Pan Am bomber’s death won’t close the book on terror attack

If members of his family are to be believed, mass murderer Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi could well be dead as this editorial is being read. He was last seen by outsiders earlier this week when CNN filmed him at his mother’s house in a suburb of Tripoli, Libya. The image beamed around the world was that of al-Megrahi lying on a bed, his mouth covered with an oxygen mask.

The bomber of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 was said to be succumbing to cancer, slipping in and our of consciousness. His death will leave unanswered this question: Who else in the government of dictator Moammar Gadhafi was involved in the bombing of the jetliner over Lockerbie. Scotland? The death toll of 270 included 259 passengers, many of them Americans returning home for Christmas. The debris that rained down on Lockerbie killed 11.

Al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, was convicted in February 2001 by a special jury of Scottish judges sitting in the Netherlands after a trial of 85 days and 230 witnesses. He received a life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 20 years. But in August 2007, the Scottish government agreed to send him back to Libya on compassionate grounds. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

His release caused a fire storm in the United States and Britain because not only had he shown no remorse for taking the lives of so many innocent people, but he was given a hero’s welcome by Gadhafi and his thugs when he arrived in Tripoli.

His death in Libya, surrounded by family, will not bring closure to the hundreds of parents, spouses and children of those who perished as a result of his act of brutality. He should have been left to die in prison in Scotland — alone with his thoughts of the judgment that awaits him.

There’s another reason al-Megrahi’s return to Libya was such an egregious miscarriage of justice: He was the only person who was punished for the bombing of Pan Am 103. None of his partners in crime was convicted. Indeed, one co-defendant who beat the rap returned to Libya and was given a raucous reception at which Libyans praised Allah and condemned the United States.

Despite demands from the U.S. government and the families of the victims for his extradition, al-Megrahi is protected by the Scottish government and the new Libyan Transitional Council, which has taken over governance of the North African country with the ouster of Gadhafi, who is in hiding and had not been found as of this writing. The Scots made it clear that only they had the legal authority to seek the bomber’s extradition, and that they had no intention of doing so.

‘No meaning’

A spokesman for the transitional council said that renewed demands for punishment had “no meaning” because al-Megrahi had already been tried and convicted. Although the official later tried to soften the statement, the message is clear: Even though Libya would not have been freed from the shackles of dictatorial rule without the military involvement of the United States and NATO, the new government will not bow to the wishes of outsiders. That attitude must be of concern to those countries that made regime change in Libya possible.

If al-Megrahi isn’t dead as of this writing, the Libyans should let American investigators talk to him to find out who else was involved in that dastardly act 23 years ago.

The Scottish government coddled the killer, while the British government went along because it did not want to endanger oil contracts British companies were negotiating with the Gadhafi regime.

The Lockerbie bomber should not be allowed to die in peace.