US attempts to extract answers on the release of the bomber have been rejected
WASHINGTON: US anger over the Megrahi affair is threatening to open a diplomatic rift after Scotland refused to let any of its ministers attend a US Senate hearing next week on the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
Risking the fury of US relatives of Lockerbie victims, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday said he had offered “all the assistance that could reasonably be expected of an overseas government”. He declined an invitation on behalf of Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill, who authorised Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi’s release last year on compassionate grounds.
Former British justice minister Jack Straw was also invited to shed light on the reasons for Megrahi’s release, but he stalled over what he called a highly unusual request.
Others invited to appear before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee included BP chief executive Tony Hayward; Mark Allen, a former MI6 officer who lobbied the British government on BP’s behalf in connection with a Libyan oil deal in 2007, and Andrew Fraser, director of health at the Scottish Prison Service at the time of Megrahi’s release. None of them had accepted the committee’s invitation yesterday.
Their reluctance to revisit the Megrahi decision, which sparked protests in the US after it became clear that he could live for years, came two days after British Prime Minister David Cameron said his government would, “in terms of the congressional hearing, make sure that proper co-operation is extended to it”.
Mr Salmond sought to pre-empt the US requests with a detailed letter to John Kerry, chairman of the Senate committee, on Wednesday. In the letter, he stated “the Scottish government has never, at any point, received any representations from BP in relation to al-Megrahi”. He insisted that if the US still suspected BP’s lobbying to keep alive a $US900million oil deal with Libya played a role in the release “then it is BP and the previous UK administration that should be the focus of your inquiries”.
Mr Straw did not rule out attending the hearing but said he would want to know the circumstances and talk to former British prime minister Gordon Brown.
Told by The Times that he had been asked to appear, he said: “In principle I would have no difficulty talking to anyone about the negotiations over the prisoner transfer agreement”, a reference to the arrangement by which the Libyan government initially sought the release of Megrahi.
But he said he would have to consult others. Last year, The Times learned Mr Straw had received two phone calls from Sir Mark, then a consultant for BP, in the weeks before he gave up trying to exclude Megrahi from the PTA.
“The wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage and, in view of the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom, I have agreed that in this instance the PTA should be in the standard form and not mention any individual,” he wrote at the time. Such communications have fuelled US suspicions.
The Senate committee invited Dr Fraser because it was his report to Mr MacAskill that said Megrahi’s prostate cancer gave him three months to live.
In his letter to Mr Salmond requesting the attendance of Dr Fraser and Mr MacAskill, senator Robert Menendez said the committee wanted to “better understand the factors” behind the decision, “and in particular whether a $US900m oil exploration deal between BP and Libya directly or indirectly influenced the decision to release al-Megrahi”.
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