Lockerbie terrorist bomber freed to return to Lybia

A man holds a placard as the convoy carrying Libyan bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi leaves Greenock prison near Glasgow on Aug 20. (REUTERS/Nigel Roddis)

Scotland today released a former Libyan agent jailed for life eight years agon for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, 189 of them Americans, because he is dying of prostate cancer.

Are you f-ing kidding me?

As a result, he ended up serving two weeks for each person he killed.

Am I missing something here? A terrorist gets released from prison because of cancer--how is that fair or right or whatever you want to call it from a judicial standpoint?

Getting cancer does not erase the devastation this man caused to hundreds of families, to an entire nation, when he blew up a plane killing almost 300 people.

And while he's rewarded for getting sick, the average person dying of cancer gets to suffer and die in utter agony--many alone and away from home--even though they haven't killed anyone or blown up any planes.

W-TF?!

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, who has less than three months to live (boo, hoo), is being returned to Libya on compassionate grounds, a decision strongly criticized by the U.S., which campaigned to keep him in prison, Reuters reported.

"He is a dying man, he is terminally ill," Scottish justice minister Kenny MacAskill told a news conference. "My decision is that he returns home to die."

He's sick and dying. So what? At least he's not being blown up to pieces, plus he has free healthcare in jail.

A Libyan government spokesman said Megrahi was being flown home with a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, according to news reports.

Television pictures showed him being driven out of the gates of Greenock Prison in western Scotland, with a small crowd of locals booing as his convoy departed for the airport.

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi walks up the stairs to a waiting jet at Glasgow airport. (REUTERS/David Moir)

The U.S. government, which opposed Megrahi's early release, said it "deeply regrets" the decision, Reuters reported.

"As we have expressed repeatedly to officials of the government of the United Kingdom and to Scottish authorities, we continue to believe that Megrahi should serve out his sentence in Scotland," the White House said in a statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released the following statement on the matter:

"The U.S. is deeply disappointed by the decision of the Scottish Executive to release Abdel Basset Mohamed al-Megrahi who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for his part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which took the lives of 270 persons, including 189 Americans. We have continued to communicate our long-standing position to UK government officials and Scottish authorities that Megrahi should serve out the entirety of his sentence in Scotland. Today, we remember those whose lives were lost on December 21, 1988 and we extend our deepest sympathies to the families who live each day with the loss of their loved ones due to this heinous crime."

Megrahi, 57, is the only person convicted for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in mid-air above the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

He lost an appeal against his conviction in 2002, but a Scottish review of his case ruled in 2007 that there might have been a miscarriage of justice. "Might have been"? What does that mean? Is he innocent? If so, then why was he still in prison?

No hero's welcome

Right: A military helicopter flies overhead as a Scottish policeman stands near the cockpit of Pan Am flight 103 in a farmer's field east of Lockerbie, in December 1988. (REUTERS/Greg Bos)

Relatives of many of the 189 American victims thought Megrahi should have served his full life sentence in prison after being convicted of Britain's deadliest terrorist attack, Reuters reported

Frank Duggan, president of the Victims of Pan Am 103, a group that represents the families of U.S. victims, said he understood the Libyan government had promised that Megrahi would not "go back to a hero's welcome."

"There is going to be no dancing in the end-zone, as the expression goes," he told Reuters.

So what if he doesn't get a parade? He's still being released from a life sentence because of cancer and not because he turned out to be innocent.

The families of many of the Britons killed in the bombing were never convinced by the strength of the evidence against him and thought he should be allowed to go home to die.

Megrahi is likely to be warmly welcomed by Gaddafi, who has moved closer to the Western mainstream since dropping his nuclear weapons program in 2003.

I'm sorry, folks, but I'm as shocked by Scotland's decision as the U.S. government.

I think compassion is a noble, wonderful thing. However, while my compassion for the sick is unmeasurable, how can I empathize with terrorists who destroy people's lives and turn nations into victims? Call me unChrist-like, but I can't.

Maybe I'm just a bad person.

Sources: Reuters, CNN, BNO
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

N. Korea frees 2 U.S. journalists after Clinton trip

Former President Bill Clinton and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il pose for a picture in Pyongyang in this photo released by North Korean official news agency KCNA Aug 4. Talk about stiff...

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea released two jailed American journalists on Tuesday after a visit from former U.S. President Bill Clinton in the highest-level U.S. contact with Pyongyang since Clinton was president nearly a decade ago.

UPDATE: A spokesperson for former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday confirmed that he and the two U.S. journalists who have been freed in North Korea, have left the country. "President Clinton has safely left North Korea with Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They are en route to Los Angeles where Laura and Euna will be reunited with their families," Matt McKenna said in a statement. They are scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles Wednesday morning.

North Korea's KCNA news agency said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had issued a "special pardon" to the two journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling of U.S. media outlet Current TV, which was co-founded by Clinton's vice president, Al Gore.

The two journalists were arrested on the North Korea-China border in March and accused of illegal entry. A North Korean court sentenced both of them last month to 12 years of hard labor for what it called grave crimes.

