Lockerbie bomber 'set free for oil'

[Emit]

Source: Times Online

The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.

Gordon Brown’s government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.

The letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who has been widely criticised for taking the formal decision to permit Megrahi’s release.

The correspondence makes it plain that the key decision to include Megrahi in a deal with Libya to allow prisoners to return home was, in fact, taken in London for British national interests.

Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: “This is the strongest evidence yet that the British government has been involved for a long time in talks over al-Megrahi in which commercial considerations have been central to their thinking.”

~snip~

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6814939.ece

[JonQ]

1. Sickening

I'm sure the victims families will sleep better knowing that their loved ones deaths served a greater purpose.

[Psephos]

2. Tar and feather time.

This is as debased and craven as it gets.

[virgogal]

3. Kevin Cullen of The Boston Globe mentioned this earlier this week.

[Endangered Specie]

4. Seems as though Labor is doing its best to get thrown out of office

next election.

[Ex Lurker]

9. they deserve it. The only consolation is that the Conservatives in Britain

are more progressive than the Blue Dogs here. They believe in a public option.

[LeftishBrit]

14. Sadly they may be. But this sort of corrupt collusion for commercial purposes..

is hardly confined to Lsbour; it tends to be even worse with the Tories.

Ugh, I am not looking forward to them getting in (sigh).

[Endangered Specie]

17. What about the Liberal Democrats?

They seem to be making a decent run, got quite a few seats last election.

I am still amazed how you can win an outright majority in the house of commons with only 35% of the vote.

[Sultana]

5. Sick fucks!

They have no shame.

[Blue_Tires]

6. somewhere bush and company are having a good laugh...

[saigon68]

12. As their friends count their "Stock Dividends"

[cigsandcoffee]

7. So much for "compassionate release" and other bits of sanctimonious bullshit...

Follow the money.

[fedsron2us]

18. Over 11 of the 15 Licenses granted by Libya have gone to US Oil Companies

http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/timeline-of-lybia-s-role-in-terrorism-1.1384043

In fact half the worlds oil companies appear to be there

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE57J3K720090820

Strange how some on here want to pillory the Scottish justice secretary for releasing Al-Magrehi but seem quite happy for the US companies to do deals with his former employer, the Libyan government.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdelbaset_Ali_Mohmed_Al_Megrahi

[Nihil]

24. Gosh ... why do you hate America?

:P

(Thanks for the links.)

[Ex Lurker]

8. But it was for humanitarian reasons, dontcha know.

he was dying. And he probably will, in 20 or 30 years.

[Berry Cool]

10. Oh, God. I was afraid this was true, now they're saying it is?

There are just no words. :cry:

[obliviously]

11. Absolutely disgraceful!

[LeftishBrit]

13. Being here, I suspected this from the beginning

Compare and contrast the readiness to free Megrahi on compassionate grounds with the extreme reluctance to free the much sicker Ronnie Biggs on compassionate grounds.

It doesn't surprise me that commercial considerations were involved. Britain has some fairly corrupt business-dominated relationships with some other countries.

[Nihil]

25. So many differences between your two subjects ...

... that the comparison really shouldn't have been made.

Biggs was living free for decades on the riches from his crime
before he was ever brought to justice.

Megrahi was framed from the start with very little in the way
of "justice" involved in his history.

Much more of the same but I still agree with your final point:
> Britain has some fairly corrupt business-dominated relationships
... but I'd say with "most countries" rather than just "some other
countries".

:shrug:

[Cass]

15. I suspected as much.

The compassionate release was a cover ploy. The question now is what will come of this information now that its been made known publicly.

The families of those lost must be heartbroken at learning that justice for the murder of their loved ones was so easily cast aside in order to facilitate oil deals...compassion was surely not shown to those families in this sordid mess.

[Honeycombe8]

16. Yep. This was the media's guess initially, and it made sense. Nothing else did.

Now it turns out to be true.

Our greatest ally...Great Britain? I'm disappointed in them, to say the least.

How many thousands of our soldiers died in WWII helping to save Great Britain from Hitler? How much have we shown over the years how we love their country and respect and appreciate their royal family and other leaders? (Not that the royal family had anything to do with this.)

I guess they figure since they helped with Iraq, they deserve a little something on the side, now.

[LeftishBrit]

19. Yes, because everyone knows that Britain is the only country that ever gets bribed by Oil...

and that American leaders have never dirtied their hands with the filthy substance. :sarcasm:

[Honeycombe8]

21. Mama says....two wrongs don't make a right...if everyone else jumped off a bridge....

The U.S. has never released a mass murderer of English citizens, in exchange for something.

And that's the name of that tune.

[LeftishBrit]

23. He was a mass murderer of British citizens too.

It's wrong and wicked of our government (if confirmed), but it's not a specific attack on America.

If I wanted to play your game I could say that Britain never pulled America into a war for oil (though our leaders did readily 'jump off that bridge' with yours).

Oh never mind. We're all hopefully on the same side against the Right.

[Nihil]

27. Rubbish.

> The U.S. has never released a mass murderer of English citizens,
> in exchange for something.

The U.S. doesn't bother arresting them in the first place and uses
all manner of tactics to prevent extradition for trial.

Still, I didn't expect much from the sort of person who posts that
tired old set of half-truths about WWII ...

:shrug:

[CJCRANE]

20. It was pretty obvious

it was all to do with geo-politics.

The even more interesting story is what would have happened if Megrahi's appeal had gone ahead.

[Hansel]

22. Mika and Joe were doing their best this morning to tie Obama into this

Claiming there is no way our friends would do this without giving the White House the heads up. I can hear it now.

"Is President Obama there? Oh, on vacation is he? Quaint...Yes I'm calling on behalf of Prime Minister Brown. I just wanted to give him the heads up that we are going to release a notorious criminal who violently killed dozens of your citizens because we got an absolutely splendid oil deal from Libya. Tell Mr. Obama that Mr. Brown hopes there are no hard feelings and wishes him well. Well then, cheerio!"

God, two of the most clueless beings on the face of the earth.

[InfiniteThoughts]

26. sad for the families!

I feel sad for the families. The govt has put a price on this dastardly act - a few million barrels of oil/ a billion dollars in petroleum profit.

Shame on the government for putting business interest ahead of democratic principles!

And yes, this is all Obama's fault! Didn't you see the snaps of him strangling baby seals during his recent vacation? :sarcasm: