Lockerbie bomber 'set free for oil'
London Times
Jason Allardyce
August 30, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6814939.ece
The British government decided it was "in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom" to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.
Gordon Brown's government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.
The letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who has been widely criticised for taking the formal decision to permit Megrahi's release.
The correspondence makes it plain that the key decision to include Megrahi in a deal with Libya to allow prisoners to return home was, in fact, taken in London for British national interests.
Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: "This is the strongest evidence yet that the British government has been involved for a long time in talks over al-Megrahi in which commercial considerations have been central to their thinking."
Two letters dated five months apart show that Straw initially intended to exclude Megrahi from a prisoner transfer agreement with Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, under which British and Libyan prisoners could serve out their sentences in their home country.
In a letter dated July 26, 2007, Straw said he favoured an option to leave out Megrahi by stipulating that any prisoners convicted before a specified date would not be considered for transfer.
Downing Street had also said Megrahi would not be included under the agreement.
Straw then switched his position as Libya used its deal with BP as a bargaining chip to insist the Lockerbie bomber was included.
The exploration deal for oil and gas, potentially worth up to £15 billion, was announced in May 2007. Six months later the agreement was still waiting to be ratified.
On December 19, 2007, Straw wrote to MacAskill announcing that the UK government was abandoning its attempt to exclude Megrahi from the prisoner transfer agreement, citing the national interest.
In a letter leaked by a Whitehall source, he wrote: "I had previously accepted the importance of the al-Megrahi issue to Scotland and said I would try to get an exclusion for him on the face of the agreement. I have not been able to secure an explicit exclusion.
"The wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage and, in view of the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom, I have agreed that in this instance the [prisoner transfer agreement] should be in the standard form and not mention any individual."
Within six weeks of the government climbdown, Libya had ratified the BP deal. The prisoner transfer agreement was finalised in May this year, leading to Libya formally applying for Megrahi to be transferred to its custody.
Saif Gadaffi, the colonel's son, has insisted that negotiation over the release of Megrahi was linked with the BP oil deal: "The fight to get the [transfer] agreement lasted a long time and was very political, but I want to make clear that we didn't mention Mr Megrahi.
"At all times we talked about the [prisoner transfer agreement]. It was obvious we were talking about him. We all knew that was what we were talking about.
"People should not get angry because we were talking about commerce or oil. We signed an oil deal at the same time. The commerce and oil deals were all with the [prisoner transfer agreement]."
His account is confirmed by other sources. Sir Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Libya and a board member of the Libyan British Business Council, said: "Nobody doubted Libya wanted BP and BP was confident its commitment would go through. But the timing of the final authority to spend real money was dependent on politics."
Bob Monetti of New Jersey, whose son Rick was among the victims of the 1988 bombing, said: "It's always been about business."
BP denied that political factors were involved in the deal's ratification or that it had stalled during negotiations over the prisoner transfer talks.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman denied there had been a U-turn, but said trade considerations had been a factor in negotiating the prisoner exchange deal. He said Straw had unsuccessfully tried to accommodate the wish of the Scottish government to exclude Megrahi from agreement.
The spokesman claimed the deal was ultimately "academic" because Megrahi had been released on compassionate grounds: "The negotiations on the [transfer agreement] were part of wider negotiations aimed at the normalisation of relations with Libya, which included a range of areas, including trade.
"The exclusion or inclusion of Megrahi would not serve any practical purpose because the Scottish executive always had a veto on whether to transfer him."
A spokesman for Lord Mandelson said he had not changed his position that the release of Megrahi was not linked to trade deals.
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Secret letters reveal Labour's Libyan deal
London Times
Jason Allardyce
August 30, 2009
Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Jason Allardyce
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6814974.ece
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.
BP last week denied the agreement was influenced by talks over prisoner transfers and specifically Megrahi. But other sources insist the two were clearly linked. Saad Djebbar, an international lawyer who advises the Libyan government and who visited Megrahi in jail in Scotland, said: "No one was in any doubt that if alMegrahi died in a Scottish prison it would have serious repercussions for many years which would be to the disadvantage of British industry."
Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, said last weekend: "The idea that the British government and the Libyan government would sit down and somehow barter over the freedom or the life of this Libyan prisoner and make it form part of some business deal ... it's not only wrong, it's completely implausible and actually quite offensive."
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.
In the 1980s -- after the shooting of a British policewoman outside the Libyan embassy in London and the Lockerbie bombing which claimed 270 lives -- Libya was an international outcast. But the past decade has seen a remarkable transformation, with the country dismantling its weapons of mass destruction.
