http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/12/us-senators-report-on-lockerbie-bombers-release-no-medical-justification-scots-pressured-by-london-o.htmlU.S. senators' report on Lockerbie bomber's release: no medical justification, Scots pressured by London over oil deal
As long suspected, on both counts. To allow Gadhafi to succeed at blackmail sets a disastrous precedent, and encourages more of the same. "U.K. Pressured Scots to Release Lockerbie Bomber Out of Concern for Oil Deal, Report Finds," from Fox News, November 21 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Fear of "commercial warfare" from Libya led the British government to pressure Scotland to free the convicted Lockerbie bomber last year, reads a report being released Tuesday by four U.S. senators.
The lengthy report, which calls on the British and Scottish governments to apologize for Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's release, concludes that a $900 million oil deal with Libya ultimately paved the way for the Scottish justice system to free al-Megrahi in August 2009.
The report says that faulty medical analysis was used to justify his release on "compassionate" grounds, a decision described as a crass component of a complicated trade relationship between the United Kingdom and Libya.
"The U.K. government played a direct, critical role in al-Megrahi's release," the report states. "The U.K. knew that in order to maintain trade relations with Libya, it had to give into political demands."
The investigation was led by New Jersey Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg and New York Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. The report comes on the 22nd anniversary of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, an attack that killed 270 people, many of them American. [...]
Explanations about the release, challenged from the start by outraged U.S. officials, began to unravel within days after al-Megrahi was allowed to return to his country, where he was given a hero's welcome complete with a greeting on the tarmac by Libyan President Muammar al-Qaddafi.
Regardless, the senators' latest report claims there was "no medical justification" for his release.
According to the five month investigation, the Scottish government ignored expert opinions challenging the three-month time frame, instead relying on doctors "without the necessary medical training or experience with prostate cancer to provide an accurate prognosis."...