Difference between revisions of "Pan Am Flight 103"

From Wikispooks
Jump to navigation Jump to search
m
 
(48 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
{{SynthesisHeader|The How, Why and Who of Pan Am Flight 103}}
 
{{SynthesisHeader|The How, Why and Who of Pan Am Flight 103}}
 
{{Event
 
{{Event
−
|start         = 21 December 1988
+
|wikipedia=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103
−
|end           = 21 December 1988
+
|start=21 December 1988
−
|ON_cause      = Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi
+
|end=21 December 1988
−
|wikipedia    = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103
+
|ON_perpetrators=Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi
−
|type         = bombing
+
|type=bombing
−
|fatalities   = 270
+
|fatalities=270
−
|survivors     = 0
+
|survivors=0
−
|site         = Lockerbie, Scotland
+
|constitutes=false flag attack, mid-level deep event, Air disaster
−
|coordinates   = {{coord|55|6|55.99|N|3|21|30.69|W|display=inline}}
+
|site=Lockerbie, Scotland
−
|image         = PA103cockpit4.png
+
|coordinates={{coord|55|6|55.99|N|3|21|30.69|W|display=inline}}
−
|image_caption       = Wreckage of ''"Clipper Maid of the Seas"'' Cockpit section near Tundergarth Church
+
|image=PA103cockpit4.png
 +
|image_width=340px
 +
|image_caption=Wreckage of ''"Clipper Maid of the Seas"'' Cockpit section near Tundergarth Church
 +
|description=When Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland on 21 December 1988, killing all 259 passengers and crew on board, news reports cited UN Assistant Secretary-General, Bernt Carlsson, as its highest-profile victim. US and British intelligence operatives, posing as Lockerbie investigators, ignored the evident targeting of the UN diplomat and instead focused on the jumbo jet. With the result that the wrong country was blamed and an innocent person convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.
 +
|latitude=55°06′56″N
 +
|longitude=003°21′31″W
 +
|locations=Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
 
}}
 
}}
−
[[File:Lockerbie-aerial.jpg|thumb|300px|Crater and property damage in Lockerbie caused by main wreckage of [[Pan Am 103]] ]]
+
[[File:Clipper_Maid_of_the_Seas.jpg|400px|thumb|left|Boeing 747-121 ''"Clipper Maid of the Seas"'' pictured at Frankfurt Airport in July 1986]]
−
On 21 December 1988 [[Pan Am Flight 103]], a Boeing 747-121 named ''"Clipper Maid of the Seas"'', was on a scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport when there was an explosion on board. The aircraft broke up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie ({{Maplink|55.12,-3.357}}), killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members. Eleven people in Lockerbie were killed by large sections of the plane which fell in and around the town, bringing total fatalities to 270.
+
[[File:Lockerbie-aerial.jpg|left|thumb|400px|Crater and property damage in Lockerbie caused by main wreckage of [[Pan Am 103]] ]]
 +
[[File:Bernt_Carlsson_3.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Assistant Secretary-General and UN Commissioner for Namibia, [[Bernt Carlsson]] ]]
 +
[[File:Scottish_Mirror.jpg|300px|right|thumb|11 September 2001 - Front Page News]]
 +
[[File:CIA.svg|300px|right|thumb|"Was the [[CIA]] complicit in both the [[The How, Why and Who of Pan Am Flight 103#Naming names|Lockerbie]] and [[9-11/Israel_did_it|9/11 attacks]]?"]]
 +
On 21 December 1988 [[Pan Am Flight 103]], a Boeing 747-121 named ''"Clipper Maid of the Seas"'', was on a scheduled transatlantic flight from London's Heathrow Airport to New York's JFK International Airport when there was an explosion on board. The aircraft broke up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie ({{Maplink|55.12,-3.357}}), killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members. Eleven people in Lockerbie were killed by large sections of the plane which fell in and around the town, bringing total fatalities to 270.
  
−
Thirteen years later, on 31 January 2001, Libyan citizen [[Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi]] was convicted of involvement in the bombing and sentenced to life imprisonment in Scotland. His co-defendant, [[Lamin Khalifah Fhimah]], was unanimously acquitted. [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi]]'s appeal against his conviction was refused on 14 March 2002 by a panel of five Scottish judges at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1872996.stm "UN monitor decries Lockerbie judgement"]</ref>
+
Thirteen years later, on 31 January 2001, a [[Pan_Am_Flight_103/The trial|juryless trial]] convicted Libyan [[Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi]] of involvement in the bombing and sentenced him to life imprisonment in Scotland and acquitted his co-defendant, [[Lamin Khalifah Fhimah]]. [[Megrahi]]'s appeal was refused on 14 March 2002 by a panel of five Scottish judges<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1872996.stm "UN monitor decries Lockerbie judgement"]</ref> but on 28 June 2007, the [[Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission]] granted [[Megrahi]] leave for a second appeal on the basis of evidence that a miscarriage of justice could have occurred.<ref>[[File:SCCRC-Lockerbie.pdf]] - SCCRC Leave to appeal decision press release - June 2007</ref>
  
−
On 28 June 2007, the [[Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission]] granted [[Megrahi]] leave for a second appeal against his conviction, on the basis of evidence that a miscarriage of justice could have occurred.<ref>[[File:SCCRC-Lockerbie.pdf]] - SCCRC Leave to appeal decision press release - June 2007</ref> After a delay of two years the second appeal, which commenced at Edinburgh's Court of Criminal Appeal on 28 April 2009, was abandoned by [[al-Megrahi]] in August 2009, just two days before the Scottish Government released him on compassionate grounds to return to Libya. The stated grounds for [[Megrahi]]'s release on 20 August 2009 were that he was suffering from terminal prostate cancer and was likely to die within three months.
+
After a delay of two years appeal proceedings began at Edinburgh's Court of Criminal Appeal on 28 April 2009. However, [[Megrahi]] abandoned the second appeal on 18 August 2009. Two days later the Scottish Justice Secretary [[Kenny MacAskill]] released [[Megrahi]] on compassionate grounds, as suffering from terminal prostate cancer, and he returned to Libya on 20 August 2009.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/8205528.stm "Lockerbie bomber's appeal dropped"]</ref>
  
−
On 6 January 2014, ''The Ecologist'' published a controversial article entitled "Flight 103: it was the Uranium" with this introduction:
+
[[Megrahi]]'s guilt is not agreed upon<ref>[http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2224221/flight_103_it_was_the_uranium.html "Flight 103: it was the Uranium"]</ref> and [[Wikispooks]] editor, [[Patrick Haseldine]] has petitioned the [[UN Secretary General]], [[Ban Ki-moon]] to investigate the theory that Lockerbie was a clandestine [[assassination]] of [[Bernt Carlsson]].<ref>[https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/United_Nations_SecretaryGeneral_Ban_Kimoon_Investigate_the_deaths_of_UN_Officials_Dag_Hammarskjold_and_Bernt_Carlsson/ "Take action to investigate the deaths of UN Officials Dag Hammarskjöld and Bernt Carlsson!"]</ref>
−
:Mystery continues to surround the 1988 downing of [[Pan Am Flight 103]] at Lockerbie - [[The How, Why and Who of Pan Am Flight 103|who did it, how, and why?]] After 25 years study of the topic [[Patrick Haseldine]] reveals the shocking truth.<ref>[http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2224221/flight_103_it_was_the_uranium.html "Flight 103: it was the Uranium"]</ref>
 
  
−
On 29 April 2014, [[Patrick Haseldine|Haseldine]] created an e-petition addressed to the UN Secretary-General, [[Ban Ki-moon]]:
+
On 28 May 2015, [[Patrick Haseldine]] wrote to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir [[Bernard Hogan-Howe]], demanding that [[Scotland Yard]] launch a [[Bernard Hogan-Howe#Bernt Carlsson murder inquiry|Bernt Carlsson murder inquiry]].<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=988592237827313&id=150333521653193&notif_t=like "Scotland Yard to launch Bernt Carlsson murder inquiry"]</ref> He wrote again on 30 June 2015 highlighting a long-forgotten ''Scottish Mirror'' newspaper report of 11 September 2001, that revealed there had been a break-in at Pan Am's baggage shed at Heathrow airport on 21 December 1988. On the strength of which [[Patrick Haseldine|Haseldine]] asserted that a team of [[Civil Co-operation Bureau]] operatives, led by the CCB's London-based director [[Eeben Barlow]], broke through a security door at Terminal 3 of Heathrow airport leading to the Interline Baggage Shed from where flights would be loaded the following day. The [[CCB]] team then ingested the primary suitcase (or "bomb bag") through this security door and tagged it for loading on Pan Am Flight 103.<ref>[http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?74757-Pan-Am-103-South-Africa-Guilty-!!! "Pan Am 103: South Africa Guilty"]</ref> The ''Scottish Mirror'' report was effectively - some would say conveniently - buried when news of the [[9-11/Israel_did_it|9/11 attacks in America]] swamped the [[Corporate media|commercially-controlled media]] later that morning.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20110403061932/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/lockerbie-heathrow-breakin-revealed-668981.html "Lockerbie: Heathrow break-in revealed"]</ref>
−
:"Take action to investigate the deaths of UN Officials [[Dag Hammarskjöld]] and [[Bernt Carlsson]]!"<ref>[https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/United_Nations_SecretaryGeneral_Ban_Kimoon_Investigate_the_deaths_of_UN_Officials_Dag_Hammarskjold_and_Bernt_Carlsson/ "Take action to investigate the deaths of UN Officials Dag Hammarskjöld and Bernt Carlsson!"]</ref>
 
  
−
==Fatal Accident Inquiry==
+
[[Patrick Haseldine|Haseldine]]'s third letter to Sir [[Bernard Hogan-Howe]]<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=979952485389745&id=230050093713325 "Sir Bernard gets the message!"]</ref> quoted from what former [[GCHQ]] officer [https://www.facebook.com/mike.arnold.583234 Mike Arnold] had written on 28 July 2015 on the ''Facebook'' page ''[https://www.facebook.com/groups/211198958941598 Who Killed Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher?]'':
−
[[File:Clipper_Maid_of_the_Seas.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Boeing 747-121 ''"Clipper Maid of the Seas"'' pictured at Frankfurt Airport in July 1986]]
+
:"We and the Americans bombed Pan Am Flight 103 to persuade South African foreign minister [[Pik Botha]] to sign the [[Tripartite Accord]]; thus with the Americans protecting our vested interests both political and financial.
−
The Department of Transport Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) submitted a detailed 54-page report on the accident to Cecil Parkinson, Secretary of State for Transport, on 6 August 1990.<ref>[http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/2-1990%20N739PA.pdf "AAIB report on the accident to Boeing 747-121, N739PA at Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland on 21 December 1988"]</ref> Informed by the AAIB report, John Stuart Mowat QC, Sheriff Principal of South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway, conducted a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) into the Lockerbie disaster at Easterbrook Hall, Crichton Royal Hospital, Dumfries from 1 October 1990 to 13 February 1991. In his FAI report, Sheriff Principal Mowat determined:
+
:"The destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 with the Americans demonstrated our intent and was also a threat, and removing [[Bernt Carlsson]] was a convenient and powerful signal, i.e. nobody is untouchable.
−
:(1) That 16 named crew members died from multiple injuries at about 1905 hours on Wednesday 21 December 1988 at or near Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire in the course of their employment with Pan American World Airways as members of the flight crew of Pan American World Airways Flight 103 on Boeing 747-121 Registration N739PA en route from London Heathrow Airport to John F Kennedy Airport, New York.
+
:"The implication of the ''[[BBC]]'' Lockerbie report on the early morning of [[9/11]] implies that [[MI6|British Intelligence]] knew what was about to happen in New York, and may indeed have played a complicit role for the [[CIA]].<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=241029499373323&story_fbid=588699061273030 "Suppressed Lockerbie evidence ignited 9/11 attacks"]</ref>
−
:(2) That 243 named passengers, including [[Bernt Wilmar Carlsson]] (born on 21 November 1938 and residing at Apartment 30, 207 West 106th Street, New York, New York 10025, USA), who were passengers on said aircraft, died from multiple injuries at about 1905 hours on Wednesday 21 December 1988 at or near Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire.
+
:"The first report appearing in the ''Scottish Mirror'' implies that they were the cut-out; similar to how [[MI6|British Intelligence]] used ''The Times'' to place a small and misleading account for what happened to me at [[GCHQ]] into the public domain.
−
:(3) That 11 named Lockerbie residents all died from multiple injuries and/or severe burning at about 1905 hours on Wednesday 21 December 1988 at Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire.
+
:"As part of the bigger picture, it is probable that [[MI6|British Intelligence]] scripted the premature ''[[BBC]]'' report that [[9-11/WTC7|WTC7]] had collapsed. [[MI6|British Intelligence]] blatantly scripted ''The Times'', ''Daily Mail'' and ''[[BBC]]'' around me."<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/groups/211198958941598/966227283438758/?comment_id=966551820072971&notif_t=like "Comment by former GCHQ officer Mike Arnold on the ''Facebook'' page 'Who Killed Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher?'"]</ref>
−
:(4) That the cause of all the said deaths was the detonation of an improvised explosive device located in luggage container AVE 4041 situated on the left side of the forward hold of said aircraft Registration N739PA. The detonation caused the nose and flight deck of the aircraft to become detached and the rest of the aircraft to descend out of control and to break up, eventually crashing into the ground at or near Lockerbie. The wing and centre fuselage section crashed in the Sherwood Crescent area of the town and caused the deaths referred to in Finding (3) hereof. The deaths referred to in Findings (1) and (2) hereof resulted from injuries sustained either as a direct result of the explosion and the disintegration of the aircraft or from impact with the ground.
 
−
:(5) That the said device consisted of Semtex-type plastic explosive concealed in a Toshiba radio-cassette player contained in a Samsonite suitcase which was one of the pieces of baggage placed in the said luggage container by employees of Pan American World Airways at Heathrow Airport, London. The contents of said container consisted of six or seven pieces of baggage collected from the interline shed and about thirty five pieces of baggage which had been unloaded from Pan American flight 103A from Frankfurt to Heathrow and were labelled as destined for airports in the United States, including JFK Airport New York and Detroit. The bags from the interline shed had been checked in by passengers booked on flights into Heathrow on airlines other than Pan American World Airways to connect with Pan American Flight 103 to New York.
 
−
:(6) That the primary cause of the said deaths was a criminal act of murder.
 
−
:(7) That the aircraft involved arrived at Heathrow at about 1210 hours on 21 December 1988 from San Francisco and was under constant guard until it left Heathrow as Flight 103 that evening. The aircraft was fully airworthy when it took off from Heathrow at 1825 hours.
 
−
:(8) That the bags transferred from Pan American Flight 103A were taken directly from that aircraft in the said baggage container to Pan American Flight 103. They were not counted or weighed so as to check that they corresponded to the baggage checked in at Frankfurt by passengers proceeding to New York or reconciled in any other way with such passengers. They were not x-rayed at Heathrow.
 
−
:(9) That the suitcase containing the said explosive device was among the said pieces of baggage transferred from Pan American Flight 103A and was unaccompanied both on the flight from Frankfurt to Heathrow and on the flight from Heathrow.
 
−
:(10) That the said suitcase probably arrived at Frankfurt on a flight or an airline other than Pan American and so was interlined to Pan American there. It was loaded on to and allowed to fly on Flight 103A without being identified as an unaccompanied bag.
 
−
:(11) That bags interlined to Pan American at Heathrow were subjected to x-ray screening but there was no reconciliation procedure there to ensure that interline passengers and their baggage travelled on the same aircraft. The same procedure probably applied at Frankfurt.
 
−
:(12) That Khaled Nazir Jaafar originated as a passenger at Frankfurt. He checked in two bags, neither of which was the suitcase containing the device and neither of which contained any traces of illegal drugs. There was nothing to connect him with the said suitcase containing the device.
 
−
:(13) That in 1988 it was accepted (a) that there was a danger of an explosive device being concealed in a piece of baggage and loaded on to an aircraft; (b) that such a piece of baggage was likely to be unaccompanied; and (c) that such a bag was likely to be introduced by being interlined at a particular airport from another airline and that the person introducing it would not check in as a passenger at that airport.
 
−
:(14) That positive passenger/baggage reconciliation was recognised as an important element in any system designed to prevent the carriage of an unaccompanied bag on an aircraft.
 
−
:(15) That the limitations of x-ray screening as a means of detecting plastic explosives contained in electronic equipment were generally recognised as at December 1988.
 
−
:(16) That in all the circumstances the procedure of transferring baggage from Flight 103A to Flight 103 without any security check involved a substantial risk that an unaccompanied bag containing an explosive device would be so transferred.
 
