White House Has Their Own Lockerbie Questions to Answer
Nile Gardiner /
The Lockerbie scandal has just become even murkier. According to a Sunday Times report yesterday “the US government secretly advised Scottish ministers that it would be ‘far preferable’ to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya.”
The newspaper obtained a leaked document which reveals that Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London, had written to Alex Salmond, Scottish First Minister, ahead of the release of the Lockerbie bomber. The correspondence indicates that the Obama administration’s opposition to the “compassionate” release of the Lockerbie bomber may not have been as clear-cut as it has subsequently claimed. In the August 12, 2009 letter, the senior US official appeared to condone “a conditional release on compassionate grounds” of convicted Libyan intelligence agent Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, if Scottish officials were determined to proceed with the release of al-Megrahi against the wishes of Washington. As The Sunday Times revealed: (more…)