Lockerbie Trial is an Historic Miscarriage of Justice

This is the headline over another article by Hugh Miles, this time on The Cutting Edge website. It reads in part:

'Since the British Crown never had much of a case against Megrahi, it was no surprise when the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) found prima facie evidence in June 2007 that Megrahi had suffered a miscarriage of justice and recommended that he be granted a second appeal.

'For 11 years, while legal proceedings were pending and throughout the trial, the British Government argued that a public inquiry into Lockerbie was not appropriate as it would prejudice legal proceedings. After the conviction, it switched tack, arguing instead that no public inquiry was necessary. But if the conviction were overturned, there would no longer be a reason to hold back. For Megrahi, this cannot come soon enough. In September, he was diagnosed with advanced terminal prostate cancer.

'The British Government is preparing for Megrahi to be transferred to Libya for the rest of his sentence. This would eliminate the risk of an acquittal and lessen the chance of a subsequent inquiry. Applications for a transfer cannot be submitted while an appeal is pending, which for the Government raises the convenient prospect that Megrahi will abandon his appeal so he can die at home. But letting Megrahi die a condemned man reduces the chance of Scottish prosecutors, the police, various British intelligence services plus many American and other foreign bodies being asked a lot of difficult questions. In November 2008, a general agreement on the exchange of prisoners was signed between Libya and Britain paving the way for such a transfer. The agreement will be ratified in January 2009.

'"The Crown and the prosecution are using every delaying tactic in the book to close off every route available to Megrahi except prisoner transfer, as this means he has to abandon his appeal," commented Professor Robert Black Q.C., the Scottish lawyer who was the architect of the original trial who feels partly responsible for the miscarriage that occurred. "It is an absolute disgrace. It was June 27, 2007 when the SCCRC released its report and sent its case back to the criminal appeal court, and here we are 18 months later and the Crown has still not handed over all of the material that the law requires it to hand over and it is still making every objection conceivable."'

The full text can be read here.

Lord Fraser's folly

This is the heading over a letter from David J Black (no relation) in today's edition of The Scotsman. It reads in part:

'Putting aside the fact that Lord Fraser is not, to the best of my knowledge, a qualified clinician, and so cannot possibly pronounce on the matter of whether a bereaved parent may, or may not, be exhibiting the characteristics of so-called "Stockholm syndrome" 20 years after the murder of a beloved daughter, some fundamental issues must surely arise about Lord Fraser's own motives and methods.

'It would appear that he is in receipt of information concerning Mr Al Megrahi's state of health, including a prognosis which indicates that he is expected to die in a few years, rather than a few months. It would be helpful to know who provided such sensitive information to him, since even a detained foreign national in this country has the right to expect a measure of confidentiality as far as his medical records are concerned, except where a court decides that some disclosure may be essential during legal proceedings.

'Some of us might have reason to consider Lord Fraser's comments in a wider perspective. As an invited witness at the Fraser inquiry into the catastrophic Holyrood building project, I was far from alone in being underwhelmed when his "no-one is to blame" report was published in 2004. Lord Fraser today suggests Dr Swire is "too close" to the Lockerbie disaster to have an objective opinion, and thus the "Stockholm syndrome" label is applied as an instrument of denigration. However, it seems to me that it was Lord Fraser who exhibited all the classic symptoms of that particular malaise as a result of being "too close" to those within the UK establishment who sought to minimise their exposure to the Holyrood scandal.

'Lord Fraser should be obliged to send a personal letter of apology to Dr Swire. This is unlikely to happen, of course. So much for the season of goodwill.'

Lockerbie - Criminal Justice or "War by Other Means"

This is the title of the most recent post by Baz on The Masonic Verses blog. It provides a fascinating account of the geo-political background to the selection of Libya as fall-guy for the Lockerbie atrocity. The full text can be read here.

Another straw in the wind

"On Dec 21, 1988 -- almost exactly 20 years ago -- I was finishing my graduate work at Syracuse's Maxwell School in upstate New York. I was on duty at Hendricks Chapel when Pan Am flight 103 was destroyed by terrorists. It still brings me to a boil -- how I lost friends; how the press behaved that day; how the Libyans have managed to bribe their way into world acceptance -- as though any sum of money will bring back innocent lives. The worst part of it is there is a strong body of evidence suggesting Syria had a much larger role in the murders than the United States is prepared to acknowledge. For me and many others, flight 103 remains wholly unsolved. I cry for those murdered in the air and in Lockerbie, Scotland, on that tragic day. It all remains an open festering wound."

From an article by UPI international columnist, Marc S Ellenbogen. Yet another example of US news media beginning to appreciate the flimsiness of the "official" explanation of Lockerbie.

Courage amid grief and facing up to offensive remarks

This the headline over a long article by Nicola Barry in The Press and Journal, a daily newspaper with a wide circulation in the north of Scotland. The final sentence reads:

"Lord Fraser is a man who should be allowed to fade into the obscurity he so deserves."

Well said, Ms Barry! The full article can be read here.

Reaction to Lord Fraser's "Stockholm syndrome" outburst

Today's edition of The Herald carries two letters critical of Lord Fraser of Carmyllie's recent remarks about Dr Jim Swire suffering from Stockholm syndrome. They can be read here.

Questions Remain Unanswered Two Decades After Plane Bombing Over Lockerbie

This is the title of a long and interesting article on the CNS News website by their International Editor, Patrick Goodenough. It is particularly significant in that it comes from a United States news organization (indeed, one with clear conservative sympathies) and retails in some detail the very real concerns that exist about the conviction of Abdelbaset Megrahi and the thesis of Libyan responsibility for the Lockerbie disaster.

Terror and Tears

A one-hour special programme with this title was broadcast yesterday by Syracuse NY television station News10Now to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Lockerbie disaster, in which 35 students from Syracuse University were killed. The programme, presented by Bill Carey, can be viewed here.

New questions raised over Lockerbie bombing

Here is an excerpt from an article published in yesterday's edition of The Jerusalem Post:

'Megrahi, who has always denied involvement, lost an appeal against his conviction in 2002, and was only given leave to mount a second appeal in June 2007. A Scottish legal review commission found six potential grounds for a miscarriage of justice, including flaws in the process by which he was identified and, reportedly, the non-disclosure of a classified report on the timer purportedly used in the bomb. The commission referred the case back to the Scottish courts.

'The overturning of Megrahi's conviction could revive the bombing investigators' original theory, widely believed by many of those close to the case, that Lockerbie was not a Libyan plot at all, but was, rather, carried out by Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, on behalf of Iran.

'Among the leading figures who publicly voiced this assertion was then trade minister Ariel Sharon, who told a press conference in Madrid seven weeks after the bombing, "Israel believes it was Ahmed Jibril."

