The last moments of the Pan Am jet which crashed on to Lockerbie in a ball of flames killing 270 people will be relived on television tonight for the first time.
Modern technology has allowed researchers to reconstruct how the packed Boeing 747 was blown apart by a bomb at 31,000ft over the Scottish town.
Viewers will see the aircraft exploding and its nose cone severed from the fuselage. Seconds later the main cabin is torn apart, sending the wings spiralling to the ground.
The reconstruction ends with terrifying computer- generated scenes of the fireball smashing into Lockerbie with the church steeple clearly visible among the flames. (...)
Air Crash Investigation: Lockerbie, which will be shown on the National Geographic Channel at 9pm, will also include some television footage from the disaster and feature eyewitness accounts.
[From today's issue of The Herald. The full article can be read here. The Scotsman's report can be read here. From the trailer and the written accounts that I have seen, it appears that the programme swallows, hook line and sinker, the official US and UK version of events. Richard Marquise and FBI forensic science "expert" Thomas Thurman feature. Embarrassment all round when Abdelbaset Megrahi's conviction is -- rightly -- quashed.]
If you want your propaganda to work, first tee up the emotions of your audience.
ReplyDeleteReplay the brutality, call it truth.
Then slip into the story the official CIA version of who did it.
Mr.Biddulph has called the situation extremely well...I have been aware for some time of a rising tide of 'concerns' in the US Dept. of Justice and the FBI about the public's perception of their reputations when Megrahi's Appeal is upheld.
ReplyDeleteThere can be no doubt whatsover of a tsunami of rage from some relatives and others who have been 'spoon-fed' the 'official version' of the Lockerbie Bombing.
What was important during the trial was the facts that the CIA had eventually realised that the Libyan 'supergrass' was totally unreliable AND THEREAFTER PASSED HIM ONTO the FBI and the Department of Justice, who,acoording to sources have admitted him to the Federal Witness Protection Program for the past 19 years at a cost of several MILLION dollars: new identity, new life, new location - all for someone who was given scant regard from their Lordships!
I. sadly, and from personal experience KNOW, that some people who fear for their reputations, will adopt extremely unpleasant steps to preserve the fiction that they have conspired, conived and colluded to support.
I have little or no doubt that both the Conspiracy Files program and noe this one are all part of a carefully structured 'advance damage-control' plan...
TIME WILL TELL.
David,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on this but there's something I must ask you. If Libya is proved not to be involved, will you be collecting back the money from the relatives?
Dear Ruth,
ReplyDelete1: I have no remit with the relatives.
2: I WAS unpaid confidential adviser and media consultant to Dr.Jim Swire and some of the relatives from summer 1989 to a few months after the first appeal.Since 2003 I have held no position, formal or informal with them.
3: As one of the first journalists into Lockerbie on the night of the bombin, the first to say it was a bvomb and having spent 19+ years investigating and observing the case, my files have been decribed as 'breath-taking'
4: To the best of my knolwedge, there was no clause in the UN documents that set up the 'solatium' payments for any liklehood of a repayment.
5: IT was a condition of the lifting of the UN Sanctions that (a) the relatives should be paid compensation. (b) Libya should admit responsibility for the bombing.(c) Some relatives (from the UK) have declined to accept a penny (I stand in awe at their sheer integrity).
6: The $2.7 BILLION paid out (Less a THIRD to the lawyers) is as 'petty cash' to the Libyan treasury. (The sons of the 'great leader' spent several millions on a party in Venice!)
7: Libya has just (recently) agree to accept a $5 BILLION compensation payment from Libya for abuse during the years the Italians occupied Libya over SIXTY years ago!
Your points 6 and 7 are irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteHow much do you think the Libyan government should sue the US and UK for in regard to the sanctions imposed on the country which caused severe hardship, deaths etc?
Dear Ruth,
ReplyDelete1:NO matter how attractive your thoughts about the US and UK being sued are...it is a simple fact that as a member state of the United Nations, the government of the Libyan People's Jamaharia are bound by the rules and articles of membership of the Organisation.
