Leaders blast release of Lockerbie bomber

WASHINGTON – British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday turned aside United States calls for an investigation into the release of the Lockerbie bomber by Scotland and said there was no indication that oil giant BP had swayed the controversial decision.Both Cameron and President Barack Obama, who met with him at the White House, condemned the release of Libyan bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi from a Scottish prison.Still, Cameron said the release was not the doing of the British government nor, apparently, the result of any lobbying by BP, Britain’s largest company, to win oil concessions from Libya. Rather, it was a decision by the government of Scotland on compassionate grounds, he said.“It was the biggest mass murder in British history, and there was no business letting him out of prison,” Cameron said.Said Obama: “I think all of us here in the United States were surprised, disappointed and angry.”Cameron said at a joint White House news conference with Obama that any role that BP might have played in the Lockerbie release “is a matter for BP to answer”. But he went on to say there was no evidence that Scotland’s decision was influenced by BP.At issue is the British oil giant’s efforts to win ratification of a deepwater oil deal off Libya’s coast.Cameron said he and Obama were in “violent agreement” that the release was a mistake. (AP)