By any reckoning the American official reaction to the Megrahi release, above all by a President elected for his enlightened politics, is sickening and the British official disassociation from the Scottish decision contemptible.The crime of which he was convicted could not be more heinous but to release any such criminal in his dying days is a humanitarian act which any civilised society should take. If Megrahi was a scapegoat, a victim of a miscarriage of justice, which he maintained and many including quite a number of the families of those killed in the outrage believe is possible, the official reaction is disgraceful. My only quibble is with the Scottish administration which required him to withdraw his appeal as a condition for his release and so to preclude an independent enquiry which would have been in everyone's interest.