America's Commitment to Justice Helped Send Lockerbie Bomber Home
Hey, before you became outraged about Roman Polanski and maybe before you expressed an opinion on the non-parole of Susan Atkins, were you outraged about the release of the Lockerbie bomber? You are so predictable! And wrong!
As was just not reported anywhere in the US media really, but was reported quite a bit in the Guardian (and other UK news outlets), the US interfered with the trial of supposed Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi so much that his conviction was in danger of being overturned way before his release to die at home in Libya. And in exchange for his mercy release, Megrahi agreed not to appeal his conviction and embarrass the hell out of everyone.
But Megrahi has released some embarrassing documents anyway, related to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission's review of how the US paid off the only witness, who was maybe lying. Maybe!
The commission found police memos suggesting that Tony Gauci, the only witness to link the Libyan to the alleged plot, expressed an interest in being paid to give evidence. He also received payments from the US department of justice after the trial, the new documents claim to show.
The commission said the documents should have been disclosed to Megrahi's defence team, and that the failure to do so made Megrahi's conviction unsafe. The papers allege that Gauci was paid $2m (£1.2m) after Megrahi's conviction, and his brother Paul $1m.
Sometimes we just want justice so much that we are forced to intervene when foreign, soveriegn nations attempt to have fair criminal trials, ok? That is the American way! And it also explains why we all got soooo mad when the Scots sent him back home to die in Libya. Don't you know how much that conviction cost us?