Tuesday 25 November 2008

Monzer al-Kassar

[The following is reproduced, for what it is worth, from the Terrorism blog. The full text can be read here.]

On 20 November 2008, Monzer Al Kassar, following a three-week jury trial in Manhattan federal court, was found guilty of: conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, conspiracy to murder U.S. officers and employees, conspiracy to acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles, conspiracy to provide material support and resources to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and money laundering. (...)

Reportedly, since the early 1970s, Al Kassar was a source of weapons and military equipment for groups engaged in violent conflicts around the world. (...)

Kassar is said to have been a CIA asset, involved with Colonel Oliver North and General Richard Secord. (...)

Reportedly, Rifat Assad, 'the Syrian boss of the Lebanese heroin industry', and Monzer al-Kassar took over Lebanon's Bekaa Valley in 1975 with the help of the Syrian Army.

Allegedly, heroin was transported from the Bekaa Valley to the USA on PanAm flights with the help of Kassar and elements of the CIA. (...)

Kassar has been linked to the Lockerbie Bombing.

On board Pan Am 103, on 21 December 1988, were Major Charles McKee, of the the US Defence Intelligence Agency in Beirut, and Matthew Gannon, CIA Deputy Station Chief in Beirut.

McKie and his team had reportedly discovered evidence that a 'rogue' CIA unit called COREA, was involved in the drugs business with Monzar Al-Kassar. (...)

Reportedly Al-Kassar 'was part of the secret network run by US Lt. Colonel Oliver North.'

Outraged that COREA was doing business with a Syrian 'who made money from drugs, arms and terrorism', the McKee team reportedly 'decided to fly to CIA HQ in Virginia to expose COREA'.

They flew on Pan Am flight 103 which came down over Lockerbie. (...)

Kassar was arrested just days before the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing was granted a second extraordinary appeal and 'just days after Blair went to Tripoli to negotiate a deal that would save him the embarrassment of a fresh appeal.'

9 comments:

  1. Who are McKee's "Team"?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The link on the Terrorism blog says this:

    "Charles M. McKee, ostensibly a military attaché for the DIA in Beirut,Matthew Gannon, CIA Deputy Station Chief in Beirut, and three others were on board Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. They were part of a counterterrorist team in Beirut investigating the possible rescue of 9 American hostages in Lebanon. The McKee team uncovered evidence that a rogue CIA unit called COREA, based in Wiesbaden, was doing business with a man called Monzer Al-Kassar, a Syrian arms dealer and drug trafficker.

    "Al-Kassar was part of the covert network run by U.S. Lieut. Colonel Oliver North. Outraged that the COREA unit in Wiesbaden was doing business with a Syrian who had close terrorist connections and might endanger their chances of rescuing the hostages, the McKee team decided to fly back to Virginia unannounced and expose the COREA unit's secret deal with al-Kassar. They never got there. For three years, I've had a feeling that if Chuck hadn't
    been on that plane, it wouldn't have been bombed,' said Beulah McKee, 75, Charles McKee's mother, to Time Magazine. Four months after her son was killed for his efforts to expose the CIA, Mrs. McKee received a sympathy letter from George H. W. Bush. Mrs. McKee has never been satisfied with the
    government's version of events."

    ReplyDelete
  3. --Kassar is said to have been a CIA asset, involved with Colonel Oliver North--

    CIA Cannistraro claims that he did not know Kassar involvment in the Iran-Contras affair, despite having an office next to North.

    However, it has been established that Kassar had been paid by North.

    It has been said that Kassar was a MI6 asset in the 70s, 80s

    ReplyDelete
  4. The problem with all this McKee/Gannon/COREA/CIA/Kassar/North/Cannistraro stuff is: who did what, with which, to whom, when and how?

    Surely, it's much simpler to accuse apartheid South Africa for the Lockerbie bombing!

    That's what I've done continously since January 1989!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Baz (see above) subsequently asked me to justify the accusation against apartheid South Africa for the Lockerbie bombing. Here is that rather lengthy justification:

    Dear Baz,

    I apologise for the following extremely long reply to the points you have raised. It covers most if not all of the points but doesn't mention Democratic Party presidential nominee, Michael Dukakis. Had Dukakis been elected US President in November 1988 and put apartheid South Africa on the US list of "terrorist states" this would have triggered automatic mandatory economic sanctions, and would almost certainly have caused the precipitate downfall of the apartheid regime that had always been strongly supported by the Reagan and Thatcher administrations (see http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFDC133BF930A25755C0A96E948260).

    REPLY STARTS HERE:
    In 1976, Bernt Carlsson became Secretary-General of Socialist International (SI), based in London, at the same time as former Federal German Chancellor, Willy Brandt, assumed the SI presidency. For the next seven years, Carlsson was engaged in extending the SI's influence beyond Europe to Third World countries, channelling money and political support to the struggle for liberation in Southern Africa. When there was a break-in at his London apartment, Carlsson confided to his Canadian SI colleague Robin V Sears:
    "They messed things up and pawed through my papers. Then just to make sure I knew it wasn't a simple burglary they piled my money in the centre of the living-room rug." South African goons were active in London at the time, and some had a bizarre sense of humour. "But don't talk about it, and I'm not going to report it. That would just give the bastards their little victory."
    Carlsson also pioneered moves towards Middle East peace using the SI's unique position of having Israel's governing Labour Party as a member, and at the same time retaining very good ties with Arab countries and Yasser Arafat's faction in the PLO. Carlsson developed a particularly close relationship with Arafat's right-hand man, Issam Sartawi, who was murdered (allegedly by the Abu Nidal Organization) during an SI conference in Portugal on April 10, 1983. Earlier in 1983, however, in a dispute about what he perceived as the SI president's authoritarian approach, Carlsson rebuked Brandt saying: "this is a Socialist International — not a German International". Following the April 1983 SI congress in Albufeira, Portugal, which Brandt had contentiously decided to relocate the SI's conference from Sydney (due to the protests of newly-elected pro-Israeli Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke against the PLO's inclusion), Brandt retaliated by forcing Carlsson to step down.