'The spokesman for the Lockerbie victims' families, the UN's observer on the case and the Scottish law professor who formulated the legal framework under which Megrahi was tried all said they were convinced the conviction will be overturned.'

Press coverage of 20th anniversary events

The UK press, as would be expected, has extensive coverage of the various memorial events held yesterday to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Lockerbie disaster. The Herald's treatment can be seen here and The Scotsman's here.

Lockerbie: was it Iran? Syria? All I know is, it wasn't the man in prison

A lot of powerful people would be embarrassed if the truth, whatever it is, came out

Last week saw more than its share of stories about miscarriages of justice. But spare a thought this Christmas for the victim of the biggest miscarriage of justice in Scottish legal history, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the man convicted of blowing up Pan Am flight 103 en route from London to New York, 20 years ago today. (...)

Megrahi's conviction was a shocker. No material evidence was presented linking him to the bombing, let alone any evidence that he put the bomb on the plane or that he handled any explosives. Even the prosecution subsequently questioned the credibility of its star witness.

Nevertheless, keen to move on, Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing although it never accepted guilt. Gaddafi paid $2.7bn (£1.8bn) in compensation to the victims' families – $10m for every victim. The final payment was made this year. US lawyers took approximately a third of the final amount. But the economic and humanitarian price for Libya was far higher: UN sanctions over an 11-year period inflicted billions of dollars' worth of economic damage on Libya and prevented thousands of Libyan citizens from travelling abroad. (...)

Since the Crown never had much of a case against Megrahi, it was no surprise when the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) found prima facie evidence in June 2007 that Megrahi had suffered a miscarriage of justice and recommended that he be granted a second appeal.

For 11 years, while legal proceedings were pending and throughout the trial, the British Government argued that a public inquiry into Lockerbie was not appropriate as it would prejudice legal proceedings. After the conviction, it switched tack, arguing instead that no public inquiry was necessary. But if the conviction were overturned, there would no longer be a reason to hold back. For Megrahi, this cannot come soon enough. In September he was diagnosed with advanced terminal prostate cancer.

The British Government is preparing for Megrahi to be transferred to Libya for the rest of his sentence. This would eliminate the risk of an acquittal and lessen the chance of a subsequent inquiry. Applications for a transfer cannot be submitted while an appeal is pending, which for the Government raises the convenient prospect that Megrahi will abandon his appeal so he can die at home. But letting Megrahi die a condemned man reduces the chance of Scottish prosecutors, the police, various UK intelligence services plus many American and other foreign bodies being asked a lot of difficult questions. Last month, a general agreement on the exchange of prisoners was signed between Libya and Britain paving the way for such a transfer. The agreement will be ratified in January.

"The Crown and the prosecution are using every delaying tactic in the book to close off every route available to Megrahi except prisoner transfer, as this means he has to abandon his appeal," commented Professor Robert Black QC, the Scottish lawyer who was the architect of the original trial who feels partly responsible for the miscarriage that occurred. "It is an absolute disgrace. It was 27 June 2007 when the SCCRC released its report and sent its case back to the criminal appeal court, and here we are 18 months later and the Crown has still not handed over all of the material that the law requires it to hand over and it is still making every objection conceivable."

There are, however, two obstacles to the British plan. Firstly, the decision to transfer Megrahi lies with the Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond. Upset that the Government reached an agreement over Megrahi without consulting him first, Mr Salmond has ruled out any transfer.

Secondly, whether Megrahi dies in jail in Scotland or Libya, under Scottish law his appeal can still go ahead without him. "Any interested person can continue the case. In this case one of Megrahi's children could continue with the appeal to clear their father's name," says Professor Black. (...)

The fate of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, however, and the tarnished reputation of the Scottish criminal justice system rest in the hand of the Scottish courts. Megrahi's acquittal, posthumous or otherwise, will undo a heinous wrong and return us to where we were 20 years ago – searching for the truth behind the bombing of Pan Am flight 103.

[From an article by Hugh Miles in today's edition of The Independent on Sunday. The full text can be read here.]

Swire is victim of Stockholm Syndrome, says Lord Fraser

Lord Fraser of Carmyllie QC, the Lord Advocate in 1991 at the time when charges in respect of the destruction of Pan Am 103 were brought against Abdelbaset Megrahi, has been a busy little bee. Two Sunday newspapers, The Sunday Times and Scotland on Sunday run interviews in which he accuses Dr Jim Swire of suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Stockholm syndrome relates to the behaviour of kidnap victims who, over time, become sympathetic to their captors, and can, accordingly have no application whatsoever to Dr Swire. But why should Peter Fraser allow anything as trivial as accuracy get in the way of a good headline?

Dr Swire and Rev John Mosey attended virtually the whole of the proceedings in the Scottish Court at Zeist. Both of them, having heard the evidence, have the very gravest doubts about the justifiability of the conviction of Megrahi. Those doubts are shared by many others who have taken the trouble to consider the evidence and the trial court's written opinion. And, of course, the independent (and expert) Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred the case back to the Criminal Appeal Court on six grounds, one of which is that in respect of crucial findings in fact, no reasonable court could have reached those conclusions on the evidence led.

For Peter Fraser in these circumstances to suggest that a relative who doubts the validity of Megrahi's conviction is labouring under a psychological aberration such as Stockholm syndrome is outrageously insulting and casts more doubt on the psychological state of the maker of the statement than on that of the person at whom it is directed.

Remembering Lockerbie 20 years on

This is the title of a long feature written by Peter Ross for the Spectrum section of the edition of Scotland on Sunday for the day of the twentieth anniversary of the the destruction of Pan Am 103. The article can be read here.

Moving On

"Terror and Tears, Part 6, Moving On" the sixth instalment of the series on the Lockerbie disaster being broadcast by Syracuse NY news channel News10Now, can be viewed here, as can the written article that accompanies it.

The demand for truth is more than rhetoric

This is the headline over the Saturday essay by The Herald's distinguished columnist, Ian Bell. Here are excerpts:

'I was in The Herald newsroom, a bit-player, on the night Pan Am Flight 103 fell on Lockerbie. I was back - still more reluctance - a decade ago. Sherwood Crescent; Rosebank Crescent; Dryfesdale Cemetery; the brooding silence at Tundergarth: in these honest, inconspicuous places the war on terror - selected, manipulated, the fount of a thousand lies - properly began. Poor Lockerbie.

'The "anniversary piece", as we call it, rarely illuminates anything much. Prose becomes a little purplish and reverential, but that tends only to distress the bereaved further. They know what happened. They would rather know why it happened, and whether those responsible have been punished. Twenty years after Lockerbie, the truth - like Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, the only man convicted of the mass murder of 270 people - remains locked away.

