[This is part of the headline over a report in today's edition of Scotland on Sunday. It reads in part:]
Kenny MacAskill's decision
to free the Lockerbie bomber has deepened the public's mistrust of
politicians, Terry Waite will say when he gives a lecture in Scotland
this week.
The
former envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury will suggest that the
public outcry over the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi has
undermined the credibility of politicians.
Speaking before he travels north of the Border, Waite, who spent five years in captivity at the hands of Islamic Jihad, said he believed in compassionate release for terminally ill prisoners. (...)
Speaking before he travels north of the Border, Waite, who spent five years in captivity at the hands of Islamic Jihad, said he believed in compassionate release for terminally ill prisoners. (...)
Yesterday, Waite said he will address the Megrahi issue this week when
he talks on "Compassion and Justice" at the annual SACRO lecture at
Edinburgh University's Playfair Library.
"I don't believe in being soft on crime or criminals, but I hold to the principle of compassion," Waite told Scotland on Sunday.
"But the public outcry (over Megrahi] reveals a couple of things: what a complex and miserable issue it is, and it reveals a certain lack of confidence or trust by the general public in those who have been in a position to make decisions on these matters. Generally the public are not terribly trustful that they are being told the truth - that politicians are necessarily telling the truth."
"I don't believe in being soft on crime or criminals, but I hold to the principle of compassion," Waite told Scotland on Sunday.
"But the public outcry (over Megrahi] reveals a couple of things: what a complex and miserable issue it is, and it reveals a certain lack of confidence or trust by the general public in those who have been in a position to make decisions on these matters. Generally the public are not terribly trustful that they are being told the truth - that politicians are necessarily telling the truth."
Waite should be capable of more direct language. Shame on him.
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ReplyDeletePerhaps somebody might like to ask Terry Waite what Oliver North meant by "living person" when he described Waite as "the only living person I have ever met who had direct access to the hostage-takers."
ReplyDeleteAs Waite was kidnapped for taking seriously Ian Spiro's claim that he (Spiro) had influence with the Kuwaiti Royal Family perhaps somebody may like to ask him what he knows about his friend Spiro's relationship to the Lockerbie bombing. Perhaps he would like to set the politicians an example in telling the truth!
(See the section Spiro and the Beirut Hostage Crisis at part II of the Masonic Verses A Poisoned Pill - The Mysterious Life and Death of Ian Spiro at http:/e-zeecon.blogspot.com