Pat Dollard

Tweet

Abdelbaset Ali Mohamet al-Megrahi in Tripoli last year

The Hill:

A group of Democratic senators are calling BP and the British government to account for the freeing of a terrorist convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, a new problem for relations between the United States and Britain.

At a Wednesday press conference, Democratic senators accused the British government of working for the terrorist’s release to help BP win a $900 million oil-drilling deal with Libya.

The controversy could add to strained relations between the United States and Britain, its closest military ally. BP has become a weight on that relationship since a deepwater oil rig it operated in the Gulf of Mexico exploded on April 20, spewing millions of gallons of oil into the ecosystem.

BP has become political public enemy No. 1 in the United States. In Britain, however, it is considered a leading economic engine and its stock is a staple of many pension funds.

American-British relations took another hit Wednesday when four Democratic senators asked for a State Department investigation into the decision to free Abdelbaset al-Megrahi — who was convicted in 2001 — from a Scottish prison.

The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killed 270 people, including 189 Americans.

The Scottish government released Al-Megrahi in August 2009 after a medical prognosis gave him three months to live.

Democratic senators now charge the grim prognosis was fabricated to manipulate public opinion and that Jack Straw, Britain’s former Foreign Secretary and Secretary of State for Justice, expedited a deal to release Al-Megrahi.

“Back in 2007, BP and the Libyan government struck a $900 million oil deal that the Prime Minister Tony Blair helped to coordinate but the deal ran into roadblocks,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), the third-ranking member of the Democratic leadership.

Schumer said BP has admitted it pushed the British government to expedite a prisoner exchange deal with Libya to smooth the way.

“We then know that the British government agreed to release Al-Megrahi based on a fraudulent doctor’s prognosis that he had three months to live,” Schumer said. “Once Megrahi is released, all the roadblocks to that oil deal is removed.

“If anyone thinks this is a coincidence, I have them a bridge to sell in Brooklyn,” Schumer added.

Al-Megrahi is now expected to live another decade and is writing a book that lawmakers said could earn him substantial profit.

Straw has denied the Libyan oil concession influenced the decision to free Al-Megrahi.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), citing media reports, said Mark Allen, a former MI6 agent and an advisor to BP who is well connected to Britain’s Labour Party, told Straw that the imprisonment of Al-Megrahi threatened to complicate BP’s effort to sign a drilling deal with Libya.

“Mr. Straw’s letters to the Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill, which has also been uncovered by the media, indicate that the British government gave in to Libya’s demands for the convicted Lockerbie [bomber’s] release,” said Gillibrand.

“This evidence, although circumstantial, is deeply troubling, not just to the families of the Lockerbie victims but for all Americans and for all nations around the world who are committed to fighting terrorism and preserving justice,” Gillibrand.

The Democratic senators called on BP to cease its drilling operation in Libya until their questions are resolved. They also called for the British government to conduct a “full, open and transparent investigation.”

“Various reports suggest that BP applied pressure to have Al-Megrahi released in order to finalize and expedite a $900 million oil drilling deal with Libya,” said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

“If BP is found to have helped free this mass murderer, that would further de-legitimize the Scottish court’s decision to grant him compassionate release,” said Menendez.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) also participated in the press conference.

“Not only does BP have terrible management, it has no character,” he said.

On Tuesday, the four Democratic senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanding an investigation of Al-Megrahi’s release.

“Evidence in the Deepwater Horizon disaster seems to suggest that BP would put profit ahead of people – its attention to safety was negligible, and it routinely underestimated the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf,” the senators wrote. “The question we now have to answer is, was this corporation willing to trade justice in the murder of 270 innocent people for oil profits?”

Lautenberg has also asked Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) to hold a hearing on the decision to free Al-Megrahi.