Looks like Scottish officials are getting ready to release Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. He’s the Libyan convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland back in December of 1988. This is a big story here, of course, because 35 Syracuse students were among the 270 people who were killed – 259 aboard the flight, and 11 residents of the town of Lockerbie. It’s also of interest to me, because I did the private website set up for the victims’ families with a grant from the US Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crimes.

Among other things, I posted a daily transcript of the trial, along with a summary of the day’s events written by law students and faculty. So, I followed the trial pretty closely (as I recall, the first day of testimony was devoted to residents of Lockerbie describing the pieces of the Boeing 747 and human remains that rained fiery death upon their little town (the bomb – a rather aptly named Toshiba “BomBeat” radio cassette player packed with Semtex – was actually intended to go off over the Atlantic, which would have made forensics impossible). Since it came crashing down on land instead, they were able to painstakingly recreate the fuselage and determine the exact location of the bomb, and what it was made from. Quite interesting, really.

I was actually somewhat surprised they got a conviction in the case (the co-defendant – Al Amin Fhima – was found not guilty), because much of the evidence of the defendants’ involvement in the loading of the bomb in the luggage at Frankfurt seemed a bit sketchy to me (there are those who believe these two people were just set up to take the fall so that Libya could get UN and US sanctions lifted), and we were warned that the standards for conviction would probably be higher, given that the trial – which took place at the former US Air Force base at Kamp Zeist in The Netherlands – wasn’t before a jury, but was heard by a panel of judges from the Scottish High Court of Justiciary (with the wigs and the fancy-schmancy red robes and everything), who – in theory – would not be swayed by emotions.

As for whether al-Megrahi should be released or not (he’s dying of cancer, and wants to die in Libya), I’m of mixed thought. On one hand, there’s a scarcity of mercy and compassion in this world, and we could use a little more of it. On the other, a lot of people lost family members – many of them college kids returning from a semester studying abroad, with their whole lives ahead of them – four days before Christmas, and I can understand why they’d like to see him die in his Scottish prison cell.

Throughout the lengthy trial (the trial opened on May 3, 2000 and the verdict was rendered on January 31, 2001) and appeal process, I had a lot of contact with the DOJ, US Department of State, and the Scottish Crown Office (got a nice lead crystal representation of the memorial set up in the Garden of Remembrance in Lockerbie, etched with the DOJ seal and thanking me for my hard work, plus a letter from the OVC Director, expressing his thanks). I used to get calls at home from the DOJ, Dept of State (had to post messages from Colin Powell a few times, and help coordinate a live stream of a meeting with families in DC – back in 2000 or so, when that was a lot less common), and even from the UN, when Kofi Annan wanted the families to hear about something – the dropping of sanctions against Libya, IIRC – before it was released to the rest of the world. I also worked with the Tech guy at the US Embassy at the Hague, and set up an FTP process with the Crown office so I could get the transcripts sent to my office computer directly (e-mail was unreliable, for some reason). When the trial was over, I produced a CD with the website content and additional material (got to do the artwork, design the front, back, and inside covers and CD label – it was fun) that was distributed to all the family members. Still have a bunch of them, shrink wrapped and unopened. I loved speaking with the Scots on the phone, though it was hard to keep myself from breaking into a fake Scottish accent.

Speaking of Scots, don’t you wish Angus MacFarquhar was around to cover these town hall meetings? I can hear him now, imploring the bloody wankers to kick him in the man sack. Maybe we should write to Kent Jones, and see if he can get Angus to do a field report for the Maddow show. Love to see him on the Press the Meat roundtable, too. I’d love to hear Gilligan Gregory try to put Angus on stifle. “Who’s gonna make me? You and what Dick Army, you wanker!”