Lord Fraser says alleged transfer of timer to FBI lab would have compromised the Lockerbie bomb trial
Lord Fraser, the former lord advocate who charged the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, has revealed he was unaware that evidence presented at his trial seems to have left Britain beforehand.
The Tory peer has told a television documentary that he did not know that a fragment of circuit board linked to the bomb had allegedly been moved to an FBI lab in Washington for analysis ahead of the trial and conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.
Fraser said he would not have agreed to the step because it could have left the crown open to accusations at the trial that the circuit board could have been damaged or tampered with during the move.
The original trial heard the fragment was found in a piece of recovered clothing in a wood 25 miles from Lockerbie, six months after the bombing in December 1988.
Prosecutors linked it to Megrahi after Thomas Thurman of the FBI identified it as part of a sophisticated timer used to detonate explosives. He said it was made by Mebo, a Swiss firm which supplied the component only to Libya and the East German Stasi.
Fraser’s comments were made in a Dutch documentary called “Lockerbie Revisited”. (...)
The Libyan authorities have asked Scottish ministers to transfer Megrahi to their custody under the terms of a transfer deal brokered by London and Tripoli, but a condition of the treaty is that prisoners cannot leave the country while criminal proceedings are ongoing.
Megrahi, who is terminally ill with prostate cancer, has revealed that he does not believe he will live to clear his name. He said he may drop his appeal to try to spend his final days with his family. (...)
He said his low spirits as a result of being away from his wife, children and parents, were reducing the chances of his body responding to medical treatment and that there was now little to keep him here.
He made his views known last week in a meeting with Christine Grahame, the nationalist MSP, who has taken an interest in his case. He told her he was happy for his views to be publicised although his lawyer has stipulated that he cannot be directly quoted.
Megrahi believes he will die by the end of the year, long before his appeal is expected to conclude and complains that prison is reducing his lifespan. He claims his isolation and depression are reducing the chance of his body responding to the medical treatment he receives. If your mood is low the body will not respond properly to medication to fight the disease, he told Grahame.
There is no consideration in the criminal justice system for his health, Megrahi said. People do not care about his condition and the system is unfair, he added.
The Scottish prison service says it always provides seriously ill prisoners with support.
Megrahi regards as perverse the fact that his transfer to Libya would not be guaranteed even if he agrees first to drop his appeal, but he feels he may have to take the gamble.
[From an article by Jason Allardyce in today's edition of The Sunday Times.]
Megrahi is right; the decision is perverse. The British government and the judiciary, it's lapdog, are perverse and corrupt.
ReplyDeleteIt's very strange that Fraser 'didn't know the fragment had been sent to America' and yet the timing of his smearing Dr Swire was so perfect.
On 7th of July 2009, the second part of the Appeal starts at the High Court in Edinburgh.
ReplyDeleteThe manipulated MEBO timer fragment MST-13, played a fundamental role with the accusation in the PanAm 103 assassination attempt, against Libya and for the official, Abdulbaset Al Megrahi. Point 5, in the appeal.
Questions to ex FBI Special Agent and Task Force chief Richard Marquise in the documentary film "Lockerbie revisited" by Regisseur Gideon Levy, bring dubious facts on the daylight concerning the conspiracy against Libya.
The main subject dealt with the notorious 'timer circuit board MST-13 fragment', called PT35B in the court records. Richard Marquise answered Gideon Levy's question,
G. L.: Would you have a case if you wouldn't have these evidence (MST-13 timer)?
R.M.: Would we have a case. It would be a very dificult case to prove. It would be a very dificult case to prove ... I don't think we would ever had an indictment.
From the surprising answer and the extensive information from its book SCOTBOM: " Evidence and Lockerbie Investigation", it can be derived from the fact that Mr. Marquise about the true background status of the manipulated MST-13, (PT-35) fragment, was very good informed !
Quotation from its book SCOTBOM, Chapter 11: "Along with MEBO's employee Ueli Lumpert, were interviewed by a Swiss magistrate, FBI agents and Scottish police officers were present to take notes and provide questions to the court.
Lumpert was the first witness and after examining a photograph of PT-35, testified the chip had come from a circuit board for a timer he designed and built in 1985 at the request of Bollier.
He believed the chip had come from one of the first timers made. He detailed how he had designed this circuit board, noting the slight imperfection on PT-35. Once the master board was made, the imperfections showed up on the other circuit boards built from that master."
MEBO comment: It shows clearly, the fragment comes of a prototype MST-13 circuit board!
