Thread: Lockerbie bomber freed for BP fuel deal

Senate report says Lockerbie bomber al-Megrahi was released by Scots to secure BP deals

BY Richard Sisk
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Wednesday, December 22nd 2010, 4:00 AM


Turkia/Getty
Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohammed al-Megrahi was released from prison in Scotland on compassionate grounds.

WASHINGTON - The "humanitarian" release of the Lockerbie bomber was all about the money, a Senate report charged Tuesday.


Libya's threats to shut British-based oil giant BP out of deals worth hundreds of millions led Britain and the regional government of Scotland to turn loose plotter Abdelbaset Ali Mohammed al-Megrahi in August 2009, the report said.
"Somehow justice was undone" by the threats of "commercial warfare" from the minions of Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy, said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).
Menendez joined Sens. Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) in releasing the 58-page report.
Megrahi, 58, was "sent home to die" from a Scottish jail with a prognosis of prostate cancer that gave him three months to live. But he's still living at a luxury villa in Tripoli 16 months later.
The Senate report came on the 22nd anniversary of the terror bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988.
All 259 aboard, and 11 on the ground, were killed.
Brian Flynn, 41, said his family had just decorated the Christmas tree in Montville, N.J., before leaving for Kennedy Airport to pick up big brother John Patrick Flynn, a passenger on Pan Am 103, when they learned of the bombing.
Flynn said Scotland and Britain had "dishonored" his brother's memory by releasing Megrahi and made "our most cynical fears come true."
The Scottish government issued an angry denial of the charges.
"This is not an official report of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - it is an incorrect and inaccurate rehash by four senators of material that has been in the public domain for many months, and we entirely reject their false interpretation," a Scottish official said.

Remember people here were claiming the UK does thing in the interest of the USA, but I called them jerkoffs, and said "countries do what is in their best interest, not the US!" The same thing with Iraq, the UK went for their own interest, not because they love the US. The UK is dependent on foreign oil, it is a country with very few natural resources.

This is one of those 'wikileaks' that says nothing new, or interesting. This probably encompasses the majority of them actually.

The Senate report merely speculates what was openly bandied about in the commercial press at the time, no new 'evidence' is presented at all, it is just the Senators opinion. Shared with most of the world as it happens.

Are they right? Personally I suspect so. Do I care? Nope. Money talks, and cancer patients squawk. Eventually.

Whatever the truth of the matter, the UK/ Scottish governments still retain 'plausible deniability'. There is nothing new here, unless one considers some US senators scepticism about the Brit's 'plausible denials' as being some sort of news.

The Scottish government will have to answer to the families in Lockerbie.
The perception now of the Scottish officials is one of cowardice and greed. Not the best public image.

Originally Posted by zygote1

The Scottish government will have to answer to the families in Lockerbie.
The perception now of the Scottish officials is one of cowardice and greed. Not the best public image.

This is about selective morality and hypocrisy. If the Scottish and UK people didn't claim to be a bunch of nice guys there wouldn't be a story here.

Thought it was pressure brought to bear on the Scotts by Great Britain. Not Scottisch Petroleum is it.

Originally Posted by qwert6

Thought it was pressure brought to bear on the Scotts by Great Britain. Not Scottisch Petroleum is it.

The Scottish have always been willing to do the bidding of the terror state (Britain), the Irish too at a time, but less so. The Scottish people like to talk tough, but they are made of paper mache, they willingly gave up their language and culture to become a willing dupe of the British. The Irish atleast fought back.