Decades-old wounds were reopened Thursday with the release of the only person found guilty of one of the worst terrorist attacks ever against Americans.
The 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, killed 270 people, most of them U.S. citizens. Convicted terrorist Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was freed by Scottish officials in an act of mercy for a terminally ill man.
What happened after al-Megrahi’s release — a greeting by a crowd of sign-waving Libyans at a Tripoli airport — further fueled the anger felt in the United States.
The Obama administration strongly objected to the Scottish move. Evanston resident Richard Mack expressed outrage that the killer of his brother, William, is free, telling a Scottish official: “I can only hope you never have to feel the pain and suffering we have this day.”
Al-Megrahi showed no remorse, insisting he was innocent. “All of this I have had to endure for something that I did not do,” he said.
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