[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of the Sunday Express. The following are excerpts.]
A secret videotape exists of the moment the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 was planted but has been “lost” by the authorities, it emerged yesterday.
The footage was shot by German intelligence at Frankfurt Airport and shows a baggage handler slipping a Samsonite suitcase rigged with explosives onto a luggage trolley.
Investigator Juval Aviv obtained the tape and passed it to the now defunct airline, which placed copies in safe deposit boxes around Europe.
He said the CIA has denied the tape exists as it would reveal the US agency’s role in the bombing and clear the name of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.
The BKA, the German equivalent of MI5, which was monitoring the Pan Am terminal, has lost the original tape and the US airline collapsed in 1991.
Mr Aviv said that in 1988 a secret CIA unit was allowing Middle Eastern criminals to smuggle heroin into America via Frankfurt.
The CIA wanted to secure the release of US hostages in Beirut and was also using the profits to buy weapons for operations in Central America.
“The video shows a baggage handler called Roland O’Neill,” said Mr Aviv. “He picks up the suitcase and realises it is heavier than usual. He goes to the phone and makes a call.
“Then he takes the case and puts it on the trolley. All the phones were tapped, so I also had a tape of the phone call.
“O’Neill called the CIA guy at the embassy in Bonn. He said, ‘This is O’Neill, I have the suitcase but it is much heavier than usual’. The CIA guy says, ‘Yes, we know, let it go’.”
The baggage handler, a German who had lived in America, later told Mr Aviv that he was working for the US Government and he thought the suitcase contained drugs. (...)
Mr Aviv, a former Mossad agent who hunted the killers of the Israeli 1972 Olympic team, was hired to investigate the tragedy by Pan Am.
In his confidential report he describes the videotape as “the gem” that proves Iranian-sponsored terrorists carried out the atrocity.
Terror warlord Ahmed Jibril became aware of the CIA-approved drug route and realised he could use it to bomb a Western passenger jet.
Yesterday, Mr Aviv said: “Most of the people involved were scared to pursue it as the CIA were after them. I work with Dr Jim Swire and the families and my dream is that one day we will see the truth come out.”
Extract from "PanAm Scam" by Steven Emerson, American Journalism Review, September 1992:
ReplyDelete"When carefully scrutinized, Aviv's report turns out to be a mixture of unsubstantiated declarations, previously reported arcane facts, and widely known information (such as the fact that passenger Khalid Jaffar initially was considered a suspect in carrying the bomb aboard the plane in Frankfurt) – all woven together in a tapestry of demonstrably false and largely uncorroborated theory. Aviv even asserts that German intelligence agents gave the CIA a videotape of the bomb being put aboard the plane. He claimed to have seen the video and promised reporters he would obtain a copy – a promise he has never kept.
"The first journalists to report critically on the Aviv report were John Merritt and Simon de Bruxelles of the London-based Observer. In November 1989, Merritt and de Bruxelles went over the report with painstaking detail. 'Aviv had pieced together known events and facts together in a wild conspiracy,' Merritt says. 'He's never been in the Mossad'." ( http://ajr.org/Article.asp?id=1314 )
What a nice fairy tale!
ReplyDeleteMISSION LOCKERBIE:
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of of September 2009. Secretary of justice, Kenny MacAskill said a Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission report could be made public if those who gave evidence granted their permission.
The independent commission concluded Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi may have been the victim of a miscarriage of justice. Was it only a eyes mop ! What's going on Mr. Askill, all wait for the result ...
by Edwin Bollier, MEBO Ltd., Switzerland
Given the 'Autumn Leaves' operation that had been conducted by the German BKA, the arrests made including the artful Khreesat and his 'barometric' bombs just outside Frankfurt, I find the suggestion that increased surveillance of baggage areas had been implemented at the airport unremarkable. The disappearance of almost all records from Frankfurt for 21 December in relation to 103 is somewhat more curious.
ReplyDeleteA video of a baggage handler putting a suitcase on a baggage trolley? Isn't that what they do? Strange Aviv no longer has a copy if Pan Am salted a few copies away. Perhaps Mr Goldberg has one!
ReplyDeleteThe "drug conspiracy theory" is and always has been a hoax, a fraud, a fantasy.
Wasn't it Aviv who claimed the CIA "definitely" had Jafaar under surveillance or that the FBI had an interest in the Shirley McKee case?
