THE ADMISSION - AT 10:33 A.M. ET:  There is now an admission from a senior British official that money was indeed involved in the recent release of the Lockerbie bomber.  From Britain's Telegraph:

Jack Straw has reignited the row over the release of the Lockerbie bomber by admitting for the first time that trade and oil were an essential part of the Government’s decision to include him in a prisoner transfer deal with Libya.

The Justice Secretary said he was unapologetic about including Abdelbaset al Megrahi in the agreement, citing a multi-million-pound oil deal signed by BP and Libya six weeks later.

The admission directly contradicts Gordon Brown's insistence only days ago that oil deals were not a factor in the prisoner's release.

And...

Documents published this week showed Mr Straw originally promised that a prisoner transfer agreement would only be reached with Libya if Megrahi was excluded. But he later caved in to Libyan demands to include Megrahi. It followed a warning from BP that a failure to include the bomber could hurt the oil giant’s business interests.

When asked in the interview if trade and BP were factors, Mr Straw admits: “Yes, [it was] a very big part of that. I’m unapologetic about that... Libya was a rogue state.

“We wanted to bring it back into the fold. And yes, that included trade because trade is an essential part of it and subsequently there was the BP deal.”

COMMENT:  Let's see if the United States government has anything more to say about this sordid affair.  And let's have some commentators wonder out loud whether the British decision, deeply offensive to Americans, was made because the Brits knew that our soft, ineffective new president wouldn't complain too loudly.

September 5, 2009