SCOTBOM, Chapter 17: "Scottish Detective Chief Superintendent, Stuart Henderson was convinced of the veracity of PT-35, the way it had been found, logged in and the fact it had not been identified even by the forensic examiners until January 1990. Although it had been blasted was not examined until a year after the attack.
Hendeson's briefing included detail from the time the explosion occurred to the container, the radio, clothing and suitcase. He discussed the timer which had brought the Swiss into the investigation. Williamson provided the history of PT-35 which had been traced to MEBO, the Swiss electronic firm.
Williamson said that Allen Feraday, the forensic examiner, had sent a fax to Henderson in January 1990, about items he found blasted into a Slalom shirt. In addition to pieces of plack plastic, some wire and a piece of instruction manual for the RT-SF16 radio were discovered.
The most significant item was a fingernail-size chip, green in color, with solder for a circuit on one side only. This chip became known as PT-35, the evidence designation placed on it by the Scots. He spoke of the efforts which led us to MEBO, one familiar to the Swiss.
Swiss Insp. Cretton expressed his concerns and those of Bollier. The first was that the CIA had planted the chip in the wreckage found at Lockerbie.
Henderson and I (Marquise) told him this thought had also crossed our minds. Neither of us believed the CIA or any government official would do such at thing, buth we had discussed the possibility".
On the 12th of May 1989 the allegedly found first brown MST-13 timer fragment was photographed by RARDE, marked as PT/35.
Ref. Dr. Hayes EXAMINATION side no.51, photo Lable PI-995, Ref PP'8932
continuation below >>>
11 June, 1990:
ReplyDeleteInternational Conference at the Academy in Quantico, Virginia.
From SCOTBOM, Richard Marquise: The Scots finally told everyone
else about PT-35, the fragment that appeared to have come from a circuit board, which had been blasted into the yorkie clothing. They had visited 55 companies around the world and had beenunable to identify its source. It did not match any of the electronic components found at Lockerbie.
Tom Thurman, the agent from the explosives unit, who had been present in Lockerbie earlyin the investigation and had been part of the team, approached Henderson and asked if he could take photographs of PT-35 attempt to identify it. Hederson, who believed the Scots had done all they could do, agreed. What Thurman did yielded fruit within two days.
Thurman took the photographs to a technical expert John Scott Orkin at the CIA.
The Fragment PT-35 were identical with the Libya MST-13 timer
(K-1) which had been seized 1986 by CIA in Togo and Senegal.
Thurman quickly notified officials at WFO and FBIHQ of the discovery. in twenty four hours chief Stuart Henderson and Allen Feraday, were back in USA.
Tom Thurman was at the 18th of June 1990 by ABC-TV, celebrated as "Person OF THE WEEK" . see also, BBC (UK) video, title: Despatches, from 17th of December 1998. Published also on our webpage: www.lockerbie.ch
Mr. Richard Marquise, please it is time for the truth...
more information on webpage: www.lockerbie.ch
by Edwin and Mahnaz Bollier, MEBO Ltd., Switzerland
Truth clearing-up:
ReplyDeleteExcerpts from the Court-documents at Kamp van Zeist (17th of June, 2000)
Witness Michael Langford-Johnson, no. 118, sworn statements:
Q- Are you Detective Inspector Michael Langford-Johnson? A- I am, sir.
---- Q- Inspector, did you become involved in the inquiry in relation to the Lockerbie disaster? A- I was, yes. Q- And in May of 1990, did you assist in a particular line of inquiry along with Detective Inspector Williamson? A- I did. Q- Was that into the manufacture of a small fragment of printed circuit board? A- Yes, identified as PT/35.
Q- Thank you. And did you. And did you understand that Inspector Williamson had been conducting these inquiris for some months prior to you joining him? A- I was aware of that, yes. Q- Had he been assisted up until then by another officer, Mr. Harrower? A- I belive so, yes. Q- In May of 1990, along with Mr. Williamson, did you go to the premises of Ferranti at Oldham? A- Yeah, Ferranti International Computers and System Limited. Q- There did you meet a gentleman by name of Mr. Worol? A- By arrangement, that's correct.
Q- Could you have before you, please, Label Number 353 and Label Number 419. Now, is Label 353, Inspector, the fragment of the printed circuit board referred to by you as PT/35? A- Yes. And it bears my signature on it as well. Q- Thank you. Now, is Label Number 419 apparently a sample removed from that fragment? A- It is. And it bears my signature on the label again, sir. Q- Had that sample already been removed by the time you began assisting Inspector Williamson? A- It had, yes. Q- Thank you.
