Difference between revisions of "John Ashton"
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Now as [[Morag Kerr|Dr Kerr]] notes the SCCRC had nothing whatsoever to say about the Heathrow origin theory (actually not a theory but indisputable fact.) Did [[Megrahi]]'s defence teams even raise the issue in their official submission? I doubt Ashton did in his. Were they instead concerned with "Operation Bird" and the effort to prove [[Megrahi]] was not the purchaser of the Malta clothing, an important but possibly peripheral issue. Yet all the time they were in possession of this game-changing new revelation that features in [[Morag Kerr|Dr Kerr]]'s book.<ref>[http://e-zeecon.blogspot.co.uk/2013_12_01_archive.html "Review and Comment on 'Adequately Explained by Stupidity' by Dr Morag G Kerr PhD"]</ref> | Now as [[Morag Kerr|Dr Kerr]] notes the SCCRC had nothing whatsoever to say about the Heathrow origin theory (actually not a theory but indisputable fact.) Did [[Megrahi]]'s defence teams even raise the issue in their official submission? I doubt Ashton did in his. Were they instead concerned with "Operation Bird" and the effort to prove [[Megrahi]] was not the purchaser of the Malta clothing, an important but possibly peripheral issue. Yet all the time they were in possession of this game-changing new revelation that features in [[Morag Kerr|Dr Kerr]]'s book.<ref>[http://e-zeecon.blogspot.co.uk/2013_12_01_archive.html "Review and Comment on 'Adequately Explained by Stupidity' by Dr Morag G Kerr PhD"]</ref> | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==Lockerbie: What Really Happened?== | ||
+ | On 12 March 2014, John Ashton published his review of ''Al Jazeera'''s documentary "Lockerbie: What Really Happened?": | ||
+ | :''Al Jazeera'' last night premiered its long-awaited documentary "Lockerbie: What Really Happened?" The programme’s broad thrust, with which I agree, is that the bombing was ordered by Iran and carried out by the PFLP-GC, with help from Hezbollah. It also suggests that Libya may have had a role, which I don’t rule out. | ||
+ | |||
+ | :Before commenting further, I should make a declaration of interest: I was paid consultant and interviewee for the producers’ previous ''Al Jazeera'' programme "Lockerbie: Case Closed", (which you can view [http://www.megrahiyouaremyjury.net/?page_id=38 here]) which was broadcast on the day that "Megrahi: You are my Jury" was published, and was also a paid consultant during the development phase of this one, although I was not involved with the production itself. The most significant discoveries I made during the development phase were of no great interest to the producers, so I took them to Channel 4 News, who took a different view and commissioned a special report, which was broadcast on 20 December (you can view it [http://www.megrahiyouaremyjury.net/?p=985 here]). | ||
+ | |||
+ | :Last night’s programme has generated a lot of media coverage, but contains little that hasn’t already been reported previously. Most of the coverage has led on the allegations made in the film by Abolghasem Mesbahi, the German-based Iranian defector, who alleged that the bombing was carried out in revenge for the US shootdown of [[Iran Air Flight 655]]. His claims have been reported as if they are new, but they are not: they originally surfaced in the German media in 1996 or 1997. Mesbahi gave his first broadcast interview about Lockerbie to the German channel ZDF in 2008 and ''Al Jazeera''’s interview, which was in fact shot by ZDF, featured in another ZDF documentary last month. | ||
+ | |||
+ | :Mesbahi was a former senior official in Iran’s security service, Vevak, and was based in, among other places, Paris and Bonn. In late 1988 he was imprisoned briefly as a suspected US double agent and in 1996 defected. He claimed to have first hand knowledge of the plot that resulted in the 1992 murder, by Iranian agents, of several leading Kurdish separatists in the Mykonos restaurant in Berlin. His testimony proved crucial in the subsequent trial of some of the Iranians. It was not until some months after his defection that he began to talk about [[Lockerbie Bombing|Lockerbie]]. | ||
+ | |||
+ | :Last year I spoke to a leading German journalist who is very familiar with both Mesbahi and the [[Lockerbie Bombing|Lockerbie story]]. While he believes that the evidence that Mesbahi gave in the Mykonos case was credible, he is very sceptical of his claims about [[Lockerbie Bombing|Lockerbie]]. | ||
+ | |||
+ | :By Mesbahi’s own admission, all his information about [[Lockerbie Bombing|Lockerbie]] was second-hand. His accounts to the German police (documented in memos disclosed to the [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi|Abdelbaset]]’s lawyers pre-trial) were erratic. Some of his claims were unlikely, others patently nonsense. He claimed that the Iranian government initiated the operation and Iranian foreign minister Velajati held talks with [[Colonel Gaddafi]], during which they’d agreed on a joint operation in which Iran would be responsible for the explosives and Libya for the electronics. There was no reason for Iran to rely on the Libyans to sort out the electronics, when they had plenty of other bomb makers at their disposal. He did not mention the PFLP-GC and instead suggested that the operation was not only commissioned by the Iranian government, but also largely undertaken by Iranian agents. | ||
+ | |||
