Did Obama Know About Release of Terrorist?

Our readers, being the very informed and responsble citizens that they are, are well aware of the release of one Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, "the only individual convicted in connection with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. The event which killed 270 people, including all those on board, is now one of the most spoken of terrorist events in recent memory.



On August 20, the British government released him on "compassionate grounds." Megrahi has terminal prostate cancer. Boo-hoo.

The release of convicted terrorist Megrahi led the White House to issue a statement expressing "deep regret" for his release, explaining that it "expressed repeatedly to officials of the Government of the United Kingdom and to Scottish authorities, we continue to believe that Megrahi should serve out his sentence in Scotland." After crowds in his home country (predictably) greeted him as a national hero, the White House pretended to be surprised calling the reaction of Libyan citizens "outrageous and disgusting." However, those of us who remember this event from Iraq, circa 2005, in which U.S. contractors' bodies were burned alive and mutilated before being strung up from a bridge by "peace loving" Musilms, where not so surprised by the reaction of Libyans to the release of a terrorist.

All the same, though, it now appears that Barack Obama new all along that the release of Mr. al-Magrahi was imminent. Via Astute Bloggers:

British officials claim Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton were kept informed at all stages of discussions concerning Megrahi’s return

the officials say the Americans spoke out because they were taken aback by the row over Megrahi’s release, not because they did not know it was about to happen.

‘The US was kept fully in touch about everything that was going on with regard to Britain’s discussions with Libya in recent years and about Megrahi,’ said the Whitehall aide.

‘We would never do anything about Lockerbie without discussing it with the US. It is disingenuous of them to act as though Megrahi’s return was out of the blue.

'They knew about our prisoner transfer agreement with Libya and they knew that the Scots were considering Megrahi’s case.’

Now, I'm not saying I'm surprised that our bleeding-heart of a president is a lying pantywaste who can't even stand up to the Scots on a simple prisoner release, much less our enemies. We've known B.O. is a chump; sheep in wolves clothing, if you will. What is absolutely intolerable is the insulting of our intellect, to suggest that he was surprised by the release of Magrahi. In fact, some might call that suggestion "disingenuous". According to unnamed "British officials" who are fed up with the White House's moral indignation on this issue, Obama and Clinton only spoke out because they were so surprised that so many people were upset, and "not because they did not know it was about to happen."

This is the definition of liberal elitism, the inability to grasp what us backwoods hicks might have to say about the release of a convicted killer. We have seen this same "deer in the headlights" look from the administration with their healthcare proposals, their handling of the bailouts and the economy. "What?! We were sure you'd love a government virtual takeover of the car industry. You mean you didn't want an unemployment rate of nearly 10%? How could you oppose the release of terrorist? Didn't you know he has prostate cancer?" And on and on it goes.

Allahpundit puts it best.

He keeps his mouth shut until a critical mass of public outrage is reached, then he creeps behind the podium and offers tepid denunciations. Way to lead, champ.