    Swedish diplomat Carlsson left London and returned to Sweden in 1983 and, for two years, became Palme's special emissary to the Middle East and Africa. Palme entrusted him with an important Middle East role in delicate attempts to negotiate a peace agreement between Iran and Iraq. From 1985 to 1987 Carlsson was head of Nordic Affairs in Sweden's foreign ministry. In 1986 Palme was assassinated. [In 1996, South African convicted killer, Eugene de Kock, identified SA superspy Craig Williamson as Palme's assassin.]

    UN COMMISSIONER FOR NAMIBIA
    On July 1, 1987 Carlsson was appointed an Assistant-Secretary-General of the United Nations and the UN Commissioner for Namibia. A year later, he convened a meeting in Stockholm between the SWAPO leadership (Sam Nujoma, Hage Geingob and Hidipo Hamutenya), and a delegation of "whites" from Namibia to discuss developments in the independence process.

    Namibia's independence had been expected to take place soon after United Nations Security Council Resolution 435 was agreed in September 1978. However, it took over 10 years for UNSCR 435 to be implemented. The delay was blamed by author and journalist, Christopher Hitchens, on Chester Crocker's 'procrastination' and on President Ronald Reagan's 'attempt to change the subject to the presence of Cuban forces in Angola' as well as the 'flagrant bias' in America's Namibia policy in favour of apartheid South Africa. Hitchens praised Carlsson's role as a 'neutral mediator' in the process leading to Namibia's independence:
    "An important participant was Bernt Carlsson, UN Commissioner for Namibia, who worked tirelessly for free elections in the colony and tried to isolate the racists diplomatically. Carlsson had been Secretary-General of the Socialist International, and International Secretary of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. He performed innumerable services for movements and individuals from Eastern Europe to Latin America. His death in the mass murder of the passengers on Pan American Flight 103 just before Christmas 1988, and just before the signing of the Namibia accords in New York, is appalling beyond words."

    An editorial in The Guardian of December 23, 1988 stated:
    "Two days before Christmas, two tides flow strongly. One - the greater tide - is the tide of peace. More nagging, bloody conflicts have been settled in 1988 than in any year since the end of the Second World War. There are forces for good abroad in the world as seldom before. There is also a tide of evil, a force of destruction. By just one of those ironies which afflict the human condition, peace came to Namibia yesterday. Meanwhile, on a Scottish hillside, the body of the Swedish UN Commissioner for Namibia was one amongst hundreds strewn across square miles of debris: a victim - supposition, but strongly based - of a random terrorist bomb which had blown a 747 to bits at 31,000 feet."

    Ten years were to elapse until the Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev summit of the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union in Moscow (May 29, 1988 – June 1, 1988), finally secured the implementation of UNSCR 435, which would require South Africa to relinquish its control of Namibia.
    (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernt_Carlsson)

    UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, was the highest profile victim of the 21 December 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

    On 12 March 1990, Swedish newspaper "iDAG" carried the first of three articles written on successive days by journalist Jan-Olof Bengtsson (who has authorized reproduction of his original work) which was headlined: "Pressad och nervös före dödskraschen".

    The English translation of the three articles is as follows:
    "Stressed and nervous before air crash"
    "Bernt Carlsson, UN Commissioner for Namibia, had less than seven hours to live when at 11.06am on December 21, 1988 he arrived in London on flight BA391.
    Strictly speaking he was meant to fly directly from Brussels to New York in time for the historic signing of the Namibia Independence Agreement the day after.
    But Bernt Carlsson could not make it. He had a meeting. An important meeting with a "pressuriser" from the South African diamond cartel, which was so secret that evidently not even Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, UN Secretary-General, knew anything about it.
    Here iDAG maps out the last 24 hours in the life of Bernt Carlsson.

    BERNT CARLSSON IN A SECRET MEETING WITH "PRESSURISER" FROM THE DIAMOND CARTEL
    The memorial service in the Folkets Hus in Stockholm on January 11, 1989 for Bernt Carlsson gathered most of our Heads of Government, representatives of the Namibia independence movement SWAPO and Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, the UN Secretary General. [Transiting London on his way back from Bernt Carlsson's funeral in Stockholm on 11 January 1989, SA Foreign Minister Pik Botha was interviewed on BBC Radio 4. In the interview, Botha confided that if he (Botha) had been the intended target of the Lockerbie bombing, the ANC would most likely have been the perpetrators.] When he died in the Pan Am bombing, Bernt Carlsson was less than 24 hours away from the fulfilment of his dreams - the signing of the Namibia agreement in New York which would finally pave the way to a free and independent Namibia. This was supposed to be the climax of his career with the UN, a career that began in December 1986 when he was appointed Commissioner for Namibia.