+ | :He said that the technical instructions for the bomb came from the [[Abu Nidal Organisation]] (ANO). He initially claimed that it was assembled and loaded at Heathrow by Libyan agents who had access to the airport’s ‘secure area’ (by which, presumably, he meant airside), but later claimed that it was assembled there by a ANO members. He also said that the bomb was activated by a chemical detonator, which again seems unlikely. He reported that the Iranians sent explosives to London after which the green light was given to the Libyans to deliver the electronic components. This, a source told him, was done by [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi]] and Lamin Fhimah only days before the [[Lockerbie Bombing|bombing]]. However, there is no evidence that they were in London at any point. It is clear that [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi|Abdelbaset]] was in Prague and Switzerland from 9th to 17th December and that he and Lamin were in Malta on the 20th and 21st. I suspect that Mesbahi stitched together a story that would implicate Iran, while accommodating the official 'Libya-did-it narrative'. | ||
+ | |||
+ | :Another disappointing aspect of the programme was the prominence it gave to the claims of the ''Operation Bird'' reports, about which I have written previously ([http://www.megrahiyouaremyjury.net/?p=937 here] and [http://www.megrahiyouaremyjury.net/?p=941 here]). Some of the reports’ key allegations are, in my view, unlikely, in particular the claim that the PFLP-GC’s German ringleader, Hafez Dalkamoni, attended a crucial planning meeting in Malta in October 1988. This claim is contradicted by documentary and witness evidence gathered by the BKA, which is far stronger than the evidence that the programme presented to corroborate the claim (essentially, a 1989 Maltese newspaper article). | ||
+ | |||
+ | :The film was on more solid ground when it presented US Defense Intelligence Agency reports from 1989 and 1990, which implicated the PFLP-GC and Iran in the attack. Unfortunately, it implied that the reports were secret and stated that they would have been used at [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi|Abdelbaset]]’s second appeal. Neither suggestion was true: the reports had no role in the appeal and are available online having been declassified many years ago. | ||
+ | |||
+ | :There were other exaggerated and misleading claims. For example, the commentary stated "this programme has learned" that [[Tony Gauci]] had picked out a photo of Mohamed Abu Talb before his partial identification of [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi|Abdelbaset]]. In fact it is well known that, when shown a photo of Abu Talb by the police in October 1989, [[Tony Gauci|Gauci]] said that he resembled the clothes purchaser. The programme also stated that the Toshiba radio-cassette player that housed the Lockerbie bomb was of the same type as the one seized by the BKA during the "Autumn Leaves" raids, but in fact it was substantially different. | ||
+ | |||
+ | :On the plus side, the film contained powerful interviews with former [[CIA]] investigator [[Robert Baer]], researcher and campaigner [[Morag Kerr]] and, surprisingly, the former ''Times'' political editor Robin Oakley. Overall, though, it was a wasted opportunity.<ref>[http://www.megrahiyouaremyjury.net/?p=1031 "Review of ''Al Jazeera'' documentary ‘Lockerbie: What Really Happened?’"]</ref> | ||
==Book reviews== | ==Book reviews== |
Revision as of 20:47, 12 March 2014
![](/w/images/thumb/c/c2/John_Ashton1.jpg/200px-John_Ashton1.jpg)
John Ashton is a British author, journalist and film researcher who is focused on the Lockerbie bombing of 21 December 1988, a subject he has studied since 1993. From 2006 to 2009 John Ashton was a researcher with the legal team representing Abdelbaset al-Megrahi who was convicted on 31 January 2001 of the sabotage of Pan Am Flight 103.[1]
John Ashton's film The Maltese Double Cross - Lockerbie and books have been strongly criticised by armchair commentators Patrick Haseldine and Barry 'Baz' Walker. Charges include peddling a "drug conspiracy theory", promoting the "flight booking subterfuge" and failing to mention Haseldine's personal obsession, the UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, the highest profile victim of the Lockerbie bombing.[2]
On 22 January 2014, John Ashton published this insightful piece on his website:
- Private Eye rumbles "Haselnut" and The Ecologist
- The latest issue of Private Eye ("Street of Shame", page 7) carries the following article about everyone’s favourite Lockerbie crank Patrick 'clinically sane' Haseldine.
- Most hacks and news organisations have long blocked or junked rants from the Lockerbie bombing conspiracy theorist Patrick Haseldine. Not so The Ecologist magazine. Oliver Tickell, the new editor, has just published "the shocking truth" of Lockerbie by the man who styles himself "Emeritus Professor of Lockerbie Studies".[3]
- "Haselnut" has long claimed that Pan Am 103 was blown up by the apartheid South African government in order to kill an unfortunate Swedish passenger, Bernt Carlsson, the UN Assistant Secretary-General and Commissioner for Namibia.
- As well as aiming various far-fetched accusations over the years at people connected to the Lockerbie investigations and trials, Haseldine has also claimed that he was "nominated" for last year’s Private Eye Paul Foot Award – by which he meant he had in fact submitted his own material for consideration.[4]
Contents
Ashton's critique of Patrick Haseldine
Patrick Haseldine is the primary author of this page (with the exception of this section, which was written by Ashton) and of just about everything else written about Lockerbie on Wikispooks. Ashton wrote a brief critique of Haseldine, which appears towards the bottom of Haseldine's otherwise self-penned Wikispooks profile.
