Megrahi and plane murder.

The newslines are awash with outraged Americans bemoaning Scotland's humanitarian release of the terminally ill Megrahi. A man whose links to the Lockerbie crash are uncertain.

What is certain is that Pan Am flight 103 went down on 21 December 1988.

What is equally certain, but a lot less well remembered is the other event involving a civilian airliner just 5 months before, on 3 July, 1988.

This is the day a US guided missile cruiser, the Vincennes, deliberately fired upon an Iranian Airbus, Flight 655, operating an established route between Teheran and Dubai, flying inside Iranian airspace when it was shot down laden with 290 civilians, including 66 children in an event just weeks after Ronald Reagan assured the Iranian people that they would never be allowed to win the war with American backed Iraq. The shooting down of Flight 655 was effective, showing Iran that Reagan spoke much truth, and the 8 year war ended shortly after this incident.

Reagans Vice President Bush (Daddy of Dubya) said in reaction to the outcry at the time:

"I'll never apologize for the United States of America, ever. I don't care what the facts are"

I don't think its a huge leap of logic to imagine that some of the 290 passengers on that Iranian Airbus A300 flight had relatives and that those relatives were not satisfied with the US payment of 131 Million dollars in compensation, or that USS Vincennes Captain Will Rogers III should not be prosecuted for murder but instead given a hero-medal. Perhaps Gaddafi's celebrating Megrahis release is a pointer to the celebrated return offered to Capt Will Rogers in 1988?

I think it is far more likely that Pan Am Flight 103 was the reply to Iran Air Flight 655. And to imagine that 1 lone Libyan could mastermind and be made accountable for this beggars belief.