Which, of course, is the question about we should show mercy to the merciless:
Britain dismissed suggestions of a link between the Lockerbie bomber’s release and energy deals with Libya on Saturday, and the head of the U.S. FBI said the move gave comfort to terrorists.
London and Washington have condemned the ‘hero’s welcome’ given to Abdel Basset al-Megrahi on his return to Libya after being freed from a life sentence in a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds because he is dying of cancer.
‘The idea that the British government … would sit down and somehow barter over the freedom or the life of this Libyan prisoner and make it all part of some business deal … it’s not only wrong, it’s completely implausible and actually quite offensive,’ said British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson.
In Washington, FBI director Robert Mueller released an angry letter he sent to Scottish minister Kenny MacAskill, who ordered the release, calling it inexplicable and detrimental to justice.
‘Indeed your action makes a mockery of the rule of law. Your action gives comfort to terrorists around the world,’ Mueller wrote in the letter posted on the FBI’s website.
But the man does appear to be dying – and thus poses no threat, in himself, to anyone else. But when we take a mass murderer and release him, does this not encourage the worst that no matter what we say, our most fierce justice is subject to change? What to do?
Never lose sight of the need for mercy – but this Libyan should not have been allowed to have such a heroes welcome. Better had Britain just quietly removed him from prison and either placed him in a civil hospital or quietly, even without the Libyan government having advance notice, deposited him on the coast of Libya with a note of explanation. There are ways to show that our justice is tempered with mercy without having to allow terrorists to claim they scored one off us.
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