Photos of journalists Laura Ling (left) and Euna Lee displayed during a public vigil in San Francisco, June 24.

There were immediate questions about what Clinton had discussed with Kim beyond the fate of the two reporters during a visit that gave Kim what he craved -- direct U.S. attention and a visit from a highly placed emissary.

The news agency insisted that Clinton "courteously conveyed a verbal message of U.S. President Obama expressing profound thanks for this and reflecting views on ways of improving the relations between the two countries."

The White House had denied that Clinton carried any sort of message from Obama, but Obama officials otherwise remained silent while awaiting the diplomatic negotiations to unfold.

Clinton, husband of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was the highest-level American to visit the reclusive communist state since his secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, went there in 2000.

He was greeted warmly on his arrival and had what KCNA described as an "exhaustive conversation" over dinner with Kim and his top aides.

Former President Bill Clinton is welcomed with flowers upon his arrival at Sunan airport in Pyongyang.

The North Koreans immediately sought to put their stamp on what they felt had happened during Clinton's visit.

"Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it. Clinton courteously conveyed to Kim Jong Il an earnest request of the U.S. government to leniently pardon them and send them back home from a humanitarian point of view," KCNA said.

Obama adviser David Axelrod had told MSNBC that Clinton was on a "private humanitarian mission" and that "I don't think it's related to other issues."

KCNA attempted to portray the visit in terms of what was possible in the future, saying Clinton's visit would "contribute to deepening the understanding between the DPRK and the U.S. and building the bilateral confidence."

Side Benefit?

Clinton's visit could have a side benefit of improving the atmosphere between the United States and North Korea that could restart talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons.

North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, was among those greeting Clinton, whose administration was believed to have been close to agreement with the North before he turned over power to George W. Bush in 2001.

Many analysts predicted Pyongyang would use the journalists as leverage to wring concessions from Washington, which sought to place U.N. sanctions on the North for a May nuclear test.

Clinton's trip followed months of military provocations by the impoverished North, which has turned its back on negotiations with regional powers, including the United States and China, to convince it to give up ambitions to build an atomic arsenal.

In Washington, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said it was not clear whether Clinton had been authorized to discuss policy issues.

"It would be nice if it's the foundation for a better relationship," Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told NBC's "Today Show."

People watch a news program at a railway station in Seoul, reporting former President Bill Clinton's visit to North Korea Aug 4.

Yun Duk-min of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul said the visit held out the possibility of "a dramatic turnaround by North Korea that could lead to a new phase of negotiations."

Wrong Signals

It was the second time a former U.S. president went to North Korea to try to defuse a crisis. Former President Jimmy Carter flew there in 1994 when tensions were running high, again over the North's nuclear weapons program.

Carter helped broker a deal at that time in which Pyongyang suspended construction of a 50-megawatt plutonium reactor in exchange for heating oil and other energy aid.

One analyst said Clinton's visit was rewarding North Korea's "bad behavior."

Clinton's arrival coincided with mounting speculation over succession in Asia's only communist dynasty. Several reports suggest an increasingly frail-looking Kim Jong-il, 67, has settled on his third son to take over.

"It's just what they (North Korea's leaders) need," said B.R. Myers, an expert on the North's state ideology at the South's Dongseo University.

(Additional reporting by Yoo Choonsik in Seoul, Lucy Hornby in Beijing, David Morgan and Ross Colvin in Washington; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Patricia Wilson and Peter Cooney)

Source: Reuters, BNO

U.S. not ready to declare coup, cut aid to Honduras

Ousted Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya speaks during a press conference Sunday before boarding flight to Nicaragua for a meeting with regional leaders. (AP Photo/Kent Gilbert)

The U.S. said Monday it views the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya as a coup but is not legally declaring this for now, a step that would require Washington cut off most aid to Tegucigalpa, Reuters reported.

Obama said Monday that removal of Zelaya was "not legal" and that he still is the president of Honduras.

Zelaya, in office since 2006, was overthrown in a dawn coup after he angered the judiciary, Congress and the army by seeking constitutional changes that would allow presidents to seek re-election beyond a four-year term.

The Honduran Congress named congressman Roberto Micheletti as interim president of Honduras, and the country's Supreme Court said it had ordered the army to remove Zelaya.

Hours before the swearing-in, heavily armed troops burst into the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa, broke through the door of Zelaya's bedroom, took him by force and flew him into exile in Costa Rica.

President Obama's administration, the European Union and a string of other foreign governments voiced support for Zelaya, who was snatched by troops from his residence and whisked away by plane to Costa Rica, Reuters reported.

"We do think that this has evolved into a coup," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters.

Whether the U.S. legally declares the event a military coup--a determination that Clinton said it was "withholding" for now--is vital because it could force Obama to cut off most aid to the country.

Under U.S. legislation, no aid, other than for the promotion of democracy, may be provided to a country whose elected head of government has been toppled in a military coup, according to the report.

Asked if the U.S. was currently considering cutting off aid, Clinton shook her head no.

The State Department said that it was unable to immediately say how much assistance the U.S. gives Honduras.

