The U.S. said Sunday it has begun transferring more than $500 million in Libyan compensation money to the families of American victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
More money is on the way to complete the settlement, but $504 million of $536 million to be distributed to the families was moved from the Treasury to a private account administered by Lockerbie families' lawyers on Friday, the top U.S. diplomat for the Mideast said.
David Welch spoke to reporters aboard Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's plane as she returned to Washington from the Middle East. He said he expected the rest of the Lockerbie payments would be made soon as soon as administrative details were worked out.
The cash comes from a $1.5 billion fund for U.S. victims of Libyan-linked terrorism in the 1980s that Libya finished paying into last month. (...)
Libya's payment into the fund cleared the last hurdle in full normalization of ties between Washington and Tripoli. On Oct. 31, President Bush signed an executive order restoring the Libyan government's immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing pending compensation cases. (...)
There has been a huge increase in interest from U.S. firms, particularly in the energy sector, in doing business in Libya, where European companies have had much greater access in recent years. Libya's proven oil reserves are the ninth largest in the world, close to 39 billion barrels, and vast areas remain unexplored for new deposits.
[From Matthew Lee, Associated Press]
This blood money brings mischief !!!
ReplyDelete1: The previous comment coming from a man who has confirmed (on camera) as having expectations of a 'reward' of up to $200 MILLION for his assistance in getting Megrahi released its an absolute travesty and insult.
ReplyDelete2: HE (ebol) has made more more mischief in the past 19+ years THAN ANY OTHER PERSON INVOLVED WITH THE CASE: I urge readers to consider carefully the full 82 page judgement docuemnt of the Scottish Court in the Nederlands at the conclusion of the trial (AND for the record I DO NOT believe Megrahi to be guilty)!
3: For the record, press claims that each victims' family has received $10 MILLION are TOTALLY WRONG AND INACCURATE.
BEFORE any family members received a cent of the'solatium' funds... those fine upstanding ladies and gentlemen of the legal profession DEDUCTED ONE THIRD of every dollar!
This was practiced during the civil case against Pan Am World Airlines and Alert Security Systems...and the relatives found that in the small print was a clause 'golden handcuffing' them to the same attorneys for life in all and any matters relating to the bombing of Pan Am 103!
IT has been said that prostitution was the oldest profession in the world....no it isn't ...the poor ladies had to be legally represented by lawyers... I rest my case!