−
:(17) That it would have been a reasonable precaution to have instituted or reverted to a positive passenger/baggage reconciliation procedure in relation to interline baggage at Frankfurt designed to detect the presence of any unaccompanied bag. Such a precaution might have avoided the deaths.
 
−
:(18) That in the absence of such a procedure at Frankfurt, it would have been a reasonable precaution to have instituted a positive passenger/baggage reconciliation procedure in relation to bags transferred from Flight 103A to Flight 103, either by counting the bags so transferred or by a physical match. Such a precaution might have prevented the deaths.
 
−
:(19) That reliance on x-ray screening alone in relation to interline baggage at Heathrow and Frankfurt was a defect in a system of working which contributed to the deaths.
 
−
:(20) That the Department of Transport’s direction (Production 71) and the Circulars (Productions 21/1 and 64), as interpreted by the Department, afforded insufficient protection against the possibility that an undetected unaccompanied bag would be transferred from Flight 103A to Flight 103.<ref>[http://www.vetpath.co.uk/lockerbie/fai.pdf Sheriff Principal John S Mowat's Fatal Accident Inquiry into the Lockerbie Disaster"]</ref>
 
−
 
 
−
===Mowat's flawed finding===
 
−
Lockerbie campaigners [[Barry Walker]] and [[Morag Kerr]] have demonstrated Sheriff Principal Mowat's finding number (5) - that the bomb suitcase had arrived from Frankfurt on the feeder flight Pan Am 103A - to be incorrect:
 
−
:Detective Chief Superintendent John Orr’s supposition that the two bags seen by baggage handler David Bedford were "Interline" bags, the forensic tests that purported to eliminate these bags and the speculation that these bags had been re-arranged were all essentially irrelevant. Indeed the attempt to identify the origin of the primary suitcase from identifying the bags around it was deeply flawed as it assumed the primary suitcase was introduced into the system at the same point.
 
−
:There was only one way to properly identify and eliminate the brown/maroon Samsonite seen by Bedford and that was to recover it, examine its contents and link it to a particular passenger. If DCS John Orr believed the Samsonite seen by Bedford was an Interline bag then it should have been recovered and linked to a specific Interline passenger.
 
−
:The logic is irrefutable. If the Samsonite suitcase seen in container AVE4041 was not otherwise recovered then it must have been the primary suitcase. As it was seen long before the arrival of flight PA103A then the official scenario (on which [[Megrahi]] was convicted) must be untrue.<ref>[http://e-zeecon.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/lockerbie-heathrow-evidence.html "Lockerbie - The Heathrow Evidence"]</ref>
 
−
 
 
−
===An under-reported inquiry===
 
−
There has been one, only one, public hearing in Scotland of the facts about Lockerbie. This was the Fatal Accident Inquiry heard by Sheriff John Mowat in 1990, two years after the disaster. The choice of location seems, in retrospect, grimly appropriate: the recreation hall of a psychiatric hospital, converted into a courtroom with seating for 400. When I turned up one morning and reported to the media centre, I found it deserted. There were dozens of desks and cubicles for the international press, but only a handful of them had ever been occupied and there was no need to connect the telephones.
 
−
 
 
−
Visiting this ghostly place was a strange experience. In the courtroom itself, the anticipated throng of relatives and interested parties had never materialised: the public benches were deserted. Heavy, dark green curtains, tightly drawn, enabled the proceedings to be conducted in an atmosphere of stygian gloom. The symbolism was thus complete: in a room shedding no natural light, witnesses presented their testimony to an empty auditorium and, beyond, to a world that had seemingly lost interest. But it is instructive to look back at that under-reported inquiry from the distance of almost quarter of a century – if only for proof that the truth about Lockerbie will probably never be known.<ref>[http://www.scottishreview.net/KennethRoy161A.shtml "A good man, a smear, and the Crown Office"]</ref>
 
  
 
==Official Narrative==
 
==Official Narrative==
 
[[File:Colin_Boyd.jpg|300px|right|thumb|[[Colin Boyd]] former [[Lord Advocate]] ]]
 
[[File:Colin_Boyd.jpg|300px|right|thumb|[[Colin Boyd]] former [[Lord Advocate]] ]]
 
{{FA|Lockerbie Official Narrative}}
 
{{FA|Lockerbie Official Narrative}}
−
In August 2001, Scottish Lord Advocate [[Colin Boyd]] presented what might be considered the definite statement of the [[Lockerbie Official Narrative]] at a conference of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law (ISRCL):<ref>[http://www.isrcl.org/Papers/Boyd.pdf "The Lockerbie Trial"] by Rt Hon [[Colin Boyd]] QC, Lord Advocate, Scotland</ref> While admitting that "Politics and diplomacy were necessarily interwoven with this case from the start", there is no mention of [[Bernt Carlsson]], UN Commissioner for Namibia, and the evidence presented at the trial is presented as the unvarnished truth. Libyan [[Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi]], head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, was determined at the trial to be a member of the [[Libyan Intelligence Services]] and of being guilty of the bombing. The narrative is predictably self-congratulatory: "In conclusion, it seems to me to be absolutely right that the investigation of crime and the prosecutorial decisions which flow from that investigation must be taken independently of political influence... Political and diplomatic action secured the trial. The investigation of the case and the prosecution of the trial were driven by the evidence."
+
In August 2001, Scottish Lord Advocate [[Colin Boyd]] presented what might be considered the definite statement of the [[Lockerbie Official Narrative]] at a conference of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law (ISRCL):<ref>[http://www.isrcl.org/Papers/Boyd.pdf "The Lockerbie Trial"] by Rt Hon [[Colin Boyd]] QC, Lord Advocate, Scotland</ref> While admitting that "Politics and diplomacy were necessarily interwoven with this case from the start", there is no mention of [[Bernt Carlsson]], UN Commissioner for Namibia, and the evidence led at the trial is presented as the unvarnished truth. Libyan [[Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi]], head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, was determined at the trial to be a member of the Libyan Intelligence Services and of being guilty of the bombing. The narrative is predictably self-congratulatory: "In conclusion, it seems to me to be absolutely right that the investigation of crime and the prosecutorial decisions which flow from that investigation must be taken independently of political influence... Political and diplomatic action secured the trial. The investigation of the case and the prosecution of the trial were driven by the evidence."
  
 
==Geopolitical Background==
 
==Geopolitical Background==
 
===1988===
 
===1988===
−
*UK-US relations with Libya were icy over alleged Libyan sponsorship of terrorism and its stubborn refusal to 'see things the West's way'.  
+
* UK/US relations with [[Libya]] were icy over alleged [[Libya]]n sponsorship of "terrorism" and its stubborn refusal to 'see things the West's way'.{{cn}}
−
*UK-US relations with Iran were slated for improvement following the cessation of the Iran-Iraq war in which both sides had been armed by the West.  
+
* UK/US relations with [[Iran]] were slated for improvement following the cessation of the [[Iran-Iraq war]] in which both sides had been armed by the West.  
−
* On 3 July 1988 [[Iran Air Flight 655]], a civilian Airbus A300 airliner en-route from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai, UAE was brought down by a missile fired by the US Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes, with the loss of 290 lives. The US government claimed that the airliner had been mistaken for an attacking F14 Tomcat fighter.
+
* On 3 July 1988 [[Iran Air Flight 655]], a civilian Airbus A300 airliner en-route from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai, [[UAE]] was brought down by a missile fired by the US Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes, with the loss of 290 lives. The US government claimed that the airliner had been mistaken for an attacking F14 Tomcat fighter.
 +
* Within days of the [[Lockerbie disaster]] US government spokespeople were blaming "terrorists" possibly Palestinians. Early in 1989 a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_News CBS News] report "conclusively" placed the blame on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Jibril Ahmed Jibril], leader of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Front_for_the_Liberation_of_Palestine_%E2%80%93_General_Command Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC)], asserting that Jibril's motivation was to discredit [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat Yasser Arafat] and cause the US to pull out of talks with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Liberation_Organization PLO]. According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_News CBS,] this "scoop" was provided by "reliable sources within the international terrorist community." In an age when "objectivity" is touted as the cornerstone of journalistic integrity, it is suspiciously convenient for a major network to about-face and refer to a "terrorist" as "reliable." It is unclear who constitutes the "international terrorist community."<ref>[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2706&dat=19890214&id=7wVKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=eB4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=1941,2315302 "Up in the air?"] ''The Michigan Daily'', 14 February 1989</ref>
 +
 
 +
===1995===
 +
* On 24 March 1995, the ''Los Angeles Times'' reported that the [[FBI]] was stepping up efforts to apprehend [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi]] and [[Lamin Khalifah Fhimah]], the two Libyans indicted for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, and devoting additional agents to the international hunt in anticipation of new leads. Signalling its impatience with sporadic reports that [[Libya]] would hand over the accused men if trade sanctions were to be removed, the FBI said it was offering a record US$4 million reward for information leading to their capture.<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1995-03-24/news/mn-46660_1_lockerbie-bombing "FBI Offers Record $4-Million Reward in Lockerbie Bombing"]</ref> 
  
 
===2000===
 
===2000===
−
* UK-US relations with Libya were being 'normalised' following Libya's agreement to extradite [[al-Megrahi]] for trial and its abandonment of its allegedly belligerent stance over previously core issues of policy on trade, oil and support for groups antagonistic to Western interests. The accommodation resulted in the lifting of UN trade sanctions against Libya which had progressively paralysed its economy over the preceding decade.   
+
* UK-US relations with Libya were being 'normalised' following Libya's agreement to extradite [[al-Megrahi]] and [[Fhimah]] for trial and its abandonment of its allegedly belligerent stance over previously core issues of policy on trade, oil and support for groups antagonistic to Western interests. The accommodation resulted in the lifting of UN trade sanctions against Libya which had progressively paralysed its economy over the preceding decade.   
 
* UK-US relations with Iran were close to all-time lows and deteriorating over the usual issues of Iranian refusal to 'see things the West's way'.
 
* UK-US relations with Iran were close to all-time lows and deteriorating over the usual issues of Iranian refusal to 'see things the West's way'.
 +
 +
==Accident Inquiries==
 +
{{FA|Pan Am Flight 103/Fatal Accident Inquiry}}
 +
The [[Air Accidents Investigation Branch]] submitted a detailed 54-page report on the accident to [[Cecil Parkinson]], [[Secretary of State for Transport]], on 6 August 1990.<ref>[http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/2-1990%20N739PA.pdf "AAIB report on the accident to Boeing 747-121, N739PA at Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland on 21 December 1988"]</ref> Informed by this report, Sheriff Principal [[John S. Mowat]] carried out a [[Pan Am Flight 103/Fatal Accident Inquiry|Fatal Accident Inquiry]] in Dumfries, [[Scotland]]. His report ran to 47 pages and was in broad agreement with the {{on}}.
  
 
==The Investigation==
 
==The Investigation==
 +
===Exclusion of the Met===
 +
[[File:Met_Patch.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Dis''patch''ed from [[Scotland]] home to [[London]] ]]
 +
In Chapter Three of his 2002 book "The Lockerbie Incident: A Detective's Tale" (pages 70/71), Scottish policeman [[John Crawford]] describes how officers from the [[Metropolitan Police]] were excluded from [[Pan Am Flight 103#The Investigation|investigating the Lockerbie bombing]] in [[Scotland]] and quickly dis''patch''ed home to [[London]].{{QB|I knew that a considerable amount of political in-fighting had been going on from day one. The [[Metropolitan Police/Anti-Terrorist Branch|Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist squad]] from London had tried to make the enquiry theirs from the first day. There was considerable opposition to this both politically and from the Scottish police.
  
−
===The people and organisations involved===
+
[[Scotland Yard]] as any ordinary cop knows was like living on a reputation built 100 years ago. Sure it had the facilities to conduct a huge enquiry; sure it had the personnel and was supposed to have the expertise. It certainly had the resources in manpower and finance. But ask a cop in any force up and down the country who they consider the most arrogant, the most useless and the least likely to do anything for anyone beyond their 'patch' and they will undoubtedly tell you – [[The Met]].
 +
 
 +
It's an unfortunate reputation because I personally know of a number of fine officers in that organisation who would match the best anywhere. But the reputation of [[The Met|the Met]] precedes it and it does not enjoy the high standing it thinks it does in what it disparagingly calls the 'provincial' forces. I would like to think things have changed since then but I rather think they have not.
 +
 
 +
No – neither the Scottish police nor the Lord Advocate [[Lord Fraser of Carmylie]] wanted them messing around in our enquiry. It was said the [[Lord Advocate]] presented an ultimatum to the then Prime Minister, the Iron Lady herself, [[Margaret Thatcher]] that either he was in charge of the enquiry as befitted his role as [[Lord Advocate]] in [[Scotland]] or he would resign. I cannot vouch for the veracity of that but as far as the [[Metropolitan Police/Anti-Terrorist Branch|Met Anti-Terrorist squad]] were concerned it was all over. They were hanging around for a few days with their flashy designer suits and the full weight of their own egos and self-importance on their shoulders, the once deserved reputation of [[Scotland Yard]] expected to sweep all before them.
 +
 
 +
After all, what could a bunch of hick 'jocks' do, we were experts only in dealing with sheep and haggis – let's face it, according to them nothing of any consequence ever happened outside London.
 +
 
 +
[[The Met]] were told in no uncertain manner that they weren't welcome! It was back to London for them.<ref>''[http://bookstore.trafford.com/Products/SKU-000149391/The-Lockerbie-Incident.aspx "The Lockerbie Incident: A Detective's Tale"]''</ref>}}
 +
 
 +
===Leading the investigation===
 +
[[File:Vincent_Cannistraro.jpg|300px|right|thumb|[[Vince Cannistraro]] was head of the [[CIA]]'s [[Counterterrorism Center]] ]]
 +
The Lockerbie investigation involved the following senior figures:
 +
* [[Vincent Cannistraro]]  - [[CIA]] task force officer in the brutal [[1980s]] [[Iran-Contra]] campaign. Deployed a training manual of invasion and killing of [[Nicaragua]]n citizens and officials. Wrote "the anatomy of a lie" to cover up US government involvement in Nicaragua. In 1986 was commissioned by the [[US President]] to "Destabilise [[Libya]] and destroy the Gaddafi regime". Secretly worked to arm the [[Afghanistan]] [[Mujahideen]] and [[Osama Bin Laden]]. His chief [[Admiral Poindexter]] chaired a top-level meeting - to which Cannistraro had access - to discuss the manufacture of evidence to destabilise the government of [[Yemen]]. He was head of the CIA Lockerbie team, but did not attend the trial to give evidence.<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=150333521653193&story_fbid=927481503938387 "Lockerbie frame-up"]</ref>
 +
* [[Stuart Henderson]] - former Detective Chief Superintendent with the Lothian and Borders Police, replaced [[John Orr]] as the Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) at the Lockerbie Incident Control Centre in 1991, and led the Lockerbie bombing investigation.
 +
* [[Richard Marquise]] - [[FBI]]'s chief investigator and appointed US Task Force leader in the Pan Am Flight 103 case when the Lockerbie bombing investigation began to focus on [[Libya]].
 +
* [[Tom Thurman]] - discredited former head of the Explosives Unit at the [[FBI]]’s Crime Laboratory; accused of having [[UTA Flight 772#Tom Thurman '''F'''a'''B'''r'''I'''cated evidence|'''F'''a'''B'''r'''I'''cated evidence to incriminate Libya]].
  
−
#'''[[Vincent Cannistraro]]'''  - [[CIA]] task force officer in the brutal 1980s Iran-Contra campaign. Deployed a training manual of invasion and killing of Nicaraguan citizens and officials. Wrote "the anatomy of a lie" to cover up US government involvement in Nicaragua. In 1986 was commissioned by the US President to "Destabilize Libya and destroy the Gaddafi regime". Secretly worked to arm the Afghanistan Mujahadeen and Osama Bin Laden. His chief Admiral Poindexter chaired a top-level meeting - to which Cannistraro had access - to discuss the manufacture of evidence to destabilize the government of Yemen. He was head of the CIA Lockerbie team, but did not attend the trial to give evidence.
 
−
#'''[[Stuart Henderson]]''' - Former Detective Chief Superintendent with the Lothian and Borders Police, replaced John Orr as the Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) at the Lockerbie Incident Control Centre in 1991, and led the Lockerbie bombing investigation.
 
−
#'''[[Richard Marquise]]''' - FBI's chief investigator and appointed US Task Force leader in the [[Pan Am Flight 103]] case when the Lockerbie bombing investigation began to focus on Libya.
 
