How sick was Lockerbie bomber?

Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.

Freed bomber al Magrahi

LONDON – MI6 chief Sir John Scarlett has returned from a secret meeting with Libyan security chiefs to establish just exactly how sick is the "terminally ill" Lockerbie bomber who was released from a Scottish prison after being convicted on the destruction of Pan Am 103, the biggest mass murder in British history, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The decision to free Abelbaset Ali Mohamed al Magrahi on compassionate grounds has plunged relations between the Brown government and the Obama administration into icy confrontation.

Washington has made no secret of its belief that London has carried out a "terrorist-for- trade" deal with Libya.

Frank Duggan, a spokesman for the Victims of Pan-Am Flight 103 group said: "there is a direct connection with trade and that connection is oil."

In London, Justice Secretary Jack Straw insisted this weekend there was "no backdoor deal." It was simply that the Libyans deserved something in return for giving up their nuclear arms, he said: Megrahi doesn't come into it.

Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.

But Britain now has an oil exploration agreement between Libya and BP that will the United Kingdom a badly needed boost to its "credit crunch economy."

For Scarlett his weekend meeting with Libya's security chiefs have an additional complication: Magrahi's state of health.

Was he really close to death? Or had Britain allowed him to go home when evidence began to point that Magrahi was, after less than a week at home in Libya "getting better by the day and could live for even possibly another year with proper medication for his prostate cancer."

If that turned out to be true it could further disrupt MI6's relationship with the CIA, French and Spanish intelligence services – all of whom see Libya as part of the equation in their own defenses against al-Qaida cells operating in North Africa.

For the complete report and full immediate access to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, subscribe now.