Guess who has popped-up as David Cameron departs for Washington? The Lockerbie bomber,
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who is defying the gravest of medical prognoses.
It’s all suspiciously convenient, given Britain and America’s recent terse relations. What’s more BP, the international bogeyman, is in the firing line – Hillary Clinton will investigate rumours that the company conspired with the British government to include al-Megrahi in a Prisoner Transfer Agreement, and that BP pressured the Scottish executive to release al-Megrahi last summer.
She’s wasting her time: this well of fetid intrigue was capped last summer. Britain and Libya had to produce a PTA to normalise diplomatic relations so that trade could be opened and Gadaffi hired in the war on terror. The PTA mechanism had to include al-Megrahi, the only high profile Libyan in British custody, Gadaffi would not agree otherwise. The correspondence between Alex Salmond and British Justice Secretaries, Lord Falconer and Jack Straw, shows that the British government was determined to include al-Megrahi in the PTA, and that the Scottish executive, under whose jurisdiction al-Megrahi was incarcerated, were opposed.
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