−
 
 
==The Trial==
 
==The Trial==
 +
{{FA|Pan_Am_Flight_103/The Trial}}
 
[[File:Lockerbie_Trial_Judges.jpg|400px|right|thumb|Lockerbie Trial Judges: Lord Abernethy, Lord Coulsfield, presiding Judge Lord Sutherland and Lord MacLean]]
 
[[File:Lockerbie_Trial_Judges.jpg|400px|right|thumb|Lockerbie Trial Judges: Lord Abernethy, Lord Coulsfield, presiding Judge Lord Sutherland and Lord MacLean]]
−
Having been indicted in November 1991 in relation to the Lockerbie bombing, the two Libyans [[Lamin Khalifah Fhimah]] and [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi]] were charged with conspiracy to murder, murder and a breach of the Aviation Security Act 1982, Section 2(1). Their trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands began on 3 May 2000 with a bench of three Scottish Judges - Lords Coulsfield, MacLean and Sutherland (Lord Abernethy as an alternate) - sitting without a jury. Eight months later, the Crown said it intended dropping the charges of conspiracy and breach of aviation security and would be focusing on the charge of murder. On 31 January 2001, the Judges' verdict was announced: [[Lamin Khalifah Fhimah|Fhimah]] was found not guilty, [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi|Megrahi]] was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/493242.stm "Full wording of initial charges"]</ref>
+
Having been indicted in November 1991 in relation to the Lockerbie bombing, the two Libyans [[Lamin Khalifah Fhimah]] and [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi]] were charged with conspiracy to murder, murder and a breach of the Aviation Security Act 1982, Section 2. Their trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands began on 3 May 2000 with a bench of three Scottish Judges - Lords Coulsfield, MacLean and Sutherland (Lord Abernethy as an alternate) - sitting without a jury. Eight months later, the Crown said it intended dropping the charges of conspiracy and breach of aviation security and would be focusing on the charge of [[murder]]. On 31 January 2001, the Judges' verdict was announced: [[Lamin Khalifah Fhimah|Fhimah]] was found not guilty, [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi|Megrahi]] was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/493242.stm "Full wording of initial charges"]</ref>
  
−
This unexplained dropping of the conspiracy charge continues to rankle with many Lockerbie campaigners. In July 2014, commenter "Dave" posted on [[Professor Black]]'s blog:
+
==The Appeal==
−
:There would have been considerable pressure on the Judges to do their patriotic duty and find the two suspects guilty in defence of the system and of the [[Lord Advocate]].
+
The Defence team had 14 days in which to appeal against [[Megrahi]]'s conviction, and an additional six weeks to submit the full grounds of the appeal. These were considered by a Judge sitting in private who decided to grant [[Megrahi]] leave to appeal. The only basis for an appeal under Scots law is that there has been a "miscarriage of justice," which is not defined in statute and so it is for the appeal court to determine the meaning of these words in each case.<ref>''[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1764532.stm "14 days to launch appeal"]''</ref> Because three Judges and one alternate Judge had presided over the trial, five Judges were required to preside over the Court of Criminal Appeal:
−
:And they did their duty by finding [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi]] guilty, after saying he was innocent in their summing up!
 
−
:But to salve their conscience the Judges announced to the world that Zeist was a show trial by finding [[Lamin Khalifah Fhimah]] not guilty.
 
−
:Because how can you convict one without the other on a conspiracy charge?
 
−
:Thus, a deal must have been done, normally known as a plea bargain, but with the Judges, not the defendants!<ref>[http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/seven-years-hard.html?showComment=1404861250747#c1524192862230052202 "A deal, normally known as a plea bargain, must have been done"]</ref>
 
  
−
However, [[Professor Black]] has no doubts about the Judges' integrity:
+
* Lord Cullen, Lord Justice-General
−
:This is utter nonsense, Dave. The Crown were as surprised as everyone else in the courtroom (and beyond) when the Judges returned a verdict of guilty against [[Megrahi]]. If you are going to continue contributing, please stop posting comments about what "must" have happened and start concentrating on what actually did.<ref>[http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/seven-years-hard.html?showComment=1404886059156#c8521066038121609767 "Watch it Dave or I'll ban you from commenting"]</ref>
+
* Lord Kirkwood
 +
* Lord Osborne
 +
* Lord Macfadyen and
 +
* Lord Nimmo Smith
  
−
===Personalities central to the prosecution's case===
+
In what was described as a milestone in Scottish legal history, Lord Cullen granted the [[BBC]] permission in January 2002 to televise the appeal, and to broadcast it on the Internet in English with a simultaneous Arabic translation.
−
#'''[[Tony Gauci]]''' - The crown's star witness, a Maltese shopkeeper, reportedly paid a large amount by the [[CIA]].<ref>[http://www.heraldscotland.com/revealed-cia-offered-2m-to-lockerbie-witness-and-brother-1.866400 "Revealed: CIA offered $2m to Lockerbie witness and brother"]</ref>
 
−
#'''[[Thomas Thurman]]''' - [[FBI]] Laboratory 'scientist' was not called as a witness.
 
−
#'''[[Alan Feraday]]''' - Former head of the forensic laboratory at Royal Armaments Research and Development Establishment (RARDE) at Fort Halstead.
 
−
#'''[[Dr Thomas Hayes]]''' - Over the 1970s and early 1980s progressed to head the RARDE forensic laboratory. His testimony was central to the Lockerbie verdict. Yet he and two colleagues conspired to withhold evidence from the 1974 alleged IRA Maguire Seven trial which would have indicated innocence. The Maguires were freed on appeal after fifteen years in jail. This matter was exposed in the Lockerbie trial, but the Judges trusted Hayes' word implicitly.
 
  
−
===Evidence withheld or not available at the time of the trial===
+
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Taylor_(lawyer) William Taylor QC,] leading the Defence, said at the appeal's opening on 23 January 2002 that the three trial Judges sitting without a jury had failed to see the relevance of "significant" evidence and had accepted unreliable facts. He argued that the verdict was not one that a reasonable jury in an ordinary trial could have reached if it were given proper directions by the Judge. The grounds of the appeal rested on two areas of evidence where the Defence claimed the original court was mistaken: the evidence of Maltese shopkeeper, [[Tony Gauci]], which the Judges accepted as sufficient to prove that the "primary suitcase" started its journey in Malta; and, disputing the Crown's case, fresh evidence would be adduced to show that the bomb's journey actually started at Heathrow. That evidence, which was not heard at the trial, showed that at some time in the two hours before 00:35 on 21 December 1988 a padlock had been forced on a secure door giving access air side in Terminal 3 of Heathrow airport, near to the area referred to at the trial as the "baggage build-up area". [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Taylor_(lawyer) Taylor] claimed that the PA 103 bomb could have been planted then.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1778449.stm "Grounds of appeal"]</ref>
−
*'''Former CIA agent, [[Robert Baer]], CIA Middle Eastern specialist''', worked on the early stages of the investigation. He has repeatedly claimed that, in 1989, there was  "Grade A intelligence" held by America to prove that Iran requested and paid for the Lockerbie bombing. If Baer is correct, then the bomb timer fragment which pointed to Libya must have been planted.
 
−
*'''[[Lord Peter Fraser]], Scotland's Chief Law Officer during the investigation and indictments''', claimed in 1991 that witnesses would "prove the case beyond reasonable doubt."  In 2005 he admitted to journalists that his chief witness [[Tony Gauci]] was highly unreliable. Then in 2008, when questioned by a Times journalist, [[Lord Peter Fraser|Fraser]] indicated suspicions that key evidence might have been planted with the knowledge of the [[CIA]].
 
−
*'''Shukri Ghanem, Libyan Prime Minister 2003 - 2006''', has said, on at least two occasions in radio and television interviews, that Libya was not responsible and it paid the $2.7 billion compensation with great reluctance and only "to buy peace and move forward."
 
−
*'''The alleged bomb timer fragment:''' Was it planted to frame Libya for the crime? The fragment's label had been altered by unknown persons. And its finding and examination by [[Dr Thomas Hayes]] proved highly suspicious. A series of scientific tests in 2009 have proved that its survival two centimetres from the centre of a high explosive fireball was impossible.<ref>[http://www.lockerbietruth.com/ The two key elements of al-Megrahi's conviction ]</ref>
 
  
−
==Post-Trial developments==
+
On 14 March 2002, it took Lord Cullen less than three minutes to deliver the decision of the High Court of Judiciary. The five Judges rejected the appeal, ruling unanimously that "none of the grounds of appeal was well-founded", adding "this brings proceedings to an end". The following day, a helicopter took [[Megrahi]] from Camp Zeist to continue his life sentence in Barlinnie Prison, Glasgow.
−
[[File:Dr_John_Cameron.jpg|300px|right|thumb|[[Dr John Cameron]], Church of Scotland's scientist]]
+
 
−
[[File:Hans_Koechler.jpg|300px|right|thumb|[[Hans Köchler]] UN Observer at the Lockerbie trial]]
+
==2nd Appeal==
−
===Cameron's Report on Forensic Evidence===
+
[[Megrahi]]'s second appeal was to have been heard by five Scottish judges in 2009 at the Court of Criminal Appeal. A procedural hearing at the Appeal Court in [[Edinburgh]] took place on 11 October 2007 when prosecution lawyers and [[Megrahi]]'s defence Counsel, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie_Scott,_Lady_Scott Maggie Scott QC,] discussed legal issues with a panel of three judges.<ref>''[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7037821.stm "Lockerbie bomber in fresh appeal"]''</ref> One of the issues concerns a number of [[CIA]] documents that were shown to the prosecution but were not disclosed to the defence. The documents are understood to relate to the [[MEBO]] [[MST-13 Timer]] that allegedly detonated the PA103 bomb.<ref>''[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7023397.stm "'Secret' Lockerbie report claim"]''</ref> Further procedural hearings were scheduled to take place between December 2007 and June 2008.<ref>''[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7422010.stm "Lockerbie documents security plea"]''</ref>
−
{{FA|Cameron's Report on Lockerbie Forensic Evidence}}
+
 
−
At the beginning of 2003, former South African president [[Nelson Mandela]] asked the Western Christian churches to intervene in what he termed "a clear miscarriage of justice", referring to the conviction of [[Megrahi]] at Camp Zeist. In July that year, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Rt Rev Professor Iain Torrance, took up the challenge and appointed the Church of Scotland's leading scientist Dr [[John Urquhart Cameron]] to conduct a scientific examination of all the forensic evidence which had convicted Megrahi. As a result, Cameron produced a damning report on the conduct of the forensic experts and on the evidence presented to the trial.<ref>[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4453168801559&l=a92a2892d4 "Lockerbie: Mandela and Dr John Cameron's Report"]</ref>
+
Pointing out an error on the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|FCO]]'s website and accusing the British government of "delaying tactics" in relation to [[Megrahi]]'s second Lockerbie appeal, UN Observer at the [[Pan Am Flight 103/The Trial|Lockerbie trial]], [[Hans Köchler]], wrote to Foreign Secretary [[David Miliband]] on 21 July 2008 saying:<ref>International Progress Organization, Vienna, News Release, 21 July 2008 [http://i-p-o.org/ipo-nr-21July2008-lockerbie_appeal.htm]</ref>
 +
 
 +
<blockquote>As international observer, appointed by the [[United Nations]], at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands I am also concerned about the [[Public Interest Immunity]] (PII) certificate which has been issued by you in connection with the new Appeal of the convicted Libyan national. Withholding of evidence from the Defence was one of the reasons why the [[Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission]] has referred Mr Al-Megrahi’s case back to the High Court of Justiciary. The Appeal cannot go ahead if the Government of the United Kingdom, through the PII certificate issued by you, denies the Defence the right (also guaranteed under the [[European Convention on Human Rights]]) to have access to a document which is in the possession of the Prosecution. How can there be equality of arms in such a situation? How can the independence of the judiciary be upheld if the executive power interferes into the appeal process in such a way?</blockquote>
 +
 
 +
The [[FCO]] corrected the error on its website and wrote to Köchler on 27 August 2008:<ref>''[http://i-p-o.org/IPO-nr-Lockerbie-FCO-01Sept08.htm "Foreign Office letter to UN observer Dr. Hans Koechler"]''</ref><blockquote>"Ultimately, it will be for the Court to decide whether the material should be disclosed, not the Foreign Secretary."</blockquote>
  
−
===Statement by UN Observer at the Trial===
+
In September 2008, following an application made at a closed hearing of the Appeal Court in Edinburgh, it was reported that a security-vetted Defence Counsel is to be appointed to examine the disputed document. The court's decision on the application has not been published but in a letter seen by [[BBC Scotland]], FCO minister [[Kim Howells]] says it has decided to appoint a special defender. In a [[BBC]] interview, [[Hans Köchler]] criticised the development as "intolerable" and "detrimental to the rule of law." Köchler said:<ref>''[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7622223.stm "Appeal court plans Lockerbie move"]''</ref><blockquote>"In no country can the situation be allowed where the accused or the appellant is not free to have his own defence team, and instead someone is imposed upon him."</blockquote>
−
On 23 August 2003, Dr [[Hans Koechler]], the United Nations Observer at the Lockerbie trial in the Netherlands (2000-2002), released a "Statement on the agreement between the United States, the United Kingdom and the Libyan Jamahiriya on the remaining issues relating to the fulfilment of all Security Council resolutions resulting from the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie." The Statement concluded:
 
−
:"17. The chapter of the Lockerbie investigation can only be closed when the full truth will have been established and when the question will have been satisfactorily answered why only a lone individual has been sentenced in a case that relates to a terrorist crime the commission of which required a vast and sophisticated operational network (most likely involving more than one country and/or terrorist organisation) and huge financial resources. An ambiguous declaration of "state responsibility" such as the one deposited with the UN Security Council does in no way answer the urgent and legitimate question as to personal criminal responsibility of individuals other than [[Megrahi|Mr Al-Megrahi]] (and eventually also from other countries) for the Lockerbie crime. A political deal such as the one concluded last week between the US, UK and Libya linking individual compensation with the lifting of multilateral and subsequently unilateral sanctions does not advance the cause of justice in the present case, but is part of the politics of national interest of the countries involved in the present dispute. The intelligence cooperation established between the three countries since September 11, 2001, in the area of counter-terrorism must not come at the expense of the search for truth in the Lockerbie case. The doubts and misgivings about the Lockerbie trial in the Netherlands will only disappear when a full investigation of the crime by an independent commission will have been undertaken. Up to this moment the undersigned will maintain his doubts about the Lockerbie verdict and will consider the judgment concerning [[Megrahi|Mr Al-Megrahi]] – on the basis of an Indictment that was substantially modified in the course of the trial and altered by the judges as part of the Verdict – as a miscarriage of justice."<ref>[http://www.i-p-o.org/Koechler-Lockerbie-statement-Aug2003.htm "Statement by Hans Koechler, UN Observer at the Lockerbie Trial"] 23 August 2003</ref>
 
  
−
===Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission===
+
On 15 October 2008, five Scottish judges decided unanimously to reject a submission by the Crown Office that the scope of [[Megrahi]]'s second appeal should be limited to the specific grounds of appeal that were identified by the [[SCCRC]] in June 2007.<ref>''[http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2008HCJAC58.html "Judgment on the scope of Megrahi's second appeal"]''</ref> On 21 October 2008 [[Megrahi]]'s lawyer, revealed that his client had been diagnosed with "advanced stage" prostate cancer. Despite the appeals of [[Jim Swire]], that keeping [[Megrahi]] behind bars while he battled the disease "would amount to exquisite torture", the High Court ruled on 14 November 2008 that [[Megrahi]] should remain in jail while his appeal continued.<ref>''[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6236538.stm "Timeline: Lockerbie bombing"]''</ref> In an article published on 29 December 2008 award-winning journalist and author, [[Hugh Miles]], described the [[Pan Am Flight 103/The Trial|Lockerbie trial]] as an historic miscarriage of justice. The article concluded: "If [[Megrahi]] didn't do it, who did?"<ref>''[http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=1010&pageid=44&pagename=Slices "Lockerbie Trial is an Historic Miscarriage of Justice"]''</ref>
−
On 23 September 2003 lawyers acting for [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi]] applied to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) for a review of the case (both sentence and conviction), arguing that there had been a miscarriage of justice. On 1 November 2006, Megrahi was reported to have dropped his demand for the new appeal to be held at Camp Zeist.<ref>[http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=184&id=1613972006 "Appeal can be held in Edinburgh"]</ref> In an interview with ''The Scotsman'' newspaper of 31 January 2006, retired Scottish Judge Lord MacLean – one of the three who convicted [[Megrahi]] in 2001 – said he believed the SCCRC would return the case for a further appeal against conviction:
 
−
:"They can't be working for two years without producing something with which to go to the court."
 