Clinton stressed the U.S. was working with other nations in the hemisphere to restore full democratic and constitutional order but stopped short of specifically calling for Zelaya to be restored to power, Reuters reported.

Analysts said quick criticism of the coup by Obama and Clinton on Sunday pleased Latin American countries bitter about the long history of U.S. intervention in the region, Reuters reported.

The Obama administration's stance contrasted with the equivocal position taken in 2002 by former President George W. Bush's administration, which was seen as tacitly accepting a coup against Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez has pledged to "overthrow" Micheletti.

This coup will be defeated," Chavez said in the meeting in Managua, also attended by the leaders of Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and other countries allied with Honduras, The Washington Post reported. "We have to be very firm, very firm. This cannot end until Jose Manuel Zelaya is returned to power, without condition."

Micheletti responded to Chavez's threat Monday on Honduran radio, saying "Nobody scares us."

"I am sure that 80 to 90 percent of the Honduran population is happy with what happened," he said. Micheletti also said that he had not spoken to any other Latin American head of state, according to a Washington Post report.

Zelaya, speaking to reporters in Managua, Nicaragua, demanded that he be restored to power but said that violence was not an option. He also said that many Hondurans had no idea about the worldwide condemnation of the coup because private television stations in his country blacked out coverage, playing cartoons and soap operas instead, The Washington Post reported.

"Are we going to go back to the military being outside of the control of the civil state?" Zelaya said in comments to the press. "Everything that is supposed to be an achievement of the 21st century is at risk in Honduras."

Zelaya, 56, was in the last few months of his presidency when the coup took place.

Senior Obama administration officials said Sunday that U.S. diplomats had been negotiating behind the scenes to stop the coup.

"We have worked hard to avoid this," a senior Obama official said in a background briefing with reporters. "This has been brewing a long time."

Zelaya was removed from office as Hondurans prepared to vote Sunday in a nonbinding referendum asking them whether they would support a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution. Zelaya's critics said he wanted to use the referendum to open the door to re-lection after his term ends in January, an assertion that he denied.

The referendum was condemned as an obvious power grab, with the Honduran Supreme Court calling the referendum unconstitutional and leaders of Zelaya's own party denouncing the measure, according the WP report, among others.

On Sunday, the Honduran Congress voted to accept what it claimed was Zelaya's resignation letter. Zelaya denied that he had signed such a letter. A senior U.S. official said, "It is hard to take that letter seriously given how President Zelaya was removed from office."

Honduras is a poor, coffee- and banana-growing country in Central America with a population of 7 million.

Source: Reuters, The Washington Post

Colin Powell on Iran fallout

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Saturday he's sure Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and President Obama "can handle it" and "will work their way through it," referring both to Iran and North Korea.

Responding to a reporter's question, he said he has bee in touch with all three, noting that they know each other well and that he will continue to be available to them if they wish to talk to him about the current state of affairs.

When asked if he had a message for Clinton, who's recovering from surgery to repair a fractured elbow following a fall earlier this week, he said: "Take it slow--don't push your recovery."

I just caught the end of a CNN live broadcast, so I hope to have more info in a bit.

Source: CNN

Clinton surgery to fix broken elbow a success

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at a joint news conference with Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman following their meeting at the State Department in Washington June 17. (Reuters/Yuri Gripas)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had successful two-hour surgery on Friday to repair her broken right elbow, her chief of staff said as reported by Reuters.

Clinton tripped and fell in the State Department's basement on Wednesday while en route to the White House for a meeting. She has canceled her public appointments since then because of the elbow injury.

"Her doctors at the George Washington University Hospital have advised her that they expect her to make a full recovery without lasting damage to her arm," Cheryl Mills, Clinton's chief of staff, said after the early morning surgery.

Clinton has several foreign trips planned in the coming weeks and Mills said decisions about the top U.S. diplomat's travel plans would be made in the coming days.

She is set to go to Trieste, Italy, next week for a meeting of Group of Eight foreign ministers and attend a conference on Afghanistan to which Iran has been invited.

On the same trip, Clinton is due to go to Corfu, Greece, for a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on June 27-28.

In mid-July, Clinton is scheduled to make her first trip to India as the Obama administration's top diplomat.

Mills said Clinton had returned to her home in Washington after the surgery where she would remain with her family for the weekend.

(Reporting by Sue Pleming; Editing by Bill Trott)

Sources: Reuters
Copyright © 2009

Clinton falls, fractures elbow--will need surgery

She won't be saluting like this any time soon.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fractured her right elbow during a fall Wednesday afternoon and will need surgery to repair it.

Clinton fell on her way to the White House and was taken to George Washington University Hospital. She was treated and released, and will have surgery to repair her elbow in coming weeks, Clinton's chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, said in a statement.

"Secretary Clinton appreciates the professionalism and kindness she received from the medical team who treated her this evening and looks forward to resuming her full schedule soon," Mills said.

Clinton had been scheduled to join actress Angelina Jolie on Thursday morning at a Washington event marking World Refugee Day. That event has been removed from Clinton's public schedule, AP reported.

We wish her a speedy recovery.

Sources: The Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, BNO
Copyright © 2009