Baz, as I have remarked before, I do not rule out anything. Are you absolutely sure everything that is asserted about covert activities at Frankfurt is 'a fraud' or 'fantasy'? There was without doubt something very fishy going on at Frankfurt, which would explain the deletion of official file records (esp. when it was known very quickly that a bomb had caused 103 destruction and that PA103a was the main feeder flight coming from Frankfurt), bar the chance finding of the records which, as it happens, show an unaccompanied bag. Not a bomb bag, just an unaccompanied bag. Then there was the unaccompanied 'rush tag' bags through Frankfurt, and the x-ray examination of all baggage. Was the loss of records simply a cover for the confused state of bag/passenger reconciliation or something more sinister? I reserve judgement.
ReplyDeleteAviv has secret videos and photos of everything! He says! Please sir just show one thing rather than describe another bit of secret knowledge we'll have to trust you on, and say "CIA" a lot.
ReplyDeleteRather: He has had, he says. Videos? Youtube - the best place for secret files - is waiting!
ReplyDeleteDamn, must stop forgetting to finalise comments.
ReplyDeleteI wish Mr. Aviv would explain to us all how come a suitcase containing a radio-cassette recorder with only 450g of Semtex in it, plus rather fewer clothes (it would appear) than the average transatlantic luggage, could possibly weigh "much more" than a suitcase full of heroin.
I suspect he's a red herring diverting interest from Heathrow
ReplyDeleteSo if the device was a bog-standard Khreesat model, loaded at Heathrow and exploding bang on cue, how do you explain the MST-13 timer fragment?
ReplyDeleteIf you think it was planted, I want to know when, and how, and possibly who by.
This drivel put me in mind of Robert Fisk's claim in his article of the 22/8/09"For the Truth About Lockerbie look to Tehran and Damascus not Tripoli" which claimed Khalid Jafaar's Lebanese minder put his suitcase on a baggage carousel - in departures! I note this ludicrous claim has now be expunged from the web version!
ReplyDeleteLike Rolfe I wondered why the "primary suitcase" would be heavier than a suitcase full of heroin. What was in the "primary suitcase"? Supposedly a single speaker SF16 cassette recorder with a timer and about 400 grammes of semtex. An owner's manual. The clothing from St.Mary's House consisting of a singlet, a pair of trousers, two shirts, two skirts, a pyjama top, a babysuit and an umbrella. A Slalom shirt was later added to the list and er that's it! The radio cassette put have been clanking around in an almost empty suitcase!
Eddie - you are not prepared to rule anything out? Anything at all? Collison with UFO?
ReplyDeleteNo I am not absolutely sure everything asserted about Frankfurt is fraud and fantasy. However the propnents of "Frankfurt" such as Coleman, Aviv, Francovich, LeWinter, Ferguson, Ashton and Fisk rely on fraud and fantasy. Are you aware of any actual evidence the primary suitcase was introduced at Frankfurt? I think the evidence is clear that the primary suitcase was at Hrathrow before flight PA103A arrived from Frankfurt.
Is the evidence of an unaccompanied bag real? do we know it was bag or where it came from? Are we sure all luggage has been retrieved? If so where are the bags that Bedford saw that Orr claimed were Interlined bags?
It is a mattter of evidence.
Baz, I think Eddie has a point. The circumstances at Frankfurt are really very fishy indeed - particularly the disappearance of almost all the computerised baggage records before the investigators showed up. The Erac story is also very odd, though I can't for the life of me see how that could have been planned/ manipulated/ planted.
ReplyDeleteEven if one discounts the Coleman hypothesis, there is enough there to suggest some very peculiar goings-on at Frankfurt. However, it's not necessarily the case that these goings-on had anything to do with the bombing.
As regards open-mindedness. Yes, the Bedford story is extremely compelling. (Sometimes I wonder if it's too compelling, actually.) However, if the device was introduced at Heathrow, then the presence of the MST-13 timer fragment is inexplicable. And although many people allege that was planted, it's actually very difficult to chip a hole in the provenance of the thing.
I'm intrigued by the sheer number of people associated with this affair who have been subject to smears and discrediting (not always successfully).
Lester Coleman
Allan Frankovitch
Juval Aviv
Oswald le Winter
David ben Aryeah (on this very blog!)
Jim Swire ("Stockholm syndrome")
and others
That's why I'm not prepared simply to accept anyone's assertion that a particular commentator is a fantasist or fraudster. Smearing someone is a good way to get their message ignored, after all, if you can't actually suppress it.
