Anniversary at Christmastime reminder of the evil that exists

Twenty-five years ago this month, 270 innocent travelers, many of them American college students coming home for Christmas, were blown out of the sky when a terrorist bomb ripped through Pan Am flight 103.

The airplane had taken off from London’s Heathrow Airport on Dec. 21 and was over Lockerbie, Scotland, when the bomb packed into a suitcase exploded.

The death toll included 259 passengers, and 11 people on the ground hit by debris raining down on them.

It took 13 years to get a conviction, but even then, the victims were denied justice.

Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, was found guilty in February 2001 by a special jury of Scottish judges sitting in the Netherlands — after a trial of 85 days and 230 witnesses — and received a life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 20 years.

However, in 2007 the Scottish government agreed to send al-Megrahi back to Libya on compassionate grounds. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. His release caused a firestorm 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 Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and his thugs when he arrived in Tripoli.

The terrorist lived for two years in the comfort of his home, surrounded by family and friends, before dying.

He should have rotted in prison.

Given that al-Megrahi is the only one held responsible for the bombing, the cause of justice remains to be served.

Gadhafi, who was killed in October 2011 during the popular uprising that resulted in the government’s overthrow, went to his grave without providing closure for the families and friends of the victims of the Pan Am 103 bombing.

It is inconceivable that one man committed such a major act of terror.

Gadhafi, who was a leading sponsor of global terrorism, had to have given his approval, and Libya’s intelligence agency undoubtedly planned the operation.

The 25-year anniversary of the bombing was memorialized last week with services in the U.S. and Scotland.

Defining question

But underlying the grief of family members and the anger that still bubbles to the surface wherever the details of that fateful day in 1988 are replayed is this question: When will all those responsible for the murder of 270 innocent people be brought to justice?

The governments of Britain, the U.S., and Libya issued a joint statement last Saturday pledging to cooperate to reveal “the full facts” of the case.

“We are striving to further deepen our cooperation and welcome a visit by U.K. and U.S. investigators to Libya in the near future to discuss all aspects of that cooperation, including sharing information and documents and access to witnesses,” the statement said.

There must be a sense of urgency in getting to the bottom of this act of terrorism. Time is not healing the wounds.

There needs to be closure.