−
MacLean added that any new appeal would indicate the flexibility of Scots law, rather than a weakness:
 
−
:"It might even be the strength of the system – it is capable of looking at itself subsequently and determining a ground for appeal."
 
  
−
In January 2007, the SCCRC announced that it would issue its decision on Megrahi's case by the end of June 2007.<ref>[http://www.sccrc.org.uk/ViewFile.aspx?id=175 "SCCRC ruling by the end of June 2007"]</ref> On 9 June 2007 rumours of a possible prisoner swap deal involving Megrahi were strenuously denied by the then Prime Minister, [[Tony Blair]].<ref>[http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=904402007 "PM says no deal over Megrahi"]</ref> Later in June, ''The Observer'' confirmed the imminence of the SCCRC ruling and reported:
+
On 31 December 2008, [[Ludwig De Braeckeleer]] ended a 174-part series entitled "Diary of a Vengeance Foretold." The article alleges that [[Iran]] ordered the bombing of Pan Am 103 in revenge for the downing of [[Iran Air Flight 655]].<ref>''[http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=384534&rel_no=1 "Tehran Hands Over the Remaining Funds to Jibril PFLP-GC]''</ref>
−
:"[[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi]] never wavered in his denial of causing the Lockerbie disaster: now some Scottish legal experts say they believe him."<ref>[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2104982,00.htm "Evidence that casts doubt on who brought down Flight 103"]</ref>
 
  
−
On 28 June 2007, the SCCRC concluded its four-year review and, having uncovered evidence that a miscarriage of justice could have occurred, the commission granted Megrahi leave to appeal against his Lockerbie bombing conviction for a second time.<ref>[http://www.sccrc.org.uk/ViewFile.aspx?id=293 "SCCRC referral of Megrahi case"]</ref>
+
In January 2009, it was reported that, although [[Megrahi]]'s second appeal against conviction was scheduled to begin on 27 April 2009, the hearing could last as long as 12 months because of the complexity of the case and volume of material to be examined.<ref>''[http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2481827.0.Secret_talks_on_deal_to_return_Megrahi_to_Libya.php "Secret talks on deal to return Megrahi to Libya"]''</ref>
  
−
In a statement dated 29 June 2007 Dr [[Hans Köchler]], international observer at the Lockerbie trial, expressed his surprise at the SCCRC's narrow focus and apparent bias towards the judicial establishment:
+
On 18 August 2009, [[Megrahi]] dropped his appeal in light of his terminal prostate cancer.<ref>''[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/8205528.stm "Lockerbie bomber's appeal dropped"]''</ref>
−
:"In giving exoneration to the police, prosecutors and forensic staff, I think they show their lack of independence. No officials to be blamed, simply a Maltese shopkeeper."<ref>[http://i-p-o.org/koechler-lockerbie-referral-29June2007.htm "Statement by Dr Hans Köchler"]</ref>
 
  
−
===Reliability of Tony Gauci===
+
==Media cover-up==
−
In 2005, Maltese shopkeeper [[Tony Gauci]] was exposed as an unreliable witness by the man who in 1991 indicted [[Megrahi]], former Scottish Lord Advocate [[Lord Peter Fraser|Peter Fraser]].  In [[Lord Peter Fraser|Fraser]]'s words, [[Tony Gauci|Gauci]] was "an apple short of a picnic." And yet the judges trusted [[Tony Gauci|Gauci]]'s contradictory and confused evidence, and ignored the fact that Gauci was on a promise of a multi-million dollar reward if Al-Megrahi was convicted. Michael Meacher, MP, also alleged bribery of the chief prosecution witness with the collusion of Strathclyde police and the US Authorities, though his blog post was later removed.<ref>[http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/2009/10/lockerbie-truth-is-finally-coming-out.html "Lockerbie: The Truth is finally coming out"] - The now removed post by Michael Meacher MP on his blog, reposted on [[Robert Black]]'s blog.</ref>
+
{{FA|Lockerbie Bombing/Cover-up}}
 +
Within a few weeks of the December 1988 newspaper reports, [[Bernt Carlsson]]'s name would hardly ever be mentioned again by the {{ccm}} in the Lockerbie context. He rapidly became something of a "nonperson" whose death was never properly investigated. [[Patrick Haseldine]] alleges that [[Tiny Rowland]] recruited Emeritus Professor of Scots Law [[Robert Black]] to organise the British news blackout and that "for the past 20 years, Professor [[Robert Black]] has been suppressing the truth about the Lockerbie disaster".<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3870955126581&l=5950a6622d "Blackout over Lockerbie"]</ref>
  
−
===Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds===
+
==Continuing Doubts==
−
On 20 August 2009, [[Megrahi]]'s release was authorised by the Scottish Secretary of Justice, [[Kenny MacAskill]] under a 1993 Scottish statute enabling the release from prison of anyone deemed by competent medical authority to have three months or less to live.<ref>[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6803849.ece?token=null&offset=84&page=8 "Lockerbie bomber released: Kenny MacAskill's full statement"]</ref> The public were lead to believe that [[Megrahi]] had only 3 months to live.
+
{{FA|Pan Am Flight 103/Continuing Doubts}}
 +
As of 2015, doubts about the justice of [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi|Megrahi]]'s conviction are more widespread than ever.
  
−
Cable 08LONDON2673 (dated 2008-10-24) from the US Embassy London states however:
+
===Cameron's Report on Forensic Evidence===
−
:"[[Megrahi]] was first diagnosed on 23 September at Inverclyde Royal Hospital, both the FCO and the Scottish Crown office have told us; the second diagnosis was on 10 October. The two diagnoses match: he has prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, the cancer has advanced rapidly, and it is inoperable and incurable. [[Megrahi]] could have as long as five years to live, but the average life expectancy of someone of his age with his condition is eighteen months to two years".<ref>[http://cablesearch.org/cable/view.php?id=08LONDON2673 "08LONDON2673: PAN AM 103 BOMBER HAS INCURABLE CANCER; LIBYANS"]</ref>
+
{{FA|Cameron's Report on Lockerbie Forensic Evidence}}
 +
[[File:Dr_John_Cameron.jpg|300px|right|thumb|[[Dr John Cameron]], Church of Scotland's scientist]]
 +
At the beginning of 2003, former South African president [[Nelson Mandela]] asked the Western Christian churches to intervene in what he termed "a clear miscarriage of justice", referring to the conviction of [[Megrahi]] at Camp Zeist. In July that year, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Rt Rev Professor Iain Torrance, took up the challenge and appointed the Church of Scotland's leading scientist Dr [[John Urquhart Cameron]] to conduct a scientific examination of all the forensic evidence which had convicted Megrahi. As a result, Cameron produced a damning report on the conduct of the forensic experts and on the evidence presented to the trial.<ref>[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4453168801559&l=a92a2892d4 "Lockerbie: Mandela and Dr John Cameron's Report"]</ref>
  
−
Another leaked cable, 09TRIPOLI65 (dated 2009-01-28) from the US Embassy Tripoli reports:
+
===Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission===
−
:"The case of convicted [[Pan Am 103]] bomber [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi]] is arguably the regime’s most sensitive political subject, in part because it involves a firm timeline in the form of the ailing [[al-Megrahi]]’s approaching death. Through remarks by senior officials suggesting that [[al-Megrahi]] is innocent and a steady diet of publicity about his case, the regime has limited its room for political maneuver. U.K. Embassy interlocutors here are planning for a scenario in which the U.K.-Libya Prisoner Transfer Agreement is ratified in early March and the GOL makes application shortly thereafter for [[al-Megrahi]]’s transfer to Libya. The U.K. Embassy expects a sharply negative GOL reaction if [[al-Megrahi]] dies in prison or if the Scottish Executive and/or FCO oppose his transfer".<ref>[http://cablesearch.org/cable/view.php?id=09TRIPOLI65 "09TRIPOLI65: PAN AM BOMBER AL-MEGRAHI: THE VIEW FROM TRIPOLI"]</ref>
+
{{FA|Pan Am Flight 103/Continuing Doubts#Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission}}
 +
On 23 September 2003 lawyers acting for Megrahi applied to the [[Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission]] (SCCRC) for a review of the case (both sentence and conviction), arguing that there had been a miscarriage of justice. On 1 November 2006, Megrahi was reported to have dropped his demand for the new appeal to be held at Camp Zeist.<ref>[http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=184&id=1613972006 "Appeal can be held in Edinburgh"]</ref> After a four-year review the SCCRC concluded that there was evidence that a miscarriage of justice might have occurred, so Megrahi was granted leave to appeal against his conviction for a second time.<ref>[http://www.sccrc.org.uk/ViewFile.aspx?id=293 "SCCRC referral of Megrahi case"]</ref>
  
−
Another cable stated that the UK feared action by Libya against British interests if [[Megrahi]] died in jail.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-gaddafi-britain-lockerbie-bomber "WikiLeaks cables: Lockerbie bomber freed after [[Gaddafi]]'s 'thuggish' threats"]</ref>
+
{{FA|Abdelbaset al-Megrahi/Compassionate release}}
 +
On 20 August 2009, Megrahi was granted [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi/Compassionate release|compassionate release]], ''after'' having agreed to abandon his appeal. <!-- So, was a deal struck?? -->
  
−
Channel 4 news presenter, Jon Snow, wrote that the report of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission "states that after the trial [[Tony Gauci]] was paid $2 million, and that brother Paul got $1 million reward money"
+
===Questions remain unanswered===
−
that after the trial [[Tony Gauci]] was paid $2 million, and that brother Paul got $1 million reward money. If true, these would be completely dynamite revelations. Of course, they would have come out in the appeal that [[Megrahi]]’s release prevented happening. It is inconceivable that this Scottish Review Commission’s report would not have surfaced at such an appeal. Does this perhaps explain why he was eventually bundled so speedily out of the country?"<ref>[http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/bribery-heart-megrahis-lockerbie-conviction/15443 "Bribery at the heart of Megrahi's Lockerbie conviction"]</ref>
+
How did one suitcase, which contained Semtex occupy a precise bottom-row location close to the edge of the aircraft’s hull? Seven containers were filled with luggage that came from Heathrow Terminal 3. An eighth container, marked AVE4041, was for baggage from a transfer flight from Frankfurt. No screening of the eighth container took place. One of the loading area staff in Heathrow initially told police he had noticed a single hard-shell suitcase already loaded at the bottom of AVE4041. This scenario was expected to be re-examined had a Scottish appeal court been allowed to test the conviction of [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi]]. If the bomb in the suitcase was loaded at Heathrow, then Megrahi and the official account of the Libyan’s movements in Malta all begin to look unconnected. The Heathrow flight was also delayed, suggesting that if the bomb was loaded in Malta and on a timer, it should have exploded before it took off in London.
  
−
In fact, [[Megrahi]] died in 20 May 2012, almost three years after his release was authorised.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18137896 "Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi dies in Tripoli"], BBC</ref>
+
Does it matter that such detail remains the subject of debate? It does. Because if you accept a porous account and decide that a weak explanation is better than no explanation, then whatever lessons you claim to have learned will be worthless. If the conviction of Megrahi was merely a convenient round-up of the Libyan bad guys, then the Scottish justice system (and, by implication, its British counterpart) are damaged by pragmatic injustice.
  
−
===''Namibian Sun'' spotlights Lockerbie===
+
The failures of Lockerbie should serve as warning to the [[Metrojet Flight 9268]] investigation that will come in Egypt. The objective should be the truth. Anything less and all we will do is wait for the next “game-changer”.<ref>[http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/we-failed-to-learn-from-lockerbie-and-repeat-our-mistakes-at-peril-a6729156.html "We failed to learn from Lockerbie, and repeat our mistakes at peril"]</ref>
−
[[File:Rossing_Uranium_Mine.jpg|400px|thumb|right|[http://www.itnsource.com/en/shotlist/ITVProgs/1980/03/10/105680514/?s=Follow%20The%20Yellowcake%20Road Yellowcake Road starts at the] [[Rössing Uranium Mine]] ]]
 
−
[[File:Carlsson_Pan_Am_103.jpg|400px|thumb|right|[[Yellowcake|Yellowcake Road]] ends with Pan Am Flight 103]]
 
−
Under the headline "[[Lockerbie disaster]] kept [[Rössing Uranium Mine|Rössing]] in business", the ''Namibian Sun'' newspaper put the spotlight on [[Bernt Carlsson]]'s targeting in the [[Lockerbie bombing]]:
 
−
:The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland on December 21, 1988 had helped to keep [[Namibia]]’s [[Rössing Uranium Mine]] in business, after a lead investigator into allegations of the illegal exportation of uranium from the then [[Namibia|South-West Africa]] (SWA) perished in the deadly attack.
 
−
:[[Bernt Carlsson]], the United Nations (UN) Assistant Secretary-General and [[UN Commissioner for Namibia]] at the time, was the highest-profile victim of that bombing, according to a report released this week. The report, compiled by former British diplomat [[Patrick Haseldine]], suggests that [[Bernt Carlsson|Carlsson]] was the main target of the bombing - in order to end his high-profile investigation into allegations that there was a secret contract and operations arranged by British-based [[Rio Tinto Group|Rio Tinto Zinc Corp]] to import into Britain uranium ([[yellowcake]]) from [[Rössing Uranium Mine|Rössing]] in [[Namibia]].
 
−
:The dubious extraction of Namibian uranium allegedly happened between 1976 and 1989, which was against a UN decree of 1974 prohibiting the extraction and distribution of any natural resource from the Namibian territory without the explicit permission of the [[United Nations Council for Namibia]] (UNCN). The decree - known as Decree No.1 - also provided for the seizure of any illegally exported material, and warned that violators could be held liable for damages.
 
−
:"Projected to be [[Namibia]]’s largest mining operation, [[Rössing Uranium Mine|Rössing]] became the primary target of Decree No. 1," [[Patrick Haseldine|Haseldine]]’s report reads. "However, many Western governments (including the US and Britain) refused to accept Decree No. 1 as binding, with lawyers and government officials disputing whether the decree was juridically sound, whether and how it might apply, and which courts might enforce its application."
 
−
:The report states that Decree No. 1 sparked a lengthy international struggle over the legitimacy of the [[Rössing Uranium Mine]]: "The [[UNCN]] sent out numerous delegations to convince governments to suspend their dealings with Namibia."
 
−
:In 1981, the report further states, [[SWAPO]] (which was the liberation movement at the time) helped organise a seminar for West European trade unions as well as presentations on living and working conditions at [[Rössing Uranium Mine|Rössing]] and on the mine’s paramilitary security forces, which appealed to the loyalties of the [[Socialist International|International Socialist]] movement, where [[Bernt Carlsson]] was Secretary-General.
 
−
:"The seminar detailed the secret movements of [[Rössing Uranium Mine|Rössing uranium]] through European planes, ships, docks, and roads, noting that European transport workers had unknowingly handled barrels of radioactive substances," it reads.
 
−
:In May 1985, the [[UNCN]] began legal action against [[URENCO]] - the joint Dutch/British/West German uranium enrichment company, with plants in Capenhurst (Cheshire, England), Almelo (Netherlands) and Gronau (West Germany). [[URENCO]] had been importing uranium ore from [[Rössing Uranium Mine|Rössing]] and as a result, it was charged with breaching Decree No. 1.
 
−
:"When the case finally reached court in July 1986, the Dutch government took [[URENCO]]’s line, claiming not to have known where the uranium had been mined," [[Patrick Haseldine|Haseldine]] reports. Helmut Angula, [[SWAPO]]’s UN representative at the time, even suggested that other companies, such as Shell, [[De Beers]] (Consolidated Diamond Mines), Newmont, and [[Rio Tinto Group|Rio Tinto]] were also likely to face prosecution for breaching the [[UNCN]] Decree.
 
−
:The British were so fond of [[Rössing Uranium Mine|Rössing]] that Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]] visited the [[Rössing Uranium Mine]] in 1989, accompanied by [[David Cameron]], then a youthful Conservative Central Office researcher. [[David Cameron|Cameron]] is current British prime minister.
 
−
[[File:Disappearing_Diamonds.jpg|400px|right|thumb|How [[De Beers]] illegally exploited billions of pounds-worth of [[Namibia]]'s diamond gemstones]]
 
−
:[[Bernt Carlsson]] became an enemy of many in the West when he spoke about possible prosecutions of those violating the decree – the remarks he made in a ''World In Action'' TV documentary "[[The Case of the Disappearing Diamonds]]" which was broadcast by Thames Television in September 1987: "The United Nations this year in July started legal action against one such company - the Dutch company [[URENCO]] which imports uranium," he said in the TV piece. "All the companies which are carrying out activities in [[Namibia]] which have not been authorised by the United Nations are being studied at present." :On December 22, 1988 apartheid [[South Africa]] and other negotiating parties signed an independence accord: "It was on his way to the signing of the agreement at UN headquarters in New York, that [[UN Commissioner for Namibia]] [[Bernt Carlsson]] became the highest profile victim of the Pan Am Flight 103 crash at Lockerbie on 21st December 1988," Haseldine’s report reads.
 
