DISGRACEFUL - AT 6:27 P.M. ET:  Although our own government has apparently lost interest in the scandal surrounding the release of the Lockerbie bomber, British journalists are pursuing.  Now they have what they believe is the smoking gun.  From London's Telegraph:

Gordon Brown and David Miliband supported releasing the Lockerbie bomber from jail, according to official minutes of a meeting with the Libyan government.

Neither the Prime Minister nor the Foreign Secretary wanted Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi to die in Greenock Prison, the documents reveal.

Abdulati Alobidi, the Libyans' minister for Europe, said he was informed of Mr Brown and Mr Miliband's opinion during a meeting with Bill Rammell, who was then a senior Foreign Office minister.

And The Times of London reports:

The Foreign Office position was clearer. Without saying so, its letters suggest that it believed the transfer of al-Megrahi would be beneficial.

A letter from officials this July insisted that the United States was never given an absolute commitment - i.e. one that would bind future governments - that the Lockerbie accused would always be imprisoned in Scotland. And Ivan Lewis, the junior minister, as recently as August 3 said that Britain had never given the US a "definitive commitment."

COMMENT:  I suspect that if George Bush were president, the commitment would have been considered absolute.  But Obama did some damage to the American-British relationship early in his term, and shows no warmth toward Britain.  Actions and attitudes have consequences.

September 1, 2009