British leader David Cameron leaves door open to a formal inquiry after meeting with Schumer, Gillibrand and New Jersey senators.
From left, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., hold a news conference Tuesday night in front of the British Embassy in Washington, after meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron regarding last year's release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.Washington -- British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed Tuesday night to consider investigating Scotland’s release of the Lockerbie bomber after the senators from New York and New Jersey made a personal appeal for his help.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the small breakthrough came at a meeting at the British Embassy in Washington with Cameron and the four senators.
“We really got the sincere impression he was not just going through the motions,” Schumer said outside the British Embassy after meeting with Cameron for almost an hour. “He was not just giving us the back of his hand.”
Schumer and U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said the prime minister agreed that a full, independent investigation was not off the table.
Until the meeting, Cameron spent most of Tuesday turning aside U.S. calls to investigate the release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the Libyan agent convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988.
The terror attack killed 270 people, including 35 Syracuse University students returning from a semester abroad and five others with ties to Central New York.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference Tuesday. He is with Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., right, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., in front of the British Embassy in Washington.Cameron, making his first visit to the United States, said earlier in the day at the White House that there was no indication oil giant BP had swayed the controversial decision to free al-Megrahi.
The cancer-stricken Libyan agent was released from a Scottish prison in August 2009 after doctors said he had only three months to live. Earlier this month, one of the doctors said he could live for years.
Schumer and the other senators said that fact, combined with reports that BP may have lobbied for al-Megrahi’s release in exchange for a $900 million Libyan oil-drilling contract, is enough reason to begin an investigation.
Earlier in the day at the White House, both Cameron and President Barack Obama condemned al-Megrahi’s early release from prison.
Cameron, however, said the release was not prompted by the British government nor the result of any lobbying by BP, Britain's largest company, to win oil concessions from Libya.
Rather, Cameron said, it was a decision by the government of Scotland on “compassionate” grounds – a decision he disagreed with.
“It was the biggest mass murder in British history, and there was no business letting him out of prison,” Cameron said.
Cameron said his government would review previously-released information about the decision to release al-Megrahi. He told reporters at the White House there is no need for a new investigation because, “I don’t need an inquiry to tell me it was a bad decision.”
He apparently modified his position in the evening after hearing from Schumer, Gillibrand and the New Jersey senators who represent many of the victims’ families.
Schumer appeared at Syracuse University on Monday with some of the families to call for an independent British investigation as well as hearings in Congress. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee agreed to begin with a public hearing July 29.
Obama said Tuesday he was disappointed by the decision to release the Libyan agent, but he stopped short of demanding an investigation by the British government or Congress.
“I think all of us here in the United States were surprised, disappointed, and angry about the release of the Lockerbie bomber,” Obama said, adding that he would “welcome any additional information that will give us insights and a better understanding of why the decision was made.”
- The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Post-Standard Washington correspondent Mark Weiner at mweiner@syracuse.com or 571-970-3751.