    Bernt Carlsson had great support from SWAPO but much less so from South Africa because of that country's substantial economic interests in Namibia: an interest in gold, uranium but above all in diamonds. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar in his speech at the memorial ceremony on a cold day in January last year described the last 24 hours in the life of Bernt Carlsson:
    "Bernt Carlsson was returning to New York following an official visit to Brussels where he had spoken to a Committee within the European Parliament about the Namibia agreement," Pérez de Cuéllar began. "He stopped briefly in London to honour a long-standing invitation by a non-governmental organization with interests in Namibia."
    Pérez de Cuéllar was wrong. True, Bernt Carlsson's trip to Brussels had been planned almost six months earlier. But his decision to return to New York via London was only made on December 16, 1988. The meeting in London was definitely not a long-standing invitation by Namibia sympathisers.

    A DIAMOND GIANT
    This was about a secret meeting with a "pressuriser" from De Beers, the giant diamond company. This company in turn owns Consolidated Diamond Mines (CDM), the world's largest producer of diamonds which have been produced for more than 60 years in Namibia. It goes without saying that Bernt Carlsson in his capacity of Commissioner for Namibia had contacts with representatives of a great number of countries and political organizations as part of his job.

    FORCED TO TRAVEL
    But why a secret meeting with the diamond cartel in London? A meeting which to all intents and purposes he did not want to have but was forced to. On around December 8 or 9, Carlsson receives a telephone call from the "pressuriser" at his United Nations office in New York. The telephone call is from London. We do not know what the telephone call was about. However, Bernt Carlsson is unsure. He does not know whether to act or not. As if going might put him in a compromising position. On the morning of December 16, the day on which the travel arrangements are changed, Bernt Carlsson meets up with an old friend who has come to see him. He is Weine Karlsson, head of department at Stockholm University:
    "In the early morning we sat talking in Bernt's office," he explains. "But after only a few minutes he became uneasy and asked me to go and wait in another room of the office. He had something urgent to deal with. It is possible that it had something to do with the trip. He said that 'important business needs to be done'. He was away for about half an hour."

    POLISHED GANGSTERS
    Weine Karlsson continues his story:
    "We all know that Bernt was very unobtrusive. Shy almost. Only, now and again he exploded. As when suddenly he said to me, 'You've got no idea what polished gangsters (South Africans) we are dealing with here'."
    On December 19, Bernt leaves New York for Brussels to make his speech in the European Parliament the next day. The visit was arranged by David Lowe, now with the Socialist International. Right up to this interview, he has felt 'guilt-ridden' and convinced that it was he who 'enticed' Carlsson to go to Europe and therefore is 'indirectly responsible for his death on the plane'. But when Lowe learns about the secret meeting in London, he is calm again.
    "He made his speech on December 20, before the Development Committee in Brussels," Lowe says. "After the meeting we went to a restaurant for lunch and discussions with some other friends. Our discussions continued until about 3pm." David Lowe continues: "It was at this point that Bernt suddenly said that he had to check out as he had to meet 'some friends' in London. I thought to myself, Good Lord, he has all this going on in New York. He will be even more tired than he is already. I remember thinking he was mad and why not go directly to New York for the signing of the agreement? I gathered he would catch a flight from Brussels to London at about 5pm that evening."
    However, Bernt Carlsson had 'lied' to his friend David Lowe. He stayed in Brussels that afternoon and only arrived in London the day after - on December 21.

    MYSTERIOUS PRESSURISER
    When we telephoned his old colleagues at the Namibia office, not one of them wished to talk about the meeting with the mysterious 'pressuriser' from the diamond cartel:
    "All I know is that Bernt Carlsson was travelling to London to meet representatives of an NGO (in this case organizations friendly towards Namibia)," says Malthi Ranin who was his secretary at the time.
    iDAG has a copy of a private memorandum which says something completely different. This is a memorandum to Bernt Carlsson from his own office: "Mr Timothy says he will be waiting for you as soon as you get through the tunnel. Your meeting will finish in time for your next arrangement at 2pm. He will also provide a car to take you round."
    'Mr Timothy'? His full name is Bankole Timothy. Not much known about him. Just another name working for the diamond cartel. But one who does know something about him is Randolph Vigne, secretary of the Namibia support committee:
    "Bankole Timothy worked for the PR department at De Beers for 15 to 20 years. I understand they pensioned him off but called him back when the independence of Namibia suddenly started accelerating. They probably felt they needed someone like him with contacts." Vigne continues:
    "I don't think he works for them any more. I believe he had a temporary assignment which is now completed."
    Was Bernt Carlsson that temporary assignment?

    AGGRESSIVE DISCUSSIONS
    iDAG managed to track down Bankole Timothy. But the telephone conversation was brief. And aggressive:
    "Could you tell me what you and Bernt Carlsson talked about when you met in London on December 21, 1988?"
    He replied: "I am sorry. I am very, very sorry but I have nothing to say about it."
    You do not want.....(we are interrupted).
    "Do not disturb me any more. I am going out. I don't know how you got my number. I'm going out and you start asking questions about....."

    INTERRUPTED
    You met Bernt Carlsson on the morning of December 21 and.....(we are interrupted)
    "Don't disturb me anymore. What are you on about? (screams) I don't know who you are. And you want to interview me on the phone. I have no comments to make!"
    At about 5.30pm on December 21, 1988 the telephone rings in the home of Pentti Väänäänen, then Secretary General of the Socialist International, and an old friend of Bernt:
    "It was Bernt calling from the airport just before he boarded Pan Am 103," he says. "We exchanged Christmas greetings and talked a little about the Namibia agreement."
    Did he tell you who he had seen in London?
    "No".
    How would you describe his frame of mind?
    "If you want me to tell you in just a few words, he sounded nervous," he replied.

    THE CLIMAX OF HIS LIFE
    Nervous? Why? Bernt Carlsson was close to the climax of his life with the Namibia agreement the next day. He should have been happy and optimistic. But why nervous?

