Lockerbie Bomber Released from Prison

[SSHoya]

www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/world/europe/16britain.html?_r=1&hp

[The Stig]

Jul 15, 2010 13:24:17 GMT -5 TC said:

Jul 15, 2010 11:54:30 GMT -5 The Stig said:

There's also the next quote from the article: "The decision to release al-Megrahi in August 2009 was taken by the Scottish government," the company said. "It is not for BP to comment on the decision of the Scottish government. BP was not involved in any such discussions with the U.K. government or the Scottish government about the release of al-Megrahi."

Except they just admitted they did that in this article with the UK government! You're really going to cite some BP PR doublespeak as evidence of anything? Believing anything that BP PR puts out is like believing in Santa Claus, except in this case Santa Claus is a terrible monster that pours crude down your chimney and calls it a present.

It's not doublespeak from BP, it's just a poorly executed attempt to distinguish BP's efforts from the Scottish government's actions.

In short, Libya wanted a prisoner transfer agreement, in order to free Megrahi. The UK government would not grant the agreement. BP lobbied the British government to accept the agreement, because they wanted the Libyan oil.

However, during this time Megrahi was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and the Scottish government, without a prisoner transfer agreement, released Meraghi on compassionate grounds, as they do with basically every terminally ill prisoner.

Like I said during the previous debate, it was unfortunate that he was released in this way. There's a good chance he would have been exonerated in his second appeal, given the amount of new evidence that has emerged since the first trial.

[The Stig]

The Scottish government chimes in: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-10669618

A Scottish government spokesman said: "The Scottish government had no contact from BP in relation to Mr Al-Megrahi.

"The issues being raised in the United States at present regarding BP refer to the Prisoner Transfer Agreement negotiated by the governments of the UK and Libya, and therefore have nothing to do with the decision on compassionate release which is a totally different process, based on entirely different criteria.

"We were always totally opposed to the prisoner transfer agreement negotiated between the UK and Libyan governments.

"The memorandum that led to the PTA was agreed without our knowledge and against our wishes."