'He didn't do it. If he was in any way involved he was neither the sole nor the principal actor. His country, Libya, is these days back in the oil-vending, terrorism-fighting fold. "Compensation" paid, it once again cuts Blair-brokered deals with the west. Syria, Iran, the CIA and geo-politics, US-style, have moved on. But the evidence against the man dying of stage-four prostate cancer in HM Prison Greenock remains flimsy, inconsistent, contradictory and deeply, as his lawyers might say, unsatisfactory.

'This is not meant as another rehearsal of numerous theories. Suffice it to say that we have been told often enough by members of the American security apparatus - ask the bereaved Dr Jim Swire, if you doubt me - that the truth will not be made available. But here's the thing: if Lockerbie marked the real beginning of the terror war, long before 9/11, why are truth and facts still so dangerous? Why are those commodities always, persistently, as a matter of routine, withheld? Democracies depend, at minimum, on disclosure. Why did we wage war in Iraq? Why the war in Afghanistan? It is attested that these have been noble, necessary causes, essential in the struggle against dark, implacable forces. Perhaps. Bombings in London, Bali or Madrid were not fictions. The attack on Glasgow airport was no fantasy. So why does my government fight so hard to prevent me from reading the minutes of the Cabinet meetings during which the occupation of Iraq was discussed? (...)

'I despise conspiracy theories. They make life too easy for the powerful, who much prefer to dismiss every inconvenient truth as fantasy. But when 20 years elapse and the truth of the Lockerbie massacre remains contestable, when six bloody years go by with Iraq selected as the useful evil-of-the-month, the demand for truth is more than mere rhetoric.

'It functions as a reminder, in fact, of the state we're in. We can call for facts, and insist on truth, and yet receive neither. We can whistle. In the dark.'

The press on the eve of the anniversary

Most UK newspapers today have features marking the twentieth anniversary of the Lockerbie disaster. The most interesting contributions from my perspective are mentioned below.

The Scotsman has a double-page spread of accounts by Lockerbie inhabitants of their experiences, adapted from Jill Haldane’s book An' then the world came tae oor doorstep: Lockerbie Lives and Stories published by the Grimsay Press, priced £16.95.

The Daily Record, one of Scotland’s largest circulation tabloids, has an article concentrating on the town’s recovery from the tragedy and featuring reflections from father Pat Keegans.

The Independent has a leader entitled “Lockerbie's unanswered questions”. It reads in part:

‘Tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of the tragedy. In the intervening period, the Libyan government has been blamed for the bombing; the families of the victims have received a $1.5bn compensation package authorised by Colonel Gaddafi, and Pan American airlines has filed for bankruptcy. In 2001 a panel of Scottish judges, sitting in the Netherlands under special arrangements agreed with the Libyan government, convicted Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, of 270 counts of murder for his part in the bombing. The narrative is far from complete, however. That al-Megrahi's case took 10 years to reach trial is remarkable; that serious questions still remain about the credibility of the evidence used to convict al-Megrahi is a scandal.

‘In June 2007, the Libyan's defence team was granted leave by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to appeal, for a second time, his conviction. The commission gave six grounds for believing a "miscarriage of justice may have occurred", chief among them that the evidence given by the prosecution's witness Tony Gauci, who identified al-Megrahi, was flawed.

‘Since then, his defence team has revealed that it was denied access to papers from a foreign government that were made available to Scottish police, but not defence lawyers. It also alleges that Gauci was offered a $2m reward in return for giving evidence. The substance of the claims will be measured at an appeal which begins next spring – providing al-Megrahi, who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, is still alive.

‘In any event, the outcome could not be more important. Twenty years after that fatal flight, there remains a very real possibility that justice has still not been done.’

On a very different level, the LINKS website re-publishes two articles by Norm Dixon from 14 February 2001 and 14 July 2007 detailing the concerns that exist over the evidence that led to the conviction of Abdelbaset Megrahi.

Dark Memories

"Terror and Tears, Part 5, Dark Memories" the fifth instalment of the series on the Lockerbie disaster being broadcast by Syracuse NY news channel News10Now, can be viewed here, as can the written article that accompanies it.

Jill’s book of remembrance

[Today is the official publication date of Jill Haldane's book An’ then the world came tae oor doorstep: Lockerbie Lives and Stories. What follows is taken from the Dumfries & Galloway Standard.]

When Pan Am Flight 103 fell from the sky and devastated the small community of Lockerbie, Jill Haldane had just returned home from university to spend Christmas with her family.

After the disaster nearly 20 years ago, Jill went back to university, shut all the memories away and got on with her young adult life.

She says it is only recently that she has thought deeply about what happened that night, and the result is a book of the life histories of 11 residents of Lockerbie, pivoting their disaster experiences. (...)

Jill says the fact she was there when the plane hit the town affected her enough later in life to think about doing a project about it, and to find out how other people had coped with what happened. (...)

The idea for the book came to Jill when she exhibited a display of historical and contemporary photographs in the town where she now lives in New Zealand.

She says there was an outpouring of stories from townspeople about their memories and remembrances of times passed, initiated by the photographs.

“I took the concept of sharing stories and experiences in a narrative sense and came back to Lockerbie in March this year,” said Jill.

“I used the disaster of 1988 as a reference point for the collection and collation of life histories of 10 residents and ex-residents, including my own experience, thoughts and feelings.

“The people I interviewed also talk about aspects of their life that may have been affected by the disaster, such as their faith, fate, stress, and their attitude to flying and terrorism.

“By collating the narratives of Lockerbie folk, generations will be able to share the authenticity and the resonance of our stories first-hand.” (...)

Her book is an oral history project, where the sound files from the interviews she did will be archived in a repository in Scotland, for research perpetuity, and is available now.

Petition to the Scottish Ministers

[An online petition to the Scottish Ministers regarding the compassionate release of Abdelbaset Megrahi can be accessed, and signed, here. The text of the petition follows.]

We, the undersigned, hopeful that an application will be made to the Scottish Ministers for the compassionate release of Mr Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, respectfully urge the Scottish Ministers to take into account the following factors.

Mr Megrahi is terminally ill and would undoubtedly benefit physically and psychologically from compassionate release to his home in Glasgow while he awaits the outcome of the appeal granted to him by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission in June 2007.

It will be many months before Mr Megrahi's appeal is finally decided.

Their Lordships in the Court of Appeal have stated that they do not consider Mr Megrahi to be a flight risk

We would respectfully ask you to consider any application in a favourable manner allowing Mr Megrahi to spend his very limited remaining time in Scotland with his family and loved ones.

