Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing which killed 270 people, including 189 Americans, died yesterday in Libya, at the age of 60. His death comes nearly three years after Scotland released him from prison on humanitarian grounds, and eleven years his conviction for planting a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988. John Ashton is Megrahi’s biographer and the author of "Megrahi: You Are My Jury," and Eileen Monetti's 20-year-old son Rick was returning from an academic semester abroad on Pan Am 103.

Yesterday, British Prime Minister David Cameron met with President Obama in the White House for the first time since taking office in May. The leaders discussed the war in Afghanistan and the global economy. But in the news conference after the meeting, the issue of BP and its role in the release of the Lockerbie bomber last year dominated the discussion.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison for planning the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, which killed 270 people. The Scottish government released Megrahi last August on compassionate terms after a doctor diagnosed him with terminal prostate cancer, saying he had only three months to live.

BP has been under fire since April for its responsibility in the Gulf of Mexico's disastrous oil gusher. Ironically, the same week the oil is finally contained, BP faces more trouble — this time involving the release of the so-called Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi.