Obama: Pan Am Bomber's Welcome "Highly Objectionable"

(AP Photo/ Amr Nabil)

Updated 2:05 p.m. ET

President Obama said the hero's welcome given to convicted Lockerbie bomber in Libya was "highly objectionable."

Mr. Obama made the comment on Friday afternoon, following a statement on the White House lawn about Thursday's elections in Afghanistan, when prompted by CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante.

Earlier, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called the images "outrageous and disgusting."

"I think the images that we saw in Libya yesterday were outrageous and disgusting. We continue to express our condolences to the families that lost a loved one as a result of this terrorist murder," Gibbs said his daily briefing.

Gibbs' remarks come in the face of continued outrage from the families of victims of Pam Am 103 to Abdel Baset al-Megrahi's release from a Scotish prison on Thursday. Al-Megrahi, who is suffering from terminal prostate cancer, was released on what they called humanitarian grounds -- despite only serving eight years of a life sentence.

Susan Cohen, whose daughter Theodora, then 20, died on the 1988 flight, expressed her anger at President Obama over the release on CBS' "The Early Show" on Friday. (video at left)

Cohen called Mr. Obama's reaction "soft," adding that she has pushed the president to do more.

There is "no one even in prison for the crime," she said.

On Thursday, Mr. Obama called the release a "mistake," and called for the Libyan government to hold al-Megrahi under house arrest. He said his administration had conveyed objections to the Scottish government before al-Megrahi's release.

"We're now in contact with the Libyan government and want to make sure that if in fact this transfer has taken place that he's not welcomed back in some way but instead should be under house arrest," Mr. Obama told radio talk show host Michael Smerconish.

(AP Photo)

In the past few years, Libya has improved its relations with the U.S. and the West. The U.S. and Libya exchanged ambassadors for the first time since 1973 this year, and Mr. Obama became the first president to exchange a face-to-face greeting with Libyan leader Moammar Qadhafi, during the G-8 Summit last month in Italy (picture at left).

Gibbs said in the briefing Friday that the White House will be watching Libya's response to their requests.

"We communicated with the Libyan government, and we continue to watch what they do in the days going forward about this individual and -- and understand that the video that you saw yesterday is tremendously offensive to the survivors," he said.

[s416]

Cheney/Haliburton lobbied with British Petroleum for Libyan oil contracts, and set up the terrorist's release. The GOP has come full circle-becoming the terrorists that they professed to have fought, after Bush gave up in Afghanistan, and announcing that catching BinLaden wasn't important.

[wyodutch]

You people may not like it... but Libya has oil and as a consequence.. the so-called "war on terror" is so much baloney when it comes up against petroleum.

Why do you think we attacked Iraq and Afghanistan and are threatening Iran? Freedom? Democracy? Nope.... fossil fuels.

[Illuminated1]

Since there are so many comments, I'll keep my plain simple.
Scotlands' officials were wrong to release the terrorist.
The man was a mass murderer....His cancer should have killed him in jail....not at home with his family....As his victims have to deal with...Scotland lost some tourism from the U.S. today....They might go to Libya instead....

[carolhill814]

I trust NOTHING BO says because he has gone all over the world saying the United States is sorry for this or that.

He is sorry President but he is not my President because I had nothing to do with him in My White House because he is liar and cheat and he makes me ill.

I wouldn't be surprised if BO didn't help get him out of prison. We really didn't get a good look at him because he had his face covered. So who really knows if that were him or someone who pretended to be him who really knows.

[stthenogs]

Listening to all this chatter about Scotland,listen I was at Lockerbie for 3 weeks after the plane blew up over our country,I watched young scottish soldiers do their duty in the aftermath.I wont go into details of how Scottish soldiers, police ,fire crews and ambulance men worked in that hell,I wont go into how the people of Lockerbie suffered and died, because Scottish people are caring people who did what they had to do.I am appalled at the reaction of people who react to a guy who is dying been sent home to die with his family.Our Scottish soldiers are fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq alongside American soldiers.I hope you understand what Scottish people did that night 21 years ago to respect British and US victims of that atrocity.

[Hosheen]

even couched in diplomatic-speak, this is a pretty strong statement. What's amazing is you ignorant neo-cons will slam Obama anyway just because your wanna-be dictators have been tossed out like last week's garbage. even worse, the chances of some of them being indicted are increasing every day.

