Aug 22, 2009 9:10 am US/Eastern
Schumer Wants UN To Condemn Lockerbie Bomber Fete
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi arrives at Glasgow airport to baord a plane after arriving from Greenock Prison on Aug. 20, 2009, in Glasgow, Scotland.
Danny Lawson/Getty Images
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Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, Libyan found guilty of Pan Am flight 103 bombing, walks on to plane following his release from prison, Aug. 20, 2009, Glasgow International Airport, Scotland.
AP
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Pan Am flight 103 cockpit wreckage, December 22, 2008, Lockerbie, Scotland.
AP
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This file picture taken Dec. 21, 1988, in Lockerbie shows a policeman walking nearby the cockpit of the 747 Pan Am Boeing that exploded, killing all 259 on board and 11 on the ground.
LETKEY/AFP/Getty Images
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New York Sen. Charles Schumer wants the United Nations to condemn Libya's welcome home celebration for the man convicted in the Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
The Democratic senator was scheduled to holding a news conference Saturday to urge the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N to introduce a resolution condemning the ceremony and asking for an apology.
Family members were furious that convicted Libyan bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was released from a Scottish prison Thursday and was greeted in Libya by cheering crowds.
Pan Am Flight 103 — which was carrying mostly American passengers to New York — blew up as it flew over Scotland in 1988. All 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground died.
Relatives plan to converge on New York City in September to protest a planned visit to the United Nations by Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi.
"I was furious and I was sick," Susan Cohen, whose daughter Theodora, then 20, died on the flight.
Cohen reserved some of her anger toward the Obama administration as well. Thursday, President Obama called the release of Libyan Abdel Baset al-Megrahi after serving eight years of a minimum 27-year sentence in Scottish prison, a "mistake."
Cohen called Mr. Obama's remark "soft," during an interview with CBS' "The Early Show" Friday, adding that she has pushed the president to do more. There is "no one even in prison for the crime," she said.
Cohen and other relatives said they believe al-Megrahi was released to appease Qaddafi because access to his nation's oil is so important.
"Look what we've come to be, a man blows up an American plane and now here he (Qaddafi) is rolling into New York in triumph," she said, adding sarcastically, "That's wonderful. Makes the world safer, doesn't it?"
Cohen, of Cape May Court House, N.J., said the release is a major concession to Qaddafi, who she said wields increasing power through lucrative oil contracts with Western nations. Cohen, like several victims' family members, said she's disappointed that President Barack Obama's administration is not taking a harder line.
"The fact is, every time this kind of appeasement happens, it really endangers the innocent public," Cohen said. "What would any terrorist think looking at this? How scared would you be?"
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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