    PICTURE CAPTIONS
    (Page one of article):
    Not even Javier Perez de Cuellar, UN Secretary General, knew about Bernt Carlsson's new travel arrangements. Today, not one of Carlsson's old colleagues wants to say anything about the mysterious meeting with the diamond cartel in London.
    (page two of the article-large picture):
    Bernt Carlsson should have travelled directly from Brussels to New York for the historic signing of the Namibia agreement. Instead, he altered his travel arrangements and became one of the passengers who died on the Pan Am flight.
    (Picture left-hand side):
    His friend, Pentti Väänäänen, thought that Bernt Carlsson seemed nervous before his trip to New York, despite approaching the climax of his life.
    (Right-hand picture):
    Bernt Carlsson had a secret meeting in London with the world's largest producer of diamonds. It would seem that he was coerced into it.

    TOMORROW:
    When, in the days following the crash, Carlsson's belongings are checked in his sealed UN office in New York, people find to their amazement that his safe is empty.
    In the days before his death he warns a friend in New York not to open a parcel by sender unknown.
    The day after Bernt Carlsson's death, CDM, the diamond producer, publishes the discovery of a new diamond mine in Namibia.

    BEWARE CHRISTMAS PARCEL BOMBS!
    [The second iDAG article about Bernt Carlsson was published on March 13, 1990]

    Kassaskåpet var tomt (THE SAFE WAS EMPTY)

    WHO BROKE THE SEAL TO BERNT CARLSSON'S APARTMENT?
    When Bernt Carlsson's safe was opened six days after the Pan Am explosion, those present had a minor shock: the safe was empty! Despite the fact that the office had been sealed already on December 21, 1988, and his private apartment the day after, by the UN's own security staff. The opening was witnessed by, among others, Bernt Carlsson's girl friend Sanya Popovic, his sister Inger Carlsson-Musser and Embassy Counsellor Stefan Noréen of the Swedish Delegation at the UN. In the days immediately before Bernt Carlsson made the trip to his secret meeting in London, which we wrote about yesterday, he was very uneasy. According to Sanya Popovic:
    "December was like clouded in a nightmare. He became increasingly nervous. He said that if I received a parcel I was not to open it under any circumstances. This was on December 17. He said that people usually start getting parcels at this time, it being Christmas. But unless I knew who sent it, I was not to open it."
    On December 22 - the day after the Pan Am bombing - Bernt Carlsson's apartment was sealed off.
    "The lock was changed," says Sanya Popovic. "I was given one key, and the UN security department had another. I was told that sealing off everything could take a long time pending the analysis. I therefore ensured that all windows were properly locked, all lights switched off, etc. A few days later, however, a friend and I passed by the apartment in a taxi. The apartment is easy to recognize from the outside: front view, third floor and five windows. My friend pointed out that the lights were on. So I got out and walked back. I found that some lights were switched on but there was no-one there." Sanya Popovic continues: "If there was anything of interest in the apartment, someone else got to it first."
    On the evening of the disaster, the Swedish foreign minister, Sten Andersson, telephoned Bernt Carlsson's sister Inger Carlsson-Musser, who had lived in the US for almost 20 years, to give his commiserations. On December 28, 1988 Inger Carlsson-Musser travelled to New York to go through Bernt Carlsson's belongings in his UN office. This was the office which had been sealed off since the day of the accident. She asked Sanya Popovic and the Embassy Counsellor Stefan Noréen to help.
    We understand that his safe was empty. What can you say about that?
    "Yes, it was empty," says Sanya Popovic. "And this was very unlike Bernt who was very security-conscious and kept all his documents under lock and key. But above all the office was sealed off. No-one should have been able to get in."

    REFUSAL TO COMMENT
    Embassy Counsellor Stefan Noréen:
    "I was assisting Inger Carlsson-Musser in taking charge of her brother's personal belongings in the office. Nothing else happened there."
    Can you confirm that the safe was empty when it was opened?
    "I refuse to comment," Noréen replied.
    Is it true or not?
    "I refuse to comment. I was there. But I do not want to talk about what exactly happened. If anyone should comment surely they should be Bernt Carlsson's family."
    iDAG tried to contact Inger Carlsson-Musser, but without success. We would have asked her about the empty safe. Also, to explain information from foreign investigative journalists who claimed that foreign minister, Sten Andersson, had asked her to keep an eye out for a specific document which was supposed to be held in the safe.

    THE WANTED DOCUMENT
    We have not obtained any comments from Sten Andersson either. We did, however, speak to his private secretary, Pierre Schori, who used to be a close friend of Bernt Carlsson.
    During a secret meeting in London, Bernt Carlsson met a person called Bankole Timothy. Do you know him?
    "No, I know of no-one of that name."
    He represents the diamond cartel.
    "The diamond cartel," queries Pierre Schori, almost laughing. "I know nothing about that."
    We know that Sten Andersson telephoned Bernt's sister Inger Carlsson-Musser in the USA.
    "Naturally."
    We are informed by foreign journalists that Sten Andersson was looking for some documents which Bernt's sister Inger was supposed to be able to help in finding, and which were kept in Bernt's safe.
    "This is nonsense, as far as I'm concerned. What's this all about?"
    We understand that the safe was empty when it was opened.
    "I know nothing about that. I don't understand a word. All I can say is that it is nonsense to claim that Sten Andersson should have done this or that."
    Sten Andersson is difficult to get hold of. Perhaps we should ask him?
    "I know this is all nonsense. I think you're on the wrong track," Schori replied.

