Difference between revisions of "Pan Am Flight 103"

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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>
 
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>
  
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==Post-Trial developments==
+
==Continuing Doubts==
 +
{{FA|Pan Am Flight 103/Continuing Doubts}}
 +
In 2015, doubts about the justice of [[Abdelbaset al-Megrahi|Megrahi]]'s conviction are more widespread than ever.
 
[[File:Dr_John_Cameron.jpg|300px|right|thumb|[[Dr John Cameron]], Church of Scotland's scientist]]
 
[[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]]
 
[[File:Hans_Koechler.jpg|300px|right|thumb|[[Hans Köchler]] UN Observer at the Lockerbie trial]]
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{{FA|Cameron's Report on Lockerbie Forensic Evidence}}
 
{{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>
 
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>
−
 
−
===Statement by UN Observer at the Trial===
 
−
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===
 
===Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission===
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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:
+
{{FA|Pan Am Flight 103/Continuing Doubts#Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission}}
−
:"They can't be working for two years without producing something with which to go to the court."
+
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>
−
MacLean added that any new appeal would indicate the flexibility of Scots law, rather than a weakness:
 
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:"It might even be the strength of the system – it is capable of looking at itself subsequently and determining a ground for appeal."
 
−
 
 
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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:
 
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:"[[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>
 
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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 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:
 
−
:"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===
 
−
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>
 
−
 
 
−
===Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds===
 
−
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.
 
−
 
 
−
Cable 08LONDON2673 (dated 2008-10-24) from the US Embassy London states however:
 
−
:"[[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>
 
−
 
 
−
Another leaked cable, 09TRIPOLI65 (dated 2009-01-28) from the US Embassy Tripoli reports:
 
−
:"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>
 
−
 
 
−
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>
 
−
 
 
−
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. 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 Criminal Cases Review Commission|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>
 
−
 
 
−
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>
 
  
−
===''Namibian Sun'' spotlights Lockerbie===
+
{{FA|Abdelbaset al-Megrahi/Compassionate release}}
−
[[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]] ]]
+
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?? -->
−
[[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==

Revision as of 12:42, 28 May 2015

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  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
PA103cockpit4.png
Wreckage of "Clipper Maid of the Seas" Cockpit section near Tundergarth Church
Date21 December 1988
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.


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

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]

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):[6] 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'.
  • 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."[7]

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 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.[8] 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

The investigation involved the following figures:[citation needed]

  • 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 Ossama 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

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.[9]

Continuing Doubts

Full article: Pan Am Flight 103/Continuing Doubts

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

Dr John Cameron, Church of Scotland's scientist
Hans Köchler UN Observer at the Lockerbie trial

Cameron's Report on Forensic Evidence

Full article: 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.[10]

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.[11] 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.[12]

Full article: Abdelbaset al-Megrahi/Compassionate release

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

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.[13] An SSC subcommittee, chaired by 'superspy' Major Craig Williamson, targeted anti-apartheid groups and individuals.[14]

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.[15]

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.[16]

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.

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 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."[17]

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.

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.[18]

High profile victims

Full article: Bernt Carlsson

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 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[20]

E-petition to HMG

David Cameron laying a wreath at the Lockerbie Memorial in Dryfesdale Cemetery on a 2-day visit to Scotland in May 2014

In November 2013, former diplomat Patrick Haseldine created this e-petition calling upon HM Government (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) to:

"Support a United Nations Inquiry into the deaths of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and UN Assistant Secretary-General Bernt Carlsson"
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.
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.
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.

The e-petition was open for signature by UK citizens and residents from 13 November 2013 to 13 May 2014.[21]

On 14 May 2014, Haseldine sent this email to David Cameron via the Prime Minister's Office:

Dear Prime Minister,
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

Full article: 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 commercially-controlled media in the Lockerbie context. He rapidly became 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".[22]


 

A Pan Am Flight 103 victim on Wikispooks

TitleDescription
Matthew GannonCIA officer killed in the Lockerbie Bombing

 

Related Documents

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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
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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."
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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.
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The Official Culprit

Name
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi
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See also

On WikiSpooks

External sites

  1. 'Lockerbie Conspiracy' by Thatcher and Reagan
  2. Lockerbie: Apartheid General Targeted UN Commissioner
  3. Pan Am Flight 103: Why has it taken so Long for the finger of suspicion to point towards South Africa?
  4. Lockerbie Bombing: The 'Finnish' Question
  5. Bernt Carlsson in Secret Meeting with 'Pressuriser' from the Diamond Cartel
  6. Major Craig Williamson: the 'real' Lockerbie bomber
  7. Gordon Brown says Lockerbie victim Bernt Carlsson was the target
  8. Lost on Flight 103: A Hero to the Wretched of the World
  9. Bernt Carlsson: A Very Private Public Servant
  10. Dr Jim Swire petitioned PM to compensate Lockerbie campaigner Patrick Haseldine

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. ↑ "The Lockerbie Trial" by Rt Hon Colin Boyd QC, Lord Advocate, Scotland
  7. ↑ "Up in the air?" The Michigan Daily, 14 February 1989
  8. ↑ "AAIB report on the accident to Boeing 747-121, N739PA at Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland on 21 December 1988"
  9. ↑ "Full wording of initial charges"
  10. ↑ "Lockerbie: Mandela and Dr John Cameron's Report"
  11. ↑ "Appeal can be held in Edinburgh"
  12. ↑ "SCCRC referral of Megrahi case"
  13. ↑ "South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission"
  14. ↑ "Interview with SA 'superspy' Craig Williamson"
  15. ↑ "Botha 'linked to murder decisions'"
  16. ↑ "Lockerbie: Ayatollah's Vengeance Exacted by Botha's Regime"
  17. ↑ "Lockerbie: The Flight from Justice"
  18. ↑ "Flight path"
  19. ↑ "EverythingPanAm.com The Virtual Pan Am Museum". Retrieved 21 August 2009.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  20. ↑ "Victims of Pan Am Flight 103"
  21. ↑ E-petition to HM Government
  22. ↑ "Blackout over Lockerbie"
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