−
:[[Patrick Haseldine|Haseldine]], a former British diplomat who was dismissed by the then Foreign Secretary, [[John Major]], in August 1989 and often referred to as the "[[Emeritus Professor of Lockerbie Studies]]", has called for support of a UN inquiry into the deaths of [[Bernt Carlsson]] and former UN Secretary-General [[Dag Hammarskjöld]]. In September 1961, a plane carrying [[Dag Hammarskjöld|Hammarskjöld]] crashed near Ndola airport in the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).
 
−
– Additional reporting by [[Global Research]] News<ref>[http://www.sun.com.na/disasters/lockerbie-disaster-kept-rossing-in-business.61077 "Lockerbie disaster kept Rössing in business"]</ref>
 
  
 
==Alternative Possibilities==
 
==Alternative Possibilities==
Line 189: Line 169:
 
:The eventual target was a Pan American Airways Boeing 747 jumbo jet that was scheduled to depart London's Heathrow Airport on 21 December 1988. Early that morning, South African Airways Flight 234 from Johannesburg carrying an official delegation which included two government ministers landed at Heathrow. The 23-strong party was led by South African Foreign Minister [[Pik Botha]] – not to be confused with South Africa’s autocratic President [[P W Botha]] – and Defence Minister General [[Magnus Malan]]. For over a decade, apartheid South Africa had been defying UN Security Council Resolution 435 by continuing to occupy neighbouring Namibia (which President Botha insisted on calling South-West Africa) and by exploiting its valuable mineral resources in violation of UN law. On 22 December 1988 at UN headquarters in New York [[Pik Botha]] would sign an historic agreement bringing an end to the apartheid regime’s occupation of Namibia and handing over control to the United Nations. Seats had been reserved for the South African party on Pan Am Flight 101 which, following a special security check of the aircraft, took off from Heathrow at 11:00hrs GMT. Flight Pan Am 101 landed safely at JFK, New York at 13:45hrs EST.
 
:The eventual target was a Pan American Airways Boeing 747 jumbo jet that was scheduled to depart London's Heathrow Airport on 21 December 1988. Early that morning, South African Airways Flight 234 from Johannesburg carrying an official delegation which included two government ministers landed at Heathrow. The 23-strong party was led by South African Foreign Minister [[Pik Botha]] – not to be confused with South Africa’s autocratic President [[P W Botha]] – and Defence Minister General [[Magnus Malan]]. For over a decade, apartheid South Africa had been defying UN Security Council Resolution 435 by continuing to occupy neighbouring Namibia (which President Botha insisted on calling South-West Africa) and by exploiting its valuable mineral resources in violation of UN law. On 22 December 1988 at UN headquarters in New York [[Pik Botha]] would sign an historic agreement bringing an end to the apartheid regime’s occupation of Namibia and handing over control to the United Nations. Seats had been reserved for the South African party on Pan Am Flight 101 which, following a special security check of the aircraft, took off from Heathrow at 11:00hrs GMT. Flight Pan Am 101 landed safely at JFK, New York at 13:45hrs EST.
  
−
:In the evening of 21 December 1988, without any security check, [[Pan Am Flight 103]] destined for New York took off from Heathrow at 18:25hrs GMT. Thirty-eight minutes after take-off, [[Pan Am Flight 103]] exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland killing all 259 people on board the aircraft, and eleven in the town of Lockerbie. Iran’s revenge attack thus resulted in 270 fatalities, of whom Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, [[Bernt Carlsson]], was the most prominent. It would have been [[Bernt Carlsson]]’s responsibility as UN Commissioner for Namibia to take charge of the country as soon as South Africa agreed to cede control on 22 December 1988. [[Bernt Carlsson|Carlsson]] had already issued a clear warning to the companies and countries that were flouting the UN prohibition on exploiting Namibia’s minerals (especially uranium and diamonds) that he intended to take legal action against them. Iran was one of the countries facing prosecution because, as well as owning 15% of the [[Rössing Uranium Mine]], it was receiving shipments of Namibian uranium to develop its nuclear programme. In targeting [[Pan Am Flight 103]] therefore Iran not only avenged [[Iran Air Flight 655]] but also took out the one individual at the United Nations with the power to prosecute the companies eg [[Rio Tinto Group]] (joint owner of the [[Rössing Uranium Mine]]) and [[De Beers]] (owner of CDM diamond mines) and the countries eg Iran and South Africa that were in breach of UN law.<ref>[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1770061725559&l=78adbc28db "Lockerbie: Ayatollah's Vengeance Exacted by Botha's Regime"]</ref>
+
:In the evening of 21 December 1988, without any security check, Pan Am Flight 103 destined for New York took off from Heathrow at 18:25hrs GMT. Thirty-eight minutes after take-off, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland killing all 259 people on board the aircraft, and eleven in the town of Lockerbie. Iran’s revenge attack thus resulted in 270 fatalities, of whom Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, [[Bernt Carlsson]], was the most prominent. It would have been [[Bernt Carlsson]]’s responsibility as [[UN Commissioner for Namibia]] to take charge of the country as soon as South Africa agreed to cede control on 22 December 1988. [[Bernt Carlsson|Carlsson]] had already issued a clear warning to the companies and countries that were flouting the UN prohibition on exploiting Namibia’s minerals (especially uranium and diamonds) that he intended to take legal action against them. Iran was one of the countries facing prosecution because, as well as owning 15% of the [[Rössing Uranium Mine]], it was receiving shipments of Namibian uranium to develop its nuclear programme. In targeting Pan Am Flight 103 therefore Iran not only avenged [[Iran Air Flight 655]] but also took out the one individual at the United Nations with the power to prosecute the companies eg [[Rio Tinto Group]] (joint owner of the [[Rössing Uranium Mine]]) and [[De Beers]] (owner of CDM diamond mines) and the countries eg Iran and South Africa that were in breach of UN law.<ref>[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1770061725559&l=78adbc28db "Lockerbie: Ayatollah's Vengeance Exacted by Botha's Regime"]</ref>
  
 
====Q & A Session====
 
====Q & A Session====
Line 196: Line 176:
  
 
A. Because the 1986 US [[Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act]] banned SAA flights from landing in America.
 
A. Because the 1986 US [[Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act]] banned SAA flights from landing in America.
−
[[File:Bernt_Carlsson_3.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and UN Commissioner for Namibia, [[Bernt Carlsson]] ]]
 
−
Q. How did the Iranians know that UN Commissioner for Namibia, [[Bernt Carlsson]], would travel on [[Pan Am Flight 103]] of 21 December 1988?
 
  
−
A. They relied on their apartheid South African friends to ensure [[Bernt Carlsson|Carlsson]] joined that particular flight. He was induced to rearrange his Brussels/New York itinerary, and took a flight from Brussels to Heathrow (arriving by flight BA391 at 11:06hrs on 21 December 1988) for a meeting in London with [[De Beers]], the South African diamond mining and marketing conglomerate. After the meeting, [[De Beers]] chauffeured [[Bernt Carlsson|Carlsson]] back to Heathrow in good time to catch [[Pan Am Flight 103]].
+
Q. How did the Iranians know that UN Commissioner for Namibia, [[Bernt Carlsson]], would travel on Pan Am Flight 103 of 21 December 1988?
 +
 
 +
A. They relied on their apartheid South African friends to ensure [[Bernt Carlsson|Carlsson]] joined that particular flight. He was induced to rearrange his Brussels/New York itinerary, and took a flight from Brussels to Heathrow (arriving by flight BA391 at 11:06hrs on 21 December 1988) for a meeting in London with [[De Beers]], the South African diamond mining and marketing conglomerate. After the meeting, [[De Beers]] chauffeured [[Bernt Carlsson|Carlsson]] back to Heathrow in good time to catch Pan Am Flight 103.
  
 
Q. Was it the Iranians or the South Africans that put the bomb in [[Bernt Carlsson]]’s checked-in suitcase while it was unsupervised at Heathrow?
 
Q. Was it the Iranians or the South Africans that put the bomb in [[Bernt Carlsson]]’s checked-in suitcase while it was unsupervised at Heathrow?
Line 207: Line 187:
 
Q. Who supplied the bomb?
 
Q. Who supplied the bomb?
  
−
A. [[Marwan Khreesat]], a Jordanian double agent who infiltrated the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), told [[FBI]] special agent Edward Marshman and forensic investigator [[Thomas Thurman]] in 1989 that he had built five barometrically triggered aircraft bombs when he was in Neuss, West Germany in October 1988. German BKA police intercepted four of these devices in November 1988 following the arrest of a PFLP-GC terrorist cell in Neuss. [[Marwan Khreesat|Khreesat]] said that the fifth bomb had been taken by a senior PFLP-GC agent named Abu Elias, who escaped arrest in Germany. Abu Elias is suspected of supplying the South African [[CCB]] with the bomb that brought down [[Pan Am Flight 103]].
+
A. [[Marwan Khreesat]], a Jordanian double agent who infiltrated the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), told [[FBI]] special agent Edward Marshman and forensic investigator [[Thomas Thurman]] in 1989 that he had built five barometrically triggered aircraft bombs when he was in Neuss, West Germany in October 1988. German BKA police intercepted four of these devices in November 1988 following the arrest of a PFLP-GC terrorist cell in Neuss. [[Marwan Khreesat|Khreesat]] said that the fifth bomb had been taken by a senior PFLP-GC agent named Abu Elias, who escaped arrest in Germany. Abu Elias is suspected of supplying the South African [[CCB]] with the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103.
  
 
Q. How was the bomb transported from Germany to Heathrow?
 
Q. How was the bomb transported from Germany to Heathrow?
Line 216: Line 196:
 
"Despite ''Der Spiegel''’s evidence for the credibility of [[Abolghasem Mesbahi|Mesbahi]], and his numerous high-level contacts in Iranian intelligence, this story was quickly and effectively buried."<ref>[http://www.scribd.com/stax68/d/52409411-Lockerbie-The-Flight-From-Justice-Paul-Foot-Private-Eye-Special-Report "Lockerbie: The Flight from Justice"]</ref>
 
"Despite ''Der Spiegel''’s evidence for the credibility of [[Abolghasem Mesbahi|Mesbahi]], and his numerous high-level contacts in Iranian intelligence, this story was quickly and effectively buried."<ref>[http://www.scribd.com/stax68/d/52409411-Lockerbie-The-Flight-From-Justice-Paul-Foot-Private-Eye-Special-Report "Lockerbie: The Flight from Justice"]</ref>
  
−
Q. Was the break-in at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 3 on 20 December 1988 anything to do with the bombing of [[Pan Am Flight 103]]?
+
Q. Was the break-in at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 3 on 20 December 1988 anything to do with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103?
  
−
A. Possibly. Security guard Ray Manly, who discovered that the padlock had been cut on security door CP2 leading to the Pan Am baggage area, told the Lockerbie appeal court at Camp Zeist 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." Manly immediately reported the break-in to the police but was not interviewed by the Metropolitan Police until 31 January 1989. No mention of the Heathrow break-in was made at the 2000-2001 Lockerbie trial of the two Libyans [[Megrahi]] and Fhimah.
+
A. Possibly. Security guard [[Ray Manly]], who discovered that the padlock had been cut on security door CP2 leading to the Pan Am baggage area, told the Lockerbie appeal court at Camp Zeist 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." Manly immediately reported the break-in to the police but was not interviewed by the [[Metropolitan Police]] until 31 January 1989. No mention of the Heathrow break-in was made at the 2000-2001 Lockerbie trial of the two Libyans [[Megrahi]] and [[Lamin Khalifah Fhimah|Fhimah]]. (The break-in became public knowledge on 11 September 2001 when the ''Scottish Mirror'''s front page headline screamed "Lockerbie: The Lost Evidence".) 
  
 
Q. Why wasn’t the bomb timed to go off when the aircraft was over the Atlantic Ocean?
 
Q. Why wasn’t the bomb timed to go off when the aircraft was over the Atlantic Ocean?
Line 231: Line 211:
 
[[Patrick Haseldine]] replied:
 
[[Patrick Haseldine]] replied:
 
:A1. To prevent prosecution by UN Commissioner for Namibia, [[Bernt Carlsson]], for breaching UNCN Decree No 1, the apartheid regime and Iran both wanted [[Bernt Carlsson|Carlsson]] dead.
 
:A1. To prevent prosecution by UN Commissioner for Namibia, [[Bernt Carlsson]], for breaching UNCN Decree No 1, the apartheid regime and Iran both wanted [[Bernt Carlsson|Carlsson]] dead.
−
:A2. Iran helped in targeting [[Bernt Carlsson]] on [[Pan Am Flight 103]].
+
:A2. Iran helped in targeting [[Bernt Carlsson]] on Pan Am Flight 103.
 
:A3. It is not for me to speculate how it was suppressed. All I can say is that nothing of mine has been published since 22 December 1993.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PatrickHaseldine3K.jpg "Flight path"]</ref>
 
:A3. It is not for me to speculate how it was suppressed. All I can say is that nothing of mine has been published since 22 December 1993.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PatrickHaseldine3K.jpg "Flight path"]</ref>
  
 
==High profile victims==
 
==High profile victims==
−
{{FA|Bernt Carlsson}}
+
The highest profile victim aboard Pan Am Flight 103 was [[UN Commissioner for Namibia]], [[Bernt Carlsson]], on his way to attend a ceremony at [[United Nations]] headquarters in New York the next day when South Africa agreed to grant independence to [[Namibia]]. However, after a brief spell of attention, this angle of the bombing was not pursued by the {{ccm}}.
−
Newspaper reports quickly identified the highest profile Pan Am Flight 103 victim as UN Commissioner for Namibia [[Bernt Carlsson]], who was to have attended a ceremony at United Nations headquarters in New York the next day when South Africa agreed to grant independence to Namibia. However, after a brief spell of attention, this angle of the bombing was not pursued by {{ccm}}.
 
  
−
Four US intelligence agency employees were also aboard, having flown together from Cyprus on flight CY504 which arrived at Heathrow at 14:34:
+
===US Intelligence===
−
* [[Matthew Gannon]], the [[CIA]] deputy station chief in Beirut, [[Lebanon]]<ref>{{cite web|title=EverythingPanAm.com The Virtual Pan Am Museum |url=http://www.everythingpanam.com/index.html |accessdate=21 August 2009}}</ref>  
+
Four US intelligence agency employees were also aboard, having flown together from [[Cyprus]] on flight CY504 which arrived at Heathrow at 14:34:
−
* Major [[Chuck McKee|Chuck "Tiny" McKee]], an army officer on secondment to the [[DIA]] in Beirut
+
* [[Matthew Gannon]], the [[CIA]] deputy station chief in [[Beirut]], [[Lebanon]]<ref>''[http://www.everythingpanam.com/index.html "EverythingPanAm.com The Virtual Pan Am Museum"]''</ref>
 +
* [[Major Chuck McKee]], US Army Major on secondment to the [[DIA]] in [[Beirut]]
 
Two [[Diplomatic Security Service]] special agents were acting as bodyguards to Gannon and McKee:
 
Two [[Diplomatic Security Service]] special agents were acting as bodyguards to Gannon and McKee:
−
* [[Ronald Lariviere]], a security officer from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut
+
* [[Ronald LaRiviere]], a security officer from the US Embassy in Beirut
−
* [[Daniel O'Connor]], a security officer from the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus
+
* [[Daniel O'Connor]], a security officer from the US Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus
  
−
==E-petition to HMG==
+
===US Military===
−
[[File:Lockerbie_Cameron.jpg|400px|right|thumb|[[David Cameron]] laying a wreath at the [[Lockerbie Bombing|Lockerbie Memorial]] in Dryfesdale Cemetery on a 2-day visit to Scotland in May 2014]]
+
Sixteen US military personnel died on Pan Am Flight 103:
−
In November 2013, former diplomat [[Patrick Haseldine]] created this e-petition calling upon HM Government (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) to:
+
* Philip Bergstrom, Army Sergeant
−
 
+
* Willis Coursey, US military
−
:'''"Support a United Nations Inquiry into the deaths of UN Secretary-General [[Dag Hammarskjöld]] and UN Assistant Secretary-General [[Bernt Carlsson]]"'''
+
* Joseph Curry, Army Captain
−
 
+
* Edgar Eggleston, Air Force Sergeant
−
:On 9 September 2013, the London-based [[Hammarskjöld Commission]] reported that there was "significant new evidence" about the plane crash that killed United Nations Secretary-General [[Dag Hammarskjöld]] and recommended that the adjourned 1962 UN Inquiry should now be reopened.
+
* Kenneth Gibson, Army Specialist
−
 
+
* Lloyd Ludlow, Army Sergeant
−
:UN Assistant Secretary-General [[Bernt Carlsson]] was the highest profile victim on Pan Am Flight 103 which was sabotaged over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988.
+
* Douglas Malicote, Army Specialist
−
 
+
* Jewel Mitchell, Army 2nd Lieutenant
−
:Since [[Bernt Carlsson]]'s death has never been investigated, the British Government should propose extending the remit of the new UN Inquiry to cover the deaths of both senior diplomats: [[Dag Hammarskjöld]] and [[Bernt Carlsson]].
+
* Mary Smith, Army Sergeant
−
 
+
* Michael Stinnett, Army Specialist
−
The e-petition was open for signature by UK citizens and residents from 13 November 2013 to 13 May 2014.<ref>[http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/56550 E-petition to HM Government]</ref>
+
* Lawanda Thomas, Air Force Sergeant
−
 
+
* Bonnie Williams, US military
−
On 14 May 2014, Haseldine sent this email to [[David Cameron]] via the [https://email.number10.gov.uk/ Prime Minister's Office:]
+
* Eric Williams, Army Sergeant
−
 
+
* George Williams, Army 1st Lieutenant
−
:Dear Prime Minister,
+
* Dedara Woods, Air Force Sergeant
−
 
+
* Joe Woods, Civilian Military worker<ref>[https://www.victimsofpanamflight103.org/victims "Victims of Pan Am Flight 103"]</ref>
−
:[http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/56550 My e-petition to HM Government] had 56 signers when it closed yesterday. That petition requested HMG to "Support a United Nations Inquiry into the deaths of UN Secretary-General [[Dag Hammarskjöld]] and UN Assistant Sec-Gen [[Bernt Carlsson]]".
 