    NEW DIAMOND MINE
    On December 22, the day after the Pan Am bombing, it was announced by CDM, wholly-owned by De Beers, that $36m is being invested in new diamond production in Namibia. This will be done in Auchas, 45km from Oranjemund. It is estimated that the annual yield of diamonds over a ten-year period will amount to roughly the equivalent of 50 million Swedish Krona (SEK).
    The announcement is mentioned in a 'country report' about Namibia which was issued last year [1989] and published by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The report says, inter alia: "The company made their announcement on December 22, 1988, which was also the date that the Namibia agreement was signed. This is brushed aside as pure coincidence by De Beers representatives in London."

    CRITICISM BY CARLSSON
    Bernt Carlsson, as the intended UN Commissioner for Namibia, rarely spoke about the enormous diamond assets in the country and the multi-national companies exploiting the finds. There is, however, one exception. He was interviewed for a British TV documentary entitled 'The Disappearing Diamonds' by Granada which was broadcast early in December 1988. In the program, Bernt Carlsson speaks about the ruthless exploitation taking place in the diamond business:
    "The business has tried to pick the raisin from the cake. This means that they have been after the large diamonds instead of calm but constant development. The way they are doing it will endanger the survival of the mines."

    HUNGRY FOR PROFIT
    Carlsson continues:
    "One would expect from a worldwide organization like De Beers to behave in a socially and financially responsible manner. However, as far as Namibia is concerned, they have only been interested in the maximum profit without regard to social, economic-political or even legal considerations."
    On March 16, 1989 De Beers announced yet another diamond find in Namibia. This time it is a mine in Elizabeth Bay from which over the next ten years SEK300m-worth of diamonds are expected to be dug up. This particular find appears to delight the mysterious Bankole Timothy and, unusually, he himself issues the press release to the surprised public.

    PICTURE CAPTIONS
    (Page 1 of article - picture 1)
    Sanya Popovic was present when the safe was opened and discovered to be empty. Bernt was very security-conscious and kept all his documents under lock and key.
    (Picture 2)
    Bernt Carlsson felt very uneasy. He warned his girlfriend about opening parcels from senders unknown.

    TOMORROW
    "I cannot say that I can explain why Bernt changed his travel arrangements. Bernt took the only explanation with him", says a very close friend for many years.
    This friend always walked close to Bernt Carlsson, and yet was out of the public eye.

    CHANGE OF TRAVEL PLANS
    [This is the third and final part of Sweden's iDAG newspaper reportage by Jan-Olof Bengtsson on March 14, 1990.]

    Han tog Svaren på Frågorna med Sig
    (HE TOOK THE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS WITH HIM)
    I cannot say that I can explain why Bernt changed his travel arrangements. Bernt took the only explanation with him.
    Her name is Meta Johansson, and she is a close friend of Bernt Carlsson for many years. A close friend who was always there but out of the limelight and away from all the scrutiny. iDAG spoke to her.
    Bernt Carlsson in his many years as an international worker for solidarity experienced a great deal of misery, a lot of drama and many weird and wonderful cases. But he carried on regardless and worked for what he believed in. In a discreet, almost shy, manner. Always determinedly and in a very competent way.

    WITNESS TO MURDER
    On April 10, 1983, Bernt Carlsson who was Secretary-General of the Socialist International (SI) at the time, was an eye witness to the fatal shooting of the moderate Palestinian Issam Sartawi in the lobby of Hotel Montochero in Albufeira, Portugal. The terrorist, Abu Nidal, claimed responsibility for the killing. Because of his job as SI Secretary-General, his apartment in London at the time was subject to a number of break-ins while he was overseas.
    These are some examples of the security measures taken by Bernt:
    When they opened Bernt's safe in his New York office, it was found to be empty.
    "Yes, so I heard," replies Meta Johansson.
    Isn't that strange?
    "Yes, clearly this is very strange. But I do not know the rules of the game in cases such as this."

    NO THEORY
    She continues:
    "I have helped his family go through all the papers and documents which we found in his apartment in the US. Neither the family nor I have found any papers linked to the accident."
    Do you have any theory as to why the safe was empty?
    "I have no theory. Nor do I know who had access to the safe. Bernt's sister Inger does not know either."
    Do you know anything about what Sten Andersson spoke to the sister, Inger Carlsson-Musser, about?
    "No, as I was not there, I cannot know what he asked her to do. And I was not present when the safe was opened. So I'm sure you will understand that I cannot comment on this."

    SPECULATIONS
    Meta Johansson continues:
    "If I may say so without being misunderstood, I have had so many speculations in my head that I doubt if there can be any more. Some more constructive than others."
    Bernt was very security-conscious, isn't that right?
    "Yes, very much so. But being security-conscious also meant that he carried important documents with him in his hand luggage. There were documents that he would want to take personal care of."
    But the safe was completely empty. Also of 'unimportant documents'?
    "That is true."

    SECRET MEETING
    What do you know about Bankole Timothy, the person Bernt Carlsson met in secret in London?
    "I am very sorry, but I cannot help you with any information about that meeting."
    Why is the subject so sensitive?
    "I don't think it's sensitive. I just feel the people involved with the matter should speak."
    We understand that Bernt was not particularly interested in meeting this person. That he was afraid he might be discredited as a neutral UN official?
    "Obviously, with the kind of work Bernt was engaged in he would meet many people. And of course some people are more interesting to meet than others. But you are forced to. With Bernt, whatever he considered important to his work, he would go and do. Even if not every time he would jump with joy and shout hooray and think this was the best thing in the world. He was extremely dutiful."
    Do you know anything about the position of Bankole Timothy?
    "I know who he is and what he is doing."
    How would you describe it?
    "No, I do not want to."
    How would you explain why Bernt changed his travel arrangements at the 11th hour? His intermediate landing in London and this meeting before he returned to New York?
    "I cannot say that I can explain the change in travel arrangements. Bernt took the only explanation with him. You can speak to a lot of people. But only a few are likely to know why Bernt changed his mind."

