The government was responding to reports that the British government wanted al Megrahi to be eligible for release in order to smooth the way for the British oil giant BP to win exploration rights in Libya. But Justice Minister Jack Straw acknowledged Sunday that a key element of the story was correct — that Libya had demanded al Megrahi be included in a prisoner transfer agreement, and that, after initial resistance, the UK agreed to the demand.
The Sunday Times claimed that Libya had insisted that al Megrahi be freed before it would approve an enormous contract with BP. BP announced the deal in May 2007, promising an initial investment of $900 million to explore two Libyan areas — one the size of Belgium and the other as large as Kuwait. But Libya did not approve the deal until after London dropped its objection to releasing al Megrahi, the Sunday Times alleged. Libya’s parliament approved the BP exploration deal four days after the alleged Straw letter was dated.

This controversy about whether the British Government made the deal to win a commercial agreement can be damaging, and is something that a large number of people would be willing to believe (actually, I consider that this might actually be true, even though there is no actual confirmation). Political opponents to Prime Minister Gordon Brown must be smelling blood, seeing a way to tar him with the feather of ‘terrorits-for-trade’, and given the recent political problems of Gordon Brown, it could place him in an uncomfortable position if further media research reveals more such secrets in this area.

Libya has paid $1.5bn into a US compensation fund for relatives of victims of terror attacks blamed on Tripoli, the US state department says. The fund was agreed in August to settle remaining lawsuits in the US. The attacks include the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people and the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco which killed three and wounded more than 200. Under the deal, Libya did not accept responsibility for the attacks, but agreed to compensate victims.
In exchange, President Bush has signed an executive order restoring the Libyan government’s immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing pending compensation cases in the US, the White House said. Relations between Libya and the US improved in 2003 when Tripoli stopped working on weapons of mass destruction. The decision led to the restoration of US diplomatic ties with Libya in 2006.

This coming back into the international community has helped Libya immensely. It has managed to get investors coming back into the country, and it needs these investors for improving the lot of its citizens. These investors include global oil companies that are helping Libya develop its oil fields, and raising the promise of generating huge amounts of revenue from oil and gas, like other oil exporters.