[Newsbot]

Filibuster Cartoons
Title: Stuck to BP (click to view)
Date: July 22, 2010
In a textbook case of "what more can go wrong?" syndrome, British Petroleum has now been linked to the 1988 terrorist bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland. Sort of. In the mid-2000s, BP apparently lobbied the British government to help secure the release of certain convicted "Libyan prisoners," in order to win favor with the Libyan government, and expand their oil drilling operations in that country. It's generally assumed that at least one of the prisoners they particularly wanted released was Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, the guy responsible for the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie Scotland, and a beloved national hero in Libya.  Al-Megrahi was released from prison on "compassionate grounds" last year amid much popular outrage in Britain and the US, and BP secured a multi-million dollar oil deal a couple weeks later.

BP denies they were specifically involved in Al-Megrahi's release, though they don't want to get into the exact details of their pro-Libyan prisoner releasing lobbying. This has prompted a pledge from the US State Department to look into the details of the episode, and possibly conduct a formal inquiry on the matter. For as we know, BP is not exactly a company to be trusted when it claims something is "no big deal."

[Zipperfish]

This company's sordid past is coming back to haunt it. The damage will be limited, as the company will likely be deemed "too big to fail"--a recent development in free market regulation.

[BartSimpson]

I know I don't buy gas at BP anymore. Not a formal boycott, mind you, just a personal thing like how I don't shop at WalMart, either.

[Psudo]

I wonder if the Clinton investigation (Where have I heard that term before?) will turn up anything more substantial than "BP is an oil company, Muslims control oil, and some Muslims are extremists." I'm no fan of BP (I'd be happy as a clam if they ceased to be a company), but I doubt very much they are buying terrorists' freedom.

Incidentally, I work at Walmart and buy most clothes/groceries/consumables there.

[kettal]

Do you really think the other oil companies don't have this kind of stuff under thir covers?

[Voyager]

The company considered most likely to buy up BP's assets if they go down is Exxon.

[Calbeck]

Zipperfish wrote:

This company's sordid past is coming back to haunt it. The damage will be limited, as the company will likely be deemed "too big to fail"--a recent development in free market regulation.

Absolutely on target there, old bean.