One Day the Whole World will Know the Truth About Lockerbie (Bomber Released in BP Oil Deal)

BP to Start Libya Deepwater Oil Drilling Soon, ABC 7/1/2010 British oil giant BP PLC lobbied the U.K. in late 2007 over a controversial prisoner transfer agreement with Libya, and oil-rich Qatar lobbied Scotland on the case in June. Revelations of the efforts Friday fed speculation by opposition politicians and victims' families that the recent release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber is entangled with oil interests. U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the U.K. didn't pressure Scotland to free Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan-Am flight that killed 270 people. He has strenuously denied accusations by political opponents that a deal to release Mr. al-Megrahi was made to facilitate the U.K.'s oil interests in Libya. Mr. al-Megrahi has terminal prostate cancer and was released from prison on Aug. 20 by the Scottish government, which had authority over the matter, on compassionate grounds.

BP said Friday it told the U.K. government two years ago it was concerned that a delay in concluding a prisoner transfer agreement with the Libyan government might hurt a $900 million oil deal it had just signed with the North African state in May, 2007. Mark Allen, a special adviser to BP who played a prominent role as a chief U.K. negotiator in talks that led to Libya's renunciation of its nuclear weapons program in 2003, called U.K. Justice Secretary Jack Straw in October 2007 to discuss the slow progress on a transfer deal, a BP spokeswoman said Friday. Mr. Allen, who has close ties with various top Labour Party officials, didn't raise the al-Megrahi case with Mr. Straw, she said.

It is unclear how the prisoner transfer agreement wouldn't have been addressed without mentioning the al-Megrahi case, since the deal revolved around the case of the Libyan man, the only person to be convicted in the Lockerbie bombing.

The spokeswoman said she didn't know how many times Mr. Allen and Mr. Straw spoke or what exactly was said.

Mr. Straw's office didn't return a call seeking comment. Mr. Allen couldn't be reached. A former senior counterterrorism official in Britain's MI6 intelligence service, Mr. Allen has served as a special adviser at BP for four or five years, the BP spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said BP had never raised its concerns with the Scottish government, which is part of the U.K. but has powers on a range of issues, including judicial matters, independent of the U.K. government.

BP has deep roots with the U.K. government, after operating for decades as a state-owned company until 1987, when it became a fully private company.

The links between Mr. Brown's Labour Party and BP took firm root more than a decade ago. Shortly after Labour came to government in 1997, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair tapped then-BP Chairman David Simon to serve as U.K. minister for trade and competitiveness in Europe.

Mr. Blair stepped down in June 2007. The prisoner-transfer agreement was signed between Libya and the U.K. government late that year. BP's deal was ratified by the Libyan government officially in May 2008, but the approval date on the contract was dated as Dec. 23, 2007, the BP spokeswoman said. The company's Libyan deal was one of many signed in recent years with Western oil companies.

The involvement of Qatari interests in the Lockerbie saga arose Friday through minutes of a meeting in June between Scotland First Minister Alex Salmond and Dr. Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah, Qatar's Minister for International Cooperation, on June 11.

In the minutes, released by the Scottish government, Dr. al-Attiyah discussed "possible investment opportunities in Scotland," but added that the Emir of Qatar had asked him to discuss the case of Mr. al-Megrahi, about whose health they were "concerned." over.

Dr. al-Attiyah followed up the meeting with a letter on July 17 in which he asked Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary who already was considering a prisoner-transfer application by Libya for Mr. al-Megrahi, on "compassionate" grounds.

Dr. al-Attiyah said the request was made on behalf of the emir and the Arab League, of which the emir was chairman. Mr. al-Megrahi applied for compassionate release later that month.

A spokesman for Mr. Salmond, the Scottish minister, said it was wrong to connect the meeting and letters to the release of Mr. al-Megrahi.

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[fraizer57]

Hope to see you soon in the dustbin of the history little faggot son of the former thieving dictator. I think wasting any bullet on your filthy body is too much so perhaps they should live the job to the lions in the jungle. I am so happy to see the end of your filthy mafia family. Next Asad of Syria & than the Mullahs of Iran. I also love to see Fidel Castro & Hugo Chavez ending like Momar Ghadafi ended.

[IranContraScumDid911]

@fraizer57 You are Israeli?

[JoeFraze]

Al-Megrahi wasn't released because of the trade deal. He was released because his case was a set-up and was bound to be quashed at the next appeal. The man was innocent and it looks better for the British government if they say he was GUILTY but released on "compassionate grounds" rather than have their own qualified courts arrived at the decision that he was not guilty of the crime at all. Some of these American politicians know all this too, but covered it up with anti-British postures.