Libya plays catch up from Lockerbie fall-out

This is the title of an article by Afaf Geblawi, writing from Tripoli, on the website of Middle East Online. It reads in part:

'For Libyan analyst Mustapha Zeidi, the country has been the victim of "injustice and an irrational stubbornness on the part of Western countries," squeezing Tripoli with economic and political pressures.

'"This confrontation with the West had serious repercussions on the country's development," said Zeidi, a prominent politician in Libya. It was only "wisdom of Libyan policies" that allowed both sides not to lose face.

'For Zeidi, intelligence agent Abdel Baset Ali Mohammed al-Megrahi who was jailed for the 1988 plane bombing over the Scottish village of Lockerbie is a "political hostage" who has been "sacrificed for his country".

'Mahmud Bussifi, editor-in-chief of Oea newspaper which is close to Gathafi's influential son Seif al-Islam, says it is high time for the West to tell the truth of Megrahi's innocence on the basis of new evidence which has emerged.

'Megrahi, handed over by the Libyan authorities in 1999, was two years later condemned to a life prison term with a minimum 27 years behind bars for the December 21, 1988 bombing which killed 270 people.

'The Libyan agent, who has terminal cancer, is behind bars in Scotland awaiting an appeal scheduled for next year.

'"Although we are certain of his innocence, the only thing that interests us now is for him to be able to spend his remaining days with us, even if it is in Scotland," said wife Aisha, warning of his "critical" condition.

'She thanked the efforts of Libyan authorities to have him released and "the compassion and support of victims' families who also believe in his innocence."'

The full text can be read here.

Lockerbie’s quiet dignity

In the little town where children should have been settling down to a deep and dreamless sleep, the townsfolk, doctors, farmers and emergency services were out combing the fields and hills for survivors and finding 270 dead bodies. It was a vision of hell and the flashbacks and sickening memories would torment many of them for years. Yet through the grim aftermath their response was practical, caring and dignified. They offered hospitality to bereaved relatives, many from the US; police and army personnel meticulously combed hundreds of square miles for scraps of evidence; the women of the town washed and ironed clothes to return to grieving families, quietly shedding a tear over the baby garments. Some relived the harrowing details as they gave careful evidence to the fatal accident inquiry or the court case.

Professor Robert Black, who was involved in setting up the legal mechanism which allowed Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi and his co-accused to be tried under Scots law on neutral ground in the Netherlands, is also a son of Lockerbie and says that after the initial shock, the people of the area simply got on with their lives. That is the Scottish way. In recent years, it has been increasingly disparaged as repressed and unhelpful, but is a legacy from generations of our forebears who stubbornly met disaster with fortitude and it has been matched by generosity from Syracuse University in setting up a scholarship for Lockerbie students. In remembering Lockerbie on Sunday, we should salute the determination of all those who continue to counter terrorism by building something positive from death and destruction.

[From today's edition of The Herald. The full editorial can be read here.]

Peter Fraser pins colours to the mast

In an article in The Times, the Lord Advocate at the time that charges were brought against Abdelbaset Megrahi and Lamin Fhimah for the destruction of Pan Am 103, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie QC, expresses his confidence in the evidence that led to the conviction of Megrahi. Here are excerpts:

'Lord Fraser does not discount the involvement of other states, but he points out that no definitive evidence has been produced to link them to the attack. The Libyans, on the other hand, were traced through the diligence of Scottish detectives, who managed to identify the manufacturers of clothing found in the suspect suitcase that had held the bomb. By proving that the clothing had been bought in Malta, and then establishing that the purchaser was al-Megrahi, they laid the foundations of the Crown case. “For me that was the most significant breakthrough,” Lord Fraser says now.'

'Tam Dalyell, the former MP, has argued that the CIA may have known about the attack beforehand. Lord Fraser rejects that. “I told Tam Dalyell: if there was a conspiracy, then I am in it up to the neck. I have to be involved. The only other possibility is that I have been so naive that bits of evidence have been planted, and I have swallowed it hook, line and sinker. But four other Lord Advocates have also examined the evidence and they have all concurred with it.”'

On the issue of the provenance of the MST-13 circuit board fragment which was crucial to the establishment of a link between Libya and the destruction of the aircraft, Lord Fraser hedges his bets somewhat:

'The discovery of a fragment of circuit board from a timer made by a Swiss company with links to Libya was critical to the prosecution. But accounts of how, where and by whom it was found varied. The original fragment was found several miles from the wreckage, and some weeks after the disaster.

'It was not until very much later that the CIA claimed to have identified it and matched it with a circuit board manufactured by Mebo of Zurich, a company run by Edwin Bollier, who had supplied timers to the Libyan Government. Some experts have argued that the find was just a bit too convenient to the US investigators, since, by targeting the Libyans, they could avoid falling out with Iran and Syria, important allies at the time of the Gulf War. So could the CIA have planted the evidence? “I don’t know,” says Lord Fraser. “No one ever came to me and said, ‘Now we can go for the Libyans’, it was never as straightforward as that. The CIA was extremely subtle. For me the significant evidence came when the Scottish police made the connection with Malta.” Pressed for his own view, he cites a Scottish murder case, that of Patrick Meehan, in which, it was alleged, the prosecution case had been “improved” by the planting of evidence. Was there a similarity? “I don’t know,” he said again, “but if there was one witness I was not happy about, it was Mr Bollier, who was deeply unreliable.”'

The Herald on the approaching anniversary

Today's edition of The Herald features a series of articles on the town of Lockerbie as we approach the twentieth anniversary of the event that brought it for the first time in centuries to the attention of the world. In addition, Lucy Adams contributes an article entitled "Discredited evidence that convicted al Megrahi leaves relatives no nearer finding out the truth", which is both self-explanatory and manifestly true.

"A sacrificial lamb"

The wife of the Lockerbie bomber claims that her husband became a sacrificial lamb for the whole of Libya when he agreed to be tried for a crime that he says he did not commit.

Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi surrendered his freedom so that his country could free itself from United Nations sanctions and improve its global image, his wife Aisha said.

Mrs al-Megrahi gave a rare interview at the family home near Glasgow, close to the prison where her husband is serving a life sentence for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 that claimed the lives of 270 people in 1988.

“He sacrificed himself for the sake of an entire nation,” she told The Times, in an interview conducted in Arabic. (...)

At times she appears optimistic, then she is overcome by sombre thoughts. “I’ve lost hope,” she said. “Even if they tell me he’ll be released I won’t believe it until I see it with my own eyes. Because we’ve been let down again and again.”

Asked how her husband feels about Lockerbie’s 20th anniversary – on Sunday – she said: “He wants the world to know that he’s innocent and that he feels for those innocent lives lost in the bombing . . . because he too has a family and parents.”