Having said that, Lester Coleman does seem to have assembled an impressive pile of bricks with very very little straw.
By the way, have a read at this, as regards the reliability of Frankovich's film.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lesleyriddoch.co.uk/2009/08/the-maltese-double-cross.html
Baz, I would agree that Heathrow would appear to be the most obvious point of ingestion and less risk of discovery for someone with the motive. There is certainly evidence which shows unaccompanied bags, together with serious flaws in Heathrow's security operation and Pan Am's baggage reconciliation - as illustrated in Mr Basuta's bag which was loaded onto 103 and allowed to depart without it's corresponding passenger on-board.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the introduction of a bomb at Heathrow does leave serious questions over the timer we're led to believe was used, given that the explosion occurred 38mins into the flight, just as Khreesat's devices were known to operate.
I think it seems plausible that any activities that are purported to have been going on at Frankfurt, which I do not rule out, do not necessarily have anything to do with the bomb, but do possibly explain why there appears to have been strenuous efforts (loss of records at Frankfurt together with the Heathrow break-in and Bedfords story) made to divert attention away from Heathrow and Frankfurt as a point of ingestion for the bomb bag.
I am open to all considerations and all somehow reasonable theories concerning the Lockerbie case. I myself stick to no theory. The only thing that is obvious for me is that the official evidence is like a Swiss Emmentaler cheese.
ReplyDeleteBut I am tired to read stories which pop up from time to time about striking evidence that – unfortunately – got lost. Or about convincing witnesses who – unfortunately – are too dead to testify (like the Goben episode).
So if there is a video showing Mr. O´Neil then let us watch it. Or let us listen to what Mr. O´Neil can tell. Or both.
As a former Mossad agent(?) Mr. Aviv would have reserved a copy for himself, I believe.
And as a former Mossad agent (?) Mr. Aviv surely knows that there is only one thing that he can do when he has hot stuff against the mighty people in his hands: Go public!
Lost evidence is no evidence.
Eddie - I am quite prepared to accept that it was one of Khreesat's devices that was introduced at Heathrow - indeed I suspect that it was and that it was brought to England on the Gothenburg Ferry. I suspect it may have been the device recovered in Neuss on the 26th October 1988. However I try to deal with what can be proven - that the primary suitcase was introduced at Heathrow.
ReplyDeleteThere is indeed a great deal that I would not rule out. However I rule out (for example)
(a) Robert Fisk's claim that the Police observed Jafaar's minder putting his suitcase on the luggage carousel because you don't put luggage on a carousel on departure!
(b) Aviv's claim (above) because he doesn't have the video and even if he did it wouldn't prove anything and indeed none of his claims is supported by evidence.
(c) The Francovich/LeWinter claim Jafaar had a CIA escort to his "keeper" on the plane Matthew Gannon because not only is the claim ridiculous but because Gannon wasn't on the plane.
(d) The Francovich/Ashton/Ferguson claim that a scottish farmer recovered a suitcase of heroin at Tundergarth because the farmer never made such a claim. Even if this were true it doesn't prove the bomb was introduced at Frankfurt.
Further I do not see the need to disprove each and every dubious claim these people make.
Rolfe - what are these "smears". One aspect of "Cover-up of Convenience" was a tedious recitatation of the unrelated legal problems of the various "witnesses", the implication being that because they had brushes with the law therefore their claims were true. Pointing out people are fabricators is not a "smear". Where were Coleman, Francovich, LeWinter, Aviv and Ben -Aryeah "smeared?
Adam - on the evidence of "Cover-up of Convenience" it wouldn't be too difficult to fabricate a tape of O'Neill's conversation with the CIA!
Baz said he suspected the Khreesat device from Neuss was brought over on the Gothenburg Ferry, prior to its ingestion at Heathrow.
ReplyDeleteWhich reminded me of what Channel 4's well-researched film Dispatches - Murder In St James's discovered about the German gun that was used to kill WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan Embassy on 17 April 1984. The murder weapon was supplied by the Hein terrorist group in West Berlin, brought over on the ferry in a "gold-coloured Mercedes", and delivered to the anti-Gaddafi organisation, Al Burkan ('Volcano'), in London.