Ashton's latest book 'Scotland's Shame: Why Lockerbie Still Matters' (published in October 2013) contains the following passage on Haseldine:
- "Former Foreign Office employee and Essex café owner Patrick Haseldine has for 25 years claimed, without evidence, that the bombing was carried out by the South African Bureau of State Security (BOSS) in order to kill the UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, who, like Botha’s party, was flying to New York for the signing of the Namibia peace accords. In his prolific online writing Haseldine has also claimed that I was employed by BOSS to conceal its role in the bombing, and that members of the campaign group Justice for Megrahi work for MI6. At the time of writing, he is facing legal action for another of his outlandish libels."
Maltese Double Cross
- Full article: The Maltese Double Cross - Lockerbie
- Full article: The Maltese Double Cross - Lockerbie
John Ashton was researcher for Allan Francovich's 1994 documentary film The Maltese Double Cross - Lockerbie about the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, the full 2-hour 36-minute version of which is on YouTube.[5]
The film made the bogus claim that a South African delegation including foreign minister Pik Botha and defence minister Magnus Malan had been booked on Pan Am Flight 103 of 21 December 1988, but had received:
- "a warning from a source which could not be ignored," and changed flights.
In June 1996, the South African parliament was told by justice minister Dullah Omar that Pik Botha's delegation were not warned to change flights since they had not been booked to travel on the fatal flight.
Ashton has never published a correction to this "flight booking subterfuge".[6]
Flight Booking Subterfuge
This is the relevant narrative in The Maltese Double Cross:
- "The South Africans booked on Pan Am Flight 103 cancelled just before departure. Along with Pik Botha, General Malan the Defence Minister, and General van Tonder, Head of the Secret Service, BOSS, and other senior government officials.
- "Botha, Malan and van Tonder confirm this change in travel arrangement to British businessman Tiny Rowland. They tell him the source of the information was of the kind that could not be dismissed.
- "Botha rebooks on the earlier flight Pan Am 101. General van Tonder and two other members of BOSS cancel their trip altogether."[7]
Ashton's claim that Pik Botha's party had been booked on the Lockerbie flight was shown to be false by the now retired South African MP Colin Eglin of the Democratic Party. In a letter to a British Lockerbie victim’s family dated 18 July 1996, Mr Eglin wrote of questions he had put to South African Justice Minister Dullah Omar in the National Assembly.
On 5 June 1996, Mr Eglin asked Mr Omar if Pik Botha and his entourage:
- "had any plans to travel on this flight (Pan Am Flight 103) or had reservations for this flight; if so, why were the plans changed?"
In reply in the National Assembly on 12 June 1996, Justice Minister Omar stated he had been informed by the former minister of foreign affairs (Pik Botha) that shortly before finalising their booking arrangements for travel from Heathrow to New York, they learned of an earlier flight from London to New York: namely, Pan Am Flight 101. They consequently were booked and travelled on this flight to New York. Mr Eglin went on to write in his letter to the Lockerbie victim’s family:
- "Since then I have done some more informal prodding. This has led me to the person who made the reservations on behalf of the South African foreign minister Pik Botha and his entourage. This person assures me that he and no-one else was responsible for the reservations, and the reservation made in South Africa for the South African group was originally made on Pan Am 101, departing London at 11:00 on 21 December 1988. It was never made on Pan Am 103 and consequently was never changed. He made the reservation on Pan Am 101 because it was the most convenient flight connecting with South African Airways Flight SA 234 arriving at Heathrow at 07:20 on 21 December 1988."
Mr Eglin gave the victim’s family the assurance that he had 'every reason to trust the person referred to' since he had been given a copy of 'rough working notes and extracts from his personal diary of those days.' In his letter Mr Eglin wrote:
- "In the circumstances, I have to accept that an assertion that the reservations of the South African group were either made or changed as a result of warnings that might have been received, is not correct."[8]
Drug conspiracy theory
The film also propounded a "drug conspiracy theory" as the motive for the bombing, a theory which has been ridiculed by Lockerbie commentator Barry Walker as follows:
- "Having watched the version televised by Channel 4 before the 'Lockerbie debate' many times I found this version of The Maltese Double Cross fascinating. It is far longer than the televised version and is significantly different.
- "I have long been a critic of The Maltese Double Cross and Cover-up of Convenience written by the film's researcher John Ashton and Ian Ferguson.
- "I have no objection to the first 1 hour and 36 minutes which was, to be honest, really very good.
- "My objection is to the introduction of the "drug conspiracy theory" between 1.36 and 2.16, in particular the section 1.55-2.16 and above all the blatantly fraudulent 'hotel room scene' featuring Oswald Le Winter between 2.12.50 and 02.15 (which was longer than the televised version and mentioned the character 'Lovejoy'.)
- "In the far briefer televised version of Steve Donahue's 'evidence' he is described as an 'undercover Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent' with no mention of his being a convicted trafficker. The section concerning 'Mr Goldberg' and his supposed meeting with Khalid Jafaar is greatly different.
