Counterterrorism Official Decries Lockerbie Bomber's Release

John Brennan, the President’s assistant on Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, told reporters in Martha’s Vineyard Friday that the U.S. continues to fault the Scottish government for releasing the Lockerbie bomber one-year ago.

“We have made clear repeatedly that we emphatically disagreed with that decision to release the bomber,” Brennan said. “We’ve continued to make the wrongness of that decision clear to both Scottish and Libyan authorities.”

While Brennan would give little detail as to what action the U.S. could take to compel the Scot government to reverse their decision, the advisor noted that the U.S. is “continuing to convey our sentiments.”

“We will continue to call for his return to Scotland and that he serves out his prison sentence there.”

Brennan would not directly comment on suggestions that the oil giant BP put commercial pressure on the Scottish government for the release in order to have access to drilling rights off Libya’s shore.

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, is a Libyan national who was convicted for his role in an explosion aboard a Pan-Am flight bound for New York in 1988. Last year, he was released after being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer that would supposedly kill him within three months.