The Scottish government is reportedly considering releasing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the convicted terrorist responsible for placing a bomb aboard Pan Am 103 on December 21, 1988. That bomb killed all 259 passengers on the plane, as well as 11 civilians on the ground when the plane crashed. But the mass murderer deserves “compassion,” some in Scotland argue. Why? He has terminal prostate cancer. Some of the victims’ family members are understandably upset. “Did Megrahi as he planted a bomb on a US airliner reflect on any compassion for the people he was about to blow up out of the skies and the people on the ground in Lockerbie? I think not,” Kathleen Flynn, whose son was killed in the bombing, told the BBC. That same BBC account, citing Flynn, calls Megrahi a “terrorist” with quotations around the word the first time it is used. So, that’s where we stand on this. Megrahi was convicted of killing 270 people, but we don’t want to call him a terrorist outright, and we should be worried about his health.