[From an article by Richard Kerbaj in The Times of 19 December. The complete article can be read here.]

Alternate Ending

"Terror and Tears, Part 4, Alternate Ending", the fourth instalment of the series on the Lockerbie disaster being broadcast by Syracuse NY news channel News10Now, can be viewed here, as can the written article that accompanies it. A sceptical eye is cast over the "official" version of events that led to the conviction of Abdelbaset Megrahi.

Proceedings at tenth (public) procedural hearing

Today’s procedural hearing was largely concerned with fine-tuning the protocol drafted by the court regarding the appointment, powers and duties of the special counsel to be appointed in connection with the document relating to timers in respect of which the UK Foreign Secretary has asserted public interest immunity on grounds of national security and international relations.

This document has not been made public and so it is difficult for observers to form an opinion as to its contents or, indeed, to follow the submissions made by the appellant’s counsel and the Advocate General on behalf of the Foreign Secretary. However, the document has now been finalised and the person suggested by the appellant’s legal team has been appointed by the court to perform this function, subject to his (or her) successfully undergoing the necessary security vetting. The court urged the relevant authorities to carry out the vetting of the special counsel (and any solicitor appointed by him to assist in the performance of his duties) with the very highest urgency. The Crown and the Advocate General were instructed to prepare summaries of the submissions made by them at the closed hearing (from which the appellant’s lawyers were excluded) so that they can be handed over to the special counsel as soon as his vetting is successfully concluded. The appellant’s legal team indicated that they would be in a position fully to brief the special counsel by 23 January 2009.

The remaining issue discussed was the timing of the next procedural hearing (to consider the further petitions for disclosure lodged on behalf of the appellant before the ninth procedural hearing on 27 and 28 November). Maggie Scott QC for Mr Megrahi proposed that it should be on a date between 21 and 23 January, it having been indicated by the court administrative office that all three of the judges were available then. Ronnie Clancy QC argued that this was, for various reasons, far too early for the Crown and that a date should be fixed in February or March. The Advocate General concurred. The court indicated that it would consider these submissions and intimate its decision on the date of the next hearing “in early course”.

Still no obvious sign, therefore, that either the Crown or the Advocate General have revised their Fabian tactics in the light of the appellant's medical condition or any other factors.

The "punishment part" of a life sentence

'Since the adoption of the European Convention on Human Rights, a murderer is now also told the "punishment part" of the sentence, that is the number of years which must be served before any application can be made for release on licence.

'Only the life term is set by statute, and judges are free to decide the appropriate punishment part in each case.

'In a benchmark judgment in 2002, the appeal court, then headed by Lord Cullen, the Lord Justice-General, reduced from 30 to 27 years the punishment part imposed on Andrew Walker, a former Royal Scots corporal who had shot dead three people in an army payroll robbery.

'Although it was never spelled out why a top line should be drawn, or why it ought to be set at 30 years, sentencing judges began to apply such a ceiling and also latched on to another part of the judgment to use 12 years as the "norm" in murder cases, the period going up or down depending on the aggravating or mitigating features of the individual case.

'It had been anticipated following the Walker ruling that 30 years would be reserved for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, as being guilty of the worst possible case of murder, but he was given 27 years.

'The sentencing judges in his case used 30 years as the maximum, but decided they could go below it because of his age, then 51, and because he would be serving his sentence in a foreign country and, as they understood it, in solitary confinement.

'The sentence was condemned by relatives of some of the 270 Lockerbie victims, and the Crown announced at that time that it would use the case to challenge the notional 30-year upper limit, but the sentencing issue has been held up while Megrahi pursues an appeal against his conviction.'

[From an article by John Robertson in today's edition of The Scotsman.]

National Geographic admits Lockerbie documentary mistakes

'The National Geographic channel has admitted that it made mistakes in a controversial television documentary on the Lockerbie disaster.

'Air Crash Investigation: Lockerbie, which used computers to recreate the impact on the Scottish town, stated in its opening line that two years prior to the bombing, the sabotage of Air India flight 182 had happened off the coast of Scotland.

'However, the channel now has to "rectify" the narration to explain the Air India explosion was off the south coast of Ireland, three-and-a-half years before the bombing over Lockerbie of Pan Am 103 - which caused 270 deaths on December 21, 1988.

'Just days before the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, National Geographic apologised for the mistakes and said they would be rectified.'

[From an article by Lucy Adams in The Herald. It is a pity that National Geographic did not also apologise for its gullibility in peddling an explanation of the disaster that has been seriously challenged (amongst others by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission) and that is likely to be comprehensively discredited in the current appeal by Abdelbaset Megrahi.]

Payback

"Terror and Tears, Part 3, Payback", the third instalment of the series on the Lockerbie disaster being broadcast by Syracuse NY news channel News10Now, can be viewed here, as can the written article that accompanies it.

Time for Reflection

Presented by Father Patrick Keegans at the Scottish Parliament on 17th December 2008 at 2.30 pm

And I will lead the blind in a way they know not;
in paths they have not known I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
and rough places into level ground. (Is. 42, 16)

These words from the Prophet Isaiah have great significance in my life.

When I was the Parish Priest of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Lockerbie, I was in my house at 1 Sherwood Crescent on the evening of the 21st December 1988. My mother, Mary Keegans, was with me.

The darkness came. At 7.04pm PanAm flight 103, destroyed by a bomb on board the aircraft, crashed into the town of Lockerbie.

The darkness came. The lights went out. The house shook violently. An almighty explosion tore Sherwood Crescent apart; and then there was a silence and stillness and still the darkness.

Then another kind of darkness took over: the thick, suffocating darkness that comes from extreme grief: the darkness that invades the human spirit, that threatens to crush and destroy. 270 people had been murdered, eleven residents of Sherwood Crescent and 259 passengers on Pan Am 103.

And into that darkness there came light. That light came from the people of Lockerbie. It was the light of genuine love, care and concern for all who were suffering. The people of Lockerbie, shocked to the core, looked not to themselves but to others. They are a shining jewel in the Crown of Scotland. The words of John’s Gospel speaking about Christ come to mind: “A light shines in the darkness, a light that darkness could not overpower”. (John 1, 5.) The love, light, and compassion of Christ were shining through the people of Lockerbie as it does to this very day.

Approaching the 20th Anniversary of the Lockerbie air Disaster our thoughts and our prayers turn to those who died; and we remember our friends in the USA, our UK families, all other nationalities, and all who, in some form or another, are victims of the disaster.

At a time of great sorrow I was asked by Dr. Jim Swire whose daughter Flora died on the plane to conduct a service for the UK families. The words of Isaiah came to me. I pray and reflect on these words every day:

And I will lead the blind in a way they know not;
in paths they have not known I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
and rough places into level ground. Is. 42, 16

I pray that each day God will lead us and guide us.

