Gordon Brown Admits Role in Terrorist Release

From the London Times:

Gordon Brown was dragged into the centre of the row over the early release of the Lockerbie bomber last night after it emerged that a key decision that could have paved the way for the terrorist to serve his sentence in Libya was approved by Downing Street.

A source close to Jack Straw told The Times that the move to include Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement in 2007 was a government decision and was not made at the sole discretion of the Justice Secretary. "It wasn't just Jack who decided this. It was a Government decision. Jack did not act unilaterally."

The row over the early release of the Lockerbie bomber ten days ago shows no sign of abating after the Ministry of Justice indicated yesterday that the decision to include al-Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement had been made with the possibility of trade deals with Libya in mind.

British Justice Secretary Jack Straw is sounding a bit like Harry Reid. From the London Telegraph:

Mr Straw said Britain forced Libya to give up its nuclear weapons programme in 2003, and "obviously, they had to have something for that."

"But the suggestion that at any stage there was some kind of backdoor deal done over Mr Megrahi's transfer because of trade is simply untrue," he continued.

"All this, however, is academic as Mr Megrahi was not released under the PTA treaty but quite separately by the Scottish Executive on compassionate grounds."

So Mr. Megrahi's release had nothing to do with trade negotiations between Britain and Libya? It was a "quite separate" event? Well, not exactly.

In a letter to [Scots Justice Minister Kenny] MacAskill, written in December 2007and leaked on Sunday, Mr Straw said: "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 (PTA) should be in the standard form and not mention any individual."

Six weeks after the PTA was agreed, Libya ratified a £15billion oil and gas exploration deal with BP.

One wonders how much longer Gordon Brown can treat water. His government appears to be corrupt and incompetent beyond repair.