Round-up from 9 to 15 January 2008

Now that I have had an opportunity to trawl the internet and the blogosphere, here are references to what I regard as the most interesting and/or significant contributions to Lockerbie knowledge over the past week.

1. Libyaonline and Mathaba on 12 January 2008 both run the same article saying that Libya's first action as President of the United Nations Security Council should be to institute a UN inquiry into the circumstances of the destruction of Pan Am 103, under the chairmanship of Professor Hans Koechler, with particular reference to the death of Bernt Carlsson, the UN Commissioner for Namibia, in the disaster. From internal evidence, I would guess that the author of the article, or a principal source, is Patrick Haseldine. My own view is that it would be embarrassing, and involve a conflict of interest, for Libya to institute, or press for the institution of, such a UN inquiry, given that it is a Libyan state servant who currently stands convicted (wrongly, in my view) of the bombing. See
http://www.libyaonline.com/news/details.php?id=1637
and
http://mathaba.net/rss/?x=577588

2. Dr Ludwig de Braeckeleer has an article on 11 January 2008 in OhMyNews International entitled "Confession of an Iranian Terror Czar" in which he contends that Iranian Brigadier General Ahmad Beladi Behbahani confessed to Iran's responsibility for the destruction of Pan Am 103. Further circumstantial evidence is rehearsed. See
http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&no=381443&rel_no=1&back_url

3. A commentary on, and expansion of some of the supporting evidence in, Dr De Braeckeleer's article is to be found on the Angirfan blog on 12 January. See
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2008/01/lockerbie-behbahani-and-arrest-of-al.html

4. The following letter from Kathleen Flynn, mother of one of those killed on Pan An 103, appears in The New York Times of 12 January:

'Re “Rehabilitating Libya” (editorial, Jan. 5), which says President Bush and leaders of other countries should keep pressing Tripoli for change:

'As the mother of J. P. Flynn, who was blown out of the skies over Lockerbie, Scotland, in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, I hope that this administration makes your editorial required reading for all State Department employees.

'Any rehabilitation of Libya must start at the top with Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the same supreme Libyan leader who ruled on Dec. 21, 1988, when a bomb brought down the Pan Am jet. I have a hard time justifying “business as usual” with a terrorist nation and find it even sadder that the call from the United States has not been for regime change.'

See http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/opinion/l12libya.html?ref=opinion

The editorial to which Mrs Flynn refers appears at
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/opinion/05sat3.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

5. The Bulgarian news agency Focus on 12 January published an article entitled "Wanted: Home For Lockerbie Jumbo" which considers various proposals for the final disposal of the wreckage of the aircraft. See
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n131303