Al Burkan was said to have been financed by the Reagan White House (ie Ollie North) and had several of its operatives installed in the Libyan Embassy at 5 St James's Square. The film demonstrated that the fatal shot had been fired not from a Sterling submachine gun inside the Embassy, but from a less powerful and more accurate weapon on the sixth floor of 3 St James's Square, presumably by another Al Burkan operative.
Al Burkan's leader, Ragab Zatout, had planned to overthrow Gaddafi, and seize control of Libya's oil wealth, but his coup attempt was thwarted 10 days after WPC Fletcher's murder. (Zatout is apparently alive and well, and living comfortably somewhere in the USA!)
This is what the film's blurb says:
"Dispatches - Murder in St James's (1997)
"Investigation into the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot whilst on duty during a protest outside the Libyan Embassy in 1984.
"The two-part documentary suggests that she was killed, not by someone inside the Embassy as originally claimed, but by a gunman in an adjacent building used by the British security services. The film probes deeper, and finds evidence indicating that the murder was carried out by an anti-Gaddafi terrorist organisation backed by the CIA. By killing a British police officer and blaming Gaddafi's Libya, the plan, it seems, was to start a coup in order to remove Gaddafi and install a puppet regime to seize Libya's oil.
"The downing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie could have been another attempt at this plan to remove Gaddafi."
The film is riveting and can be viewed in eight parts here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=19f4b36972ec4b2a
Enjoy!
Surely it is my fault but I have never heard of any terrorist Hein group. And I find it strange that the perpetrators were in such short supply of weapons that they needed one from walled West Berlin. Especially since they, so it seems, had contacts to British intelligence who could deliver any weapon of the world.
ReplyDeleteStrange! Yesterday the eight youtube videos of Murder In St James's were available on demand.
ReplyDeleteToday, when I click on each episode I get the message: "This video is not available in your country due to copyright restrictions."
Qu'est-ce que bloody c'est?
Courtesy of the copyright owner, Fulcrum TV, a 1 min 24 sec clip of the film is freely available here: http://www.fulcrumtv.com/murder%20in%20st.%20james.html.
ReplyDeleteThe clip shows a gold-coloured Mercedes leaving the cross-channel ferry at Dover, on its way to deliver the WPC Fletcher murder weapon to al-Burkan in London.
I speculated about the Gothenburg Ferry because Abu Talb's associate Martin Imandi travelled to the UK when the Swedish Police were looking for him and indeed he got married there. It seemed to me a much safer route for moving an aviation bomb not only literally but to board and go through customs. However it is just a wild guess unsupported by evidence. I don't know how the IED arrived at Heathrow.
ReplyDeleteThere were blindingly obvious flaws in the scenario advanced in "Murder in St.James" (notably predicting a burst of machine-gun fire from the Libyan People's Bureau) but this is so far of the subject of Lockerbie I shan't go into it. Suffice to say there was some background to the plan to blame Libya for Lockerbie.
p.s. To Adam - it was in Alan Francovich's "Maltese Double Cross" that a ludicrous telephone conversation between fraudster Oswald LeWinter and a purported CIA operative (working as a switchboard operator ) was staged in which the incredulous LeWinter is informed how Jafaar is escorted to his "Keeper" Matthew Gannon described as "that big m....f...."
ReplyDelete(clearly confusing him with "Tiny" McKee.) Neither Gannon nor McKee were on that plane. LeWinter's accomplice was described in "Cover-up of Convenience" as "an anonymous witness"!
Baz, to go through your points one at a time.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you can dismiss the story about Jafaar's luggage simply because "you don't put luggage on a carousel on departure". The Frankfurt luggage system which held bags on a moving belt until the computer gave instructions for them to go to a particular gate might be described as a carousel. The turn of phrase isn't ludicrous. (I still don't think the bomb was in Jafaar's luggage, but I don't think the "carousel" remark is either here or there.)
I was prepared to give credence to Mr. Aviv, because I found it improbable that Pan Am would employ a fraud to investigate the affair on their behalf. However, his own actions are condemning him - I don't believe he has such a video either, so what the hell is he on about. He's heading for the Bollier camp.
I think Francovich's point about where Gannon's body was found is spurious - people do move about inside planes. However, as Gannon's name is in all the lists of Lockerbie victims, you are going to have to explain your statement that he wasn't on the plane.
The "suitcase of heroin" claim isn't confined to Francovich, it has circulated widely. Paul Foot reported on it in detail. However, if true, it rather argues against the bomb being introduced at Frankfurt, suggesting that substituting the bomb for the drug shipment wasn't the modus operandi.