−
 
 
−
:On 13 May 2014, I created four new e-petitions each calling on you to "Open all [[MI6]] files on state sponsored murders":
 
−
:1. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/859/022/615/open-all-mi6-files-on-state-sponsored-murders/
 
−
:2. http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/prime-minister-david-cameron-open-all-mi6-files-on-state-sponsored-murders/
 
−
:3. https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/open-all-mi6-files-on-state-sponsored-murders/
 
−
:4. https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Prime_Minister_David_Cameron_Open_all_MI6_files_on_state_sponsored_murders/
 
−
 
 
−
:I hope you can agree to open these [[MI6]] files to assist the UN in its reopened investigation.
 
−
 
 
−
:Patrick Haseldine
 
−
:[[Emeritus Professor of Lockerbie Studies]]
 
−
 
 
−
==Media cover-up==
 
−
{{FA|Lockerbie Bombing/Cover-up}}
 
−
Within a few weeks of those December 1988 newspaper reports, [[Bernt Carlsson]]'s name would hardly ever be mentioned again by the {{ccm}} in the Lockerbie context. He rapidly became a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonperson "nonperson"], whose death was never properly investigated. [[Patrick Haseldine]] alleges that [[Tiny Rowland]] recruited Emeritus Professor of Scots Law [[Robert Black]] to organise the British news blackout and that "for the past 20 years, [[Robert Black|Professor Robert Black]] has been suppressing the truth about the Lockerbie disaster".<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3870955126581&l=5950a6622d "Blackout over Lockerbie"]</ref>
 
  
 
{{SMWDocs}}
 
{{SMWDocs}}
  
 
==See also==
 
==See also==
−
===On WikiSpooks===
 
−
*[[The How, Why and Who of Pan Am Flight 103]]
 
−
*[https://wikispooks.com/wiki/File:Koechler-lockerbie-appeal_report.pdf UN Report on the first Lockerbie case appeal] Professor [[Hans Koechler]] Vienna 26 March 2002
 
−
*[[Document:How Megrahi and Libya were framed for Lockerbie|How Megrahi and Libya were framed for Lockerbie]] - Alexander Cockburn in "The First Post" July 2010
 
−
*[[Document:The Lockerbie case and the corruption of justice|The Lockerbie case and the corruption of justice]] - Dr [[Hans Koechler]]
 
−
 
−
===External sites===
 
 
*''Highly Recommended'' - [http://www.heraldscotland.com/search-7.548?q=%22Lockerbie+bombing%22 The Herald, Scotland - Lockerbie archive] - A substantial Establishment-sceptic resource.
 
*''Highly Recommended'' - [http://www.heraldscotland.com/search-7.548?q=%22Lockerbie+bombing%22 The Herald, Scotland - Lockerbie archive] - A substantial Establishment-sceptic resource.
 
*''Highly Recommended'' - [http://english.ohmynews.com/english/article_list.asp  - ohmynews - list of articles on the Lockerbie Bombing]
 
*''Highly Recommended'' - [http://english.ohmynews.com/english/article_list.asp  - ohmynews - list of articles on the Lockerbie Bombing]
 +
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=GBXdAAAAIAAJ&dq=inauthor:steven+inauthor:emerson&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=100&as_brr=0&ei=BoVhS8aPAZXuzATT1vUm&cd=3 The Fall of Pan Am 103: Inside the Lockerbie Investigation] 1990, by [[Steve Emerson]] and Brian Duffy, Putnam, ISBN 0-399-13521-9
 
*[http://scottishlaw.blogspot.com/search/label/Lockerbie%20Trial Scottish Law Reporter. Lockerbie pages]
 
*[http://scottishlaw.blogspot.com/search/label/Lockerbie%20Trial Scottish Law Reporter. Lockerbie pages]
 
*[http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2009/02/lockerbie-evidence.html Lockerbie - The evidence]
 
*[http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2009/02/lockerbie-evidence.html Lockerbie - The evidence]
Line 297: Line 255:
 
*[http://www.lockerbietruth.com/ Jim Swire's Web Site]
 
*[http://www.lockerbietruth.com/ Jim Swire's Web Site]
 
*[http://www.facebook.com/groups/118951448146734/ Facebook group: U.N. must investigate the targeting of Bernt Carlsson on Pan Am Flight 103]
 
*[http://www.facebook.com/groups/118951448146734/ Facebook group: U.N. must investigate the targeting of Bernt Carlsson on Pan Am Flight 103]
−
#[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1808501&l=314e4520ce&id=1059719984 'Lockerbie Conspiracy' by Thatcher and Reagan]
+
*[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1808501&l=314e4520ce&id=1059719984 'Lockerbie Conspiracy' by Thatcher and Reagan]
−
#[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2470800&l=b833ebd5ac&id=1059719984 Lockerbie: Apartheid General Targeted UN Commissioner]
+
*[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2470800&l=b833ebd5ac&id=1059719984 Lockerbie: Apartheid General Targeted UN Commissioner]
−
#[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1814223&l=13dd4ee5d8&id=1059719984 Pan Am Flight 103: Why has it taken so Long for the finger of suspicion to point towards South Africa?]
+
*[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1814223&l=13dd4ee5d8&id=1059719984 Pan Am Flight 103: Why has it taken so Long for the finger of suspicion to point towards South Africa?]
−
#[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1733078&l=9e3cde0e96&id=1059719984 Lockerbie Bombing: The 'Finnish' Question]
+
*[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1733078&l=9e3cde0e96&id=1059719984 Lockerbie Bombing: The 'Finnish' Question]
−
#[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1477102&l=07c5547c01&id=1059719984 Bernt Carlsson in Secret Meeting with 'Pressuriser' from the Diamond Cartel]
+
*[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1477102&l=07c5547c01&id=1059719984 Bernt Carlsson in Secret Meeting with 'Pressuriser' from the Diamond Cartel]
−
#[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3415159851984&l=b32ddec019 Major Craig Williamson: the 'real' Lockerbie bomber]
+
*[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3415159851984&l=b32ddec019 Major Craig Williamson: the 'real' Lockerbie bomber]
−
#[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1517249&l=dfb02c6e47&id=1059719984 Gordon Brown says Lockerbie victim Bernt Carlsson was the target]
+
*[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1517249&l=dfb02c6e47&id=1059719984 Gordon Brown says Lockerbie victim Bernt Carlsson was the target]
−
#[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1791426&l=0a93a8bdfd&id=1059719984 Lost on Flight 103: A Hero to the Wretched of the World]
+
*[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1791426&l=0a93a8bdfd&id=1059719984 Lost on Flight 103: A Hero to the Wretched of the World]
−
#[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1826405&l=b2e1f6e5c2&id=1059719984 Bernt Carlsson: A Very Private Public Servant]
+
*[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1826405&l=b2e1f6e5c2&id=1059719984 Bernt Carlsson: A Very Private Public Servant]
−
#[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1852822&l=e73f3c5198&id=1059719984 Dr Jim Swire petitioned PM to compensate Lockerbie campaigner Patrick Haseldine]
+
*[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1852822&l=e73f3c5198&id=1059719984 Dr Jim Swire petitioned PM to compensate Lockerbie campaigner Patrick Haseldine]
−
*[http://www.lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/ Professor Robert Black's Blog]
 
 
*[http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/2009/10/lockerbie-truth-is-finally-coming-out.html Comments from Patrick Haseldine on Robert Black's Blog - 6 October 2009]
 
*[http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/2009/10/lockerbie-truth-is-finally-coming-out.html Comments from Patrick Haseldine on Robert Black's Blog - 6 October 2009]
 
*[http://www.heraldscotland.com/crown-fights-to-keep-48-pieces-of-lockerbie-trial-evidence-secret-1.903103 Crown Fights to keep 48 pieces of evidence secret - Glasgow Herald 19 February 2010]
 
*[http://www.heraldscotland.com/crown-fights-to-keep-48-pieces-of-lockerbie-trial-evidence-secret-1.903103 Crown Fights to keep 48 pieces of evidence secret - Glasgow Herald 19 February 2010]

Latest revision as of 14:19, 22 August 2022

Synthesis.png A synthesis page at The How, Why and Who of Pan Am Flight 103 summarises the material in this page and other related pages..


Event.png Pan Am Flight 103 (false flag attack,  mid-level deep event,  Air disaster) Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
PA103cockpit4.png
Wreckage of "Clipper Maid of the Seas" Cockpit section near Tundergarth Church
Date21 December 1988
LocationLockerbie,  Dumfries and Galloway,  Scotland
Coordinates55°6′55.99″N 3°21′30.69″W / 55.1155528°N 3.3585250°W / 55.1155528; -3.3585250
Fatal error: The format of the coordinate could not be determined. Parsing failed.


Blamed onAbdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi
TypeBombing.jpg bombing
Deaths270
Survivors0
Interest of'SlimVirgin', Safia Aoude, Juval Aviv, Robert Black, Ludwig De Braeckeleer, John Urquhart Cameron, William Chasey, Marina de Larracoechea, Adam Larson, Charles Norrie, Pierre Péan, George Thomson, Barry Walker
Subpage•Pan Am Flight 103/Cover-up
•Pan Am Flight 103/Fatal Accident Inquiry
•Pan Am Flight 103/The Trial
•Pan Am Flight 103/Unanswered questions
DescriptionWhen Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland on 21 December 1988, killing all 259 passengers and crew on board, news reports cited UN Assistant Secretary-General, Bernt Carlsson, as its highest-profile victim. US and British intelligence operatives, posing as Lockerbie investigators, ignored the evident targeting of the UN diplomat and instead focused on the jumbo jet. With the result that the wrong country was blamed and an innocent person convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.
Boeing 747-121 "Clipper Maid of the Seas" pictured at Frankfurt Airport in July 1986
Crater and property damage in Lockerbie caused by main wreckage of Pan Am 103
Assistant Secretary-General and UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson
11 September 2001 - Front Page News
"Was the CIA complicit in both the Lockerbie and 9/11 attacks?"

On 21 December 1988 Pan Am Flight 103, a Boeing 747-121 named "Clipper Maid of the Seas", was on a scheduled transatlantic flight from London's Heathrow Airport to New York's JFK International Airport when there was an explosion on board. The aircraft broke up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie (Map), killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members. Eleven people in Lockerbie were killed by large sections of the plane which fell in and around the town, bringing total fatalities to 270.

Thirteen years later, on 31 January 2001, a juryless trial convicted Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi of involvement in the bombing and sentenced him to life imprisonment in Scotland and acquitted his co-defendant, Lamin Khalifah Fhimah. Megrahi's appeal was refused on 14 March 2002 by a panel of five Scottish judges[1] but on 28 June 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission granted Megrahi leave for a second appeal on the basis of evidence that a miscarriage of justice could have occurred.[2]

After a delay of two years appeal proceedings began at Edinburgh's Court of Criminal Appeal on 28 April 2009. However, Megrahi abandoned the second appeal on 18 August 2009. Two days later the Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill released Megrahi on compassionate grounds, as suffering from terminal prostate cancer, and he returned to Libya on 20 August 2009.[3]

Megrahi's guilt is not agreed upon[4] and Wikispooks editor, Patrick Haseldine has petitioned the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon to investigate the theory that Lockerbie was a clandestine assassination of Bernt Carlsson.[5]

On 28 May 2015, Patrick Haseldine wrote to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, demanding that Scotland Yard launch a Bernt Carlsson murder inquiry.[6] He wrote again on 30 June 2015 highlighting a long-forgotten Scottish Mirror newspaper report of 11 September 2001, that revealed there had been a break-in at Pan Am's baggage shed at Heathrow airport on 21 December 1988. On the strength of which Haseldine asserted that a team of Civil Co-operation Bureau operatives, led by the CCB's London-based director Eeben Barlow, broke through a security door at Terminal 3 of Heathrow airport leading to the Interline Baggage Shed from where flights would be loaded the following day. The CCB team then ingested the primary suitcase (or "bomb bag") through this security door and tagged it for loading on Pan Am Flight 103.[7] The Scottish Mirror report was effectively - some would say conveniently - buried when news of the 9/11 attacks in America swamped the commercially-controlled media later that morning.[8]

Haseldine's third letter to Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe[9] quoted from what former GCHQ officer Mike Arnold had written on 28 July 2015 on the Facebook page Who Killed Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher?:

"We and the Americans bombed Pan Am Flight 103 to persuade South African foreign minister Pik Botha to sign the Tripartite Accord; thus with the Americans protecting our vested interests both political and financial.
"The destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 with the Americans demonstrated our intent and was also a threat, and removing Bernt Carlsson was a convenient and powerful signal, i.e. nobody is untouchable.
"The implication of the BBC Lockerbie report on the early morning of 9/11 implies that British Intelligence knew what was about to happen in New York, and may indeed have played a complicit role for the CIA.[10]
"The first report appearing in the Scottish Mirror implies that they were the cut-out; similar to how British Intelligence used The Times to place a small and misleading account for what happened to me at GCHQ into the public domain.
"As part of the bigger picture, it is probable that British Intelligence scripted the premature BBC report that WTC7 had collapsed. British Intelligence blatantly scripted The Times, Daily Mail and BBC around me."[11]

Official Narrative

Colin Boyd former Lord Advocate
Full article: Lockerbie Official Narrative

In August 2001, Scottish Lord Advocate Colin Boyd presented what might be considered the definite statement of the Lockerbie Official Narrative at a conference of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law (ISRCL):[12] While admitting that "Politics and diplomacy were necessarily interwoven with this case from the start", there is no mention of Bernt Carlsson, UN Commissioner for Namibia, and the evidence led at the trial is presented as the unvarnished truth. Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, was determined at the trial to be a member of the Libyan Intelligence Services and of being guilty of the bombing. The narrative is predictably self-congratulatory: "In conclusion, it seems to me to be absolutely right that the investigation of crime and the prosecutorial decisions which flow from that investigation must be taken independently of political influence... Political and diplomatic action secured the trial. The investigation of the case and the prosecution of the trial were driven by the evidence."

