>>
a role in last year's release of the only man convicted in the
1988
bombing of pan am flight 103
. nbc's chief
foreign affairs
correspondents
andrea mitchell
is in washington with the details on that. andrea, we have been in shock since this story broke and we realize what was happening here. it seems to me that there was a dirty deal in the making.
>>
well, i saw you discussing this with
richard haas
yesterday. new questions each today about this about just whether
bp
pressured the
british government
to release the lockerer bee bomber in exchange for a $900 million oil deal with
libya
.
>> reporter:
the outrage over the hero's welcome last year in
libya
for the only man convected of the
pan am
103 bombing, al megrahi a bombing that killed 273 people in
1988
including 189 americans many were students at
syracuse university
. megrahi was let free because libyan doctors said he had only three months to live, advanced
prostate cancer
. a year later he is still alive and thriving. and
bp
is being accused of pressuring the
british government
for his release. in exchange for an oil deal with
libya
. u.s. lawmakers are outraged.
>>
if
bp
is found to have gained access to libyan
oil reserves
by using a
mass murderer
as a bargaining chip, then make no mistake, any money it makes off of that oil is
blood money
, pure and simple.
>> reporter:
secretary of state
hillary clinton
was asked about the tradeoff.
>>
seriously, i received the letter.
>> reporter:
she said she would look into it but her spokesman suggested there is not much the u.s. can do.
>>
there are practical questions of exactly what they would be asking us to do and what would be our ability to -- to inquire as to, you know, any conversation that alleged to have taken place between a
private company
, a government, and another divulged government.
>> reporter:
bp
did acknowledge it talked to the
british government
in
2007
about the prisoner transfer. let me get the words straight. this is what they told us yesterday about the slow progress, their team of the prisoner trvers fer agreement and a delay could have, quote, a negative impact on british commercial interests including its oil explorations. to me that raises more questions than it answers. a lot of yes questions now being raised specifically because we all knew that they were releasing this man because of compassionate interests and libyan doctors said he was dying of advanced
prostate cancer
. now, a lot of questions about whether that
medical diagnosis
was completely fraudulent.
>>
first of all, he is still alive and no contingency to send him back because he was supposed to be dead.
>>
exactly.
>>
jon meacham
, your thoughts.
>>
if you weren't for solar and wind before, this would be the moment.
>>
you're right, you're right.
>>
this is
dirty business
. we celt with sudan in the
1990s
they had a
civil war
that killed 2 million people because we wanted a pipeline to get oil out of sudan. seems like the dirtiest dealers on the global stage are run by petro.
>>
some people attack the idea we're addicted to
foreign oil
and think obama has overstated that. this is clearly an addiction with all of the negative implications that come with it.
>>
jim kaimer, a terrorist that kills
american college
students released. most likely because
libya
is doing a deal with
british petroleum
.
>>
i think when this happened, i think a lot of americans said this was outrageous but we don't figure out why it was happening. this to me was -- this is like you got to be kidding me moment. and i think
bp
is a
world class
bad actor and the worst record of any company in the industry and it just seems like it's a
political animal
that is not that good that is
running wild
. investigate the heck out of it, as far as i'm concerned.
>>
andrea mitchell
, i suspect these investigations will grow on the hill on both sides of the hill, right?
>>
well, schumer and gillibrand making a
big deal
out of this, the new york and new jersey senators. the kir
syracuse university
, all of the people that were killed in that flight. the counterargument that they were making yesterday was the
bush administration
and the britts felt they should come clean on nukes and
chemical weapons
and taken off the terror list but that doesn't mean the other counterargument would mean they should get away with murder of more than 200 people. 270 people, guys.
>>
unbelievable.
>>
it's really sick.
>>
that
bp
statement is unbelievable. it is one of the most lawyered press release communication press release and it will insight people.
>>
andrea mitchell
, great to see you. we will be watching you at 1:00
eastern time
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