Lockerbie

[cartman]

the ira were freedom fighters....they fought a dirthy war against a very dirty enemy....tiochfaidh ar la..desperate people do desperate things....our day will cum

[cartman]

very well said stewie....well said kid

[luther]

Did not IRA 'terrorists' receive heroes welcomes and abridged sentences after Good Friday.

Us Irish have far more in common with the Arabs and little oppressed nations than the colonialists of the West. I think that sometimes we forget this.

To understand the Libyans is not to condone or agree. I understand the IRA but I thought they were wrong.

Smarty expressed many points which I agree with.

Western atrocities receive much less attention than Islamic atrocities.

Remeber the original September 11 - Chile 1973. Remember Mohammed Mosaddeq 1953.

You should note that the terrorists do not attack the Swiss or the Swedes because they have no grievance with them. Things happen for a reason.

Did Ronald Reagan apologise for the bombing of Libya in 1986? Did he serve time ?

But it doesn't mean I condone these actions any more than the actions of the Libian...........

Just because it was a coup d'état doesn't make it right...............

[luther]

I'm with Smarty on this one:

He was released when he agreed to drop his appeal against his conviction. If his appeal had gone ahead evidence would have shown that it was Iran who was behind the bombing in retaliation for the US Navy having shot down an Iranian airliner. This did not suit the U.S. who wanted to maintain relations with Iran with whom they had energy related agreements in place at the time.

It's a bit of a contradiction, the US were against his release...........

Not saying it's a contradiction by you, but perhaps a private/public contradiction by them..............

[luther]

While it was undoubtedly wrong and mass murder it is nonsense to say that the plane was bombed for nothing. The plane was targeted because it was an American plane and it was probably retaliation for the Americans shooting down the Iranian airliner and the bombing of Tripoli in 1986.

Of course the difference between the 270 people killed in Lockerbie and the 290 killed on the Iranian flight including 66 children was that the US gave the people who shot down a civilian plane medals. Bit of a double standard to complain about the lybians welcoming back this guy when they did the same to the murders in their own ranks.

And I'd say it's no great mystery the Lockerbie bombing was connected to the Iranian airliner thing, but the difference is, be it true or not, in the publics eyes one was accidental, all be it neglectant and the other was intentional.............

[luther]

the ira were freedom fighters....they fought a dirthy war against a very dirty enemy....tiochfaidh ar la..desperate people do desperate things....our day will cum

Grow up.............

[Alana]

Well what a heroes welcome he received came as no surprise really, but what did what the waving of the saltite flags.
The times reported on an inflight interview that he will clear his name before he dies.
I think theres alot more to run on this whole episode with all the whealing and dealing to renew major oil contract with Libya that were put on hold until the "decision" to release him.

[experienced punter]

my heart goes out to the relatives of the people who died on the plane to watch this scumbag with a glorified welcome home must be the greatest insult & betrayal to the memory of their lost ones....

[Stewie]

And I'd say it's no great mystery the Lockerbie bombing was connected to the Iranian airliner thing, but the difference is, be it true or not, in the publics eyes one was accidental, all be it neglectant and the other was intentional.............

I think you mean in the western public eye or probably more specifically the American public eye it is viewed as non intentional however I would imagine that in the Islamic public eye the shooting down of the Iranian passenger plane would be viewed as intentional as Lockerbie. The difference being one side gets medals the other side gets prison.

[Stewie]

my heart goes out to the relatives of the people who died on the plane to watch this scumbag with a glorified welcome home must be the greatest insult & betrayal to the memory of their lost ones....

In fairness most libyans seem to believe this guy is innoccent welcoming him home is not neccessarily condoning Lockerbie no more than welcoming home the Birmingham 6 would be condoning the Birmingham pub bombings. Whilst most Irish people always believed in the innoccence of those 6 men many in Britain at the time thought they had got off on a legal technicality. And the birmingham 6 would have been welcomed home in Ireland no matter what the circumstances of their release.

Interesting to see some of the British relatives of victims taking a completely different line from the American relatives. The British relatives welcoming the release and some stating that they believe the guy is innoccent anyway.