-abasement.

Self-abasement is exactly the right term.  But the European and British left are so good at it.  Practice makes perfect.  The release was supposedly approved on grounds of "compassion" because the prisoner is dying.

This controversial decision was taken by the Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill, a politician who mixes arrogance and self-righteousness in equal measure. If he really thinks that, then the Scottish Justice Minister has a perverse definition of “compassion.”

To hear MacAskill, you would have to think he is the reincarnation of St Francis of Assisi, not an anti-British fanatic who had just reached a grubby deal with the one of the world’s most discredited regimes.

And...

This is not the way for a morally self-confident country to behave. So-called “compassion” has been a mask for pusillanimous surrender, squalid commercialism and naked political hypocrisy.

No trace of British understatement there.  Once again we see a moral collapse, with rumors sweeping Britain that business considerations played a role.

The United States also protested the release.  But then the president went on vacation, and all is forgotten.  Now we "move on" to investigate our own CIA.  For the left, that is much more tempting than easing the pain of PanAm 103 victims' families.

August 24, 2009