Geopolitical Background

1988

  • UK/US relations with Libya were icy over alleged Libyan sponsorship of "terrorism" and its stubborn refusal to 'see things the West's way'.[citation needed]
  • UK/US relations with Iran were slated for improvement following the cessation of the Iran-Iraq war in which both sides had been armed by the West.
  • On 3 July 1988 Iran Air Flight 655, a civilian Airbus A300 airliner en-route from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai, UAE was brought down by a missile fired by the US Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes, with the loss of 290 lives. The US government claimed that the airliner had been mistaken for an attacking F14 Tomcat fighter.
  • Within days of the Lockerbie disaster US government spokespeople were blaming "terrorists" possibly Palestinians. Early in 1989 a CBS News report "conclusively" placed the blame on Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), asserting that Jibril's motivation was to discredit Yasser Arafat and cause the US to pull out of talks with the PLO. According to CBS, this "scoop" was provided by "reliable sources within the international terrorist community." In an age when "objectivity" is touted as the cornerstone of journalistic integrity, it is suspiciously convenient for a major network to about-face and refer to a "terrorist" as "reliable." It is unclear who constitutes the "international terrorist community."[13]

1995

  • On 24 March 1995, the Los Angeles Times reported that the FBI was stepping up efforts to apprehend Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, the two Libyans indicted for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, and devoting additional agents to the international hunt in anticipation of new leads. Signalling its impatience with sporadic reports that Libya would hand over the accused men if trade sanctions were to be removed, the FBI said it was offering a record US$4 million reward for information leading to their capture.[14]

2000

  • UK-US relations with Libya were being 'normalised' following Libya's agreement to extradite al-Megrahi and Fhimah for trial and its abandonment of its allegedly belligerent stance over previously core issues of policy on trade, oil and support for groups antagonistic to Western interests. The accommodation resulted in the lifting of UN trade sanctions against Libya which had progressively paralysed its economy over the preceding decade.
  • UK-US relations with Iran were close to all-time lows and deteriorating over the usual issues of Iranian refusal to 'see things the West's way'.

Accident Inquiries

Full article: Pan Am Flight 103/Fatal Accident Inquiry

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch submitted a detailed 54-page report on the accident to Cecil Parkinson, Secretary of State for Transport, on 6 August 1990.[15] Informed by this report, Sheriff Principal John S. Mowat carried out a Fatal Accident Inquiry in Dumfries, Scotland. His report ran to 47 pages and was in broad agreement with the official narrative.

The Investigation

Exclusion of the Met

Dispatched from Scotland home to London

In Chapter Three of his 2002 book "The Lockerbie Incident: A Detective's Tale" (pages 70/71), Scottish policeman John Crawford describes how officers from the Metropolitan Police were excluded from investigating the Lockerbie bombing in Scotland and quickly dispatched home to London.

I knew that a considerable amount of political in-fighting had been going on from day one. The Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist squad from London had tried to make the enquiry theirs from the first day. There was considerable opposition to this both politically and from the Scottish police.

Scotland Yard as any ordinary cop knows was like living on a reputation built 100 years ago. Sure it had the facilities to conduct a huge enquiry; sure it had the personnel and was supposed to have the expertise. It certainly had the resources in manpower and finance. But ask a cop in any force up and down the country who they consider the most arrogant, the most useless and the least likely to do anything for anyone beyond their 'patch' and they will undoubtedly tell you – The Met.

It's an unfortunate reputation because I personally know of a number of fine officers in that organisation who would match the best anywhere. But the reputation of the Met precedes it and it does not enjoy the high standing it thinks it does in what it disparagingly calls the 'provincial' forces. I would like to think things have changed since then but I rather think they have not.

No – neither the Scottish police nor the Lord Advocate Lord Fraser of Carmylie wanted them messing around in our enquiry. It was said the Lord Advocate presented an ultimatum to the then Prime Minister, the Iron Lady herself, Margaret Thatcher that either he was in charge of the enquiry as befitted his role as Lord Advocate in Scotland or he would resign. I cannot vouch for the veracity of that but as far as the Met Anti-Terrorist squad were concerned it was all over. They were hanging around for a few days with their flashy designer suits and the full weight of their own egos and self-importance on their shoulders, the once deserved reputation of Scotland Yard expected to sweep all before them.

After all, what could a bunch of hick 'jocks' do, we were experts only in dealing with sheep and haggis – let's face it, according to them nothing of any consequence ever happened outside London.

The Met were told in no uncertain manner that they weren't welcome! It was back to London for them.[16]

Leading the investigation

Vince Cannistraro was head of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center

The Lockerbie investigation involved the following senior figures:

  • Vincent Cannistraro - CIA task force officer in the brutal 1980s Iran-Contra campaign. Deployed a training manual of invasion and killing of Nicaraguan citizens and officials. Wrote "the anatomy of a lie" to cover up US government involvement in Nicaragua. In 1986 was commissioned by the US President to "Destabilise Libya and destroy the Gaddafi regime". Secretly worked to arm the Afghanistan Mujahideen and Osama Bin Laden. His chief Admiral Poindexter chaired a top-level meeting - to which Cannistraro had access - to discuss the manufacture of evidence to destabilise the government of Yemen. He was head of the CIA Lockerbie team, but did not attend the trial to give evidence.[17]
  • Stuart Henderson - former Detective Chief Superintendent with the Lothian and Borders Police, replaced John Orr as the Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) at the Lockerbie Incident Control Centre in 1991, and led the Lockerbie bombing investigation.
  • Richard Marquise - FBI's chief investigator and appointed US Task Force leader in the Pan Am Flight 103 case when the Lockerbie bombing investigation began to focus on Libya.
  • Tom Thurman - discredited former head of the Explosives Unit at the FBI’s Crime Laboratory; accused of having FaBrIcated evidence to incriminate Libya.

The Trial

Full article: Pan_Am_Flight_103/The Trial
Lockerbie Trial Judges: Lord Abernethy, Lord Coulsfield, presiding Judge Lord Sutherland and Lord MacLean

Having been indicted in November 1991 in relation to the Lockerbie bombing, the two Libyans Lamin Khalifah Fhimah and Abdelbaset al-Megrahi were charged with conspiracy to murder, murder and a breach of the Aviation Security Act 1982, Section 2. Their trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands began on 3 May 2000 with a bench of three Scottish Judges - Lords Coulsfield, MacLean and Sutherland (Lord Abernethy as an alternate) - sitting without a jury. Eight months later, the Crown said it intended dropping the charges of conspiracy and breach of aviation security and would be focusing on the charge of murder. On 31 January 2001, the Judges' verdict was announced: Fhimah was found not guilty, Megrahi was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.[18]

The Appeal

The Defence team had 14 days in which to appeal against Megrahi's conviction, and an additional six weeks to submit the full grounds of the appeal. These were considered by a Judge sitting in private who decided to grant Megrahi leave to appeal. The only basis for an appeal under Scots law is that there has been a "miscarriage of justice," which is not defined in statute and so it is for the appeal court to determine the meaning of these words in each case.[19] Because three Judges and one alternate Judge had presided over the trial, five Judges were required to preside over the Court of Criminal Appeal:

  • Lord Cullen, Lord Justice-General
  • Lord Kirkwood
  • Lord Osborne
  • Lord Macfadyen and
  • Lord Nimmo Smith

In what was described as a milestone in Scottish legal history, Lord Cullen granted the BBC permission in January 2002 to televise the appeal, and to broadcast it on the Internet in English with a simultaneous Arabic translation.

William Taylor QC, leading the Defence, said at the appeal's opening on 23 January 2002 that the three trial Judges sitting without a jury had failed to see the relevance of "significant" evidence and had accepted unreliable facts. He argued that the verdict was not one that a reasonable jury in an ordinary trial could have reached if it were given proper directions by the Judge. The grounds of the appeal rested on two areas of evidence where the Defence claimed the original court was mistaken: the evidence of Maltese shopkeeper, Tony Gauci, which the Judges accepted as sufficient to prove that the "primary suitcase" started its journey in Malta; and, disputing the Crown's case, fresh evidence would be adduced to show that the bomb's journey actually started at Heathrow. That evidence, which was not heard at the trial, showed that at some time in the two hours before 00:35 on 21 December 1988 a padlock had been forced on a secure door giving access air side in Terminal 3 of Heathrow airport, near to the area referred to at the trial as the "baggage build-up area". Taylor claimed that the PA 103 bomb could have been planted then.[20]

On 14 March 2002, it took Lord Cullen less than three minutes to deliver the decision of the High Court of Judiciary. The five Judges rejected the appeal, ruling unanimously that "none of the grounds of appeal was well-founded", adding "this brings proceedings to an end". The following day, a helicopter took Megrahi from Camp Zeist to continue his life sentence in Barlinnie Prison, Glasgow.

2nd Appeal

Megrahi's second appeal was to have been heard by five Scottish judges in 2009 at the Court of Criminal Appeal. A procedural hearing at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh took place on 11 October 2007 when prosecution lawyers and Megrahi's defence Counsel, Maggie Scott QC, discussed legal issues with a panel of three judges.[21] One of the issues concerns a number of CIA documents that were shown to the prosecution but were not disclosed to the defence. The documents are understood to relate to the MEBO MST-13 Timer that allegedly detonated the PA103 bomb.[22] Further procedural hearings were scheduled to take place between December 2007 and June 2008.[23]

Pointing out an error on the FCO's website and accusing the British government of "delaying tactics" in relation to Megrahi's second Lockerbie appeal, UN Observer at the Lockerbie trial, Hans Köchler, wrote to Foreign Secretary David Miliband on 21 July 2008 saying:[24]

As international observer, appointed by the United Nations, at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands I am also concerned about the Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificate which has been issued by you in connection with the new Appeal of the convicted Libyan national. Withholding of evidence from the Defence was one of the reasons why the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred Mr Al-Megrahi’s case back to the High Court of Justiciary. The Appeal cannot go ahead if the Government of the United Kingdom, through the PII certificate issued by you, denies the Defence the right (also guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights) to have access to a document which is in the possession of the Prosecution. How can there be equality of arms in such a situation? How can the independence of the judiciary be upheld if the executive power interferes into the appeal process in such a way?

The FCO corrected the error on its website and wrote to Köchler on 27 August 2008:[25]

"Ultimately, it will be for the Court to decide whether the material should be disclosed, not the Foreign Secretary."

In September 2008, following an application made at a closed hearing of the Appeal Court in Edinburgh, it was reported that a security-vetted Defence Counsel is to be appointed to examine the disputed document. The court's decision on the application has not been published but in a letter seen by BBC Scotland, FCO minister Kim Howells says it has decided to appoint a special defender. In a BBC interview, Hans Köchler criticised the development as "intolerable" and "detrimental to the rule of law." Köchler said:[26]

"In no country can the situation be allowed where the accused or the appellant is not free to have his own defence team, and instead someone is imposed upon him."

On 15 October 2008, five Scottish judges decided unanimously to reject a submission by the Crown Office that the scope of Megrahi's second appeal should be limited to the specific grounds of appeal that were identified by the SCCRC in June 2007.[27] On 21 October 2008 Megrahi's lawyer, revealed that his client had been diagnosed with "advanced stage" prostate cancer. Despite the appeals of Jim Swire, that keeping Megrahi behind bars while he battled the disease "would amount to exquisite torture", the High Court ruled on 14 November 2008 that Megrahi should remain in jail while his appeal continued.[28] In an article published on 29 December 2008 award-winning journalist and author, Hugh Miles, described the Lockerbie trial as an historic miscarriage of justice. The article concluded: "If Megrahi didn't do it, who did?"[29]

On 31 December 2008, Ludwig De Braeckeleer ended a 174-part series entitled "Diary of a Vengeance Foretold." The article alleges that Iran ordered the bombing of Pan Am 103 in revenge for the downing of Iran Air Flight 655.[30]

In January 2009, it was reported that, although Megrahi's second appeal against conviction was scheduled to begin on 27 April 2009, the hearing could last as long as 12 months because of the complexity of the case and volume of material to be examined.[31]

On 18 August 2009, Megrahi dropped his appeal in light of his terminal prostate cancer.[32]

Media cover-up

Full article: Lockerbie Bombing/Cover-up

Within a few weeks of the December 1988 newspaper reports, Bernt Carlsson's name would hardly ever be mentioned again by the commercially-controlled media in the Lockerbie context. He rapidly became something of a "nonperson" whose death was never properly investigated. Patrick Haseldine alleges that Tiny Rowland recruited Emeritus Professor of Scots Law Robert Black to organise the British news blackout and that "for the past 20 years, Professor Robert Black has been suppressing the truth about the Lockerbie disaster".[33]

Continuing Doubts

Full article: Pan Am Flight 103/Continuing Doubts

As of 2015, doubts about the justice of Megrahi's conviction are more widespread than ever.

Cameron's Report on Forensic Evidence

Full article: Cameron's Report on Lockerbie Forensic Evidence
Dr John Cameron, Church of Scotland's scientist

At the beginning of 2003, former South African president Nelson Mandela asked the Western Christian churches to intervene in what he termed "a clear miscarriage of justice", referring to the conviction of Megrahi at Camp Zeist. In July that year, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Rt Rev Professor Iain Torrance, took up the challenge and appointed the Church of Scotland's leading scientist Dr John Urquhart Cameron to conduct a scientific examination of all the forensic evidence which had convicted Megrahi. As a result, Cameron produced a damning report on the conduct of the forensic experts and on the evidence presented to the trial.[34]

Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission

Full article: Pan Am Flight 103/Continuing Doubts#Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission

On 23 September 2003 lawyers acting for Megrahi applied to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) for a review of the case (both sentence and conviction), arguing that there had been a miscarriage of justice. On 1 November 2006, Megrahi was reported to have dropped his demand for the new appeal to be held at Camp Zeist.[35] After a four-year review the SCCRC concluded that there was evidence that a miscarriage of justice might have occurred, so Megrahi was granted leave to appeal against his conviction for a second time.[36]

Full article: Abdelbaset al-Megrahi/Compassionate release

On 20 August 2009, Megrahi was granted compassionate release, after having agreed to abandon his appeal.

Questions remain unanswered

How did one suitcase, which contained Semtex occupy a precise bottom-row location close to the edge of the aircraft’s hull? Seven containers were filled with luggage that came from Heathrow Terminal 3. An eighth container, marked AVE4041, was for baggage from a transfer flight from Frankfurt. No screening of the eighth container took place. One of the loading area staff in Heathrow initially told police he had noticed a single hard-shell suitcase already loaded at the bottom of AVE4041. This scenario was expected to be re-examined had a Scottish appeal court been allowed to test the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. If the bomb in the suitcase was loaded at Heathrow, then Megrahi and the official account of the Libyan’s movements in Malta all begin to look unconnected. The Heathrow flight was also delayed, suggesting that if the bomb was loaded in Malta and on a timer, it should have exploded before it took off in London.

Does it matter that such detail remains the subject of debate? It does. Because if you accept a porous account and decide that a weak explanation is better than no explanation, then whatever lessons you claim to have learned will be worthless. If the conviction of Megrahi was merely a convenient round-up of the Libyan bad guys, then the Scottish justice system (and, by implication, its British counterpart) are damaged by pragmatic injustice.

The failures of Lockerbie should serve as warning to the Metrojet Flight 9268 investigation that will come in Egypt. The objective should be the truth. Anything less and all we will do is wait for the next “game-changer”.[37]

Alternative Possibilities

South African Apartheid Regime

President P W Botha ruled apartheid South Africa between 1978 and 1989 and was responsible for gross human rights violations, including all the violence that was sanctioned by the State Security Council (SSC), an executive organ of his apartheid regime. Such violence included using torture, abduction, arson and sabotage, and murdering those opposed to apartheid.[38] An SSC subcommittee, chaired by 'superspy' Major Craig Williamson, targeted anti-apartheid groups and individuals.[39]

From Chequers to Lockerbie

The distance by road from Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country residence in Buckinghamshire, to the site in Scotland of the Pan Am Flight 103 crash on 21 December 1988 is 310 miles. It took more than 4½ years for President P W Botha to complete his murderous journey from meeting Margaret Thatcher at Chequers on 2 June 1984 to the sabotage at Lockerbie.[40]

The full article "From Chequers to Lockerbie" by Patrick Haseldine can be read here.

