For Sen Menendez read Joe McCarthy

[This is the heading over a letter from John Edwards in today's edition of The Herald. It reads as follows:]

So United States Senator Robert Menendez believes there is a “cloud of suspicion” hanging over the medical reports that led to the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi (“Scots back Salmond on US inquiry decision”, August 20). Just how far is Menendez going in his attempts to sully Scotland’s legal system, and his intereference in Scottish sovereignty?

And the US government wants Mr Megrahi returned to prison, because after a year in which he has no doubt been receiving the very best medical attention, he is still alive.

The American vengeance machine rolls on. This whole affair increasingly has echoes of the McCarthyism era in the United States in the 1950s, when free thinking liberals were put on trial for “un-American” activities.

The difference now is that it is not individuals being accused, but the Scottish nation and our government.

Now we learn that the Central Intelligence Agency had evidence that could have changed the course of the Camp Zeist trial, but was not presented. Why?

The stench of hypocrisy grows stronger by the day.

[A letter from James S MacDonald in The Scotsman reads as follows:]

With regards to your reports and letters over the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, for the first time in my life, I plan to vote SNP at the next election. The reason being I was pleased with our First Minister for standing up to that vindictive race of people who live across the Atlantic.

I don't recall an inquiry when the Americans shot down an Iranian airliner full of innocent people. Nor do I hear them showing remorse for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed by their troops.

Perhaps the reason that Megrahi has survived longer than the prognosis is that the Libyan medical system is superior to ours.