- "While some of the 'evidence' is this forty-minute section (1.36-2.16) is demonstrably fabricated, my point is that even if these allegations of 'controlled' drug deliveries is true, is it of any relevance to the bombing?
- "I would also point that the only evidence in the film that drugs were recovered at Tundergarth was an article in Private Eye magazine for whom John Ashton works.
- "I also note that the evidence of Linda Forsyth that Matthew Gannon was sitting in 1st class was expunged although elsewhere the film claims on two other occasions that he was (once in Le Winter's staged 'evidence'). The official version is that he was in Business Class.
- "My central criticism of Cover-up of Convenience is that most of the book was devoted to 'proving' this fraudulent section of the film. Without their obsession with Khalid Jafaar (which continues to this day in the pages of Private Eye) Messrs Ashton and Ferguson might have written an important book.
- "Indeed without the "drug conspiracy" section The Maltese Double Cross might have been a good film.
- "Pity Francovich didn't grasp that the Lockerbie bomb was introduced at Heathrow."[9]
By the same author
John Ashton has written the following books and articles on the Lockerbie bombing:[10]
"Cover-Up of Convenience"
Following the Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi’s conviction for the Lockerbie bombing on 31 January 2001, John Ashton co-wrote a book entitled "Cover-Up of Convenience: The Hidden Scandal of Lockerbie" with fellow journalist Ian Ferguson.[11] According to a review of the book in The Observer on 17 June 2001:[12]
- "If 'Cover-Up of Convenience' occasionally loses narrative focus, that is hardly surprising bearing in mind the difficulties with co-authors on opposite sides of the Atlantic, and the speed with which this book has been produced."
According to the blurb:
- "Based on many years’ research, this book demonstrates that the truth was buried to protect the hidden agendas of Western policy in the Middle East, demolishing the case against Libya, it presents shocking evidence that the terrorist masterminds lay in Iran, Syria and Lebanon and also raises questions against the Western intelligence services."
Very strange omission
Although "Cover-Up of Convenience"’s 'Index' runs to 14 pages and the name of the highest profile Lockerbie victim Bernt Carlsson is nowhere to be found, the 'Acknowledgments' page nonetheless states:
- "A multitude of people warrant acknowledgment, far too many, in fact, to list here. The relatives of the Lockerbie victims deserve particular thanks, chief among them Martin and Rita Cadman, Pam Dix, John and Lisa Mosey, Sanya Popovic and Jim and Jane Swire."
- "Fellow journalists gave generous help, including Jan-Olof Bengtsson, Ronen Bergman, John Coates, John Cooley, Con Coughlin, Don Devereux, Rob Evans, Paul Foot, Drago Hedl, Bjorn Hygstedt, David Jessel, Shelley Jofre, David Johnston, Jürgen Krönig, Gunter Latsch, John Loftus, Neil Mackay, Joe Mifsud, David Milne, Mats-Eric Nilsson, Margaret Renn, Murdoch Rodgers, Frank Ryan, Kjetil Stormark, Phillip Wearne, Terry Wrong and David Yallop."
A very strange omission, since:
- Sanya Popovic is the former fiancée of Bernt Carlsson;
- John Coates interviewed Bernt Carlsson in The Case of the Disappearing Diamonds; and,
- Jan-Olof Bengtsson wrote a series of newspaper articles (in Swedish) about Bernt Carlsson's secret meeting in London with De Beers on the very day of the Lockerbie bombing.
"Megrahi: You are my Jury"
In 2012, John Ashton's book "Megrahi: You are my Jury" was published.[13] Dr John Cameron reviewed John Ashton's 2012 book, as follows:
- "I read John Ashton's 500-page tour de force "Megrahi: You Are My Jury" at a sitting and though I would not expect anyone else to do so it is an invaluable 'source' for the public. His dissection of the trial in general and the 80-page judgement of Lords Sutherland, Coulsfield and MacLean in particular make compelling if disturbing reading.
- "The British public, media and politicians have a spectacularly poor knowledge of science and technology as debates over such things as windfarms and GM crops makes clear. It would be unreasonable to expect our Law Lords, classically educated at public schools where the teaching of science was bad and technology non-existent, to be any better. It was therefore only to be expected they would struggle to comprehend the weakness of the forensic evidence or to understand the operation of Frankfurt airport's X-ray security. Yet, as the UN observer wrote, that does not excuse their reliance on the partial evidence from wholly unreliable witnesses to reach a verdict 'beyond any reasonable doubt'. The Crown's case was that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Fhimah, acting together, smuggled the bomb on board a feeder flight from Malta in unaccompanied baggage. The Prosecution insisted they were either both innocent or both guilty however the only evidence linking Fhimah to this scenario depended on the evidence of one witness. This was Majid Giaka, a CIA informant, and by the time Fhimah's counsel, Richard Keen, had finished with him it was clear Giaka was both a liar and a fantasist.
- "I thought the trial was over and though it still dragged on with increasing absurdity I was not surprised when the Crown closed that Keen submitted Fhimah had no case to answer. However, I had not counted on Alastair Campbell, who led the Crown's case, informing the court he was dropping the conspiracy charge i.e. separating al-Megrahi and Fhimah. This was allowed but conspiracy was the basis of the case so I asked a leading figure in our judiciary if they could do that and he said the Law Lords could do what they liked.
