British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is in a difficult situation over the recent release of the Lockerbie bomber Libyan Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi. He is caught in a web of entanglement, and the more he tries to distance himself from this case, the more it looks like there is some connection between Megrahi’s release and the oil contract that BP secured previously. Some relatives of passengers who died when a bomb planted by Megrahi ripped apart Pan Am Fight 103 over Lockerbie believe that there is such a link.
Now Prime Minister Gordon Brown is fighting back: ”There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double dealing, no deal on oil, no attempt to instruct Scottish ministers, no private assurances by me to Colonel Gaddafi. We were absolutely clear throughout, with the Libyans and everybody else, that this was a decision for the Scottish Government.”
But why the reference to double dealing? Well, some people believe that Prime Minister Gordan Brown was doing just that – double dealing. Trouble started when it emerged that a junior minister had told Libya that both he and Prime Minister Gordan Brown did not want the Lockerbie bomber who was suffering from terminal stage prostate cancer to die in a Scottish prison. Now David Cameron, leader of the opposition, said: ”The accusation is that they said one thing to the Libyans, ‘we don’t want this man to die in prison’ and yet the British government had pretty consistently said to the Americans that this man would serve his sentence in Scotland.” And add to this the recent revelation that Prime Minister Gordon Brown had written to Libayan leader Moammar Gadhafi not to give Megrahi a celebratory welcome suggests that Prime Minister Gordon Brown at least did have prior knowledge that Megrahi would be released on compassionate ground.
Well, if this case is not about oil, then what is it all about? Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it was about the fight against terrorism and nuclear proliferation and it was part of the wider negotiations to bring Libya back into the international community. But the Americans are not buying this, and have warned of repercussions to relations between both countries over this case.
Think about it. How did British Prime Minister Gordon Brown get into this web of entanglement? Was he hiding something? Was Libya right in saying that there was a deal to free Megrahi in return for oil? Who is telling the truth anyway? If there is such a deal, is it morally right to free a convicted murderer? And where do the victims of Pan Am Flight 103 stand in all this?
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