Turns out releasing a terrorist who murdered 270 innocent people back to his home country, where he is to be greeted as a hero, is a bad idea. Go figure.

The new British Government is clear that Megrahi’s release was a mistake. The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman said today that: “The Prime Minister at the time said that he believed the decision to release Megrahi was wrong, and that he understood the concerns that had been raised about it.”

“Claims in the press that Megrahi was released because of an oil deal involving BP, and that the medical evidence used by the Scottish Executive supporting his release was paid for by the Libyan government, are not true.

The British Government deeply regrets the continuing anguish that his release on compassionate grounds has caused the families of Megrahi’s victims in the UK as well as in the US. However under UK law, where Scottish justice issues are devolved to Scotland, it fell solely to the Scottish Executive to consider Megrahi’s case. Under Scottish law, Megrahi was entitled to be considered for release on compassionate grounds.

The British government continues to deny that Megrahi was released in exchange for an oil deal, but it has no credibility left on this issue. Megrahi was supposed to die within three months of his release. That was 11 months ago, and now we’re told he may live another 10 years in his luxury villa.

Furthermore, we now know that BP actively lobbied for an expedited release for Megrahi. And that’s in addition to what we already knew, courtesy of leaks to the British press:

The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.

Gordon Brown’s government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.

The letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who has been widely criticised for taking the formal decision to permit Megrahi’s release.

The correspondence makes it plain that the key decision to include Megrahi in a deal with Libya to allow prisoners to return home was, in fact, taken in London for British national interests.

And:

LONDON, England (CNN) — An oil deal and trade concerns with Libya were at one point considered as factors in the Lockerbie bomber’s release, British Justice Secretary Jack Straw said in an interview published Saturday…

“Yes, (it was) a very big part of that,” Straw told the paper. “I’m unapologetic about that. … Libya was a rogue state. We wanted to bring it back into the fold. And yes, that included trade because trade is an essential part of it and subsequently there was the BP deal.”

This entire statement from the British government wasn’t actually intended to apologize for the release, by the way. You learn the true purpose of the statement in the last paragraph:

We have to accept that the release licence does not provide a mechanism for a person who has been released on compassionate grounds to be returned to prison if they have survived for longer than the period diagnosed by the relevant medical authorities.

Translation: No, we’re not going to ask the Libyan government to return Megrahi. That might hurt the oil deal we secured in exchange for his release.