- "When I replied that was illogical and unfair he archly responded, 'Show me where it says Scots Law must be logical and fair,' and an historic miscarriage of justice was inevitable."[14]
"Was Libya really behind it?"
John Ashton contributed to this 2012 article featuring Edwin Bollier which appeared in the Swiss magazine Beobachter.[15]
Scotland's Shame
John Ashton's book "Scotland’s Shame: Why Lockerbie Still Matters" was published by Birlinn on 3 October 2013.[16] It features a remarkable foreword by Dr Jim Swire. The advance blurb says:
- "The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988 was one of the most notorious acts of terrorism in recent history. Its political and foreign policy repercussions have been enormous, and twenty-five years after the atrocity in which 270 lost their lives, debate still rages over the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, as well as his controversial release on compassionate grounds by Scotland’s SNP government in 2009. John Ashton argues that the guilty verdict, delivered by some of Scotland’s most senior judges, was perverse and irrational, and details how prosecutors withheld numerous items of evidence that were favourable to Megrahi. It accuses successive Scottish governments of turning their back on the scandal and pretending that the country’s treasured independent criminal justice system remains untainted.
- "With numerous observers believing the Crown Office is out of control and the judiciary stuck in the last century, politicians must address these problems or their aspirations for Scotland to become a modern European social democracy are bound to fail."[17]
Independence and Lockerbie
Dr Swire asserted that the unresolved Lockerbie question will prove to be a block on Scotland's independence:
- "Scottish justice survived the Act of Union with England with its independence intact: perhaps since then it has been a talisman of Scotland's reputation as an independent nation capable of running its own affairs. If that is so, Scotland - my country - would do well to address the apparent problem of the impenetrable arrogance of her prosecuting authorities that seem to have blighted her justice system ever since it became clear that the Lockerbie trial had been defective.
- "It is best addressed from within Scotland herself and may well be a factor which will block independence until it is resolved, for an independent community with an obscured and mistrusted justice system can never be a healthy community.
- "We would wish healing, not harm, for Scotland and all her people, but the arrogant refusal to consider fault has dragged on so long that the cure is not likely to be found within the timescale now scheduled for the independence debate. It is to be hoped that the refusal of the current Scottish Government to intervene with an independent inquiry, despite clearly having the powers required to do so, is not driven by motives of party advantage."[18]
Jo G takes Dr Swire to task
Lockerbie campaigner Jo G took Dr Swire to task:
- "I am sorry, very sorry, to say I have to disagree with Jim Swire on this point.
- "There are many people within even the SNP who know the SNP betrayed Scotland on Lockerbie in every way imaginable and yet will not condemn them for it. Shame on them I would say. I have condemned them on this blog repeatedly for it. For they are truly to be condemned. MacAskill's conduct in particular, on Lockerbie, is utterly disgraceful.
- "Tory hands were filthy on Lockerbie. Labour hands were filthy too.
- "SNP hands are now toxic for they were in charge at Holyrood when they could have made a difference and chose not to. Instead MacAskill came out to say this, that and the other, on the day he announced Megrahi was going home.
- "He also omitted a great deal. (His office was fingered when it came to the pressure put on Megrahi to drop his appeal.) MacAskill also overreached himself by declaring 'the original verdict was sound' even when the SCCRC had already stated there were six grounds to challenge that conviction. (Why would that not bother him?)
- "Salmond has uttered the same sentence. Neither of them had the authority to overrule the SCCRC. Both of them have left some of their supporters, including this writer, wondering about their commitment to a truly just Scottish Justice System.
- "MacAskill went on to alter the remit of the SCCRC. The SCCRC exists to examine cases, scrutinise them even, 'without political or judicial interference.' MacAskill did away with that when he put through 'emergency' legislation hidden under legislation designed to deal with another case entirely. His aim was to put a Judge in charge of the SCCRC. Such a move destroyed the whole point of having an SCCRC. That action alone was, solely, about Lockerbie and the Megrahi conviction. Let no supporter of the SNP, no matter how passionate, attempt to suggest otherwise. It also proved just how closely the SNP were working with Westminster to keep the lid on the truth behind Lockerbie! Shame on them!
- "I am sorry Jim Swire is linking this with independence and the referendum. It could have been linked in 2007 but not now. For had the SNP had the balls to take on the establishment in 2007 and said that appeal would be heard no matter what, the truth about Lockerbie, or at least about the very dodgy conviction, may have come out and that would have taken them forward. Alas, in 2007 the SNP decided to work with a UK government which was committed to keeping the truth about Lockerbie buried. SNP members have failed to challenge Salmond on Lockerbie. More fool them. For ultimately the SNP has proved to be as dishonest, on Lockerbie, as the Unionist Parties. There is nothing to be proud of in that.
- "The other thing, of course, is that a significant number in Scotland are so disengaged from politics anyway that there is no hope of them even voting in the referendum. They are more likely to vote on who should win 'X Factor'."[19]
And rebuking Dr Morag Kerr who had earlier said: "Whether or not the current Scottish government have behaved well as regards Lockerbie just isn't an issue", Jo G said:
- "Oh it absolutely is an issue. Some of us challenged them on it.
