Did BP Secure the Lockerbie Bomber's Release To Win Oil Deal?
Politicians like to point out the link between our oil dependence and our engagement with terrorist states. Now a new unfolding controversy, which is rather unbelievable even by BP's standards, makes that link as crystal clear as can be.
Libyan terrorist Abdelbaset al-Megrahi supposedly had three months to live when the British government used this fact to justify his controversial release from prison last August. But with his new lease on life, al-Megrahi, who conspired to kill 270 people, including 189 Americans, in blowing up a 1988 flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, has conveniently managed to find the will to live. His recent new prognosis gives him another decade. He is even writing a book.
What does this have to do with BP? Well, apparently a lot, according to four U.S. senators from New York and New Jersey. Today, they accused the British government of bowing to pressure from BP to release al-Megrahi to smooth the way for a $900 million Libyan oil drilling contract. The senators charge his dire medical situation was "fraudulent," and was used to drum up public support for the compassionate release.
The proof of BP's influence is circumstantial but convincing. In the time since, Libya's government has suddenly managed to smooth over several roadblocks to the oil deal, according to the senators. “If anyone thinks this is a coincidence, I have them a bridge to sell in Brooklyn,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said at a press conference, according to The Hill. The lawmakers are demanding a State Department investigation into the decision.
I, for one, am not buying Schumer's bridge. BP wields a huge amount of influence in the U.K., where many investment and pension funds had, at least before the spill, invested heavily in its blue chip stock for reliable dividends. This is one more particularly crazy example of the influence one of the wealthiest corporations in the world can buy. In the U.S., BP wields its power just as strongly, through the political process, through industry lobby groups, and through our perceived dependence on their jobs and their oil. In fact, taxpayers fork over millions to the oil and gas industry every year in federal subsidies as they hold us "hostage" to their whims.
And for those who argue it is an unfair knee-jerk reaction to blame BP for everything, this story is one clear reason why I'm just fine with my jerky knee, thank you very much.
Photo Credit: Lockerbie disaster memorial, Stara Blazkova, Wikimedia Commons
Jess Leber
is a Change.org editor. She most recently covered climate and energy issues as a reporter in Washington, D.C
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