Word: britains
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...There may be little an inquiry could discover that cannot be gleaned from the documents, which reveal how Britain's clumsy realpolitik and the ambitions of the nationalist-led Scottish government to assert independence from Westminster led to a messy outcome. On one point at least, conspiracy theorists were wrong: this was never all about oil. Preserving and expanding Britain's commercial interests in Libya was always a part of the equation, but so too was a desire to seal Libya's rehabilitation...
...blasted off in Tripoli on Sept. 1 with many world leaders - including Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy - absent. While many African and Arab leaders as well as Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez were there, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was the only Western European leader to attend. Britain's Prince Andrew, who is scheduled to hold trade talks with Gaddafi this week, also canceled. (See the top 10 Berlusconi-isms...
...Despite suspicions among some politicians and some of the victims' families of a secret deal between Libya and Britain, Prime Minister Brown and key Cabinet members have insisted that al-Megrahi's release was decided solely by Scotland's Justice Minister, Kenny MacAskill, who freed him on compassionate grounds, saying he was dying of prostate cancer and had only three months left to live. (Read "Was Oil Part of a Deal for the Lockerbie Bomber...
...Libya's Minister of External Relations, Mohammed Siala, further stoked the secret-deal theory on Sept. 1 when he suggested that the release would probably help Britain's prospects in the country. "This political problem is unstuck. At least we moved it away, and this will open good avenues for developing relations," he told reporters in Tripoli...
...Perhaps for that reason, Libyan officials seem almost indifferent to the West's ire over al-Megrahi. In fact, on Aug. 31, Minister of International Cooperation Siala told reporters in Tripoli that Libya thinks now is a good time to ask Britain to investigate an assassination plot several years ago against Gaddafi - a plot which British officials deny ever existed. For its part, Britain wants Libyan officials to divulge information about the murder of British police officer Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot outside the Libyan embassy in 1984. What happens next between Britain and Libya could reveal whether al-Megrahi...