- "I recall challenging you on this very blog when you defended the SNP!
- "You forgive them so willingly. I cannot.[20]
Riposte from "Rolfe"
Morag Kerr countered by saying it would be "insane" to vote against the SNP and Scottish independence because of such an "essentially unrelated matter" as Lockerbie:
- "I just don't see the issue. No matter how much you hate the SNP for whatever reason, independence isn't about the SNP, it's about Scotland's future. To vote against something so immeasurably beneficial just because you have a quarrel with the main proponent over an essentially unrelated matter is insane.
- "And as Robert said, if you're picking the future with the better likelihood for a resolution, independence is the way to go. The union isn't working, for that or for anything else. (Apart from sending failed Labour and LibDem politicians to the Lords that is, Lord Jeremy Purves, pardon me while I vomit.)
- "I don't know what's going on behind the scenes in the Scottish government over Lockerbie. I'm seriously hacked off about it, just like anyone else, but I don't claim to know how and why it happened.
- "But, even to be able to make sure the right people are first in front of the wall when the revolution comes, you actually have to have a revolution. You don't get one by voting No, that's for sure."[21]
Jo G told "Rolfe" she had a habit of missing the point:
- "I do not hate the SNP. You missed the point. You always do when it suits.
- "Why are you seeking to make money out of a book which kills, stone dead, the SNP position on Lockerbie and still defending them?
- "Don't patronise me. Have a word with your own conscience. If you have one."[22]
Barry Walker's critique of John Ashton
I am not John Ashton's biggest fan. Ashton co-authored some quite interesting articles articles with Paul Foot but was credited as researcher on Allan Francovich's Lockerbie documentary "The Maltese Double Cross". This hoax which purported to prove the "drug conspiracy theory" featured "witnesses" such as the professional fabricator and supposed CIA officer Oswald LeWinter (whom Francovich had earlier exposed as a fraud) as well as Lester Coleman and Juval Aviv. A drug trafficker with no knowledge of what had transpired was featured as an "undercover DEA agent." One witness "the relative" was featured rambling in Arabic with his face and voice distorted. However amongst other comments he said: "Khaled knew nothing about the bomb - who wants to die". (A fair point although it is not clear whether Ashton alleged Jafaar was tricked into taking the bomb on board, whether he knew nothing about it or whether he was some sort of suicide bomber.) One "witness" in this daft film "Mr Goldberg" appears to have been completely fabricated to "prove" Khalid Jafaar had met Abu Talb (the latter having given the 19-year-old batchelor a blue babygro (as recovered at Tundergarth.)
One scene featured the most risible evidence with self-styled former CIA agent Oswald LeWinter discussing Jafaar on the phone with man (described by Ashton as an "anonymous witness") who is also supposed to be a CIA "contractor". The conversation is just ludicrous.
Ashton persisted with the Jafaar theme producing further risible evidence to "prove" Jafaar had travelled on the Jounieh Ferry and was a drug courier.
As Doctor Kerr notes in her book it was only with David Bedford's evidence at Camp Zeist that people began to prick up their ears and consider the possibility that the primary suitcase was introduced at Heathrow. Not John Ashton though. Following the trial he published with Ian Ferguson what he described as "the alternative version of events" the oddly-titled "Cover-up of Convenience". I purchased this expecting it to be a proper examination but it transpired to be just a rehash of "The Maltese Double X". It featured a procession of even more ludicrous "witnesses" who had no actual knowledge of what transpired. One of the most tedious aspects of the book was a boring recitation of the various Court cases these "witnesses" had been involved in the quite illogical implication being that because these people had been involved in these various cases therefore they were somehow being persecuted for espousing the "drug conspiracy theory" and therefore it was true.
Some of the evidence in this book was beyond risible. Perhaps my favourite bit was the claim that Khalid Jafaar was a member of Hezbollah evidenced by a preposterous story told by "the relative" (which still featured in the notes of "Megrahi - You Are My Jury" which makes the absurd claim Jafaar's had a "fiancée" ) and the recovery of a "Hezbollah" T-shirt at Tundergarth. (Which was likely a souvenir belonging to Charles McKee). Ashton (and Private Eye) also alleged that Jafaar was a named member of the PFLP-GC on the mistaken evidence of former CIA officer (and aviation terrorist) Robert Baer. The book also features the "evidence" of a PFLP-GC defector Major Tunyab "who confirmed to us Khaled Jafaar's role in the bombing. However how the bomb was introduced he did not know"!
Ashton was happy to be described in Tam Dalyell's forward to the book as Francovich's "deputy". Francovich however appears to have been as dumb as a chimp. In a letter expounding upon his theory that Khalid Jafaar was sat with his "keeper" Matthew Gannon in the 1st Class compartment on Pan Am 103 (as LeWinter's he wrote "where the bomb appears to have exploded")! Apart from his book Ashton appears to have contributed to or even ghost written articles by others such as Gareth Peirce and David Wolchover which contain a number of very dubious propositions and claims which are quite simply untrue.