    MANY QUESTIONS
    iDAG does not wish to claim with these articles that Bernt Carlsson was the target of the bomb which blasted Pan Am 103 from the air and in which he was one of the 259 victims. We have no basis to make such a claim.
    We have only wanted to point out what seems to be a number of curious circumstances and that maybe no-one will ever have the full answers to the questions.
    What forced Bernt Carlsson to fly to the secret meeting in London and which was against his will?
    Why does Bankole Timothy refuse to say what the meeting was about, but gets aggressive when he is asked?
    Why was Bernt Carlsson's safe in New York empty when it was opened on December 28, 1988?
    The questions are many, but the answers are few.

    PICTURE CAPTIONS
    (Top)
    iDAG has in a series of articles revealed a number of fascinating facts linked to Bernt Carlsson and the Lockerbie disaster.
    (In main text)
    The Swedish diplomat and UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, was killed on December 21, 1988 when a Pan Am flight on its way to New York crashed at Lockerbie in Scotland.
    (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Alternative_theories_of_the_bombing_of_Pan_Am_Flight_103/Archive_2&oldid=164269416)

    A Reuters news report of November 12, 1994 finally confirmed – after an interval of nearly six years – the early rumours that South Africa was closely linked to PA 103. A South African delegation of 23 negotiators, headed by foreign minister Pik Botha, arrived at Heathrow on December 21, 1988 en route to UN headquarters to sign an agreement relinquishing control of South-West Africa (Namibia) to the United Nations, as demanded by Security Council Resolution 435. The whole delegation – including the defence minister, General Magnus Malan, and the head of military intelligence, General C. J. Van Tonder – were booked for onward travel by flight PA 103. But, according to the Reuters report, their inward South African Airways (SAA) flight from Johannesburg had cut out a stopover in Frankfurt, which was SAA's European hub, and arrived early at Heathrow. The SA embassy in London managed to re-book Botha and six of his party on the 11:00 Pan Am 101 Flight to New York (according to the 1994 documentary film The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie). The remaining 16 negotiators cancelled their booking on PA 103 and returned by SAA to Johannesburg. The full text of the Reuters report can be read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_talk:REUTERS12NOV94.jpg.

    UN COMMISSIONER FOR NAMIBIA
    On December 19, 1988 UN Commissioner for Namibia Bernt Carlsson left New York for an official visit to Brussels. After a speaking engagement in the European Parliament, Carlsson was expected to return from Brussels to New York on December 20, 1988. He would have been there in good time for the signing of the Namibia independence agreement at UN headquarters on December 22, but, according to the Swedish newspaper iDAG of March 12, 1990, Carlsson had been pressured to stop off at short notice in London to meet with officials of the De Beers diamond mining conglomerate.

    SOUTH AFRICA LUGGAGE SWAP THEORY
    On December 21, 1988 Bernt Carlsson arrived at Heathrow from Brussels on flight BA 391 at 11:06 with a booking to travel onward to New York by flight PA 103 at 18:00. The UN Commissioner for Namibia was met at the airport by Bankole Timothy of De Beers and taken by car to London. After the meeting with De Beers, Carlsson was brought back to Heathrow Airport, arriving at about 17:30. Carlsson's already checked-in suitcase would have remained at Heathrow airport for about seven hours, thus providing South African airside-authorized personnel with ample opportunity to substitute it for the bomb suitcase. [An English translation of iDAG's Swedish text is printed above.]

    That SAA were involved in unlawfully switching baggage on December 21, 1988 was confirmed by a Pan Am security officer, Michael Jones, at the Lockerbie fatal accident inquiry (FAI) in October 1990. Jones told the FAI a breach of aviation rules had been committed because the suitcase of South African passenger, Miss Nicola Hall, had been put on the earlier Pan Am 101 flight (with Pik Botha's delegation) whereas Miss Hall was booked – and died – on PA 103.

    MAKING A LINK BETWEEN THEORIES
    The theory of radio detonation can be linked to this theory because the South African government of the time had been accused by Soviet accident investigators of employing a decoy navigational radio beacon to cause the 1986 Tupolev Tu-134 air crash, in which Samora Machel (then president of neighbouring Mozambique) was killed.
    It has been suggested that, on instructions from the State Security Council, SA military intelligence operatives would have installed the bomb on PA 103 once it was confirmed that their target, Bernt Carlsson, was to join the flight at Heathrow. As per the theory of radio detonation, the bomb would have been set to detonate when PA 103 was prompted by the Dean Cross navigational beacon to re-tune to 123.95 MHz, Shanwick Oceanic Control's unique radio frequency.

    PA 103 AFTERMATH
    Within a week of the death of Bernt Carlsson on flight PA 103, his office safe at the United Nations had allegedly been broken into. And his apartment, which had been sealed by the UN's security staff, had also apparently been burgled. It later transpired that neither Carlsson's girl-friend, Sanya Popovic, nor his sister, Inger Carlsson-Musser, was able to identify 'one single shred of anything in his checked luggage at the property store in Lockerbie'.
    "His bag was sitting at Heathrow, in the baggage area, from early that day. There is quite an important question about it, as neither I nor his sister was able to identify the bag. Just didn't seem like his (it was apparently immediately underneath the one containing the bomb, and quite considerably shattered). Not to mention the size was totally off (much too small)," says Sanya Popovic.
    "I was quite surprised to find that despite our reactions to that bag, the Crown chose to say there was a definitive identification. Which there certainly wasn't," added Sanya Popovic.

    NAMIBIA'S FIRST UNIVERSAL FRANCHISE ELECTION
    Because the UN Commissioner for Namibia died the day before signature of the New York Accords, and the likely time it would take the UN to appoint a replacement for Carlsson, the South African government proposed its Administrator-General, Louis Pienaar, should continue to administer South-West Africa (Namibia) in the run-up to that territory's first universal franchise election to be held in November 1989. Implementation of Security Council Resolution 435 by the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG), providing for a cease-fire, a phased withdrawal of Cuban and South African troops from Angola and South-West Africa (Namibia), the dissolution of Koevoet and the deployment of both SWAPO guerrillas and South African forces to designated assembly points, was scheduled to commence on April 1, 1989. Straightaway, there was a breach of the cease-fire when South Africa alleged that a large number of SWAPO fighters were crossing the border into Namibia and wanted to use force to repel them. Martti Ahtisaari, the new UN Special Representative and head of UNTAG conceded to pressure from British prime minister Margaret Thatcher – who was visiting the region at the time – and South African foreign minister Pik Botha, and permitted the redeployment of Koevoet and other military units into northern Namibia. More than 300 Namibians were reported to have been killed as a result, some said to have been summarily executed with single bullet holes to the back of the head. Later in 1989, both Ahtisaari and UNTAG facilities were targeted by the South African Civil Cooperation Bureau (CCB) whose eight separate regional groups were tasked to concentrate on disrupting SWAPO's electoral campaign. However, Ahtisaari managed to escape injury and SWAPO was swept to power with 57% of the vote – but well short of the 66.6% that would have allowed the new SWAPO government to change the constitution imposed on Namibia by South Africa.

    IED CAPABILITY
    There is little doubt that apartheid South Africa – at the time a regional superpower armed with nuclear weapons and with technologically-advanced aerospace companies such as Kentron and highly-qualified individuals such as the Coventry Four – would have had the expertise to design an improvised explosive device (IED) capable of bringing down an aircraft. In fact, the Electronic Magnetic Logistical Component (EMLC), a division of the SADF, actually developed such specialist weapons in the form of letter, car and briefcase bombs, as well as gadgets like umbrellas and radios. Moreover, the Directorate of Military Intelligence – with close links to Western intelligence agencies – would have been fully aware of the arrest of the PFLP-GC Frankfurt cell; the "Helsinki warning"; and, the motives of both Libya and Iran for revenge against the United States.
    (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alternative_theories_of_the_bombing_of_Pan_Am_Flight_103&oldid=167512609#South-West_Africa_.28Namibia.29) Yours sincerely, Patrick Haseldine

    ReplyDelete
  6. As the Gulf War began the United States faced two major challenges to its build up of forces in the Persian Gulf. On the eastern flank of the theater of operations was Pakistan, an ally but also the second largest Moslem nation in the world. To the west was Syria, an enemy of the US but harboring a stronger dislike for Sadaam Hussein. Active opposition to the build-up by either party would present huge problems for the security of US forces sandwiched between them in the Gulf States.

    In earlier times it would have been easier but with the explosion of information and the pervasity of news broadcasting reports 24 hours a day, the US was faced with a problem that had to be resolved. Two separate US Department of Justice criminal investigations threatened to force Syria and Pakistan into the enemey camp if their existances were revealed. Thus it was that in the summer of 1992, that the two investigations were influenced to change directions.

    The multi-agency investigation of BCCI, a Pakistan-based international money laundering facility masquerading as a bank, was the first to go. It was handled by essentially giving it up. Several indictments were issued but little real effort was made to follow it through. This was done to avoid prosecution of the bank's director. Such prosecution would have revealed that he was a CIA asset who had been the source of the funding for the coup which toppled Ali Bhutto from power and lead to his subsequent execution by Zia al Haq. Because Bhutto's daughter, Benezir was the prime minister of Pakistan in 1992 the fact that the US had essentially paid for her father's death would have sounded a death knell for any Pakistani support, benign or other wise, for the Gulf War. So the investigation of BCCI was allowed to wither and fall like much other detritus of the Cold War, a victim of American realpolitik.

    The second investigation that threatened US security in the Gulf was the investigation of the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 22, 1988. The bombing and subsequent investigation have been the subjects of many articles and books which minutely examine what transpired on that terrible night. Ultimately, two Libyan intelligence officers were indicted for the crime and after many years of Western sanctions against Libya, in the spring of 1999, the two suspected bombers were delivered to international control for trial by a Scottish court held in the Netherlands. The tragedy of it all is that the two Libyans, Meghrahi and Al Firmat are pawns in a mighty game, pawns because they are not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes for which they are accused.

    The case against the Libyans is terribly flawed. It is based on circumstantial evidence developed by a dubious source, the US FBI, in an attempt to support the strategic aims of the Gulf War. This article will examine the case against Megrahi and Al Firmet and try to demonstrate how it is flawed.

    The US government theory is that, as revenge for an attack against Libya in 1986, the two Libyans placed a bomb in a suitcase, wrapping it in clothing purchased from a shop in Malta. The bomb was routed through Frankfurt and blew up after the plane left London's Heathrow airport that cold winter night in 1988. The evidence that has been made public tends to support this conclusion.

    A Maltese shopkeeper has identified one of the two as the purchaser of clothing that was found in the wreckage of the plane, its chemical analysis showing it was close, in fact touching the bomb as it exploded. A fragment of the bomb's timer has been discovered and it matches a fragment found in another bombing, that of a Unita flight that blew up over Africa.

