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Cardinal says Scots fed up with U.S. over Lockerbie
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Cardinal says Scots fed up with U.S. over Lockerbie
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By Michael Holden
LONDON |
Sun Aug 8, 2010 5:36am EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland launched a scathing attack on U.S. politicians on Sunday saying they were in no moral position to lecture Scottish ministers over the Lockerbie bomber's release.
Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, said there was a "culture of vengeance" in the United States and that many Americans were more interested in retribution than justice.
Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, convicted of the 1988 bombings of an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, was freed last year on compassionate grounds by Scottish authorities because they believed he had three months to live. He is still alive.
Most of the 270 people killed were Americans and Megrahi's release and subsequent triumphant homecoming in Libya provoked an outcry in the United States.
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee is examining the circumstances surrounding the decision, but Scottish officials and Britain's former justice minister have all declined to appear, generating further condemnation.
Last week four senators wrote to Britain's foreign secretary saying it appeared British trade interests had "won out over justice" over the release.
"I think I'm speaking for many, many Scots people when I say we're just getting a bit fed up of being lectured to by the United States of America as to how to administer justice," O'Brien told BBC radio.
U.S. anger over the release resurfaced following suggestions British energy giant BP Plc had lobbied for Megrahi's release. Both BP and Scottish ministers deny the accusations.
Questions about a possible BP role in the bomber's release have complicated U.S.-British relations already frayed by the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
O'Brien contrasted Megrahi's release with the use of the death penalty in United States, saying only Saudi Arabia, China, Iraq and Iran had executed more people since 1976.
He said U.S. politicians should direct their gaze inwards, rather than scrutinizing the Scottish justice system.
"Here in Scotland we have what we might call a culture of compassion, judging the guilty with care and compassion and certainly not executing them," he said. "Whereas in America there is a culture of vengeance ... in so many states."
The cardinal said nothing could diminish the horror of the bombing but said he did not like to think Americans would be joyful at Megrahi's death.
"I wouldn't like to think so in a so-called Christian country," he said, describing Megrahi as the "alleged murderer."
"I'm just saying what many, many others have said that it's alleged that he was the perpetrator of this crime," he added.
"Courts have decided various things in Britain and America which have since been proved wrong. I'm not saying a mistake was made, I just don't know enough about the law."
(Editing by Jon Hemming)
World
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Aug 08, 2010 9:47am EDT
Go, Scotland.
IamArchangel
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Aug 08, 2010 10:22am EDT
I completely agree with Cardinal O’Brien. Megrahi’s guilt was never reliably proved, and there are serious reasons to believe that he was used as a scapegoat. Disregarding that, the Scottish authorities acted in full agreement with the laws of their land. Case closed.
Heretic1
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Aug 08, 2010 10:44am EDT
It was their greed that allowed him to have release. They got their oil deal and he got his freedom because of phony deathwatch. They should think about the victims of the terrorist bombing and less about their pocketbooks.
trueblue69
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Aug 08, 2010 10:47am EDT
Not only the Scots – the world is feed up with the US. And not only with Lockerbie and Megrahi!
Saturn2000
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Aug 08, 2010 11:37am EDT
Do we need to even bring up the Catholic Church? Are the Scots trying to flex what little if any muscle they have, please leave that to the English! The Scots make me want to vomit…..laws of the land…let’s see…release a man who blew up a 747 over Scotland….killing all on board! I am at least glad some Scottish died on the ground….from CANADA!
1966
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Aug 08, 2010 11:45am EDT
Wow… Can the Catholic Church say hypocrisy?
Perhaps the Cardinal should be more concerned with the out of control molestations of youthful parishioners, by Roman Catholic priests, rather than wading into murky depths of international politics.
Megrahi was released for money… plain and simple. Libya wanted him released for exclusive drilling rights that BP wanted. The British (and Scottish) government were only too happy to oblige, their newfound Libyan masters.
It is a travesty of justice that a mass murderer walks away.
So what if we kill convicted mass murderers. Tim McVeigh didn’t walk away from his crime. No oil deal for his release.
It is a shame what the British have become, the empire has imploded.
rfmjr
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Aug 08, 2010 11:49am EDT
@1966: “I am at least glad some Scottish died on the ground” hmmm interesting. I suspect you are one of those loving “christians” too, you know the ones common in North America who seem to hate everyone. You probably hate muslims too, all of them, terrorists or not. Of course, you and the terrorists are apparently happy that Scots died too.
Fanatical christians and muslims… blood brothers forever. Your ideaology is vile.
forzapista
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