Michael Russell (politician) a generation: "Shirley McKie – The Price of Innocence" (). Shirley McKie's case assumed an international significance with a possible linkage to the case of convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was granted leave to appeal against his conviction for a second time by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission on 28 June 2007. Megrahi's appeal began in Edinburgh on 28 April 2009, and a public inquiry into the McKie case started in Glasgow on 2 June 2009. Russell supported the successful campaign to have The Tinkers' Heart in Argyll listed as a Scheduled Monument, with listing taking place in
Long Range Strike Bomber program Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz said that the USAF's focus in the 2010 budget was on "Long-range strike, not next-generation bomber" and will push for this in the Quadrennial Defense Review. In June 2009, the two teams working on next-generation bomber proposals were told to "close up shop". On 16 September 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates endorsed the concept of a new bomber but insisted that it must be affordable, stating: "What we must not do is repeat what happened with our last manned bomber. By the time the research, development, and requirements processes ran their course,