EDINBURGH, Scotland, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Scottish officials Thursday noted with interest that U.S. lawmakers investigating the release of the Lockerbie bomber issued no complaints in 2009.
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Robert Menendez, D-N.J., led a team to Scotland to question a 2009 decision by the Scottish justice secretary to release Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate terms.
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond wondered why Menendez and his colleagues have shown a sudden interest in the decision to release Megrahi, the BBC reports.
"We've looked at all the records and asked the senators for them to furnish us with any public comment they issued at that time -- there was no public comment," he was quoted as saying. "Sen. Menendez and his colleagues' interest in the matter certainly seems to have waxed and waned."
U.S. lawmakers wonder if the decision to release Megrahi was somehow tied to an oil deal between British oil company BP and the Libyan government. London and BP deny the allegations.
U.S. lawmakers are incensed in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which was the result of the sinking of BP's oil well off the Louisiana coast.
Salmond complained the U.S. interest in the case was strangely "recent."
"It seemed to be non-existent at the time when it was revealed to the world there was this 'deal in the desert,'" he said.
