Lautenberg & Menendez: Did BP sell out justice for 33 New Jerseyans for windfall profit?

by: Rosi Efthim

Tue Jul 13, 2010 at 03:24:17 PM EDT

Senators Lautenberg & Menendez and both NY senators are calling for a federal investigation into reports that British Petroleum (BP) was behind the early release of a convicted bomber to arranged to secure an oil contract with the nation of Libya - a deal that may rake in $20 billion for BP, says Lautenberg.

When Abdel Basset al Megrahi bombed Pan Am Flight 103 out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, he killed 270 people, including 189 Americans - 33 of them from NJ. Megrahi was convicted, but only served 8 years in Scotland on a life sentence. When he was released on compassionate grounds - cancer - in August, there were protests in several countries, including NJ fury at the rumored arrival Colonel Gaddafi, and reports of celebration when Megrahi's plane safely landed in Libya.

The senators are right to demand an investigation, no matter what dark corporate truths BP may be hiding.

Full text of the senators' letter to Secy of State Clinton. Here's the money quote:

Evidence in the Deepwater Horizon disaster seems to suggest that BP would put profit ahead of people - its attention to safety was negligible, and it routinely underestimated the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf. The question we now have to answer is, was this corporation willing to trade justice in the murder of 270 innocent people for oil profits? Answering this crucial question will help complete our understanding of the Scottish court's decision to release this murderer and will help us understand if BP might use blood money to pay claims for damage in the Gulf of Mexico.