Talk:John Coates

Phone call

On 2 September 2013 at 10:58am, John Coates telephoned Patrick Haseldine to talk about his (Coates') WikiSpooks biography, and to ask that corrections be made. Coates said that he is not - as the biography states - "a specialist in apartheid South Africa matters". He wanted that removed. Coates also denied that he "spent most of 2009 helping Charles Norrie with compiling, editing and producing 'A Tale Of Three Atrocities' (Iran Air Flight 655, Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772) which was published in December 2009 on the 21st anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing." Coates considered that Charles Norrie's "ATOTA" booklet was not a professional publication and did not want to be associated with it.

Patrick Haseldine asked whether it was true that he (Coates) used to meet Charles Norrie regularly for Sunday lunch to discuss Lockerbie. Coates agreed that they did meet often and that the discussions were sometimes alcohol-fuelled. Coates asked whether Haseldine had any news as to the health of Charles Norrie. Haseldine said that he had not heard from Norrie since December 2012. Coates said he would contact Norrie's partner Judith, whose mobile number he had, to find out and would let Haseldine know.

When challenged by Patrick Haseldine as to why he (John Coates) was not "shouting from the rooftops" that Bernt Carlsson had been targeted on Pan Am Flight 103, Coates replied that he needed to concentrate on earning enough to pay his bills. In 1994, he had founded a media and PR company Parkshot Communications and could not afford to jeopardise its viability by espousing a "conspiracy theory" for which there was no evidence.

Haseldine asked why John Coates had been credited by John Ashton in his book "Cover-up of Convenience" when Ashton failed even to mention or index Bernt Carlsson in the book. Coates was unable to explain this conundrum. Nor could John Coates confirm whether Professor Robert Black was/is an intelligence asset (MI5/MI6). --Patrick Haseldine (talk) 23:59, 13 September 2013 (IST)

Slim Virgin

In the course of this long telephone conversation (which ended at 12:20pm on 2 September 2013), Patrick Haseldine raised the matter of Dr Morag Kerr, the Deputy Secretary of the Justice for Megrahi campaign group, and the amazing allegation made by Charles Norrie that Morag Kerr is the latest pseudonym of Wikipedia's "Slim Virgin" (aka Linda Mack). John Coates denied that he had inspired Norrie to make the "Slim Virgin" allegation.

Haseldine asked whether John Coates is making any further Al Jazeera TV documentaries on the Lockerbie bombing. Coates said it was unlikely because of an argument he had with the director Neil Cairns who cut large chunks out of the "Lockerbie bombing probe" without reference to him.

John Coates asked Haseldine what evidence there is that Bernt Carlsson was the Lockerbie target. Haseldine rehearsed all the evidence that is fully set out in WikiSpooks article The how, why and who of Pan Am Flight 103, and suggested Coates should take the time to read it. --Patrick Haseldine (talk) 13:07, 14 September 2013 (IST)

Heathrow break-in

Much of the Coates/Haseldine conversation focused on the 20 December 1988 Heathrow break-in and on what security guard Ray Manly told the Lockerbie Appeal Court in 2002:

"I believe it would be possible for an unauthorised person to obtain tags for a particular Pan Am flight and then, having broken the CP2 lock, to have introduced a tagged bag into the baggage build up area."

Patrick Haseldine said that it was South African Civil Co-operation Bureau personnel who cut the padlock on the security door leading to the Interline Baggage shed, and placed the bomb suitcase suitably tagged for Pan Am Flight 103 by the x-ray machine. SAA passenger Nicola Hall arrived at Heathrow at 07:20am having travelled overnight from Johannesburg on South African Airways Flight 234 with a high-powered apartheid regime delegation that included foreign minister Pik Botha, defence minister Magnus Malan and military intelligence chief General C J Van Tonder. Pik Botha's party were booked on the morning flight Pan Am 101. Miss Hall was booked (and travelled) on Pan Am Flight 103 but her suitcase went on Pan Am Flight 101. Haseldine maintains that SAA tagged her suitcase in Johannesburg to go on the earlier flight, so that the tagged bomb suitcase which the CCB introduced at Heathrow would tally for baggage reconciliation purposes. The bomb suitcase would have been the first item to be loaded into the Interline baggage container AVE4041. The second item (as confirmed by Morag Kerr) was Bernt Carlsson's grey Presikhaaf hardshell suitcase, which was the most seriously damaged piece of luggage retrieved after the Lockerbie bombing.

John Coates wanted to know where all the evidence was to support Haseldine's assertions. The latter directed him to this WikiSpooks article. --Patrick Haseldine (talk) 16:11, 15 September 2013 (IST)

Other topics

A number of other topics were touched upon in the Coates/Haseldine discussion on 2 September 2013, including:

the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi;

the upcoming trial of Saif Gaddafi in Tripoli on 19 September 2013; and

the use of chemical weapons in Syria on 21 August 2013.

Haseldine suggested that the latter incident was a 'false flag' issue.--Patrick Haseldine (talk) 22:48, 19 September 2013 (IST)

Co-operating with Charles Norrie

Because of objections raised by John Coates, I have today amended this section of his biography.--Patrick Haseldine (talk) 23:01, 19 September 2013 (IST)