[Hosheen]

George W. Bush is the worst president of all time. He is also the most disliked human being in the history of humanity.

But to give him credit, he did do one thing everyone thought was impossible. He made Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter look like good presidents.

[ABM_21]

what good has he actually done? He's announced closing gitmo without a plan; dropped the charges on the uss cole bomber; gone around the world apologizing for this country; taken over the auto, finance, insurance and soon to be healthcare industries; he's promised to withdraw troops but has instead escalated; he's angered our allies while kissing the butts of our enemies; he's antagonized the cia, the police, and American citizens; and he's increasing our national debt daily like a drunken sailor. So what has he done that gets you so excited?
---------------------------------------------------------------
He closed Gitmo. That gets me excited, since it never should have been opened in the first place. I don't know if he dropped any charges against the alleged bomber of the USS Cole, but we all know that Retardicans love to persecute, then prosecute, so your alleged outrage is typical...and ignorable. Since this country(or shall I say, the conservatives in this country) have done so much wrong, somebody had to apologize for their poor choice of actions. If I recall, Bush 'took over' the finance industry long before Obama took office. The insurance industry only 'insures' that their shareholders get profits at the expense of their policyholders. If I recall, since Bush was handing out free checks to the financial industry, the automobile industry wanted their piece of the pie. Rather than handing them the money with no strings attached---as Bush did with the financial industry---idiots like Bob Corker tried to engage in union busting tactics. Yes, you simple-minded conservatives mention nary a word about that part of the plan.
Name any ally Obama has angered. I challenge you. Since Bush angered the world with his heavy-handed, cowboy up foreign policy, this is a refreshing change from America: acting like we a part of the world, not the owners of the world.He promised not to prosecute any CIA agents that participated in torture, so how has he 'antagonized' them? If the CIA is acting like a rogue force in this nation, they need to be stopped. Going after bin Laden---something Bush failed to do---meant that operations in Afghanistan were going to increase, so your logic there is quite flawed. 'Kissing the butts of our enemies'? Really? Whose 'butt' has he kissed? Oh, I forgot: You conservative idiots think acting like a human being versus a god in your own mind is 'kissing someone's butt'. How sad...

[pepperwood2]

Obama: Pan Am Bomber's Welcome "Highly Objectionable" .... President Obama said the hero's welcome given to convicted Lockerbie bomber in Libya was "highly objectionable."

This guy is not taking this easy. I'd be willing to bet he's also appalled & angry ..... but you know - he'll get over it quickly, as the press will find a way to make him appear presidential. So Sad!

[Pajubo]

WOW...SOME PEOPLE JUST CANNOT CONNECT THE DOTS......LOL
CLINTON GOES TO N.KOREA....A COUNTRY THAT WOULD LIKE NOTHING BETTER THAN TO DESTROY THE U.S.A....A TERRORIST COUNTRY..
OUR POLICY HAS ALWAYS BEEN "NOT" TO NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS...AND THERE GOES CLINTON, NEGOTIATING.
SO LET'S LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE....CLINTON NEGOTITATES THE FREEDOM OF TWO JOURNALISTS, AMERICAN JOURNALISTS, SOMETHING OBAMA COULDN'T SUCEED AT...
DID ANYONE HONESTLY THINK THAT CLINTONS NEGOTIATIONS DIDN'T COME WITH A PRICE OF "PAY BACK"....OF COURSE IT DID.
LIBYA WON....THEY GOT BACK THEIR MURDERER (AND DON'T BE SURPRISED IF A MIRACLE CURE ISN'T FOUND FOR THIS GUY). N.KOREA WON...WE NEGOTIATED WITH A TERRORIST COUNTRY.
AND OBAMAS HANDS ARE LILY WHITE (EXCUSE THE PUN). HE CAN RANT AND RAVE ALL HE WANTS...BUT HE KNEW THIS DEAL WAS BEING MADE AND HE WENT ALONG WITH IT.
SOMEDAY PEOPLE ARE GOING TO WAKE UP AND REALIZE THAT ANYTHING CLINTON IS INVOLVED WITH ONLY HURTS AMERICA....AND THE DEMS GO ALONG WITH IT.