US Disinformation

A release dated 29 November 2007 from the US Department of State USINFO service entitled "Libya Lays Out Welcome Mat for U.S. Trade and Investment" contains the following paragraph:

"The warming in U.S. ties with Libya began in 2003 when Tripoli admitted blowing up a Pan American airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and a French UTC airliner over Africa in 1989, and paid billions of dollars in compensation."

The true position, of course, is that Tripoli made no such admission. What it did was accept responsibility for the actings of Libyan state servants. If it transpires that the conviction of Mr Megrahi constituted a miscarriage of justice and is quashed, then there is no Libyan admission whatsoever of any involvement at all in the destruction of Pan Am 103. See
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2007&m=November&x=20071129144104cpataruk0.800152

Another lockerbie blog

I am ashamed to say that until this morning I was unaware of Ed's Blog City which is advertised as containing "Notes, information, articles, opinions and other writings on the Pan Am 103 disaster at Lockerbie, 21st December 1988." It contains lots of useful material, much of it not easily accessible elsewhere. See
http://edsblogcity.blogspot.com/

Lockerbie evidence withheld from defence

This is the title of an article posted today on the Cossacks Breaking News website. Internal evidence suggests that it derives from The Scotsman but I have not been able to find the piece on that newspaper's website. Part of the story reads:

"Fresh doubt has been cast over the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber after it emerged a document containing vital evidence about the bomb timer has never been shown to the defence.

The Scotsman has learned that the failure to disclose the classified document, which concerns the supply of timers identical to the one said to have been used to blow up Pan Am Flight 103, led a review body that examined the case against Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to conclude a miscarriage of justice may have occurred.

It was not previously known that doubts over the timer were grounds for an appeal.

The content of the document remains a mystery as sensitive details of the report seen by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) have been blacked out, or redacted. It is understood that security services also prevented the SCCRC from releasing the report, or disclosing any of its contents, to Megrahi or his lawyers, who are thought likely to seek a court order forcing the Crown Office to hand it over.

The document is among six points in the case which the SCCRC has concluded casts doubt over the reliability of Megrahi’s conviction. The SCCRC detailed some of these in a summary of its findings in June, but others, including the failure to disclose this document, remained secret."

For the full text, see
http://cossacks.org.uk/business/lockerbie-evidence-withheld-from-defence/

None of this seems terribly earth-shattering: those who attended, or followed proceedings at, the procedural hearing on 11 October had already reached the inevitable conclusion that the failure by the Crown to disclose the document relating to timers was one of the grounds upon which the SCCRC had referred the case back to the appeal court.

From Terrorism blog

Here are links to two posts, dated 07 September and 11 October 2007 respectively, that I have just discovered on the Terrorism blog. Both contain matter directly or indirectly relevant to Lockerbie.
http://spookterror.blogspot.com/2007/09/classic-false-flag-operation-disco-la.html
and
http://spookterror.blogspot.com/2007/10/lockerbie-truth-will-media-finally.html

As far as the information contained in the second item is concerned, it should be noted that Bill Taylor QC has not become a sheriff, but Alistair Duff has.

Another anniversary

On 24 November 2003, the High Court of Justiciary, sitting in Glasgow, determined that Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi, convicted on 31 January 2001 in the Scottish Court in The Netherlands for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, should serve 27 years in prison before becoming eligible for release on licence from his life sentence. The trial judges' original recommendation that he serve at least twenty years of the life sentence before being considered for release, required to be reconsidered following changes in Scots penal law following the incorporation into domestic law of the European Convention on Human Rights. The "punishment part" of 27 years now imposed (by the same three judges as had imposed the original sentence) was backdated to April 1999, when Megrahi was remanded in custody to await trial. Both the Crown and the defence have appealed the 27-year punishment part, but it is unlikely that these appeals will be heard unless and until Megrahi's new appeal is dismissed.

Some blogs we have been reading

This is the title of an entry made today on the Aangirfan blog. All of the blogs mentioned, and to which links are provided, relate to Lockerbie and to versions of the event other than the officially-approved one. See
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2007/11/some-blogs-we-have-been-reading.html

The town, nineteen years on

I am just back in Edinburgh after a brief trip to Stranraer to participate in a session, about the Lockerbie case amongst other things, in the Young Scotland Programme run by the Institute of Contemporary Scotland (http://www.contemporaryscotland.com/index.php). Most of the participants were only toddlers or very young primary school children in December 1988, but it was interesting to discover that most of them had clear memories of the incident.