Asserting that people are fabricators, without providing supporting evidence, is a smear. In using the word, I'm not discounting the possibility that the smears are true, merely pointing out that so far, in a lot of cases, all I'm seeing are the accusations, not the evidence. For example, you keep calling le Winter a "fraudster". Maybe you could provide a pointer to the evidence for this.
David ben Aryeah has been attacked on this very blog by an anonymous poster making wild accusations. It does appear that either a remarkable percentage of people commentating on the Lockerbie tragedy are fraudsters or conmen, or else there is a concerted effort to label such people in that way so as to allow their evidence to be discounted. I await evidence to decide one way or the other.
Oh yes, and you state that neither Gannon nor McKee were on the plane. That statement requires clarification and evidence.
ReplyDeleteFor Rolfe: I think you will find that baz said neither Gannon nor McKee was on that plane (feeder flight Pan Am 103A). Their flight did not go via Frankfurt: it went direct from Cyprus to Heathrow.
ReplyDeleteFor Adam: I'm surprised you've not heard of Hilmar Hein, the boss of a Berlin scaffolding firm who doubled up as terrorist gang leader. Among Hein's exploits were assisting the anti-Gaddafi organisation al-Burkan to assassinate Libyan diplomats and setting fire to the Libyan People's Bureau in Berlin in October 1984 (see http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/dokument/dokument.html?id=13522238&top=SPIEGEL ).
Was Hein also involved in the 1986 Berlin La Belle discotheque bombing, I wonder?
Sorry, Baz, I misread. Thanks to Patrick for clearing that up.
ReplyDeleteWasn't the luggage Bedford loaded on AVE4041 first mostly belonging to the CIA people? McKee's, yes. And others? Was it Gannon's that was left behind at Heathrow?
If the five original bags in that container belonged to McKee and colleagues, and these were later matched up and shown not to be the bomb bag, then that does seem to leave us with either the "Bedford suitcase", or one of the Frankfurt bags.
To Patrick Haseldine:
ReplyDeleteNobody is perfect and there are many things I do not know about, I must admit. Thanks for the information.
Rolfe: Fisk alleged the German Police saw Jafaar's Lebanese minder put his suitcase on a carousel. You cannot read this on the Internet any longer because this claim has been expunged from the original story on the Independent website! Even Fisk's paper realize it is rubbish!
ReplyDeleteAs Patrick Haseldine pointed out I meant PA103A. (As it happens I seriously doubt Matthew Gannon was on flight PA103 either). When I raised this with Francovich his weasly response was that he never said at which airport this incident (Jafaar having a CIA escort onto the plane) occurred!
The staged telephone conversation featuring LeWinter and a supposed CIA officer that featured in The Maltese Double Cross proves "Major General ret'd." Oswald LeWinter is a fraudster. (It also proves Francovich and his associates are too.) LeWinter has also been imprisoned for fraud which would seem to me reasonable grounds to describe him as a fraudster!
It was indeed Francovich himself who exposed LeWinter as a fraud in relation to the "October Surprise" hoax. (See part V of The Masonic Verses "The Elephant in the Room" at http://e-zeecon.blogspot.com.)
In "Cover-up of Convenience" John Ashton (researcher on The Maltese Double Cross) and Ferguson describe LeWinter as "a known fabricator" but argue that fabricated evidence has some merit! (Without a hint of self-awareness they also describe him as "a man who has made a good living from duping journalists")I describe LeWinter as a fraudster because that is what he is!
Foot may well have written about the suitcase of heroin. These people are all linked. Foot worked with Ashton who is described as Francovich's Deputy! Ashton's writing partner Ian Ferguson shared a website with Professor Black. David Ben Aryeah was an associate of Francovich's whose consultant LeWinter is Coleman's partner. Foot may have reported it in detail but they are the same details. The point is the farmer who is alleged to have found this never made such a claim so what evidence is there?
Rolfe makes the point that "if true, it argues against the bomb being introduced at Frankfurt". (if true, it doesn't mean the drugs even came from Frankfurt!)
The confused Francovich/Ashton/Ferguson theory is that the drug smugglers didn't just switch Jafaar's bag for a suitcase of heroin but also introduced another bag containing the bomb. (Rather making Jafaar irrelevant to the plot!) But why smuggle a suitcase of perfectly good smack onto a plane you know is going to explode? Even if drugs were recovered (and there is no evidence that they were) (a) it doesn't mean they came from Frankfurt (b) there is no evidence it is related to the bombing.
