It sure looks that way.
Was it an oil deal? Convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi flew home from a Scottish prison on Thursday, freed by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds because doctors say Megrahi's cancer will kill him within three months. But was that the real reason? Could Britain have traded Megrahi in return for lucrative deals with the energy-rich North African nation?
British officials strongly deny any such arrangement with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. But on Friday, Libya watchers and oil analysts said they believed that the decision to free the only person convicted in the 1988 Pan Am Airlines bombing was connected to British investment interests. "It [Megrahi's release] was a matter of when, not if," says Molly Tarhuni, manager of the international security program at the London-based think tank Chatham House. "It's a very strong possibility" that a deal was struck, she says. "There are benefits to Britain having done it. This was the last in a long chain of deals."
Yes, some twenty odd years later justice comes crashing down and a mass murderer is welcomed as a returning hero.
Hat tip, PaleoCon Command Center for the cartoon.
JW sums it up succinctly.
Another demonstration of the urgent need for energy independence -- as much as possible, as soon as possible. Imagine the moral compromises and foreign policy blunders that would not be up for discussion without the economic blackmail made possible by the current global demand for oil and gas.
Moreover, citizens of the US and other Western nations have to let our leaders know that our lives are in no uncertain terms to be part of any deal with terrorists. Our safety is not a bargaining chip. We have to let our outrage be known to the powers that be or we are certain face even greater dangers only to have them forgiven...no, rewarded! By those who have sworn to protect us.
