Italy – President Obama and Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy shook hands Thursday, infuriating families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 by Libyan intelligence agents.
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The grip-and-grin was caught on camera during the G-8 summit of world leaders in Italy. Khadafy was there as head of the African Union.
The encounter came as families who lost loved ones aboard the doomed plane met with officials in Washington and the British Consulate in Manhattan to protest the potential release of the lone terrorist convicted in the bombing.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi is jailed in Scotland. But he has prostate cancer and could be turned over to Khadafy.
“This thing with Obama happened on the same day that we spilled our guts to his own administration that this killer should not be released! I’m disgusted and disappointed. Obama sent the wrong message,” said Stephanie Bernstein, 58, of Bethesda, Md., who lost her husband, Michael, 36, a lawyer who hunted Nazis for the Justice Department.
“I just hope this was a superficial ‘hello and goodbye,’ and not a show of support for a bad man who should have been taken out years ago,” said Jack Flynn, 71, of Montville, N.J., who lost his son John Patrick, a 21-year-old student at Colgate.
“It will be a real horror show now if they release Megrahi,” added Flynn, who broke down in a conversation with the Daily News. Both Bernstein and Flynn voted for Obama.
Although Libya is no longer on the State Department list of terrorist nations, Khadafy is still hated for protecting Megrahi.
Flight 103, a Boeing 747, was en route from London’s Heathrow Airport to JFK when it blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland. The terrorist bombing killed all 259 aboard and 11 on the ground.
Khadafy refused to turn over the suspects for a decade, worsening relations between Washington and Tripoli.
In 1986, after Libyan agents killed two U.S. servicemen in a bombing at a West Berlin disco, President Ronald Reagan ordered air strikes against Libya, denouncing “this mad dog of the Middle East.”
Shortly before the handshake, White House National Security Council member Denis McDonough said Obama would greet any leader who approached him.
“I don’t think he’s given much consideration to whose hand he’ll shake or whose hand he’ll not shake,” McDonough said.
Khadafy attempted an image makeover in 2003 when he agreed to pay $2.7 billion to the families of the 270 victims and dismantled his nuclear weapons. President George W. Bush took Libya off the list of terrorist
that is obama shaking hands with all terrorist and wiping his hands from our friends and alies!
i’ll bet the meir bal hanes fundraiser from lakewood doesnt call him…..gevaldig
this obama is made from the same material like khadafy so now they both have blood on there hands this obama dose not care whom he offends like the white house said he shakes any ones hand he is in the same boat like rest may he have the same end like them all, we victim are all terrible very very terrible times now for victims of terrorism
Did he bow down to him as well?
did he apologize?
what a tippish.
he is simply a big shoyteh–he will get his
“Both Bernstein and Flynn voted for Obama”…Duuuuuh!!!!!
so what ! we shake arafat hand!!
So, so, so not surprised.
Obama is naive and insecure about his identity. That is his major flaw.
Think about this:
An African father that abandoned him, his mother’s remarriage to yet another ethnicity, and being ultimately raised by grandparents who were somewhat racist (according to his own admission) -yet they were the ones who raised him.
Growing up, he rejects his white roots, embraces the anti-american black movement. In his bid for the presidency, his white roots come conveniently calling – and as more whites embrace him and his idea. He warms up to the USA, as does his wife, who states that for the first time in her adult life, she is proud to be American. The flag waving begins.
However, the far left, socialist, university-type, US-to-blame philosophies are his true core. So, he’s just one confused man. Which makes him insecure about his beliefs and identity. Like all insecure people, he desperately wants to be liked – by all – including the killer, Khadafi. And, according to his philosophy of the-US-is-usually-to-blame, he believes that if America makes nice with bad guys, they will start to reciprocate. Like his handler said: “Obama would greet any leader who approached him”. (No matter he be a Khadaffi, an ahmandinejad, or fill in the blank.)