I am elated and honoured to be with you in what is a very special place and to speak these words to you.

Thank you

Tenth (public) procedural hearing

From my report of proceedings at the procedural hearing held on 28 November 2008:

"The court indicated that, after having considered the submissions of the parties [regarding the appointment and rôle of the special (security-vetted) counsel], it would draft a protocol which would settle these issues of principle. The parties, at a hearing yet to be fixed, would be given an opportunity to make representations on matters of detail, but not on the principles enshrined therein."

The hearing to consider submissions on the protocol drafted by the court is to be held on Thursday, 18 December 2008 at 10.15 am.

The Long Thunder

"Terror and Tears, Part 2, The Long Thunder", the second instalment of the series on the Lockerbie disaster being broadcast by Syracuse NY news channel News10Now, can be viewed here, as can the written article that accompanies it.

A response to Richard Marquise

[I am deeply grateful to Peter Biddulph for allowing me to post the following response written by him to Richard Marquise's recent broadcast and print contributions to Lockerbie lore.]

1. It would appear that Mr Marquise never handled the fragment [of circuit board allegedly from the MST-13 timer that allegedly detonated the bomb], never saw the fragment. All his forensic information appears to have come from Thomas Thurman, proven to be a manipulator of prosecution reports by the US Department of Justice in 36 out of the 52 Thurman cases that they investigated.

And yet Thurman too never saw the fragment or handled it. When challenged by journalists, he admitted that he had worked solely on photographs supplied by the Scottish police and Thomas Hayes. And the evidence he gave on US TV about identifying the fragment was given as a voice-over using photographs of a sample from the CIA's own laboratory in Langley, Virginia.

Thurman, by resigning and "leaving" the employ of the FBI avoided being a witness at the trial, and his claims and record regarding the fragment were never tested in court. All references to Thurman in the trial transcript took "a priori" that he was on the team who found the fragment that proved Libya did it. His questionable history was never challenged by the defence. Were they negligent?

2. Mr Marquise's senior FBI colleague Oliver Revell never saw the fragment, never handled the fragment. In a televised discussion in 1995 on UK Channel Four TV he claimed :

". . . And we were operating on the premise that [Iran] was the responsible party. But we simply could not bring to bear all of the information we had, and the evidence, and make it fit. And then when the item – the microchip – was found and was identified – and by the way it was through both RARDE and Tom Thurman of the FBI laboratory – independently – that we found the other connection, and then we started working on that." (My italics).

So, whatever might be said by the FBI now, their case in 1991 centred entirely upon the provenance of the fragment of the bomb said to have been found in July 1989 by Dr Thomas Hayes. Should Hayes' evidence be in any way suspect, the case would collapse.

Mr Marquise has claimed elsewhere that the retirement of the CIA's Vincent Cannistraro took place before the key evidence was found. He has said that to for us to say otherwise is wrong.

Well, it's not wrong. Cannistraro was busy as head of the Lockerbie team when Hayes claimed to have found the fragment. Cannistraro retired a year and a half later, in November 1990.

3. The chief identification witness, Tony Gauci, was exposed in 2005 by the very man who - in 1991 - helped with the indictments against Megrahi and Fhimah, former Lord Advocate Peter Fraser. In Fraser's own words, Gauci could not be trusted.

And now a Mr Clancy [Ronnie Clancy QC] of the Scottish Crown team has conceded in a recent Scottish High Court hearing in Edinburgh that even if Gauci's evidence is discredited, it would not significantly affect the prosecution case. A strange claim and admission indeed. Are they already conceding the case in total? [RB: What Mr Clancy said was that the Crown’s view was that there was sufficient evidence to justify Megrahi’s conviction even if Gauci’s evidence were discounted.]

4. Marquise's information regarding the British forensic tracing of the fragment came from Dr Thomas Hayes.

At the time of the trial, Hayes' record in the case of the IRA Maguire Seven (Guildford bombing) was never discussed in court. All that the judges heard was an oblique reference to "deliberate falsehoods" told by his former colleague and supervisor Dr Higgs in another IRA case, that of Judith Ward.

Since Hayes had not been part of that particular Higgs episode, he could - and did - deny all connection or knowledge of that particular Higgs conspiracy. The trial then moved on without further comment or question.

And yet Hayes was central to a Higgs conspiracy in another IRA trial, that of the Maguire Seven, in which the Hayes and Higgs were proved by Parliamentary investigation to have conspired to with-hold evidence that might assist the defence case.

But since the Maguire Seven story was not rehearsed in the Lockerbie trial, none of this could be considered by the Lockerbie judges.

I believe that if Hayes' history in the case of the Maguire Seven had been examined in court, his testimony in the case of Lockerbie would have been discredited in the same way as that of Majid Giaka, the double CIA and Libyan agent.

In his book Scotbom, and since, Mr Marquise gives the impression that American investigation was led and controlled by the FBI. In fact it was controlled overall by the CIA, and by certain people with much blood and lies on their hands. Among the White House team around that time were people proven by declassified documents to understand well the technique of the manufacture of evidence to destabilise Middle Eastern governments. These documents are now freely available. But nobody - including the media in both countries - seems to care any more. It's old news, unwelcome news. People die, so what? Life must go on etc.

All of this, naturally, never came to the attention of the Lockerbie judges. Hopefully the second appeal will offer a long overdue opportunity for the true back-story of Lockerbie to emerge.

If Mr Marquise wishes to challenge any of the above, I will gladly supply the document dates and references with appropriate quotations. I will also arrange for sections of the film and television records to be put on the web. And I will ensure that relevant sections of the trial transcript are also put on the web. People can then judge for themselves where this story might go over the next six months.

A Lockerbie-style solution to Gitmo?

The Exploring International Law blog hosted by Georgetown University has an interesting contribution from Dr Catherine Lotrionte* on the possible relevance of the Lockerbie model of judicial tribunal to cover the situation that will arise when President-Elect Obama closes the detention facility at Guantanamo, as he has pledged to do.

Dr Lotrionte writes:

“One option that has been overlooked is trying these prisoners at The Hague in a hybrid international/domestic court. (…)

“The precedent for such trials is Lockerbie. In April 1999, under diplomatic pressure from the U.S. and UN-imposed sanctions, the Libyan government handed over two intelligence officers to Scottish police in the Netherlands to stand trial for the murder of civilians killed when Pan Am 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. Through an agreement between the U.S., the U.K. and Libya**, the Libyans were transferred into Scottish custody to stand trial before a Scottish Court made up of three Scottish judges using Scottish law. The Dutch provided the premises to the Scottish and all expenses related to the trial were paid by the United Kingdom. At the trials international observers from the UN were present as well as representatives from other states, lending the already transparent process further credibility and favorable world opinion. The U.S. government also supported the trials, providing Scottish prosecutors with intelligence that was used as evidence in the trials. On January 31, 2001, one defendant was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years minimum in prison in Scotland. The second defendant was found not guilty and sent back to Libya.”