Ayatollah's Vengeance Exacted by Botha's Regime

Iran Air Flight 655's destruction depicted on an Iranian postage stamp

The following is a transcript of Patrick Haseldine's Facebook article published in March 2011:

On 3 July 1988, the US Navy deliberately shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in the Persian Gulf killing all 290 civilian passengers and crew on the Airbus A300. Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini vowed that the skies would 'rain blood' in revenge. Months passed and no attempt at Iranian retaliation was made, even though there were hundreds of US passenger aircraft worldwide to target each day. A truce had been arranged for the duration of the US presidential election campaign, which ended on 8 November 1988 when Vice President George Bush was elected to succeed the incumbent Ronald Reagan. Thus, nearly six months would elapse before Iran's revenge attack finally happened.
The eventual target was a Pan American Airways Boeing 747 jumbo jet that was scheduled to depart London's Heathrow Airport on 21 December 1988. Early that morning, South African Airways Flight 234 from Johannesburg carrying an official delegation which included two government ministers landed at Heathrow. The 23-strong party was led by South African Foreign Minister Pik Botha – not to be confused with South Africa’s autocratic President P W Botha – and Defence Minister General Magnus Malan. For over a decade, apartheid South Africa had been defying UN Security Council Resolution 435 by continuing to occupy neighbouring Namibia (which President Botha insisted on calling South-West Africa) and by exploiting its valuable mineral resources in violation of UN law. On 22 December 1988 at UN headquarters in New York Pik Botha would sign an historic agreement bringing an end to the apartheid regime’s occupation of Namibia and handing over control to the United Nations. Seats had been reserved for the South African party on Pan Am Flight 101 which, following a special security check of the aircraft, took off from Heathrow at 11:00hrs GMT. Flight Pan Am 101 landed safely at JFK, New York at 13:45hrs EST.
In the evening of 21 December 1988, without any security check, Pan Am Flight 103 destined for New York took off from Heathrow at 18:25hrs GMT. Thirty-eight minutes after take-off, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland killing all 259 people on board the aircraft, and eleven in the town of Lockerbie. Iran’s revenge attack thus resulted in 270 fatalities, of whom Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Bernt Carlsson, was the most prominent. It would have been Bernt Carlsson’s responsibility as UN Commissioner for Namibia to take charge of the country as soon as South Africa agreed to cede control on 22 December 1988. Carlsson had already issued a clear warning to the companies and countries that were flouting the UN prohibition on exploiting Namibia’s minerals (especially uranium and diamonds) that he intended to take legal action against them. Iran was one of the countries facing prosecution because, as well as owning 15% of the Rössing Uranium Mine, it was receiving shipments of Namibian uranium to develop its nuclear programme. In targeting Pan Am Flight 103 therefore Iran not only avenged Iran Air Flight 655 but also took out the one individual at the United Nations with the power to prosecute the companies eg Rio Tinto Group (joint owner of the Rössing Uranium Mine) and De Beers (owner of CDM diamond mines) and the countries eg Iran and South Africa that were in breach of UN law.[41]

Q & A Session

Q. Why didn't Pik Botha's party fly South African Airways direct to New York?

A. Because the 1986 US Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act banned SAA flights from landing in America.

Q. How did the Iranians know that UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, would travel on Pan Am Flight 103 of 21 December 1988?

A. They relied on their apartheid South African friends to ensure Carlsson joined that particular flight. He was induced to rearrange his Brussels/New York itinerary, and took a flight from Brussels to Heathrow (arriving by flight BA391 at 11:06hrs on 21 December 1988) for a meeting in London with De Beers, the South African diamond mining and marketing conglomerate. After the meeting, De Beers chauffeured Carlsson back to Heathrow in good time to catch Pan Am Flight 103.

Q. Was it the Iranians or the South Africans that put the bomb in Bernt Carlsson’s checked-in suitcase while it was unsupervised at Heathrow?

A. Masterminded by the apartheid regime's superspy Major Craig Williamson, Iran's revenge attack was carried out by the Europe Branch (based in London) of South Africa’s Civil Cooperation Bureau (CCB), whose operatives substituted the ‘bomb bag’ for Bernt Carlsson’s suitcase at Heathrow Airport. No trace of his suitcase was ever found.

Q. Who supplied the bomb?

A. Marwan Khreesat, a Jordanian double agent who infiltrated the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), told FBI special agent Edward Marshman and forensic investigator Thomas Thurman in 1989 that he had built five barometrically triggered aircraft bombs when he was in Neuss, West Germany in October 1988. German BKA police intercepted four of these devices in November 1988 following the arrest of a PFLP-GC terrorist cell in Neuss. Khreesat said that the fifth bomb had been taken by a senior PFLP-GC agent named Abu Elias, who escaped arrest in Germany. Abu Elias is suspected of supplying the South African CCB with the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103.

Q. How was the bomb transported from Germany to Heathrow?

A. According to Paul Foot's article "Lockerbie: The Flight from Justice": "In August 1997, the German magazine Der Spiegel published a long article about Lockerbie that was completely ignored in the British Press. It cited 'a new witness who has been making detailed statements to the German police and prosecutors.' The man was named as Abolghasem Mesbahi and was described as 'a credible witness.' What he was saying contradicted 'the Anglo-American thesis of the sole involvement of Libya.' Mesbahi’s story was as follows: 'The bomb had been loaded in single pieces at Frankfurt airport into an aeroplane to London. The head of IranAir at Frankfurt at that time, a secret serviceman, had smuggled them past the airport controls. They had then been assembled in London and put on the Pan Am clipper.'

"Despite Der Spiegel’s evidence for the credibility of Mesbahi, and his numerous high-level contacts in Iranian intelligence, this story was quickly and effectively buried."[42]

Q. Was the break-in at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 3 on 20 December 1988 anything to do with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103?

A. Possibly. Security guard Ray Manly, who discovered that the padlock had been cut on security door CP2 leading to the Pan Am baggage area, told the Lockerbie appeal court at Camp Zeist 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." Manly immediately reported the break-in to the police but was not interviewed by the Metropolitan Police until 31 January 1989. No mention of the Heathrow break-in was made at the 2000-2001 Lockerbie trial of the two Libyans Megrahi and Fhimah. (The break-in became public knowledge on 11 September 2001 when the Scottish Mirror's front page headline screamed "Lockerbie: The Lost Evidence".)

Q. Why wasn’t the bomb timed to go off when the aircraft was over the Atlantic Ocean?

A. The bomb had a barometric detonator and automatically exploded 30 minutes after the aircraft reached a set altitude. Because the aircraft came down on land rather than into the ocean it was demonstrably not an accident (important when revenge is the motive for the bombing).

On 3 March 2011, Oliver Tickell asked three questions:

Q1. Why did South Africa want to carry out this attack on behalf of Iran?
Q2. What part did Iran play in the attack?
Q3. How was this narrative, if true, suppressed?

Patrick Haseldine replied:

A1. To prevent prosecution by UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, for breaching UNCN Decree No 1, the apartheid regime and Iran both wanted Carlsson dead.
A2. Iran helped in targeting Bernt Carlsson on Pan Am Flight 103.
A3. It is not for me to speculate how it was suppressed. All I can say is that nothing of mine has been published since 22 December 1993.[43]

High profile victims

The highest profile victim aboard Pan Am Flight 103 was UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, on his way to attend a ceremony at United Nations headquarters in New York the next day when South Africa agreed to grant independence to Namibia. However, after a brief spell of attention, this angle of the bombing was not pursued by the commercially-controlled media.

US Intelligence

Four US intelligence agency employees were also aboard, having flown together from Cyprus on flight CY504 which arrived at Heathrow at 14:34:

Two Diplomatic Security Service special agents were acting as bodyguards to Gannon and McKee:

US Military

Sixteen US military personnel died on Pan Am Flight 103:

  • Philip Bergstrom, Army Sergeant
  • Willis Coursey, US military
  • Joseph Curry, Army Captain
  • Edgar Eggleston, Air Force Sergeant
  • Kenneth Gibson, Army Specialist
  • Lloyd Ludlow, Army Sergeant
  • Douglas Malicote, Army Specialist
  • Jewel Mitchell, Army 2nd Lieutenant
  • Mary Smith, Army Sergeant
  • Michael Stinnett, Army Specialist
  • Lawanda Thomas, Air Force Sergeant
  • Bonnie Williams, US military
  • Eric Williams, Army Sergeant
  • George Williams, Army 1st Lieutenant
  • Dedara Woods, Air Force Sergeant
  • Joe Woods, Civilian Military worker[45]


 

A Pan Am Flight 103 victim on Wikispooks

TitleDescription
Matthew GannonCIA officer killed in the Lockerbie Bombing

 

Related Documents

TitleTypePublication dateAuthor(s)Description
Document:Call for US to give update on fourth Lockerbie suspectArticle18 December 2022Kathleen NuttFormer Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill: "Britain and America know everything. I want the UK and US to be more open. Libya have offered up Abu Agila Masud. But Masud is smaller beer. The Lord Advocate should find out what progress is being made on bringing Abdullah Senussi to court."
Document:Did German bungling lead to Pan Am 103?Article24 September 1989Gavin HewittThe blunders of "Operation Autumn Leaves" didn't end with the case of Marwan Khreesat. One of those arrested in the 26 October 1988 sweep was a Palestinian by the name of "Ramzi Diab" which was not his real name, it turned out. That name had been taken from an Israeli passport stolen in Spain. The German police suspect he may actually have transported the Lockerbie bomb.
Document:Fragments of TruthArticle1 December 2009Mark Hirst
Document:Libya: Fine, but why Britainarticle20 March 2011Brian BarderDavid Cameron seemingly Gung Ho on toppling the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, while Barack Obama takes a back seat
Document:Lockerbie - Bomber, Bomber, Bomberarticle21 July 2010Steven Raeburn
Document:Lockerbie - The Syrian Connectionarticle1997David Guyatt
Document:Lockerbie Bombing and my Reinstatement in HM Diplomatic Serviceletter29 January 1997Patrick HaseldineFormer diplomat Patrick Haseldine writes to former Prime Minister James Callaghan
Document:Lockerbie LiesArticle22 December 2017Steven WalkerThe Lockerbie bombing remains a text book case of a terrible tragedy causing considerable pain and suffering to relatives whose search for answers and clarification about why and how their loved ones died have taken second place to geo-political manoeuvres, deliberate meddling in legal processes, and the murky world of secret service wheeling and dealing on behalf of governments with no respect for human decency.
Document:Pan Am Flight 103: It was the Uraniumarticle6 January 2014Patrick HaseldineFollowing Bernt Carlsson's untimely death in the Lockerbie bombing, the UN Council for Namibia inexplicably dropped the case against Britain's URENCO for illegally importing yellowcake from the Rössing Uranium Mine in Namibia.
Document:PanAm-Rätsel LOCKERBIE: Es war Südafrika!…so wie bei Olof PalmeArticle6 October 1996Kurt Seinitz"It would have been easy for South African secret service agents, who had infiltrated Sweden's anti-apartheid movement, to exchange Carlsson's tape recorder in a hotel room against one containing the bomb. And then placing it inside one of those 'ubiquitous' Samsonite suitcases, so beloved by the peripatetic Bernt Carlsson."
Document:Reinstatement in HM Diplomatic ServiceLetter6 January 1997Patrick HaseldineA plea for reinstatement in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by "Thatcher's Whitehall Critic"
Document:Release of the Lockerbie Prisonerreport21 August 2009Hans KöchlerA report by the official UN Observer of the Lockerbie Trial in the Netherlands, commenting on the release on compassionate grounds of the only person convicted in the Lockerbie case.
Document:South Africa Minister Denies Knowing Of Lockerbie BombAbstract12 November 1994David TuckerHaving confirmed that South African foreign minister Pik Botha and his 22-strong party had been booked on Pan Am Flight 103 but switched flights after arriving early in London from Johannesburg, spokesman Roland Darroll said: "The minister is flattered by the allegation of near-omniscience."
Document:Targeting of Bernt Carlsson on Pan Am Flight 103Letter17 February 2023Patrick HaseldineIan Ferguson: "In the early stages of the Lockerbie investigation, Bernt Carlsson's Presikhaaf suitcase was seen as the more likely bomb case. Police sources at the time said that this case was cleared of being the suspect case on November 23rd 1989."
Document:The Crime of LockerbieArticle16 August 2009Tam DalyellTam Dalyell said: "Yes, I have read 'The Downing Street Years' very carefully. Why in 800 pages did you not mention Lockerbie once?" Mrs Thatcher replied: "Because I didn’t know what happened and I don’t write about things that I don’t know about."
Document:The Rossing File:The Inside Story of Britain's Secret Contract for Namibian Uraniumpamphlet1980Alun RobertsScandal in the 1970s and 1980s of collusion by successive British governments with the mining conglomerate Rio Tinto to import yellowcake from the Rössing Uranium Mine in Namibia (illegally occupied by apartheid South Africa) in defiance of international law, and leading to the targeting of UN Commissioner for Namibia Bernt Carlsson on Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988.
Document:Unanswered questions over LockerbieArticleJanuary 1995Phil JohnsonAccording to Tam Dalyell MP: "The American and British governments do not want the film shown. The American families do not want the film shown because they want their compensation money ($2.7 billion). More importantly, their lawyers want their money ($810 million)."
File:A Tale of Three Atrocities.pdfreportAugust 2009Charles NorrieThe report suggests that three ostensibly unconnected flight sabotages may in fact be connected. The main focus is the Pan American Airlines Flight 103, downed over Lockerbie in December 1988. It suggested that the CIA facilitated the Lockerbie atrocity by Iranian operatives as a quid-pro-quo for the downing of the Iranian airliner some 5 months earlier.
Document:The Bomb Trigger on Pam Am 103webpageMay 2002Joe Vialls
Document:Setting Up" Libya For The Lockerbie Bombing - Part 1webpage15 September 2004Joe Vialls
Document:"Setting Up" Libya For The Lockerbie Bombing - Part 2webpage15 September 2004Joe Vialls
Document:The Canadian Connection To Lockerbie & Pan Am 103webpage14 February 1998Joe Vialls

 

The Official Culprit

Name
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi
Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.



See also

Video

References

  1. ↑ "UN monitor decries Lockerbie judgement"
  2. ↑ File:SCCRC-Lockerbie.pdf - SCCRC Leave to appeal decision press release - June 2007
  3. ↑ "Lockerbie bomber's appeal dropped"
  4. ↑ "Flight 103: it was the Uranium"
  5. ↑ "Take action to investigate the deaths of UN Officials Dag Hammarskjöld and Bernt Carlsson!"
  6. ↑ "Scotland Yard to launch Bernt Carlsson murder inquiry"
  7. ↑ "Pan Am 103: South Africa Guilty"
  8. ↑ "Lockerbie: Heathrow break-in revealed"
  9. ↑ "Sir Bernard gets the message!"
  10. ↑ "Suppressed Lockerbie evidence ignited 9/11 attacks"
  11. ↑ "Comment by former GCHQ officer Mike Arnold on the Facebook page 'Who Killed Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher?'"
  12. ↑ "The Lockerbie Trial" by Rt Hon Colin Boyd QC, Lord Advocate, Scotland
  13. ↑ "Up in the air?" The Michigan Daily, 14 February 1989
  14. ↑ "FBI Offers Record $4-Million Reward in Lockerbie Bombing"
  15. ↑ "AAIB report on the accident to Boeing 747-121, N739PA at Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland on 21 December 1988"
  16. ↑ "The Lockerbie Incident: A Detective's Tale"
  17. ↑ "Lockerbie frame-up"
  18. ↑ "Full wording of initial charges"
  19. ↑ "14 days to launch appeal"
  20. ↑ "Grounds of appeal"
  21. ↑ "Lockerbie bomber in fresh appeal"
  22. ↑ "'Secret' Lockerbie report claim"
  23. ↑ "Lockerbie documents security plea"
  24. ↑ International Progress Organization, Vienna, News Release, 21 July 2008 [1]
  25. ↑ "Foreign Office letter to UN observer Dr. Hans Koechler"
  26. ↑ "Appeal court plans Lockerbie move"
  27. ↑ "Judgment on the scope of Megrahi's second appeal"
  28. ↑ "Timeline: Lockerbie bombing"
  29. ↑ "Lockerbie Trial is an Historic Miscarriage of Justice"
  30. ↑ "Tehran Hands Over the Remaining Funds to Jibril PFLP-GC
  31. ↑ "Secret talks on deal to return Megrahi to Libya"
  32. ↑ "Lockerbie bomber's appeal dropped"
  33. ↑ "Blackout over Lockerbie"
  34. ↑ "Lockerbie: Mandela and Dr John Cameron's Report"
  35. ↑ "Appeal can be held in Edinburgh"
  36. ↑ "SCCRC referral of Megrahi case"
  37. ↑ "We failed to learn from Lockerbie, and repeat our mistakes at peril"
  38. ↑ "South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission"
  39. ↑ "Interview with SA 'superspy' Craig Williamson"
  40. ↑ "Botha 'linked to murder decisions'"
  41. ↑ "Lockerbie: Ayatollah's Vengeance Exacted by Botha's Regime"
  42. ↑ "Lockerbie: The Flight from Justice"
  43. ↑ "Flight path"
  44. ↑ "EverythingPanAm.com The Virtual Pan Am Museum"
  45. ↑ "Victims of Pan Am Flight 103"
Retrieved from "https://wikispooks.com/w/index.php?title=Pan_Am_Flight_103&oldid=249937"