Ken Berwitz

From www.littlegreenfootballs.com (and many other web sites) comes this unspeakably ugly claim:

Lockerbie Bomber Released for Oil?

World | Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 8:43:31 am PDT

Scottish officials said they were releasing Lockerbie terrorist Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi for “compassionate reasons.”

Well, that ... and those Libyan oil contracts.

LONDON — In the wake of the sole convicted Lockerbie bomber’s return to a hero’s welcome in Tripoli, questions intensified in Britain on Friday as to whether lucrative Libyan oil contracts were as much a factor in his release as compassion for a dying man.

The bomber, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, suffering from terminal prostate cancer, was freed from a Scottish prison on Thursday and flown home in a V.I.P. jetliner to scenes of jubilation in Libya that were broadcast around the world, angering many in Britain and America, including President Obama.

On Friday, Lord Trefgarne, chairman of the Libyan British Business Council, said Mr. Megrahi’s release had opened the way for Britain’s leading oil companies to pursue multibillion-dollar oil contracts with Libya, which had demanded Mr. Megrahi’s return in talks with British officials and business executives.

If this is true, it makes me sick to my stomach. 

And, sadly, it has the ring of credibility since, in looking for a reason that this subhuman mass-murdering scumbag was set free, a quid pro quo of some kind is the most logical explanation.

That said, though, we have to be fair.  As of now this claim is being denied.  So let's hold off until we see what information comes forward in the next few days. 

But the UK better have something more than a smile and a verbal assurance to convince us.  A lot more.