How can it be that I agree with Teribus and a cardinal, and both in the same thread? I need to lie down....

Sorry Bill D for going a bit too far, but it did seem like you were skirting quite close to what I said you said.

Your "most states don't do it often" line (not your exact words) has a clutching-at-straws ring to it, and the fact that some of what happens in the US - unlike in, say, Saudi - is determined by popular vote suggests the cardinal was right to talk about America the nation rather than about only its politicians and government. But the cardinal was indeed generalising as you say,and we all need to accept that any generalisation will embrace exceptions.

It's a pity this thread was given such an inept title. Including "Megrahi" or "US" in rhe title would have resulted in a more even-handed discussion. One of the values of Mudcat is that it thrusts together differing cultures from east and west of the Atlantic, but this time, alas, Bill D seems to be on his own in putting forward the west-side perspective.

As Ake has observed, the UK government vacillated on the question of whether Megrahi should be excluded from the Libya-UK prisoner transfer agreement. The decision to include him was no doubt driven by oil interests, but was probably academic. His transfer under that agreement would have been open to legal challenge as it violated the UN terms under which the Pan-Am defendants were tried under Scottish law. Those terms specified that any resulting jail sentences had to be served in the UK.

According to the (London) Sunday Times I think (but can't check now) US embassy staff in London advised the Scottish government that the US would rather see Megrahi released than transferred to a Libyan prison.