    A Libyan defector has said he has knowledge of the attack because he was in the Libyan secret service and the two accused had access to baggage tags to be used to route the bomb-laden suitcase from Malta toward the US. Further, there are computer records which indicate that an inter-line bag was placed on the Pan Am flight in Frankfurt at the time that the Air Malta flight which is believed to have carried the bomb on its first leg arrived in Frankfurt, arrived. The key to the case against the Libyans is the interline theory. Without its acceptance, the case disintegrates.

    Damaging the case is the fallibilty of the American FBI. The FBI's credibility must be questioned in view of incidents of FBI misconduct in the murder of an American woman by FBI agents during the siege of a house in the western USA, known now as the Ruby Ridge affair. More recently, it has been announced by the US Department of Justice, that FBI officials covered up the use of explosive tear gas devices at the seige of the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas. Finally, the FBI national laboratory which provided much forensic evidence in the Pam Am case, has been accused, with some support, of analyzing evidence to achieve the desired outcome of Federal prosecutors.

    The Maltese government conducted its own investigation and concluded that the bomb did not originate in Malta. It must be acknowledged that the hypothesis that terrorists would attempt a bombing in such a manner as is suggested flies in the face of logic.

    Western Europe is the most densely travelled air space in the world. December is the worst weather month for air travel in Europe and Christmas time is the busiest time with highest number of flights of the year as people scamble to return to home- wherever it may be- to spend the holidays with loved ones. It is the time when airline travellers know to carry their bags with them onboard, not to trust them with the airlines. Flights are delayed, diverted or cancelled. How could the bombers have had any reasonable expectation of their bomb reaching its destination? Did they not risk the theft of the boom-box which contained the bomb by a greedy thief working in the Malta or Frankfurt baggage areas? Did they not risk the bomb's mis-routing or delay or loss?

    A more plausible case can be made against the notorious Syrian arms dealer, Monzer Al Kassar. In the late summer or fall of 1988, Al Kassar met with Iranian leaders according to a western intelligence agency. Al Kassar accepted the assignment to conduct a bombing against the United States to avenge the shooting down of an Iran Air flight by the USS Vicennes earlier in the year. Al Kassar was instructed to use third parties to avoid or at least make it more difficult for the bombing to be linked to Iran. Using his establsihed connections with Libyan intelligence operatives, Al Kassar obtained the bomb that blew up Pan Am 103. Indeed, French police received information that he was operating in Paris with Libyan agents throughout the months of October and November, 1988.

    On December 21, 1988, Al Kassar carried the bomb to Frankfurt. Rhein Main Flughafen security video tapes show him in the airport parking lot although there is no evidence of him passing the suitcase which contained the bomb to the Pan Am baggage handler who placed it into the baggage system, making the false entry into the cargo system that the bag had originated in Malta to cover its true origin.

    It was the French who first identified Al Kassar as the true bomber. But faced with their own use of him as an intermediary in the release of two hostages in Lebanon, it was determined that he could not be pursued. Likewise the American government was loathe to go after Al Kassar for it was Al Kassar himself who had provided the arms sent to the Contras in Nicaragua as part of the infamous Iran-Contra affair. Identification of Al Kassar as the terrorist who had murdered 270 human beings was in no one's best interests so he was allowed to go unchecked and unhindered.

    But as US and Scottish investigators, not party to the cover-up, came closer to identifying Al Kassar and the Gulf War started, it became obvious that something had to be done. Were it to be made public that Al Kassar was the bomber, the western flank of the theater of operations would be threatened. It would be threatened because Al Kassar was the son-in-law of Syrian Vice President Rifaat Assad, himself also a sometime CIA asset. Al Kassar's children were the nieces and nephews of Syria's President Hafez Assad and Al Kassar's father was one of Assad's oldest allies.

    It fell on the CIA and French DST to create new evidence which would target Libya. A Libyan defector was conveniently discovered who stated that he had first hand knowledge of Libyan involvement. The timer fragment was tied to the Libyans through French authorities. Indeed, because the bomb had come from Libya- given to Al Kassar for use in some unstated attack against Israel, there was compelling evidence to point the finger of guilt away from Syrian and Iranian involvement.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I should have prefaced my last post by saying it was written in 2001 before 9/11 and I was refering to the first Gulf War. Also,in reviewing it, I noticed I used a word "pervasity" which probably does not exist. Perhaps I ought have said pervasiveness.

    ReplyDelete
  8. For me it was very interesting to read about the arm dealer Monzer Al kassar, this man the the pepole like him are a blood suckers,him and they are trafficking wepons every where to keep the fire contenue in most of the world, they hate peace, they hate humans, they are sort of devils, so it is better to catch them and put them behind bars,
    happyness to the human, and peace to the world,,,
    Dr.Mostafa Sokkar
    (KSA).

    ReplyDelete
  9. Monzer Al-Kassar, a Syrian arms dealer and drug trafficker.
    I wrote the story of this bad man as ) the prince of Mabella) in Arabic and it published in iraqstory.com
    it is very good story discribing the devel steps of him getting rich over the humans dead bodies,
    evry reader read this story send an e mail to me by their appreciation, I am also thanking all the pepole which the are incourageing me a lot of doing that.
    wait for me, I am publishing another story for a bad guys to put a flash light about their satan work.
    read my woeks in iraqstory.co
    in Arabic language, and you can translate it if you like.
    thank you so much.
    regards.
    Mostafa Sokkar

    ReplyDelete