By Zack Beauchamp
Jeffrey Goldberg and Michael Rubin think we ought to use the collapse of Qaddafi to go get the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Mohmed Ali al-Megrahi:
Megrahi is still alive, in a wheelchair but well enough to have been shown on Libyan television attending a pro-Qaddafi rally just last month. If Obama was sincere in his regret, perhaps the time is right to seize Megrahi and finally win justice for the American victims of Lockerbie.
Um, how would we "seize" him? Are Goldberg and Rubin advocating the deployment of U.S. troops to spirit away a man in a wheelchair? I don't want to minimize al-Megrahi's horrific crimes or comment on whether his time in Scotland was sufficient punishment, but this is a dangerous rhetorical route to go down. We should focus first ensuring a peaceful, democratic transition in Libya, and then, if we want al-Megrahi, we ought to negotiate with Libya's new government over the handover. Talk of "seizing" seems to me a fantastic way to poison America's relations with an incipient Arab democracy that could be our ally.
The Dish 