*"Dr. Catherine Lotrionte is a visiting assistant professor and the Associate Director of the Institute for International Law & Politics at Georgetown University. She previously worked as an assistant general counsel at CIA and as the general counsel for the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board at the White House (2002-2006)."

**Note by RB: There was no such agreement. The United Kingdom (with the concurrence of the United States) put forward a scheme on 24 August 1998. Libya was not consulted or involved in its formulation, though the Libyan Government, and the legal team representing the two Libyan suspects, had earlier (four years and seven months earlier) approved of a neutral venue, non-jury, proposal formulated by me.

Syracuse and Lockerbie Academy remember

News10Now, a television news channel based in Syracuse NY, is running a series of programmes to mark the twentieth anniversary of the destruction of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie. Of those who died in the aircraft, thirty-five were Syracuse University students returning to the United States from a semester of study abroad. The programmes are accompanied by articles on the channel’s website by Bill Carey, senior reporter. The first of those articles, entitled “Terror and Tears, Part I, Homecoming” can be accessed here.

The Guardian publishes a very interesting article by Ellie Levenson. It is headed "When tragedy becomes history" and sub-headed "Twenty years after the Lockerbie bombing, how does the local school teach pupils about its painful past?"

Richard Marquise in The Sunday Times

Megrahi’s tale is a tissue of lies

The FBI agent who investigated Lockerbie says those who want the Libyan freed are mistaken

So run the heading and sub-heading over an article by retired FBI agent Richard Marquise in today's edition of The Sunday Times. It rehearses the evidence that led to Abdelbaset Megrahi's conviction by the Scottish Court at Zeist in January 2001. For an analysis of the flaws in that evidence (which have, of course, been recognised by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission), see my article "Lockerbie: a satisfactory process but a flawed result".

Those with a vested interest in defending Megrahi's conviction seem to be getting worried. And so they should be.

David Welch on US-Libya breakthrough

The Lebanese newspaper Dar Al Hayat publishes an interview with US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, David Welch. Among the questions posed is:

'You personally mediated the agreement between Libya and Washington on Lockerbie case, among other issues. How did you reach the breakthrough?'

And here is Mr Welch's answer:

'There have been attempts from several American administrations to move Libya out of the game of terrorism into a more responsible behavior and away from weapons of mass destruction. And only because Libya decided to do this, it offers an alternative role model. As Americans, we took some steps too, you know my country, sometimes it is hard for Americans to close the book, and we cannot forget that Americans died, and Libyans died. Today, we have turned the page and it is very important to remove a country from terrorism list when it has done the things expected from it. In the next five years we will see dramatic changes in the policy, as Secretary Rice says there is no "hole in the policy" going from here.'

It was playwright George Bernard Shaw who claimed that "England and America are two countries divided by a common language." But in this instance Americans too might find it difficult to fathom Mr Welch's meaning.

Scottish newspapers on Megrahi campaign launch

The Scottish "heavy" daily newspapers have good coverage of yesterday's launch of the Justice for Megrahi campaign.

The Scotsman concentrates on the experiences of the parish priest of Lockerbie at the time of the disaster, Father Pat Keegans. The report reads in part:

'Father Patrick Keegan, 62, said he believed Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, was innocent and should be freed on compassionate grounds before an appeal against his conviction.

'"I wrote to Mr Megrahi offering him my support, telling him that I was convinced he was innocent, and that I would willingly offer support to him and his family," said Fr Keegan, who was living in Lockerbie at the time of the bombing, just yards from where a wing section of the Pan Am flight crashed in 1988.

'Describing the Libyan and his family as "victims" of the bombing, Fr Keegan said he believed there had been a mellowing of opinion, even among those previously convinced of his guilt.'

The comments from members of the public that follow the story are also well worth reading.

Lucy Adams in The Herald has an article headed "Priest claims police interference in aftermath of Lockerbie bomb". It reads in part:

'As the Justice For Megrahi campaign was launched yesterday, Father Patrick Keegan, the priest in Lockerbie at the time, revealed that he had been visited by police during the inquiry and asked to keep to the official line - that Libya was responsible. (...)

'"I really became convinced of his innocence when the whole thrust of the case shifted from Syria and Iran to Libya alone. Interference in my own life by the investigation team convinced me.

'"A police officer asked to come along and speak to me. I listened to him for quite a while and then I said: Have you come here to ask me to be silent? He said that the point was that when you speak people listen and we would appreciate it if you could follow our line of Libya alone.

'"I complained to the Lord Advocate about it at the time and got a very bland response. The very fact that they interfered and took the trouble to come to talk to me made up my mind that I was on the right track. Other people had similar experiences."'

[Note to editors: the gentleman's name is Father Patrick Keegans.

The Press and Journal has a good account by Joe Quinn. The BBC News website's report of the launch can be read here.]

Priest who witnessed aftermath of Lockerbie backs Megrahi release

A Roman Catholic priest who witnessed the aftermath of the Lockerbie bombing today called for the release of the man convicted for it.

Father Patrick Keegans said Libyan national Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was innocent of the crime and also deserved release on compassionate grounds. (...)

Fr Keegans told a Glasgow press conference: "I'm here today because of my conscience."

He said he had not so far sought publicity but had been moved this week by newspaper accounts of Megrahi's wife and family.

They are staying in Glasgow in order to be able to visit him in prison.

"My conscience has moved so much over the past two days that I wrote to Mr Megrahi offering him my support, telling him that I was convinced he is innocent and that I would willingly offer support to him and his family," said the priest.

Fr Keegans said that that view put him at odds with friends in the US - many of whom were "convinced" of the Libyan's guilt.

"If I was convinced of Mr Megrahi's guilt, I would not be here today," he said.

"I'm here today because of his human plight, I'm here because I believe Scotland is a compassionate and a fair country.

"I also believe that justice for Mr Megrahi will equal justice for the families because the full truth of Lockerbie has never been revealed."

Fr Keegans, who now lives in Ayr, was a priest in Lockerbie at the time of the bombing.

[From The Herald's report of today's press conference to mark the launch of the Justice for Megrahi campaign. The full report can be read here.]

Justice for Megrahi campaign

A campaign to free the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing will be launched today.

The "Justice for Megrahi" campaign will seek to generate support for the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi from prison on grounds of compassion.

