From the WSJ Opinion Archives
JUSTICE DELAYED
Punish Gadhafi
Yesterday's Lockerbie verdict is only the first step.
CAMP ZEIST, Netherlands--It was 12 years ago this week that we drove to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to pick up the body of my dead brother, John Patrick. (We called him J.P.) He was murdered, along with 269 other innocent civilians, in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. We picked up the "package" in cargo bay B. There was no flag, no ceremony, no recognition that he was killed simply for being an American.
Two days ago, I made the same drive to JFK to catch a flight to the Netherlands so that I could be here to listen to Scottish judges deliver the verdict against the two Libyan nationals who have stood trial for murder the past eight months.
In the moments between the accused being led into the courtroom and the panel of three judges being seated, my emotions ran the gamut from anger to blind rage. The room fell still. On the charge of murder against Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi: Guilty. There was an audible gasp in the courtroom. As much as we had hoped against hope, I believe many of us were expecting the worst. Better yet, it was a unanimous decision. On the charge of murder against Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah: Not guilty. We all knew that the case against Mr. Fhimah was difficult, so were not completely surprised, but the sudden mixture of emotions was volatile. Seeing him walk free was only bearable because Megrahi wouldn't.
It was a critical first step in enacting justice, but only a first step. The tragic destruction of Flight 103 was not the whim of a rogue terrorist hanging out in Malta looking for some mischief on a cold December evening, as is being implied by spokesmen for the Libyan government. As the indictment clearly states, the convicted murderer "being a member of Libyan Intelligence Services . . . acted in concert with others" and was looking to "murder the occupants in furtherance of the purposes of said Libyan Intelligence Services."
As for motive, Libya was looking for revenge on the U.S. In April 1986, a bomb exploded in a Berlin nightclub, killing two American soldiers. The government determined that Libya, a rogue terrorist state behind numerous attacks in the 1980s, was also behind the nightclub bombing. President Reagan acted decisively in response, with air strikes on Tripoli 10 days later, allegedly killing the adopted daughter of Col. Moammar Gadhafi. The Lockerbie bombing, therefore, was motivated by a drive for revenge and was part of a deliberate terrorist strike orchestrated by the Libyan government--an act of war against the U.S. Yesterday's judgment clearly states that the two suspects were "acting in the furtherance of Libyan intelligence."
With the guilty verdict and such explicit reference to the involvement of Libyan intelligence, the U.S. has sufficient cause to pursue appropriate action against Libya. Today, in a prepared statement, President Bush said that he would continue to pressure Libya and seek compensation. The following is the type of pressure we need:
The first step is to reinstate the United Nations sanctions against Libya, requiring compliance with all elements of U.N. resolutions. Libya must (1) accept responsibility for the bombing and renounce terrorism; (2) release information and witnesses for further inquiry; and (3) compensate the families for their loss.
The U.S. should also try Col. Gadhafi for murder. One hundred and eighty-nine Americans were murdered on Flight 103, at the direction of his intelligence services. The U.S. would not be alone if we took such a stand. In October last year, a French court indicted Col. Gadhafi for prosecution in France for the 1989 bombing of a French airliner in which 170 people died. The French judges rejected the defense argument that he enjoyed immunity because he was serving as a head of state. The court felt that such immunity could not be applied to acts of terrorism. The U.S. Supreme Court has also supported such actions.
Will the U.S. act swiftly in light of the guilty verdict? I fear not. Although we were quick to put Slobodan Milosevic on trial for war crimes, there is no oil in Serbia. By all indications, the Bush administration, including some members with strong ties to the oil industry, desperately wants the "Lockerbie thing" to go away. American diplomats already started meeting with Libyan officials this week. Large American oil companies are lining up for the multimillion-dollar contracts that are to come if Libya is embraced again. Our short-term energy challenges in California and elsewhere have brought pressure on the new administration. Rather than learn our lesson and reduce dependency on rogue states, we are falling into the same trap.
Meanwhile, Libya continues spinning its lies. Although Libya has hired a public-relations firm in the U.S. to improve its image, it continues to work at destabilizing Africa by supporting numerous rebel groups. It has also retained ties to groups that use violence to oppose the Middle East peace process. And within the past year illegal Scud missiles were intercepted in London on their way to Libya. Freedom House, the New York-based human-rights group, recently listed Libya as one of only 11 nations in its "worst of the worst" category, denying its citizens a broad range of the most basic freedoms.
President Bush not only has a moral obligation to seek justice for my brother, and for the 188 other Americans who died, he also has the responsibility to protect Americans from terrorism. Will it take another Lockerbie or USS Cole disaster before the U.S. has the courage and conviction to respond swiftly to such attacks? The guilty verdict today was the result of tireless work on the part of the Scottish government, the political will of the world community, and the persistence of the victims' families. The verdict on Libya, however, has been in for a long time. Now let's do something about it.
Mr. Flynn is CEO of Annotate.net.
