Today's question: What was Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill thinking when he granted a "compassionate" release from prison for convicted Libyan terrorist Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the mastermind of the 1988 bombing of PanAm Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland?
That unprovoked terrorist attack killed 270 innocent civilians, including 189 Americans and one of my daughter's best high school friends.
MacAskill ordered al-Megrahi's release 10 days ago on "compassionate grounds" because he is terminally ill with prostate cancer. But who cares whether this terrorist is suffering from a terminal illness? There are only two acceptable sentences for mass murderers: (1) death or (2) life in prison without parole. End of discussion.
The U.S. government and family members of the PanAm 103 disaster were outraged by MacAskill's decision, which President Obama criticized as "a mistake." At the very least, Obama said, al-Megrahi should be under house arrest in Libya. Instead, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's son accompanied the terrorist on the return flight to his home country, where he was given a hero's welcome by Gadhafi himself. Hundreds of young Libyans were bused to the Tripoli airport for the welcome ceremony. Disgusting!
FBI Director Robert Mueller was tougher than Obama, saying that al-Megrahi's release "gives comfort to terrorists" throughout the world. "I am outraged at your decision, blithely defended on grounds of 'compassion,'" Mueller told MacAskill. Although al-Megrahi was convicted by a Scottish jury, he and many of his fellow Libyans never accepted the jury's verdict, claiming that he was "framed."
Family members of PanAm 103 victims expressed their outrage in strong language.
"Compassionate release on the face of it is insane for a convicted mass murderer," said Susan May of Cape May, N.J., whose 20-year-old daughter was killed in the midair explosion.
"This (the release) was a terrible insult and affront to the families, but also to the Scottish people," said Rosemary Wolfe of Myrtle Beach, S.C., whose stepdaughter died in the blast.
Among the victims was 21-year-old Andrew Teran, of Lima, Peru, who was a high school classmate of my daughter Maria at Colegio Roosevelt, the American school in Lima, where they were running buddies on the school's cross-country team.
"Andy was a great kid and a wonderful friend," Maria told me. "He was an outstanding student and a talented long-distance runner."
Teran was one of nearly three dozen Syracuse University students on the doomed flight who were returning home from a study abroad program in Europe.
One lesson we should learn from al-Megrahi's release is that terrorists aren't "just like us." Mass murderers don't deserve compassion under any circumstances.
• Guy W. Farmer, a semi-retired journalist and former U.S. diplomat, resides in Carson City.