Written by Mickey Grant   

I'm about to head back to Libya in a couple of days. I started covering the war for my documentary BURNING GREEN last March. I managed to drive to Benghazi and cover the beginning of the uprising. But the reason I mention British Petroleum is that i previously made another film in Libya called INJECTION which you can see online via Google Video for free. In INJECTION I explored how over 400 children at a children's hospital in Benghazi, Libya got HIV. The reason was that the nurses at the hospital had no syringes or hardly any other supplies. They even had to buy their blood for transfusion at the Black Market. Why? Because during the embargo, Kaddafi sold everything that he could, even medical supplies donated by the WHO. Kaddafi created a smoke screen to mask his involvement with this HIV crisis by blaming the Bulgarian nurses who worked at the hospital.

The nurses were sentenced to death 2 times. Saif, his son, eventually let it be known to the international community that the nurses could be freed if a certain amount of "blood money" was paid. Historically, in Arab culture, this has been common. Interestingly enough, the amount happened to be the same amount that the Colonel was being required to pay to the families of the Pan Am Lockerbie bombing, just over 3 billion dollars.

A BP executive who fashioned himself a modern version of "Lawrence of Arabia" picked up on this behind the scenes offering and started a negotiation. Already a French group of construction companies had already been involved who wanted to build a nuclear power plant. BP got the exploration rights for just under the bargain price of 1 Billion dollars. Interestingly enough, Bulgaria had these rights prior to it's nurses being the death penalty. The French group paid over 2 Billion and hence the former French first lady got to "liberate" the Bulgarian nurses.

What is most interesting, and why BP got the best bargain, is the fact that they had an additional requirement. They had to get the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi, released and returned to Libya. Shortly after this deal was made, it was announced by officials in Scotland that Al-Megrahi had cancer and had 6 months to live. He was released on "humanitarian" grounds (remember, he killed 270 people) and returned to a triumphant celebration in Libya.

BP has denied all of the above. But please remember, they also denied that they destroyed a Sea. The Free Libyans are aware of all of this. During the past months, it is widely believed that BP played a role via 3rd party companies of hiring mercenaries to work for Kaddafi and also paying PR firms in both the UK and New York to support his cause.

In no way does BP have future in Libya. Besides the nearly billion dollars paid in blood money, their other motivation was another billion paid in work they have done in exploration the past 3 years.