links for 2010-08-09

Scotland’s Roman Catholic leader attacked America’s “culture of vengeance” today as he defended the release of the Lockerbie bomber. Writing in Scotland on Sunday , Cardinal Keith O’Brien said despite the “gratuitous barbarity” of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi- who the Scottish Government freed last year on compassionate grounds - were right “to affirm our own humanity”. He accused the American justice system of being based on “vengeance and retribution” and said he was glad to live in a country where “justice is tempered with mercy”.