"(As it happens I seriously doubt Matthew Gannon was on flight PA103 either)"
ReplyDeleteUh, why??
"Agency officials often lie to family members about how their loved ones died to maintain "plausible deniabilty" and to prevent the CIA being linked to controversial overseas operations".
ReplyDeletehttp://www,arlingtoncemetery.net/mkgannon.htm
On what evidence do you believe he was on the plane? Beirut was a pretty hairy place. Do you think the CIA has some involvement in the bombing or the plan to blame Megrahi?
Call me naive, but as the guy's name is on the Lockerbie memorial my default position is that he was on the plane. I've heard the rumour that a body was spirited away, but none that a body was added. How easy would it be to sneak an extra victim into the Lockerbie chain of evidence? Hard, I would have thought.
ReplyDeleteGannon's seat number is recorded, and although I know you're not a fan of The Maltese Double Cross, do you think the Pan Am hostess was lying when she describes having someone she later found out was Gannon in her departure lounge? Ben Aryeah describes an alleged anomaly regarding where Gannon's body was found.
All faked? How?
And as regards your second question, the idea has occurred to me, I have to say.
Rolfe: I posed the econd question because it is a theme of my own articles that the bombing did not come out of the blue but was expected and planned for.
ReplyDeleteA second theme is that while The Vincennes Incident gave Iran an obvious motive for revenge it also gave the West a motive to collude in an appropriate and proximate response which was exploited for other political objectives.
Having said that I will try to respond to your intelligent and pertinent comments bearing in mind the words of Darius Jedburgh "to know is to die".
This website is for obsessives who dispute the official version of events in the Lockerbie case. While the "clothing" the "timer" the "identification" are challenged and I challenge the claim the suitcase arrived at Heathrow from Frankfurt nobody challenges the number of victims. I believe the number to be greater than 270 and may yet increase.
You're "default position" is quite valid but most people's alternative to the "official scenario" is that the bombing was carried out by some other terrorist group. The concept that the authorities wanted the plane destroyed occurs to very few people.
You refer to the experience of Dr Fieldhouse. Why were his labels removed? You ask "how easy would it be to sneak in an extra victim?" I would say it depends on how long do you have to plan it.
According to an article written by my best mate John ashton in 1995 (with Paul Foot) a local TV crew filmed americans bringing what appeared to be a coffin into Longtown.
I did not raise this issue directly but as an aside in relation to LeWinter fabricating evidence Mr Gannon was on board PA103A. Was this harmless or disinformation to "prove" Mr Gannon was Jafaar's "keeper" on the plane not just to Heathrow but beyond?
If LeWinter, Francovich and crew could fabricate evidence Gannon was on flight PA103A could people of greater sophistication and resources fabricate evidence he was on PA103 also?
I am aware of the supposed anomaly of the position of Gannon's body but Francovich and his crew placed Gannon in First Class.
I have studied "The Maltese Double Cross" closely and find the lies significant. I do not dismiss the evidence of ground staff Linda Forsythe (which contradicted LeWinter's telephone fraud.)
She said Gannon and party were laughing and joking pretending not to know each other. (I find it odd that McKee travelled to cyprus by Ferry if he could have bummed a lift on the ambassador's helicopter.)
McKee was delighted to be upgraded to business class. Gannon was in First Class (out of sight of his companions.) Gannon's seat number is recorded, in Business Class three rows in fron of McKee. it is not me who is calling Linda a liar.
I presume before take-off the crew counted the passengers but was the manifest accurate?
Matthew Gannon (who may have known Ian Spiro) was not just a CIA officer. He wa the son-in-law of the Deputy Director Operations (formerly head of "Covert Operations" for the Near East Division and Gannon's widow (also a CIA officer) was well provided for through the creation of the "Libyan Solution".
It seems apparent that a number of VIPs were steered away from flight PA103 - does anyone really believe John Lyndon just "overslept"?
Of all the passengers and crew on flight PA103 only a handful had family, friends and employers in a position to know the flight was doomed - Matthew Gannon was certainly one of them.
It's always difficult to know how far to go down the rabbit hole on this one. That's pretty far, though.
ReplyDeleteYou asked.
ReplyDeletep.s. The bit about John Lyndon a.k.a. Johnny Rotten was a joke.
ReplyDelete