Lockerbie: What Really Happened

Lockerbie: What Really Happened (film)
Type	film
Author(s)	Al Jazeera
The third in the series of TV documentaries by Al Jazeera

MEBO timer fragment

al-Megrahi convicted, Bernt Carlsson targeted on Pan Am Flight 103

"Lockerbie: What Really Happened?" is the title of the third TV documentary by Al Jazeera which investigates the sabotage of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on 21 December 1988 when 270 people were killed:

Only one man, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan citizen, was tried and found guilty of causing the explosion. But he protested his innocence at the time of his trial in Camp Zeist in Holland in May 2000, and continued to do so up until his death in Tripoli in May 2012.

For three years filmmakers working for Al Jazeera have been investigating the prosecution of al-Megrahi.

Two award-winning documentaries, screened on Al Jazeera in 2011 and 2012, demonstrated that the case against him was deeply flawed and argued that a serious miscarriage of justice may have taken place.

In the first episode, "Lockerbie: The Pan Am Bomber", we followed defence investigator George Thomson as he revealed how forensic evidence presented at al-Megrahi's trial was not only inaccurate but appears to have been deliberately tampered with.

Then in "Lockerbie: Case Closed", we revealed the hitherto secret assessment of the Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission (SCCRC) - an independent public body in Scotland - which had re-examined the case in detail and had recommended that it be referred back to the courts for possible dismissal.

Crucially, our film also showed how new scientific tests comprehensively undermined the validity of the most significant piece of evidence linking the bombing to al-Megrahi and Libya - a fragment of electronic timer found embedded in the shredded remains of a shirt, supposedly bought by the convicted man in Malta.

The timer, the prosecution had claimed, was identical to ones sold to Libyan intelligence by a Swiss manufacturer. But as our investigation proved, it was not identical - a fact that must have been known to British government scientists all along.

Now, in our third and most disturbing investigation, we answer the question left hanging at the end of our last programme: if al-Megrahi was not guilty of the Lockerbie bombing, then who was?

The third part of this special series was shown on Tuesday 11 March 2014 at the following times GMT:

Tuesday 20.00; Wednesday 12.00; Thursday 01.00; Friday 06.00; Saturday 20.00; Sunday 12.00; Monday 01.00; Tuesday 06.00.

Al Jazeera invited viewers to submit comments on the documentary for broadcasting by @AJStream on Thursday 13 March 2014 at 19.30. At 18.00 Al Jazeera reported:

Al Jazeera's #Lockerbie investigation is a moving story, so our convo is postponed one week to take recent developments into account.

Reviews

Craig Murray "secret intelligence report"

Craig Murray and the "secret intelligence report"

On 11 March 2014 in the evening, Al Jazeera premiered its long-awaited documentary "Lockerbie: What Really Happened?" which concluded that the Lockerbie bombing was ordered by Iran and carried out by the PFLP-CG, with help from Hezbollah. The film also suggested that Libya may have had a role. Many morning newspapers carried the story and former British Ambassador Craig Murray wrote on his blog:

The information on Lockerbie published in today’s Daily Mail from an Iranian defector, matches precisely what I was shown in a secret intelligence report in the FCO just around the time of the first Iraq war – that a Syrian terrorist group was responsible acting on behalf of Iran. It was decided that this would be kept under wraps because the West needed Iran and Syria’s quiescence in the attack on Iraq.

I was at the time Head of Maritime Section in the FCO’s Aviation and Maritime Department (AMD). I was shown the report by the Head of the Aviation Section, who was deeply troubled by it.

The UK authorities have known for over 20 years that Megrahi was innocent. The key witness, a Maltese shopkeeper named Tony Gauci, was paid a total of US $7 million for his evidence by the CIA, and was able to adopt a life of luxury that continues to this day. The initial $2 million payment has become public knowledge but that was only the first instalment. This was not an over-eagerness to convict the man the CIA believed responsible; this was a deliberate perversion of justice to move the spotlight from Iran and Syria to clear the way diplomatically for war in Iraq.

It will of course be argued, probably correctly, that now Syria and Iran are the western targets, it is in the interests of the CIA for the true story to come out, (minus of course their involvement in perverting the course of justice). That is why we now hear it was Syria and Iran. But it so happens that is in fact the truth. Even the security services and government can tell the truth, when the moment comes that the truth rather than a deceit happens to be a tactical advantage to them.

Disinformation campaign

Iran Air Flight 655 and Pan Am Flight 103: "Ayatollah’s Vengeance Exacted By Botha’s Regime"

Former diplomat Patrick Haseldine commented:

Craig, a fortnight before the Lockerbie bombing, I was suspended from the FCO’s Information Department for writing a letter to The Guardian in which I criticised Mrs Thatcher for being soft on apartheid South Africa’s state sponsored terrorism. Following my suspension on 7 December 1988 until John Major sacked me on 2 August 1989, I visited the FCO just twice: for a disciplinary hearing on 28 February 1989; and a meeting of the No 2 Diplomatic Service Appeal Board on 5 May 1989. I cannot therefore refute what the Head of AMD's Aviation Section told you.

However, I would discount that "secret intelligence report" you saw - two years after Pan Am 103 went down - as part of a disinformation campaign and an elaborate cover-up of those r

"Lockerbie: What Really Happened?"

"Postponing our show on #Lockerbie to take in developments in what's become a moving story"

"IRAN blew up Lockerbie jet - not Libya, says defector: Ayatollah 'used Syrian-based terror group to bomb Pan Am 103 in revenge attack'"

"Lockerbie"