2: The sanctions imposed by the General Assembly were (a) imposed after a majority vote of the Assembly as a 'resolution' (There were at least two separate resolutions) (b) These were renewed by majority vote every so many days and (c) LIBYA complied with the terms of the second resolution and (a) admitted responsibility for the bombing and (b) agreed to pay the sum of $10 Million to each family. (Less of course 30 percent to the fine upstanding members of the legal profession by way of 'fees')
I have never accepted Megrahis guilt - nor ever will.
I am content that as part of the larger geo-political picture the Libyan leadership accepted that, in order to become 'rehabilitated' into the community of nations, they would have to issue the letter of responsibility (that careful reading will confirm it's anodyne nature) and pay up...the amount being trivial compared to the Libyan budget.
I refer to Said al-Islam al-Ghadaffis comments on recent television... 'words, my friend, just words and then smiling to camera... it's all just a game'.
I was deeply saddened by his comments - not the least that were hurtful and offensive to almost all of the relatives.
I do not, for the record, believe Saif's announcement that he was 'leaving public life' - the fact that he is the favourite sone of the Leader guarantees that Saif WILL remain in the public arena...his meeting with Condoleeza Rice being all the evidence required.
TO get back to the important topic of the so-called documentary transmitted on National Geographic Channel...the program appears to have been structured around the 'activities' of the 'legendary' former head of the FBI Explosives Laboratory.
ReplyDeleteI was stunned at the fact that, such a prestigious organisation as the National Geographic Channel appear to be ignorant of the facts that:
(1) The gentleman concerned held NO scientific qualification but DOES have a degree...in POLITICAL Science!
(2) He went on coast to coast television claiming to be the person 'who made the link between Lockerbie and Libya'.
(3) He became the focus of serious doubt, following the disclosures of a respected and highly qualified FBI scientist and a formal complaint to the US Inspector-General's office.
(4) Following an international commission of inquiry - he was quietly allowed to 'leave' the FBI Explosives laboratory and was assigned as a lecturer at at law enforcement establishment.
(5) During the making of a documentary to which I was a consultant - the team managed to get him to admit, on camera, that he'd NEVER been allowed to handle the notorious fragment of circuit board allegedly from the bomb timer
- that all he'd ever had was photographs!
(6) The Crown, possibly aware of the controversy of his history specifically EXCLUDED him from the prosecution witnesses at Zeist.
I find it, quite frankly INCREDIBLE, that the National Geographic Channel did not take steps to research the man's past record...now go on - tell me that there is NOT a structured 'damage control' plan being implemented to 'cover asses' when Megrahis second appeal IS upheld and he is released from prison!!!
Just for the record: the General Assembly of the United Nations (the UN Parliament, in which all member states are represented) never imposed sanctions on Libya. The sanctions were imposed by the UN Security Council, a very much smaller body (like a Cabinet) consisting of a number of elected members and a number of permanent members, the latter including the United States and the United Kingdom.
ReplyDeleteDear Professor Black,I apologise for any confusion you are, as uaualy correct but this effectively means that were Libya to attempt to sue all of the members of the 'Security Council' it would not get off the starting blocks...Libya hgas been very successful of late with the UN and would have to think long and hard about alienating the power-blcoks on the East river!
ReplyDeleteI have to say with my experience of justice in the UK, Said al-Islam al-Ghadaffis comments on recent television... 'words, my friend, just words and then smiling to camera... it's all just a game" are straight to the point. The government plays with court cases; it puts in puppet judges, manipulates evidence, limits disclosure, puts PII on anything that incriminates itself in the illegal activity, gets the defence to work in tandem with the prosecution, produces prosecution witnesses involved in the illegal acts etc etc.And then to finish off the game, the defendent is put in prison. Nowhere is this more evident than in VAT carousel cases. In a fairly recent VAT fraud case an NIS officer remarked, "Well, we had to get someone"
ReplyDelete