Gordon Brown

If David Cameron has a pair, he will move for a vote of no-confidence as soon as is humanly possible. 

The Sunday Times has in its possession leaked documents, which show a completely different truth about the "compassionate" release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber. 

It turns out, it was just like anyone with half a brain thought: blood for oil.

During the past year a small ship bristling with computers and seismic equipment has been crisscrossing the Gulf of Sidra, in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast. Its mission: to help to find BP’s next offshore oilfields.

The company’s search for oil off Libya and in a 20,000-mile area in the west of the country potentially offers as much as £15 billion in new revenue. But less than two years ago it was feared that the deal could founder; and the reason was wrangling over Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the jailed Lockerbie bomber.

BP was finally given the go-ahead six weeks after a volte-face by the British government to include Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya under which prisoners could serve out sentences in their home countries. Jack Straw, the justice secretary, revealed this decision in a letter to his Scottish counterpart. He cited “wider negotiations” and the “overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom”.

Sources in the UK and Tripoli said last week that those wider interests included BP’s hoped-for share of Libya’s untapped oil and gas reserves. The decision to include Megrahi in the prisoner transfer arrangement was seen by Libyan officials as paving the way for his release — and BP’s much-coveted deal was finally ratified.

{...}The detailed correspondence seen by The Sunday Times confirms that the Lockerbie bomber’s fate was regarded by the UK government as pivotal to relations with Libya. It also shows how anxious the government was to curry favour with Colonel Muammar Gadaffi by being seen to open the way for Megrahi’s release.

The government now faces new questions over its exact role in trade talks and whether or not it favoured Megrahi. William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, is calling for full disclosure of whether commercial contracts for oil were discussed as part of the negotiations for the Libya-UK prisoner transfer treaty.{...}

The gist of the deal is thus: in 2007, then-PM Tony Blair hashed out a prisoner transfer release agreement with Ghaddafi.  Al-Megrahi was specifically not mentioned in the agreement.  Soon after British Petroleum's deal with Libya was ratified by Libya six weeks later.  Tony then leaves office, Gordon Brown gets his shot at the brass ring, and suddenly, the new justice minister, Jack Straw, is advocating to Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice minister, that, yes, it would be very good indeed for British national interests if Al-Megrahi were to be released.  Which was a switch from what Lord Falconer, Blair's justice minister, wrote to MacAskill a few months previous.  

As the man said, go read the whole thing.

It would seem as if it was very convenient for the UK Labour government for Al-Megrahi to have come down with so-called terminal prostate cancer, as it gave Brown's government an easy way to please Ghaddafi, without ruffling too many American feathers.  And it might have turned out that way had Ghaddafi put a lid on any celebration at the Tripoli airport when Al-Megrahi returned.  

It shouldn't surprise anyone that this is the truth of the situation.  Britain invented petro-politics---does Iran, 1953 ring a bell?--- and that they're still know how to play the game shouldn't shock anyone.   

The only problem with this scenario is that here you have a deeply unpopular government, who is doing everything they possibly can to raise their rankings in the polls before the next scheduled election cycle---and who is not having much luck with it.  This could very well be the final nail in Brown's coffin. 

I don't know. 

But, like I said at the beginning of this screed, if David Cameron has any resemblence of a pair, he should go on the offensive about this as soon as possible. And he shouldn't let up about it.  This is the opportunity he's been waiting for.