After the YSP session, I took the opportunity to visit Lockerbie and to spend the night there -- the first time I had been back in my home town for a few years. The town seems to be thriving and the population expanding, with lots of new residential building in evidence. The disaster of 21 December 1988 has certainly not been forgotten, but it does not occupy the foreground of people's lives: the people of the town have resolutely got on with the business of living. This was entirely to be expected: one of my clearest recollections of the days and weeks following the tragedy was the descent upon the town of a team of "trauma counsellors" to provide support and assistance to such of the townsfolk as felt the need for it. The counsellors sat in glorious isolation. A close-knit Lowland Scottish country town like Lockerbie is not fertile ground for the counselling industry.

Libya Comes in From the Cold

This is the title of a lengthy and thoughtful article by Joseph Kirschke on the Worldpress website about relations between the United States and Libya. Considerable attention is paid to the continuing fallout from Lockerbie and Pan Am 103. The article is, however, marred by its blithely ignoring the SCCRC's reference back to the Appeal Court of Megrahi's conviction on the ground that it may have constituted a miscarriage of justice; and, consequently, by its complete failure to consider what the implications for US-Libyan relations would be if Megrahi's conviction were to be quashed and Libya's responsibility for the atrocity negated. See
http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/2991.cfm

Bollier visit

Edwin Bollier has postponed his visit to Edinburgh until 21 December 2007 (the nineteenth anniversary of the Lockerbie tragedy and the date, incidentally, by which Megrahi's legal team have to lodge his Grounds of Appeal with the High Court of Justiciary).

This week

I understand that Edwin Bollier (principal of MeBo, the Zürich company that manufactured MST-13 timers, one of which allegedly detonated the bomb that destroyed Pan Am 103) will be visiting Edinburgh for a few days later this week. In 1988 MeBo employed as an engineer Ulrich Lumpert, who has recently sworn an affidavit to the effect that evidence that he gave at the Lockerbie trial about MST-13 circuit boards was false. It may be, though this is speculation on my part, that Bollier will be talking to Crown Office officials about Lumpert's new revelations.

At the procedural hearing on 11 October, the Crown was given six weeks to lodge written answers to the defence's petition for disclosure by the Crown of a document emanating from a foreign government (not the USA) relating to timers, the non-disclosure of which to the defence was included by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission among the six grounds upon which Megrahi's conviction might have constituted a miscarriage of justice. That six week period expires on Thursday, 22 November. If the document has not already been handed over to the defence (which the Crown indicated would happen if the foreign country agreed to its release) the Crown's written answers will require to be lodged on or before that date. Thereafter, a further procedural hearing will need to be fixed for the Court to hear the submissions of the parties and decide whether to order the Crown to hand the document over.

The Clinton-Bush air disaster cover-up plan

This is a link to an interesting article on WorldNetDaily by Jack Cashill. In it he contends that both President Bush the Elder and President Clinton covered up the truth about the shooting down by the USS Vincennes of Iranian Airbus flight IR 655 on 3 July 1988, killing all 290 on board. He explores the political motivation for the cover up and its virtually complete success. When Pan Am 103 was destroyed six months later, many believed (and continue to believe) that this was Iran's revenge. Cashill opines "The White House took care of Lockerbie just as smoothly. Wary of engaging either Iran or Iraq despite continued provocations from both, the Clinton White House put the squeeze on the defenseless Libya."
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58693

An anniversary

Sixteen years ago today, in simultaneous announcements in Edinburgh and Washington DC, the Lord Advocate, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie QC (http://www.lordfraser.com/) and the Acting Attorney General of the United States, William Barr (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Barr_(American_Attorney_General) disclosed that criminal proceedings had been launched against two Libyans, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi and al-Amin Khalifa Fhima, for the murder of the 270 people killed in the destruction of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988.

Robbie the Pict and Hans Koechler

Here is (1) the text of an e-mail sent to Robbie the Pict by Dr Hans Koechler, the UN-appointed observer at the Lockerbie trial and (2) the text of an e-mail sent today by Robbie to, amongst others, the First Minister and the Minister of Justice. The issue is the preservation of the wreckage from Pan Am 103. Items posted on this blog on 02 and 29 October 2007 are relevant.

(1) From: I.P.O.

To: RtP

Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 3:14 PM

Vienna, 7 November 2007

P/RE/20727

Dear Robbie!

