BP, the Gulf oil spill and 87 days that changed the world

[IndianaGreen]

BP, the Gulf oil spill and 87 days that changed the world

The leak has stopped but the ramifications extend far beyond the Louisiana coastline

By David Usborne, US Editor

Saturday, 17 July 2010

All should be better for David Cameron as he goes to the White House on Tuesday to see Barack Obama now that BP has killed its black plume in the Gulf of Mexico. But it won't be, because he will find a Washington in full fulmination all over again about the release of the Lockerbie conspirator Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

In a sign of the most unusual strain between the two allies, the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, told the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, yesterday that when hearings into the circumstances of the release – and what involvement BP may have had behind the scenes – open on Capitol Hill on 29 July, she expects Britain to say something new. The implication is that the US isn't buying the explanations London has offered up so far.

Had it not been for the oil spill, BP may never have been in the dock over the Megrahi affair, but the anger in Washington over his release never went away. Ten days ago four US senators wrote a letter to the UK ambassador in Washington, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, voicing dismay over reports that medical reasons given for releasing him on "compassionate grounds" may have been concocted with Libya's direct encouragement. It was only a matter of days before the same senators connected the dots to BP and demanding hearings on the Hill.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bp-the-gulf-oil-spill-and-87-days-that-changed-the-world-2028674.html

[Rhiannon12866]

1. K&R. Thanks for posting this...

Sadly, the most important story of recent times, IMHO. :(