When federal Safety Minister Vic Toews released the names and photographs of suspected foreign war criminals walking our streets — prompted by acknowledged pressure from Sun Media — there was no need to scour the list for Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.
We knew where he was.
Instead of being in a Scottish prison where he belongs, he was recently seen joining pro-Gadhafi demonstrators in Tripoli, and strutting his stuff as the “hero” who bombed Pan-Am Flight 103 out of the skies over Lockerbie in 1988.
And he looked exceptionally well for a terrorist supposedly dying of cancer and who, back in 2009, was released on humanitarian grounds so he could succumb on Libyan soil.
Compassionate leave for dying inmates is a regular feature of Scottish justice, and this obviously includes cowards who plant bombs in airline luggage so 270 people — including 186 Americans — would never see Christmas.
If there is someone beyond Moammar Gadhafi who deserves tough justice, it is Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.
British Petroleum admitted lobbying for a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya — but denied any role in al-Megrahi’s release — to help clinch a business deal.
The Italians, too, had investments — like a $7-billion sub-Mediterranean gas pipeline — that they didn’t want to see compromised by a small matter like some long-ago airline bombing, or a convicted terrorist who had faked a knock on death’s door.
The world’s moved on, right?
Well, if the rebels in Libya want to repay NATO for helping in Gadhafi’s overthrow, they can track down al-Megrahi, roll back the clock, and hand him over to the Americans.
Not the Scots.
Ottawa Sun (Aug. 24)