Hence the handshake, the bow to the Saudi King and the apologetic stance to Europe, which makes so many US citizens cringe with discomfort and humiliation. And in this case – the handshake with khaddafi – with anger, for putting the feelings of Khadaffi ahead of the feelings of grieving Americans.
Ronald Reagan, he ain’t.
obama is right…talk to them till they understand you ….
talk is gevaldig….
see how all his talked has helped in Nkorea, somalia…etc……
gevaldig
As the world saw today at a live conference, “His eyes were swimming where it’s not nice for a president to look” I’m embarrassed to be an American.
i thank that the leader of our country should pay attention to whose hand he shakes and should realze that some horrible people deserve to be ignored so they get the message–if the president is there representing the country then he should keep that in mind
all this uproar from the family could v very easily… get them a “RESET button”!!!. That shld make them forget everything that ever happened before & what K. did to their loved ones.
BS”D
Obama is a good Xristian and loves everyone.
Will he shake hands with The Klan, etc?
Let’s test him!
(Xristians preach brotherly love but don’t practice it.)
This is the way of idolaters.
and all the good moral people will still vote for Obama.
For those fools here who are ready to jump on the “anti-Obama” bandwagon….
Let’s keep in mind that it was BUSH (not Obama) who lifted the sanctions against Lybia in 2004. It was BUSH who opened an official US State office in Tripoli. It was BUSH who agreed to restore full diplomatic relations with Lybia in 2006. In January of this year it was BUSH who officially welcomed the Lybian ambassador (and entourage) to the White House.
It was the US Congress which UNANIMOUSLY (yes… both repubs and dems) voted to exempt Lybia from section 1083 of the National Defense Act (after they paid off the victims of the bombing).
For all of you just want to blame Obama for everything without actually knowing any FACTS, I feel sorry for you. This “handshake” was already made long before Obama took office. How blissful your life must being living in such foolish ignorance.
Its sad…
19 comments…and only one that makes any sense.. (#18)
Will all you PRO Obama people go on record. We would love to be able to find you in a year or so and ask you again. It would be interesting.
Of my friends from shul who voted for Obama, 9 out of 20 (yes there were 20) have already said they screwed up.
Some say they voted for Obama because they thought having a black president would do the country good. They voted for his skin color.
Some say they voted for Obama because they really did not like McCain, and Obama was just the only other really available candidate.
Some said they believed he would govern from the Center as his people tried to get everyone to believe through rumor. He never said he would. He allowed others to say it for him. But he said he would be a far-left Liberal. This was the only TRUTH he told.
I hate to break it to you all, but Obama stopping to shake Qadaffi’s hand is a conti8nuation of PUS policy set in Motion by the Bush administration. After all of Qadaffi’s many overtures to regain legitimacy as a new person and former terrorist, it was our or own George W. Bush who made the first gesture, by removing Qadaffi from our terrorism list for the first time in decades. That was followed by him sending Condoleezza Rice to have a very long chit chat meeting with him. It was just a few months ago – this past September, when she was the first ever high ranking us government official to sit down with the whacko in several decades. Where were you all then? did this not obther you then? or did you just not know beause it was rice and not hillary? I can just imagine the outcry if it had been hillary in april and not condi in september. this proves yet again the blind hypocritical partisanship of some people, who only have standards when tis the person they dont like, but are totally ignorant when its the person they do like who might be doing the worse thing. COndi even had iftar dinner with qadaffi – the feast of ramadan. (again taking the lead from bush who was and thus far still is the first and only us president ever to have celbrate the arab muslim holiday of ramadan in the white house for 7 years.) whereas obama was the first and only to ever have a pesach seder.
if you beleive in the school of though that always blames Bill clinton for “legitimizing Arafat” then Kla vchomer, surely it is obvious very recent current events in history that George W. Bush and Condi Rice are responsible for re legitimzing wacky qadaffi! and that now since that new relathionship was forged by them , that obama stopped to shake the dudes hand.
This is the truth, the whole truth amnd nothing but the facts.