Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, the man convicted of murdering 270 people by planting a bomb on Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, has been released from jail in Scotland on “compassionate grounds.” The 57 year old is suffering from prostate cancer and doctors estimate he has just 3 months left to survive. In an attempt to explain the out of the ordinary release, Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill cited compassionate grounds, stating that Megrahi was being released so he could “[go] home to die.” “Our justice system demands that judgment be imposed but compassion available,” MacAskill said.

Arriving in his homeland of Libya, Megrahi received a heroes welcome with a large crowd gathered waving flags, throwing flowers and honking horns at the military airport in Tripoli.
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In 1980, a synagogue in Paris’s 16th arrondissement was bombed in a terrorist attack. Blamed on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Operation, it killed three Frenchmen and an Israeli woman, while wounding twenty others. (The French Prime Minster at the time of the attack, Raymond Barre, made a comment to the effect that the bomb was targeting Jews and instead killed innocent Frenchmen…)

In 2008, Hassan Diab, a Canadian university professor of Lebanese birth, was arrested in connection with the bombings. He had taught courses at the University of Ottawa and at the time was a sociology professor at Carleton. After his arrest he was released on bail with special conditions that would allow him to continue to teach. His extradition to France is currently working its way through the courts, and has been described by a judge as ‘far from a sure thing’.
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One hundred and twenty-seven soldiers dead. That’s the causality count (to date) of Canadian solders in Afghanistan… for what could possibly be the biggest most costly renovation project that Canada got suckered into. We’re fixing up Afghanistan folks, but the tenants don’t want us to.

Seven years ago. This whole thing was sold to the Canadian public as a war. The war on terrorism. While not a conventional war, we were still behind it. We were part of a global initiative to make the world safer. For us, them, and everyone. And we were going to kick the Taliban’s butt to boot. Sounded good. Right?
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