Tony Blair helped with Gadaffi's diplomatic rehabilitation, taking high-profile trips to Libya in 2004 and 2007. At the second meeting, when an unkempt and unshaven Gadaffi met Blair in a tent in the desert, it was announced that the two countries had agreed a memorandum of understanding covering civil and criminal legal co-operation, extradition and prison transfer.
Questions were immediately asked whether the arrangement would cover Megrahi, who was convicted in 2001 for taking part in the bombing and sentenced to life imprisonment. Downing Street insisted the agreement would not lead to his release. "The memorandum of understanding agreed with the Libyan government does not cover this case," said a spokesman at the time.
During Blair's 2007 visit, BP signed its exploration deal with Libya's National Oil Corporation. "This is a welcome return to the country and represents a significant opportunity for both BP and Libya to deliver our long-term growth aspirations," said Tony Hayward, BP group chief executive, who signed the contract with Blair looking on.
The prisoner transfer agreement -- and specifically the fate of Megrahi -- were inextricably linked with the BP deal. Six months after Blair's trip, and with Gordon Brown in No 10, the Libyans were frustrated that the prisoner transfer agreement had not even been drafted. The BP contract was also waiting to be ratified.
The key reason for the delay in the prisoner transfer agreement was Megrahi. Lord Falconer, who was Blair's justice secretary, had told the Scottish government in a letter on June 22, 2007 that "any prisoner transfer agreement with Libya could not cover al-Megrahi".
Straw, appointed justice secretary by Brown, set out his favoured option for excluding Megrahi in another letter the following month.
The Libyans were furious and the BP deal -- in which £545m would be spent on exploration alone -- was an ace in their hand.
"Nobody doubted that Libya wanted BP and BP was confident its commitment would go through," said Sir Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Libya and a director of the Libyan British Business Council. "But the timing of the final authority to spend real money on the ground was dependent on politics."
The Libyans insisted that Megrahi must be covered by the prisoner transfer agreement. The government relented and Straw was forced into a U-turn. "I have not been able to secure an explicit exclusion," he wrote in a letter to Kenny MacAskill, his Scottish counterpart.
"The wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage and in view of the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom, I have agreed in this instance the [prisoner transfer agreement] should be in the standard form and not mention any individual."
Six weeks later BP announced its deal had been ratified.
Negotiations over the release of Megrahi had been spearheaded by Gadaffi's son, Saif. He was also courting influential figures and financiers in Russia, America and the UK to improve his country's image and forge new business links.
Brown Lloyd James, a public relations firm with offices in London and New York, has opened an office in Tripoli. It is reported to have placed articles by Colonel Gadaffi in American newspapers. The firm would not comment last week.
One of the firm's founders is Peter Brown, an old friend of Mandelson. The business secretary, who has stayed with Brown on the Caribbean island of St Barts, said this weekend that he could not recollect discussing Libya with anyone from Brown Lloyd James.
It is perhaps inevitable that the high-powered and wealthy figures who mix with Saif Gadaffi also pass through Mandelson's orbit. Mutual associates include Lord Rothschild, his son Nat, and the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, whose company Rusal has interests in Libya.
To Deripaska and Nat Rothschild, Saif Gadaffi is an invaluable business contact. They were invited to his 37th birthday party in Montenegro, where they are both investors in a new marina development.
There is some bafflement in Tripoli that British ministers are not talking up the possible business opportunities of an even more cordial relationship.
Djebbar said: "Britain can continue with this political absurdity [of recriminations] or get their businesses to take advantage of the goodwill towards them."
Megrahi said public focus should be on identifying the perpetrators of the Lockerbie bombing. In an interview published yesterday, Megrahi, who insists he is innocent, said: "We all want to know the truth. I support the issue of a public inquiry."
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Lord Mandelson accused of secretly lobbying for Libya during Lockerbie bomber talks
Lord Mandelson has been accused of secretly lobbying for the interests of Libya at the time of its alleged prisoner-for-oil deal with Britain.
London Telegraph
By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels, Andrew Alderson in London and Alastair Jamieson in Podgorica
Published: 9:00PM BST 29 Aug 2009
Lord Mandelson has been accused of secretly lobbying for the interests of Libya at the time of its alleged prisoner-for-oil deal with Britain.
Informed sources say that, nearly a year after Lord Mandelson stepped down as European Trade Commissioner to return to the Cabinet, he has continued to push personally for a new and quick European Union (EU) trade deal with Libya.
The persistence of his lobbying on Baroness Ashton, his successor as Trade Commissioner, is said to have alarmed officials at the EU headquarters.
"Mandelson has been putting Ashton under pressure to give something quicker to Libya," said one European official close to the trade talks. The Business Secretary has however strongly denied the allegation.