[IranContraScumDid911]

@JoeFraze It was a false flag assasination. He was innocent, a patsy for the show trial but was released in a trade deal that is well documented. Berlusconni, Brown, McCain, Lieberman, Clinton, and Obama personally negotiated this one for BP with Gadaffi in July-August 2009. They all get paid fat campaign donations for their efforts. The people that starred in the deals with Gadaffi also were the people that engineered the fall of Gadaffi, personally. BP handled the oil spill, Obama their puppet

[49fiori]

We have seen what houses he built to his children, and we know he had billions in swiss banks. Saif you were lying!

[IranContraScumDid911]

@49fiori He got that money from oil deals with BP, as he admits, and even made the Lockerbie Bomber release $24 Billion Deepwater Drilling Deal, with Obama's help .... 9 Months before Obama's BP Deepwater Drilling Deal, with a $20 Billion Compensation. BP, Obama, and NATO are the liars, why did then not tell you all about the Lockerbie Deal straight forward? Not because Saif told the to.

[simonkism]

she is a bitch, he is right

[Reptile0000]

@fraizer57 Thanks for the agreement I appreciate it.I don't who's worse,a dictator who ruled country for40years&was friends with this mafia or mafia who killed him&millions around the world for their political motives.What's imp is that 'truth' should be revealed ie.their relationship,Ghadaffi (his sons) & Sarkozi Blair Bush.About Iran:I think its unfair with Iranian's to chose either bw Monarchs they'd or Khomani. Again their choice was/is limited by the Mafia.We live in a terrible world really

[fraizer57]

@starmanskye, Hey asshole U can say what U like. I dont support US & their foreign policy & I for 1 am 1 of their victims so dont U fucking call me as 1of their stooges. Both USA &UK own the world we live in & they think they have every fucking right to destroy other countries & more so the 3rd world states. The fuckers destroyed my country Iran in 1979 as it was them who overthrow the modernizer Shah & imposed mad Khomeini there to suit their greed. USA &UK never cared for humanity & democracy.

[fraizer57]

@Reptile0000, My friend I totally agree with youwholeheartedly. Sadly we live in a terrible world. The bastard mafia criminals that U rightly named R untouchable & they get away with many crimes. Ghadafi to compare with these animals that U named was a petty criminal. Just to name 1 of them & that is JIMMY CARTER who ploted the overthrow of the modernizer Shah & return of mad Mullah Khomeini. Carter is a mass genocidal murderer with blood of millions on his hands but no1 can touch the fucker.

[fraizer57]

@mrsnotarobot,I am NOT Israeli & since I dont support the beastly cracked head of Libya I am NOT sick either.2011 was a great year for humanity we saw to of the filthiest&dirtiest maggots in our time dead.BenLaden&Ghadafi. World is a safer&better place without them.Are U1of his paid stooges?Be happy for the good people of Libya because there is no more a dickhead imposing himself as the big monster for42yrs.Perhaps no1else will ever try to insult&humiliate the Libyans the way the fartface did.

[fraizer57]

@IranContraScumDid911, I am Not Israili & more importantly I do not belong to that fart faced asshole tyrant Ghaddafi camp. I am so delighted to see the bastard of Libya knifed to death not only for 42 yrs of pain & suffering he inflicted on the good people of Libya but his role in bringing terrorist Mullahs & the communists to gether to destroy my country Iran & empower Khomeini there. Ghaddafi spent $650 million of the Libyan oil money on supporting mad Mullah Khomeini. Good riddance to him.

[starmanskye]

@fraizer57 -- Nice demonstration of self-righteous dumbed-down silliness. What you lack in even the most rudimentary awareness of contemporary history you more than make up for with distorted conceits that reinforce your emotional feeling of certainty. I doubt you're capable of appreciating the hypocritical irony of US's foreign policy which seeks to undermine the sovereignty of 3rd world nations while waving the banner of democracy & liberty. Stooges like you are incapable of any objectivity.

[Chuckles123thefish]

oh grief, CNN reporting? No wonder you never get a fair trial via CNN. Saif is far more honorable than this reporter, who is more likely to spin rumors rather than truth. No wonder the world is no wiser after watching CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, ABC and the other corrupt western news network. Seriously.

[Reptile0000]

@fraizer57 You forgot to mention CIA and MI5 filthy mafia who were licking his fathers boots and kidnapping & torturing Libyans who stood against Ghadaffi back in 2003-05. One of them is suing head of MI5. Why not all bastards just go to hell including all the dictators and war criminals- Bush Blair Sarkozi Nethenyahoo and Barak Obama! History will not remember them as world leaders but a bunch of criminals war mongers murderers!