The 56-year-old, who was convicted in 2001 of the bombing of Pan Am 103, which killed 259 passengers and crew, and 11 residents of Lockerbie, on 21 December 1988, was diagnosed with "advanced state" prostate cancer in September.

A bid by his lawyers to release the Libyan on bail pending an appeal hearing was rejected by judges last month.

Robert Black, a professor of law at Edinburgh University who was instrumental in setting up Megrahi's trial under Scots Law at a specially-constructed court in the Netherlands, and Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter, Flora, died in the bombing, are among those behind the new campaign.

[From today's edition of The Scotsman. Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm covers the launch of the campaign here. The magazine's editor, Steven Raeburn, has this to say:

"There is one problem that requires moral conscience, not resources, to tackle. Not only does Scotland imprison children to a disproportionate degree, we have also this month condemned a man -who has been officially adjudged to be the possible victim of a miscarriage of justice- to rot in a foreign jail until he dies. A literal death sentence.

"Hopefully compassion and morality are not being sacrificed on the altar of vengeance, or worse, to defer something as inconsequential as shame and embarrassment. It is in our own control to act with more nobility than this."

The campaign's website, which at present consists of little more than a statement of the campaign's aims and objectives and a list of committee members, is to be found at http://www.justiceformegrahi.com.]

Interviews with Abdelbaset Megrahi's children

The Herald today prints interviews with Abdelbaset Megrahi's children, conducted by Lucy Adams at the family's Scottish home in Newton Mearns. The articles are entitled ‘I don’t feel angry, just so sad. My one wish is that my father comes home' and "Megrahi’s daughter: ‘I want to be a lawyer to help people like my dad'".

A number of other newspapers, including the Scottish tabloid, the Daily Record, have picked up The Herald's exclusive interviews. The letters page of The Scotsman has a letter headed "Let Megrahi go free".

Interview with Mrs Megrahi

Today's issue of The Herald runs a series of interviews in which Mrs Aisha Megrahi talks to Lucy Adams about how her family has been affected by her husband's imprisonment and the recent diagnosis of untreatable prostate cancer. The interviews are headed "Megrahi wife's plea: Set my husband free to die"; "'This illness is the hardest thing we have had to bear'"; and "I had nothing to do with it and the fight for justice continues".

In the print edition of the newspaper (but not the internet edition) the articles are accompanied by photographs of Mrs Megrahi taken at the family's house in Newton Mearns.

A further article by Damien Henderson describes memorial events that are planned for the twentieth anniversary of the Lockerbie disaster and outlines the views of some US and UK relatives and Lockerbie inhabitants towards Mr Megrahi and his conviction.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) The Herald is going to run interviews with Mr Megrahi's children. The trailer in today's paper reads: "The family life of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing. In their first interview, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi's five children share emotional details of having to grow up while their father was in a Scottish prison and tell how they made Scotland their home."

TV programme recreates the final moments of flight over Lockerbie

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.]

Silent walk for justice

Links to the various media reports on the silent walk for justice that took place in Edinburgh yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, and in which Abdelbaset Megrahi's wife and four of his children participated, can be found here.

An anniversary

On December 4th [1991] the last Pan Am aircraft landed at Miami International from Barbados. Pan Am which had been operating under Chapter 11 [a form of bankruptcy protection] ceased operations after selling much of its operations earlier in the year to Delta Airlines. Pan Am which had been struggling for years was unable to recover from the bombing of a 747 over Lockerbie Scotland in 1988.

[From History Central.]

Forthcoming Lockerbie book

An' then the world came tae oor doorstep: Lockerbie Lives and Stories
by Jill S Haldane, with a foreword by Robert Black.

Product Description
The Lockerbie Stories tell of the absolute incomprehension of something as alien as hunks of aeroplane and associated detritus falling through the roof of the home from aerospace above, penetrating the security of the family and exposing the self to chaos and despair, inverting life's experience from relatively familiar to discrete. The grief and trauma that followed, dealing with veil of death and destruction as victims and their belongings rained on homes, gardens and streets, together with the shock and upset involved in evacuation from your home and disruption of your routine. The frustrating inability to communicate with family and friends out with the community; the violation of all pre-conceived representations of Christmas and the descending swarm of strangers. To see your wee space on the planet, on the screen and beamed to innumerable other homes across the world. The silence then the noise: the sound of people and busyness was deafening to the quietude of the town and the echo reverberated for a few years. This is not a comparative study of how the Lockerbie bombing compares to any other disaster, natural or premeditated. By nature, disasters are variously horrific for the people directly and indirectly involved.

The book consists of accounts by Lockerbie indwellers of their experiences on 21 December 1988 and the years that followed.

Product Details
Paperback: 332 pages
Publisher: The Grimsay Press (December 19, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1845300637
ISBN-13: 978-1845300630
List price: £16.95/US$32.50
Product dimensions: 9.6 x 6.7 x 0.7 inches
Shipping weight: 1.2 pounds

[Details taken from Amazon.com. There is now an entry for the book on Amazon.co.uk]

Megrahi’s wife to join vigil

The wife of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is planning to take part in a silent vigil outside the Scottish Parliament on Thursday aimed at highlighting alleged miscarriages of justice.

Aisha al Megrahi plans to join a group of aggrieved relatives on a silent walk down the Royal Mile to Holyrood, where organisers have asked to meet with Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary, to present information about several different cases.

Relatives plan to carry photographs of those they believe have suffered a miscarriage of justice, including Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, who is serving a life sentence in Greenock prison with a minimum term of 27 years for the bombing of PanAm flight 103 in 1988, which led to the deaths of 270 people.

Megrahi, 56, is suffering from terminal prostate cancer which has spread to other parts of his body and may not have long to live.

Last month, the court of criminal appeal refused to grant him interim liberation before his appeal next year. The defence claims there is a "compelling case" for releasing him on bail, but the three judges turned down the request.

Mrs Megrahi, who has been living in Libya since 2005, has flown to Scotland to visit her husband in prison.

Although she has generally shied away from media attention, she recently criticised the way her husband has been treated.

She told a newspaper in Tripoli: "Hospitals in Scotland refused to take him because of the increased security involved in transferring him, especially the use of helicopters."

Megrahi, who has consistently denied any involvement in the bombing, said he was "very distressed" by the ruling and vowed that the fight to clear his name would continue after his death if necessary.

He lost an appeal in 2002, but was given a fresh chance to clear his name in June last year when the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission referred his case back to appeal judges for a second time on six different grounds. The fresh appeal is due to be heard next year.

[From an article by Lucy Adams in today's issue of The Herald. The full text can be read here. The procession is to assemble in Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh at 3pm on Thursday.]