Outrage 1 year after Lockerbie bomber's release

CAIRO - A year after Scotland's release of the terminally ill Lockerbie bomber caused an uproar, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi is still stirring outrage simply by surviving.

Loved ones of those killed in the 1988 jetliner bombing, who were told he was likely to die within three months, feel betrayed. U.S. lawmakers are investigating whether oil giant BP pushed for his release from prison to get Libya's oil and are assailing Scotland for freeing him.

Lockerbie is the wound that time can't seem to heal for almost everyone involved in the case. And with the anniversary Friday of al-Megrahi's release, the case is once again the window through which Libya is viewed. The North African nation, for years a pariah state under United Nations and U.S. sanctions for sponsoring terrorism, is quietly rebuilding after decades of isolation.

The circumstances surrounding al-Megrahi's release have "reinforced an idea that Libya is still somehow a place that's problematic," said John Hamilton, a Libya expert and contributing editor to Africa Energy. "It's reminded everyone of that - if they really needed reminding."

While the United States and Scotland trade verbal blows and BP tries to defend itself, the nation Moammar Gadhafi has led for four decades is reintegrating into the international community - brimming with confidence that foreign firms are eager to tap into its oil and rebuild an infrastructure crumbling under the sanctions it endured for more than a decade.

Maybe a little too eager, as BP has learned.

BP is the focus of a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigation into whether its $900-million offshore exploration deal with Libya was a factor in the release of the only person convicted in the bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. Of the 270 people killed, 179 were Americans. In the United States, many are convinced that al-Megrahi's freedom was merely a matter of commerce.

"If we were to pursue this, it would put pressure on BP and the Libyan government," said New York Sen. Charles Schumer, one of four Democratic senators spearheading efforts to investigate the Libyan's release. "Sunlight is a great disinfectant, and the more we shine the light on this, the uglier it gets," Schumer told the AP. "If we keep the spotlight, both legal and public pressure on the governments, then sooner or later we'll succeed. Because what they did was so wrong, and makes them look so bad."Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has been repeatedly blasted by the families of the U.S. victims for freeing al-Megrahi, despite their appeals to keep him in prison.