Brown 'raised release of bomber during Obama call'

Brown 'raised release of bomber during Obama call'


Published Date: 12 September 2009
By Craig Woodhouse
GORDON Brown raised the issue of the Lockerbie bomber's release during his phone call with Barack Obama, despite it originally being left out of Downing Street's summary of the leaders' conversation.
Mr Brown and the US president spent 40 minutes on the phone on Thursday. The Prime Minister's spokesman said it was a "really productive call".

Downing Street's original summary focused on discussions about the forthcoming G20 summit in Pittsburgh and the situation in Afghanistan but made no mention of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi's release, while a White House statement said Mr Obama expressed his "disappointment" at the decision to free the bomber.

No 10 later confirmed that the leaders "exchanged views" on Megrahi's release but said the remarks about Lockerbie had not been included in their summary of the phone call because it was not appropriate for them to brief on what Mr Obama had said during the conversation.

Yesterday the Prime Minister's spokesman said it had actually been Mr Brown who had raised the issue, though it was only a "very small part" of the call.

http://news.scotsman.com/uk/Brown-39raised-release-of-bomber.5641247.jp

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