Lord Mandelson's increasing links to Libya can be revealed just days after Saif Gaddafi, the Libyan leader's son, insisted that freedom for the Lockerbie bomber was directly linked to lucrative deals in the north African country for British firms.
Last year Lord Mandelson – who has twice been forced to resign from the Government – pledged to avoid potential conflicts of interest after he was found to have misled the public about the length of his friendship with Oleg Deripaska, a controversial Russian oligarch.
The Business Secretary, who is effectively Gordon Brown's right-hand man, faced fresh calls yesterday to "come clean" over his links to Mr Gaddafi and Libya.
The country was a pariah nation until six years ago when, in return for a lifting of economic sanctions, it accepted responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, above Lockerbie, in December 1988.
Opposition politicians also want to know whether Lord Mandelson and the Labour Government encouraged Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Minister, to free the only man convicted of the bombing, which claimed 270 lives.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, 57, was released on compassionate grounds 10 days ago because doctors say he is suffering from terminal cancer.
The Business Secretary has denied that a deal was done to free Megrahi, even though Mr Gaddafi last week repeated his earlier claim that bomber's freedom was related to talks over trade agreements. Deals include a £545 million deal for BP.
Lord Mandelson has, however, admitted that he discussed the Megrahi case with Mr Gaddafi earlier this month – and just a week before it was first speculated that the Libyan was to be freed from his life sentence.
An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has also revealed further links between the Business Secretary and Libya:
* On February 27 2008, Lord Mandelson, as Trade Commissioner, proposed that the EU should start negotiations for a "Framework Agreement", to develop trade and other links, with Libya. He said: "An ambitious Free Trade Agreement would intensify co-operation between the EU and Libya on trade and economic issues and would further strengthen and deepen our relationship." Such an agreement usually takes up to 10 years to arrange.
* In June of this year, British officials lobbied other EU member states to give interim trade breaks to Libya by scrapping tariffs on certain textiles and engineering products.
* In Montenegro, where Mr Deripaska and Nat Rothschild, two of Lord Mandelson's most wealthy and controversial associates, have invested, their £500-million new marina project is on the site of a shipyard that had Libyan links.
After the Porto Montenegro marina project, in which Mr Deripaska, Mr Rothschild and others have invested millions, was launched in 2007, some 100 workers from the former government shipyard on which it is being built were transferred to Libya. The workers had previously been overhauling Libyan warships.
The heat is on Lord Mandelson, the Prime Minister and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, this weekend after William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, demanded answers over their conduct.
"If there was no UK government involvement in the decision to release Megrahi then Gordon Brown and Lord Mandelson should have no objection to releasing details of the government's dealings with Libya," he said.
In a further embarrassment, Lord Jones of Birmingham – the former trade minister – criticised the fact that the decision to free Megrahi was taken in Edinburgh, rather than London.
"I don't think many people in England or indeed in Scotland would have believed that the devolution settlement would mean that a decision of such profound implications for the UK... would be taken like this."
A spokesman for Lord Mandelson confirmed his involvement in the Framework Agreement between the EU and Libya last year but said claims that the Business Secretary had pressured Baroness Ashton were "absolute and total nonsense".
He added: "Since stepping down as Trade Commissioner, he has had no focus whatsoever on Libya."
The 24-hectare marina site in Montenegro was sold to Peter Munk, the Canadian mining tycoon, for a reported price of only £3.2 million in a deal personally overseen by Milo Dukanovic, Montenegro's controversial prime minister.
Mr Gaddafi, who was a guest of Mr Rothschild at his villa in Corfu earlier this summer at the same time as Lord Mandelson, was actively promoting Libyan business interests in Montenegro, which is aggressively courting high-profile foreign investors.
During his time as EU Trade Commissioner in Brussels, Lord Mandelson championed the cause of Montenegro, supporting its entry into the World Trade Organisation and ending EU trade tariffs on the country's largest export, aluminium.
That move benefited Lord Mandelson's friend Mr Deripaska, who bought Montenegro's former state aluminium plant.
Oliver Corlette, the managing director of Porto Montenegro, said that the Libya shipyard deal was concluded by former owners of the site and was nothing to do with Lord Mandelson's associates.
He added that the "true cost" of the development was higher than the sale price because Mr Munk had agreed to spend millions of pounds cleaning up the former military yard and providing education and training in the local community as part of the sale agreement.
A spokesman for Mr Rothschild said the financier was not the principal investor in Porto Montenegro and stressed that Mr Gaddafi had no links whatsoever to the marina development nor did Mr Rothschild ever discuss any business projects with him in Montenegro.
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