Ashton has come up with other bogus evidence to "prove" Khalid Jafaar was a drug courier and seems to be the main contributor to Private Eye Lockerbie stories none of which ever seem to have panned out (for example "the Golfer" and the absurd "outing of "Abu Elias" as groundskeeper Willie, apparently on no evidence whatsoever!) He is also one of the founders of "Justice for Megrahi" and is obviously associated with many of the luminaries of that association.
Now it is not my purpose to denigrate Mr Ashton's competence or intelligence. (That's just gravy.) Other "respected" journalists in the mainstream media, for example the influential Robert Fisk of The Independent have made similar claims. The point is that both of Megrahi's defence teams (Eddie McKechnie and Tony Kelly) employed Ashton as a researcher. Yet even as Tony Kelly's employee Ashton made a separate submission to the SCCRC (not in the public domain) that appears to have rehashed yet again his bizarre obsession with Khalid Jafaar, a submission which the SCCRC appears to have rejected in its entirety.
Now as Dr Kerr notes the SCCRC had nothing whatsoever to say about the Heathrow origin theory (actually not a theory but indisputable fact.) Did Megrahi's defence teams even raise the issue in their official submission? I doubt Ashton did in his. Were they instead concerned with "Operation Bird" and the effort to prove Megrahi was not the purchaser of the Malta clothing, an important but possibly peripheral issue. Yet all the time they were in possession of this game-changing new revelation that features in Dr Kerr's book.[23]
Lockerbie: What Really Happened?
On 12 March 2014, John Ashton published his review of Al Jazeera's documentary "Lockerbie: What Really Happened?":
- Al Jazeera last night premiered its long-awaited documentary "Lockerbie: What Really Happened?" The programme’s broad thrust, with which I agree, is that the bombing was ordered by Iran and carried out by the PFLP-GC, with help from Hezbollah. It also suggests that Libya may have had a role, which I don’t rule out.
- Before commenting further, I should make a declaration of interest: I was paid consultant and interviewee for the producers’ previous Al Jazeera programme "Lockerbie: Case Closed", (which you can view here) which was broadcast on the day that "Megrahi: You are my Jury" was published, and was also a paid consultant during the development phase of this one, although I was not involved with the production itself. The most significant discoveries I made during the development phase were of no great interest to the producers, so I took them to Channel 4 News, who took a different view and commissioned a special report, which was broadcast on 20 December (you can view it here).
- Last night’s programme has generated a lot of media coverage, but contains little that hasn’t already been reported previously. Most of the coverage has led on the allegations made in the film by Abolghasem Mesbahi, the German-based Iranian defector, who alleged that the bombing was carried out in revenge for the US shootdown of Iran Air Flight 655. His claims have been reported as if they are new, but they are not: they originally surfaced in the German media in 1996 or 1997. Mesbahi gave his first broadcast interview about Lockerbie to the German channel ZDF in 2008 and Al Jazeera’s interview, which was in fact shot by ZDF, featured in another ZDF documentary last month.
- Mesbahi was a former senior official in Iran’s security service, Vevak, and was based in, among other places, Paris and Bonn. In late 1988 he was imprisoned briefly as a suspected US double agent and in 1996 defected. He claimed to have first hand knowledge of the plot that resulted in the 1992 murder, by Iranian agents, of several leading Kurdish separatists in the Mykonos restaurant in Berlin. His testimony proved crucial in the subsequent trial of some of the Iranians. It was not until some months after his defection that he began to talk about Lockerbie.
- Last year I spoke to a leading German journalist who is very familiar with both Mesbahi and the Lockerbie story. While he believes that the evidence that Mesbahi gave in the Mykonos case was credible, he is very sceptical of his claims about Lockerbie.
- By Mesbahi’s own admission, all his information about Lockerbie was second-hand. His accounts to the German police (documented in memos disclosed to the Abdelbaset’s lawyers pre-trial) were erratic. Some of his claims were unlikely, others patently nonsense. He claimed that the Iranian government initiated the operation and Iranian foreign minister Velajati held talks with Colonel Gaddafi, during which they’d agreed on a joint operation in which Iran would be responsible for the explosives and Libya for the electronics. There was no reason for Iran to rely on the Libyans to sort out the electronics, when they had plenty of other bomb makers at their disposal. He did not mention the PFLP-GC and instead suggested that the operation was not only commissioned by the Iranian government, but also largely undertaken by Iranian agents.
- He said that the technical instructions for the bomb came from the Abu Nidal Organisation (ANO). He initially claimed that it was assembled and loaded at Heathrow by Libyan agents who had access to the airport’s ‘secure area’ (by which, presumably, he meant airside), but later claimed that it was assembled there by a ANO members. He also said that the bomb was activated by a chemical detonator, which again seems unlikely. He reported that the Iranians sent explosives to London after which the green light was given to the Libyans to deliver the electronic components. This, a source told him, was done by Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Fhimah only days before the bombing. However, there is no evidence that they were in London at any point. It is clear that Abdelbaset was in Prague and Switzerland from 9th to 17th December and that he and Lamin were in Malta on the 20th and 21st. I suspect that Mesbahi stitched together a story that would implicate Iran, while accommodating the official 'Libya-did-it narrative'.
