Leaders Condemn Al-Megrahi Release

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who released Pan Am bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, doesn't have a lot of friends right now. The Telegraph reports that Barack Obama called the decision a "mistake" while British Conservative leader David Cameron said MacAskill made "a bad decision" and was "wrong," and many victims' family members found the release appalling. Al-Megrahi, 57, released to Libya on compassionate grounds due to his terminal prostate cancer, was met in Triopli by a crowd of Scottish-flag-waving thousands, including Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al Islam-Gaddafi. According to The New York Times, the Scottish first minister said the display was not "appropriate" and David Miliband, the British Foreign secretary called the "hero's welcome" a "disturbing" sight. In an op-ed in the Guardian, Brian Flynn, who lost his brother in the bombing, said al-Megrahi's release was like sending a convicted September 11 bomber to serve out the rest of his sentence under Osama bin Laden. He added, "Didn't those [270] victims deserve a life long enough to contract cancer?"