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Did oil play a role in al-Megrahi's release?

US Senator Joe Lieberman has urged an independent investigation of Scotland's decision to free Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi, the convicted Lockerbie bomber, expressing concern that British interest in Libyan oil may have played a role.

In urging the investigation, Lieberman pointed to "shocking" suggestions by Libyan leader Mu`ammar al-Qadhafi, his son Saif and the head of the British Libyan Business council that the release was mixed with Britain's interest in exploring oil in Libya.

"I don't want to believe that they are true, but they are hanging so heavily in the air that I hope that our friends in Britain will convene an independent investigation of this action by the Scottish justice minister to release a mass murderer," Liebermann told CNN.

Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat, said Lieberman's questioning of Scottish motives in releasing al-Megrahi "raises a very valid point."

"I think we need to know what this oil deal was all about and whether there was a compromise to the judicial system for commercial gain," Cardin told the same CNN program.

Senator Richard Lugar, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, took a more temperate view, telling CNN that while Washington "ought to condemn as strongly as possible this release," it was also necessary "to continue our relations with Libya."

"I think it's important to notice that President Qadhafi has a constituency in Libya. And the rest of the world is now engaged in diplomatic relations with Libya," Lugar said.

What’s your view on this situation? Did oil play a role or not? If so, do you think that matters, especially when – as Lugar puts it – the rest of the world is engaged in diplomatic relations with Libya?

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1 Comment:

anupam said...
Now a days Oil has become the cynosure of talk between countries and countries may go to any limit to have a safe availibility of crude oil...Be it diplomatic cause or a cause of national importance...I think their might have been an involvement of a conspiracy in the release of Ali al- Megrahi but it is too early to say that the cause behind is oil.

Wed Sep 23, 10:53:59 PM CDT

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Eric Watkins
OGJ Oil Diplomacy Blog
by Eric Watkins

Eric Watkins joined Oil & Gas Journal in 2001 as Middle East Correspondent and now serves as its Oil Diplomacy Editor, drawing out the industry’s political implications. His column Watching the World appears weekly in Oil & Gas Journal, while his news articles appear daily on Oil & Gas Journal Online. Eric’s work is based on his experience as a correspondent in the Middle East, Europe, and Central Asia. He lived in Saudi Arabia, 1981-88; Yemen, 1989-94; the UK, 1988-89 and 1994-2000; and Cyprus, 2000-04. Additional assignments have taken him to Africa, the Arabian Gulf, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.

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