And did you take both of these items with you when you went to see Mr. Worrol? A- Yes. Q- And were you hoping that he might assist in taking the inquiry forward? A- Yes, in relation to the fiberglass laminate. Q- Sorry? A- In relation to the fiberglass laminate, trying to identify it. Q- Thank you. When you spoke to Mr. Worrol on this occasion in May of 1990, did he require to do anything to any of the fragments that you took in order to assist you? A- Yeah.------
Q- 419. That's the sample removed from the original fragment known as PT--. A- Correct, giving the number DP/31.--------
Q- All right. Do you remember what color the fragment of printed circuit board itself was? A- I can't remember.
+++ Continuation down >>>
The truth about the labeling of the first brown MST-13 fragment with the inscratched letter "M" on it and the second green circuit board duplicate PT-35B, concoct from a machine made (Thüring) MST-13 PC-board:
ReplyDeleteOn the 12th of September 1989 the allegedly found first brown MST-13 timer fragment was photographed by RARDE but was not yet labeled as PT/35.
After his return from Siemens AG on the 27th of April 1990 Inspector Keith Harrower did not bring the two remaining parts of the first brown MST-13 fragment together with the examination report of Eng. Brosante back to RARDE but left them in the hands of the Scottish Police (Insp. William Williamson).
In the beginnings of May 1990 Detective Inspector Michael Langford-Johnson, Strathclyde police, was introduced by Insp. Williamson into the manipulations concerning the MST-13 fragments. Langford-Johnson understood Insp. Williamson’s problem with the "brown" MST-13 fragment, with the letter "M" inscratched on it, that it could not be used anymore for further incrimination of Libya.
With a copy from a MST-13 fragment (duplicate) fabricated from a green circuit board, without the letter "M" on it! The first brown fragment was exchanged by Det. Langford-Johnson. Insp. William Williamson’s problem was thus solved (see Feradays Memorandum).
Notabene: Only with a green MST-13 fragment Libya could be incriminated for the atrocity of the PanAm 103 bombing!
Prior its being cut into two parts the whole green timer fragment was internally named PT-35B. On the 12th of May 1990 the green MST-13 fragment was cut into two pieces and the two remaining parts were photographed by Langford-Johnson!
The most important discharge piece of evidence is kept in court archives and can be compared with the first proof photo PI-995:
It is very simple, the evidence part PT-35 (b) is the green colored MST-13 duplicate, without the letter "M" on it; MANIPULATED !!!
All dates concerning the RARDE examinations of Dr. Hayes und Allen Feraday and the documents and labels of Dumfries & Galloway Constabulary in Dumfries were belatedly falsified and brought in accordance with the chronologie of the MST-13 fragments PT-35B (see the chapter above: Manipulations to match the dates of the brown an the green timer fragment.
No doubt !!! Libya and his Official Abdelbaset Al Megrahi were deliberately entangled with the bombing of PanAm 103 by the manipulated piece of evidence PT-35B.
When will the culprits for this biggest fraud in the history of Scotland be condemned?
by Edwin and Mahnaz Bollier, MEBO Ltd., Switzerland
One baffling aspect of this is the actual date the fragmemnt was supposedly found, and by whom. Most reporters say it was found some months after the Lockerbie incident, but one of the Police searchers, John Crawford, in his book "The Lockerbie Incident - A Detective's Tale" implies that that the timer fragment was found before the end of 1988 - within a week of the incident. If so, then the timeline becomes even more bizarre.
ReplyDeleteEvidence led at the Lockerbie trial suggested that the timer fragment - embedded in cloth/debris - was discovered by DC Gilchrist on 13 January 1989 (see "Fragment of the imagination", Private Eye magazine, October 2007 - http://i-p-o.org/Private_Eye-Lockerbie-Oct2007.jpg).
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Patrick. I hadn't seen that particular Private Eye reference. Among the allegedly "serious" books on Lockerbie there is much variation on when, where, how and by whom the fragment was found. Given that it is probebly THE piece of damning evidenceagainst Al-Megrahi, it is amazing that its provenance is so vague and disputed; which to me indicates, at best, that evidence was tampered with and, at worst, that it was fabricated and planted.
ReplyDeletePatrick Haseldine is correct as to what evidence was led but David Leppard's 1991 book "On the trail of Terror" disclosed that the exhibit was discovered by Dr Hayes colleague, Alan Feraday in June (blasted into another suitcase) and refers to evidence of this. This alternative account was raised at Camp Zeist and dismissed by their Lordships at para.13 of the Judgement.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, the Wikipedia biography on Alan Feraday that I created on 14 May 2009 has just been deleted for no good reason (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:PJHaseldine#Block ).
ReplyDeleteDespite its deletion, Alan Feraday's biography can be read, for the time being at least, at the following url: http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:BdgRwofugUwJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/