Oil deal?

Associated Press

BP had initial success on July 15 in stopping for the first time since April the world's worst oil spill, but Senate Democrats are raising the prospect of more public-relations trouble for the oil company. Four U.S. senators are calling for the State Department to investigate whether the London-based company pressured Britain to free Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie airline bombing that killed 270. They say a $900 million exploration agreement BP reached with Libya in 2007 might have influenced the British and Scottish governments to release al-Megrahi. "If BP is found to have gained access to Libyan oil reserves by using a mass murderer as a bargaining chip, then make no mistake, any money it makes off that oil is blood money, pure and simple," said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.