Senator says BP-Libya oil deal linked to Lockerbie bomber release

Billions are made by BP as it spills oil around the globe. A recent BP-Libya oil deal that promises more billions has caught the eye of a senator that wonders if BP helped set free a terrorist convicted of killing Americans to get the contract. Lautenberg became suspicious after the Lockerbie bomber, Libyan Abdel Bastet Al-Megrahi, was sprung from a Scottish prison last August after doctors said he was at death’s door. Al-Megrahi is living large nearly a year later while BP oil rigs head to the Libyan coast. Resource for this article – Senator says BP-Libya oil deal linked to Lockerbie bomber release by Personal Money Store.

Senators press for return of Lockerbie bomber to jail

The Lockerbie bomber, convicted for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, would nevertheless be in jail if the senators had their way. Frank Lautenberg, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, sees an opportunity to increase political pressure on BP after coming across evidence implying the BP-Libya oil deal is linked to the Lockerbie bomber release.

Something fishy about timing of BP-Libya oil deal and Lockerbie bomber release

The senators now doubt the validity of the Lockerbie bomber’s release from prison “on compassionate grounds” after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. Al-Megrahi, now 58, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 that killed 270 individuals, including 189 Americans. Yahoo News reports that Lautenberg, who thinks oil spill culprit BP may have lobbied for Al-Megrahi’s release after serving just eight years of a life sentence, wants the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations to investigate. He wants to know if the Lockerbie bomber’s release was connected to a BP plan to start drilling in the next few months off Libya, which the senator says could earn the company up to $ 20 billion.

Lockerbie bomber’s demise greatly exaggerated

After a doctor said Al-Megrahi could live ten more years, senators pressured the British government to investigate his release. An Associated Press article published on Yahoo News said that Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer of New York and New Jersey senator Robert Menendez joined Lautenberg to demand an investigation from the British embassy in Washington. Due process was followed, said British Ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald in his response.

Does BP have American blood on its hands?

Lautenberg, in a letter to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said a 2007 oil agreement may have influenced the British and Scottish governments about the Lockerbie bomber’s release in 2009. BP admitted that the oil deal was in jeopardy over a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya, the letter said. Later Jack Straw, the British Secretary of State for Justice, who intended to exclude al-Megrahi from the prisoner transfer, changed his mind, citing “overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom.

BP-Libya oil deal trumps justice

So far, BP has kept mum about the senators’ questions about the release of the Lockerbie bomber. But CNN reports that a statement about the 2007 Libyan oil deal on the company’s site calls it “the single biggest exploration financial commitment an international energy business has ever made to Libya”. The British ambassador defends the Lockerbie bomber’s release in a letter to Gillibrand posted on the British Embassy website. Brian Flynn, who lost his brother in the Pan Am flight 103 bombing and fought to deny Al-Megrahi’s freedom, told CNN:

“You can’t allow the process of justice to be corrupted by the cynical mercantilism of one business.”

Discover more information

news.yahoo.com

latimes.com

cnn.com