What Remains: A file photo of a rebuilt luggage container from Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270 people. Convicted terrorist Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was serving a life sentence killed 270 people until his release by Scotland in August 2009.
BP may have finally capped the oil well that's gushed more crude into the seas than previous oil spill in American history. But BP's unraveling is nowhere near over.
The former British justice minister, Jack Straw, has just admitted that the release of convicted terrorist Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who's currently happily sneering at the world from the comforts of his home in Libya, was in part designed to appease Libya for BP's sake. BP has a $900 million oil and gas deal with Libya. The company wants that deal protected, with investments in the Gulf of Sidra that could be worth $20 billion.
Now several US senators want BP to put those plans on hold. They are demanding an investigation. "It is almost too disgusting to fathom that BP had a possible role in securing the release of the Lockerbie terrorist in return for an oil drilling deal," Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat, said.
Al-Megrahi was released from a Scottish prison last August on allegedly humanitarian grounds. He was suffering from prostate cancer. At the time, he supposedly had three months to live. It's been 12. In February, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported that he had recovered and was "now living in a spacious two-storey villa with his wife and their five grown-up children in a prosperous suburb of Tripoli, the Libyan capital."
The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 killed 270 people in the plane and on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland. There may have been some questions about at least the extent of al-Megrahi's involvement. His defense lawyers were preparing an appeal. But the Scottish government, under pressure from British authorities and lobbying from BP, preempted the appeal by releasing the convicted terrorist on humanitarian grounds.
Libya's Muammar el Qaddafi has paid the terrorist (who must be classified as such, as that was his last categorization under the law) handsome compensation since his return. So it's been. The terrorist of Lockerbie is rewarded. And BP is piling on the rewards. On itself.
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