Cowards colluding with terrorists

Rod Liddle says the al-Megrahi affair has shown no one in a good light. American outrage is astonishingly hypocritical given their support of the IRA, and our own government is worryingly supplicant to Gaddafi’s truly evil regime

What exactly was the point of the letter from our Prime Minister to the Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi? Apparently — according to Downing Street — Gordon Brown requested that the Libyan leader not make too much of a fuss of the return to Libya of the convicted terrorist Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. Keep the whole business ‘low-key’, Brown reportedly pleaded — presumably in case people got upset. The implication would seem to be that Brown knew that this was a shameful piece of business and he would rather nobody made too much of it. Again, by implication, you suspect he wished that the liberation and repatriation of al-Megrahi had been undertaken in secret; a useful and pragmatic decision but not one we ought to boast about. If Brown had been approving of the decision to release the terrorist on compassionate grounds then you might imagine he would have urged Gaddafi to exult in our liberal magnanimity and respect for the rights of the individual, no matter how foul they might be. Tell your people, Muammar, this is how we do things over here — we let enemies of the state go free after a bit, if they’re ill, rather than executing them without the benefit of a fair trial, as you chaps are wont to do. But Brown wanted it all kept low-key, and you can understand why.

The problem with this story is that it is difficult for ordinary people with an averagely developed moral sense to discern upon whom we should turn our guns first.