- Another disappointing aspect of the programme was the prominence it gave to the claims of the Operation Bird reports, about which I have written previously (here and here). Some of the reports’ key allegations are, in my view, unlikely, in particular the claim that the PFLP-GC’s German ringleader, Hafez Dalkamoni, attended a crucial planning meeting in Malta in October 1988. This claim is contradicted by documentary and witness evidence gathered by the BKA, which is far stronger than the evidence that the programme presented to corroborate the claim (essentially, a 1989 Maltese newspaper article).
- The film was on more solid ground when it presented US Defense Intelligence Agency reports from 1989 and 1990, which implicated the PFLP-GC and Iran in the attack. Unfortunately, it implied that the reports were secret and stated that they would have been used at Abdelbaset’s second appeal. Neither suggestion was true: the reports had no role in the appeal and are available online having been declassified many years ago.
- There were other exaggerated and misleading claims. For example, the commentary stated "this programme has learned" that Tony Gauci had picked out a photo of Mohamed Abu Talb before his partial identification of Abdelbaset. In fact it is well known that, when shown a photo of Abu Talb by the police in October 1989, Gauci said that he resembled the clothes purchaser. The programme also stated that the Toshiba radio-cassette player that housed the Lockerbie bomb was of the same type as the one seized by the BKA during the "Autumn Leaves" raids, but in fact it was substantially different.
- On the plus side, the film contained powerful interviews with former CIA investigator Robert Baer, researcher and campaigner Morag Kerr and, surprisingly, the former Times political editor Robin Oakley. Overall, though, it was a wasted opportunity.[24]
Book reviews
A customer review of 'Megrahi: You Are My Jury: The Lockerbie Evidence' on the "Amazon" website says:
- "Nowhere in John Ashton's book does he mention Lockerbie's highest profile victim United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson.
- "John Ashton has previously ignored Bernt Carlsson in his 1994 film 'The Maltese Double Cross' and in the 2001 book 'Cover-up of Convenience' that he co-authored with Ian Ferguson.
- "Whether John Ashton's new book 'Scotland’s Shame: Why Lockerbie Still Matters' - that was published by Birlinn on 3 October 2013 - actually features the targeting of Bernt Carlsson on Pan Am Flight 103 remains to be seen."[25]
John Ashton adds: the Amazon review in question was in fact written by Patrick Haseldine under the guise of Enid Le Sah "Ellie" (Enid Le Sah being Haseldine backwards). His review of the Morphy Richards Power Steam Elite 42223 steam iron is also well worth a read (highlights include: 'easily gives a professional smooth finish to ironing of all types'). Unusually for Haseldine it a) makes no mention of Bernt Carlsson and b) contains no bizarre libels.
Other publications
In 1988, John Ashton co-wrote a leaflet entitled Blood on their Rands: an investigation into the worldwide activities of the British Tyre & Rubber Co Ltd (BTR), with the help of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.[26]
Website
John Ashton's website is here.
See also
- Lockerbie Official Narrative
- Cameron's Report on Lockerbie Forensic Evidence
- The Framing of al-Megrahi
- The How, Why and Who of Pan Am Flight 103
External links
References
- ↑ "About the author on Amazon"
- ↑ "John Ashton's Lockerbie dictum: 'Don't mention Bernt Carlsson!'"
- ↑ "Flight 103: It was the Uranium"
- ↑ "Private Eye rumbles 'Haselnut' and The Ecologist"
- ↑ "The Maltese Double Cross on YouTube"
- ↑ "Why the Lockerbie flight booking subterfuge, Mr Botha?"
- ↑ "Bogus claim by John Ashton"
- ↑ "South African MP Colin Eglin refutes John Ashton's claim"
- ↑ "Critique of The Maltese Double Cross by 'baz'
- ↑ "Lockerbie Cover-Upper Ian Ferguson"
- ↑ "Cover-Up of Convenience: The Hidden Scandal of Lockerbie"
- ↑ "The show trial must go on" The Observer, 17 June 2001.
- ↑ "Megrahi: You are my Jury"
- ↑ "Dr Cameron's review of John Ashton's 2012 book"
- ↑ "Was Libya really behind it?"
- ↑ "Scotland's Shame: Lockerbie 25 Years On - Why It Still Matters"
- ↑ "Scotland’s Shame: Why Lockerbie Still Matters"
- ↑ "Jim Swire: SNP's failure to order Lockerbie bombing inquiry will harm its indyref chances"
- ↑ "Jo G takes Dr Swire to task"
- ↑ "Jo G cannot forgive the SNP"
- ↑ "Riposte from 'Rolfe'"
- ↑ "Morag Kerr's habit of missing the point"
- ↑ "Review and Comment on 'Adequately Explained by Stupidity' by Dr Morag G Kerr PhD"
- ↑ "Review of Al Jazeera documentary ‘Lockerbie: What Really Happened?’"
- ↑ "No mention of Lockerbie's highest profile victim"
- ↑ "Leaflet written in 1988 by John Ashton" with the help of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa