Megrahi Redux

by anderson

Once upon a time, The
Megrahi Exodus was imagined:

The
release of "convicted" Lockerbie bomber, and former Libyan
intelligence officer Abdelbaset Akli al-Megrahi was presaged by an
"annual gathering of influential people."

Britain's Lord
Mandelson met Libyan president Colonel Muamar Gaddafi's grandson at the
"Rothschild villa in Corfu" (what? you weren't there?) prior to the release from Scottish prison
of Libyan intelligence officer and convicted criminal by a Dutch court
under Scottish law in the 1988 Lockerbie Scotland case, the
above-mentioned al-Megrahi. ...

More UK-Libyan trade deals are
to follow. The US, too, is in on the action, as is France, Canada,
and Russia. Indeed, the UK was
lagging badly and needed to catch up.

Well, how
'bout these apples?

A
group of U.S. lawmakers have called for an investigation into whether BP may have played a
role in lobbying for the release of Abdelbaset al Megrahi to secure an
oil contract with the Libyan government.

"Reports have
surfaced indicating that a 2007 oil agreement may have influenced the U.K. and Scottish
governments' positions concerning Mr. Megrahi's release in 2009,"
wrote Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey in a letter to
the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Monday.

"The
families of the victims of Pan Am flight 103 deserve to know whether
justice took a back seat to commercial interests in this case,"
Lautenberg said.
...

BP, which plans to begin offshore drilling
in Libya in the coming months, touted the 2007 oil agreement as "the
single biggest exploration financial commitment an international energy
company has ever made to Libya," according to the company's website.

The troubled oil giant stands to earn as much as $20 billion from the
deal, ....

Yes.  A shocker.