I have received your message concerning the remains of the aircraft.

I agree with you that all forensic evidence, including the aircraft remains, has to be stored in a safe place where it can be assured that it will not be tampered with.

From here in Austria I cannot judge which is the best place. I do not know whether the Scottish authorities are capable of safe storage of this kind of sensitive items. So far, the judicial authorities' performance in this case is not very reassuring.

With best regards,

Hans Koechler

(2) Greetings Gentlemen,

This is forwarded for your interest. Leaving aside the obvious requirements of any criminal re-investigation there are two other dimensions to this situation which I respectfully urge you to consider.

If John Parkes and myself are right about an accidental explosion of two diplomatic freight crates of TOW missiles and/or their component parts, the perpetrators will have to find an alternative bomber and if we let that happen we have the blood of innocent civilians in Iran or Syria on our hands. It has the potential to fuel other agendas towards these two countries. Secondly, from a domestic transport perspective, we may have a serious problem regarding daily health and safety. Familiarity breeds both contempt and criminal practice, and if this illegal carriage of munitions samples, or 'returns' or any traffic at all flowing from the UK arms industry continues unchecked we may have another Lockerbie any minute. God forbid it came down over Glasgow. (Good advert for the Games.)

You may ask what has it to do with you, Mr Pict? I would simply answer that in certain circumstances of national interest we may need all hands to the pump. I am an ex-pilot who imediately understood the AIB report, I am en ex-RAF Policeman who has knowledge of what used to be transported on international flights - I watched and them being loaded whilst standing as an armed guard, my 35 years experience negotiating the Crown Office and the Courts has gifted me circumspection, I am not afraid to speak the truth and, as one of the sovereign people of Scotland, I say 'not in our name'.

After a period of not correcting or dealing with a problem, you own it. This will soon be said about reparations concerning the criminal extortion of tolls on the A87, especially while 129 convictions remain upheld and £33m has been taken from road-users - half a £million from Skye Transport hauliers alone!

With best regards,

Robbie.

Lockerbie: "Tampered evidence"

The Ulrich Lumpert story is still bubbling quietly away in the background. Here is a link to an account by Olivier Schmidt that is more thoughtful than many:
http://oraclesyndicate.twoday.net/stories/4418427/

Son of Qaddhafi: Strange Bedfellow?

This is a link to an article by Tom Ordeman Jr about Saif al Islam Gaddafi, the Leader's son. It is an interesting (if, possibly, slightly roseate) piece about his current, and perhaps future, influence on Libya's internal policies and external relations. The reason I'm mentioning it here is that it's yet another another commentary from an American source that simply assumes Libya's responsibility for the destruction of Pan Am 103. No mention of the SCCRC's reference back on the ground that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred in the conviction of Megrahi. See
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/challenges.php?id=1385216

When are the Americans going to wake up and smell the coffee?

Here is another article (in French) from a Saif admirer:
http://www.temoust.org/spip.php?article3820

Paul Gauci

"Contacted at their home, Paul Gauci, brother to witness Tony Gauci, was quoted by The Scotsman saying: 'We are under very heavy pressure here. The press want to photograph us, everybody wants to interview my brother, we have no privacy. When we step out the door, there are people with cameras. Our lives are intolerable here.'

This is from Malta Today at
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/midweek/2007/10/31/n1.html
I have not been able to find the story on The Scotsman news website, but that is doubtless due to my own incompetence.

[A kind reader informs me that the reference is probably to the story in Scotland on Sunday http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=184&id=1641412007
which was mentioned on this blog on 14 October.]

A prison visit

Today I had a two-hour meeting in Her Majesty's Prison Greenock with Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, at his invitation (my first). Since the date of the trial court's verdict against him, my position has been a clear one: on the evidence led at the trial his conviction was simply an outrageous miscarriage of justice, about which the Scottish criminal justice system should feel nothing but shame. As a result of today's meeting I am satisfied that not only was there a wrongful conviction, but the victim of it was an innocent man. Lawyers, and I hope others, will appreciate this distinction.

I will not be disclosing the content of my discussions with Mr Megrahi, but I can say that he now speaks English with a fine Scottish accent (his first words to me were "Thank you for visiting me on such a dreich day") and that his taste in mints is impeccable.

["dreich" in relation to weather means dreary, cheerless, bleak. See http://www.dsl.ac.uk/]