LONDON, July 16 (UPI) -- The 2009 release of a Libyan agent imprisoned in Scotland for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 triggered a surge in contacts between oil-rich Libya's military and British arms manufacturers, The Guardian newspaper says.
In newly released documents obtained by the liberal daily under the Freedom of Information Act, officials of the U.K. Trade and Investment agency met a Libyan army officer to discuss "defense equipment cooperation" on Aug. 3, 2009 -- 17 days before the agent, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was freed.
The report came as Democratic senators in the United States called for an investigation into BP's business interests in Libya amid accusations that the oil giant was involved in a deal to free al-Megrahi.
BP signed a $900 million exploration agreement with Libya in May 2007, the same month that Britain and Libya signed a memorandum of understanding that paved the way for al-Megrahi's release from a Scottish prison on Aug. 20, 2009, because he was dying from prostate cancer.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., citing reports BP is about to start drilling in Libya's Gulf of Sirte, publicly questioned whether the company encouraged al-Megrahi's release to help close the deal during negotiations in 2007.
Al-Megrahi was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 by a special court in the Netherlands for bombing the Pan Am Boeing 747, killing all 259 aboard the jet, including 189 Americans, and 11 on the ground in the town of Lockerbie Dec. 21, 1988.
Washington stridently protested the release. Relatives of those who perished in the bombing, and others, voiced suspicions that the British Labor government then in power sought to exploit economic opportunities in the onetime pariah state by freeing al-Megrahi.
The Guardian reported Thursday that with the release UKTI installed a representative in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, and in August 2009 made five "introductory calls" on Libyan defense and security officials to drum up business.
He also held two meetings in the period Aug. 2-29 to discuss "English language training" for Libyan arms procurement officials, the newspaper said.
At the time, Libya, completing its rehabilitation in the international community after two decades of pariah status over Col. Moammar Gadhafi's support for international terrorism, was flush with oil and gas money. In 2007 his regime earned some $40 billion from energy exports.
In 2008 Britain approved arms sales to Libya worth some $18 million and $13.5 million in the first quarter of 2009. But UKTI insists there was no link between these deals and al-Megrahi's release.
But the British did make a major effort at that time to secure arms deals with their former adversary.
Prime Minister Tony Blair, accompanied by the CEO of MBDA, a European missile manufacturer in which Britain's BAE Systems has a 37.5 percent stake, made a high-profile visit to meet Gadhafi in May 2007.
Even as the BP deal was being announced, Blair signed an agreement establishing a defense partnership with Libya, and there was much talk of selling British missiles and air-defense systems to Gadhafi.
The Defense Export Services Organization, the government body responsible for arms exports, established a full-time office in Tripoli.
But the missile and air-defense deals never materialized, and since 2007 Gadhafi's regime has bought heavily from Russia and France without making any substantial defense deals with the United Kingdom.
On Jan. 30 Moscow announced a $1.8 billion arms deal with Libya, a Cold War Soviet client, for two batteries of powerful S-300 air-defense missiles, 12-15 Sukhoi Su-35 multirole fighters, four Su-30s and six Yakovlev Yak-130 combat training aircraft.
The package also includes several dozen T-90 main battle tanks and upgrades for more than 140 Soviet-era T-72 tanks, which are virtually obsolescent now, and other weapons systems.
France has sold Libya missiles and other equipment, although on a far smaller scale than Russia.
But Paris is currently making a big pitch to sell Gadhafi 14 Dassault Rafale multirole fighters plus patrol ships and armored vehicles. The whole package could total around $5.8 billion.
