The sight of the convicted Lockerbie bomber arriving home in
Tripoli to a hero’s welcome is repugnant to anyone who believes Mr. al-Megrahi
is guilty. My friend Tom Lauria asks: “What are we to make of al-Megrahi’s
official hero’s welcome? It is so offensive to me for Libyans to be cheering
the murderer of 270 innocent people. I will never comprehend the Arabist
mentality.” Be careful. Why assume that Libyan’s were cheering someone they
thought was a murderer? Most of the families of the victims here in Britain think
Megrahi is innocent and are angry that the killer(s) have never been brought to
justice. Here is a BBC interview of the father of one of those who died over Lockerbie:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8212475.stm.
In this context did Libyans behave any differently than American’s would if,
say, the Iranian’s released an American we believed to be innocent?
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Author: Warren Coats
I specialize in advising central banks on monetary policy and the development of the capacity to formulate and implement monetary policy. I joined the International Monetary Fund in 1975 from which I retired in 2003 as Assistant Director of the Monetary and Financial Systems Department. While at the IMF I led or participated in missions to the central banks of over twenty countries (including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Croatia, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Serbia, Turkey, West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Zimbabwe) and was seconded as a visiting economist to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (1979-80), and to the World Bank's World Development Report team in 1989. After retirement from the IMF I was a member of the Board of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority from 2003-10 and of the editorial board of the Cayman Financial Review from 2010-2017. Prior to joining the IMF I was Assistant Prof of Economics at UVa from 1970-75. I am currently a fellow of Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise. In March 2019 Central Banking Journal awarded me for my “Outstanding Contribution for Capacity Building.” My recent books are One Currency for Bosnia: Creating the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina; My Travels in the Former Soviet Union; My Travels to Afghanistan; My Travels to Jerusalem; and My Travels to Baghdad. I have a BA in Economics from the UC Berkeley and a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago. My dissertation committee was chaired by Milton Friedman and included Robert J. Gordon.
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