Spotlight: The Lockerbie Bomber

Compassion, says the Oxford English Dictionary, means "suffering together." There has been plenty of that among politicians in London and Washington since Scotland's Justice Minister freed Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi on "compassionate grounds" Aug. 20, citing doctors' reports that he was dying of prostate cancer. Al-Megrahi, the sole person jailed for the deaths of 270 people in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, had served just eight years of a 27-year sentence. After all their grieving, the victims' loved ones had to watch al-Megrahi land in Tripoli, Libya, to rapturous crowds and the embrace of a delighted Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the country's leader. The White House called the homecoming "disgusting," and London let it be known that it had asked Gaddafi to keep al-Megrahi's arrival low key.

But had Britain asked for something else as well? The finger-pointing began even before al-Megrahi was released. Scotland may have had jurisdiction over the case, but British opposition politicians blamed Gordon Brown's government for its handling of the case. Victims' families and lawyers say they suspect that officials, eager to help British companies win multibillion-dollar energy and defense contracts, cut a backroom deal in exchange for al-Megrahi's freedom.

Beleaguered Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill insisted he alone freed al-Megrahi, but suspicions are likely to linger--especially given the West's careful wooing of Gaddafi since international sanctions ended in 2004. Within hours of a visit to Libya by then Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2007, Britain's BP inked a $900 million oil-and-gas-exploration deal. More recently, in July, Prime Minister Gordon Brown met Gaddafi during the G-8 summit in Italy. And a week before al-Megrahi's release, John McCain led a group of fellow Senators in trade talks with Gaddafi, tweeting on Aug. 15, "Late evening with Col. Qadhafi at his 'ranch' in Libya--interesting meeting with an interesting man."

Gaddafi thanked Britain for helping secure al-Megrahi's release. A British newspaper reported that Gaddafi's son (and possible successor) Seif al-Islam Gaddafi told al-Megrahi during the flight home that he was "on the table in all commercial, oil and gas agreements." British Foreign Secretary David Miliband vociferously rejects that claim, as does Business Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson, who twice met Seif this year. British officials must hope the brouhaha blows over soon. Because Libya's oil is light and low in sulfur, it is prized for being among the easiest to refine. And since Libya has nearly 44 billion bbl. of proven reserves, Western capitals have little intention of freezing out Gaddafi again.