Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Who bombed Lockerbie?
This is the heading over a post of yesterday's date on the Hunting Monsters blog. It refers to some relatively recent pieces in the UK media that cast doubt on the official version of the Lockerbie disaster. There is nothing in it that will be new to followers of this blog. I mention it only so that anxious readers will be reassured that I survived my journey to the Northern Cape.
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Great news!
ReplyDeleteThe finger of suspicion points firmly towards the South African apartheid regime.
ReplyDeleteThe regime's target on Pan Am Flight 103 was UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson.
An online petition calling for a United Nations inquiry into Bernt Carlsson's murder can be signed here.
But be quick: the petition closes for signature on 28 January 2010!
On 29 June 2007, The Scotsman published this article But if he didn't do it, who did? The other theories:
ReplyDelete"According to the luggage swap theory, apartheid South Africa was responsible for the sabotage of Flight 103.
"On 22 December, 1988 - the day after the Lockerbie bombing - the Namibia independence agreement was signed at UN headquarters in New York.
"A 23-strong South African delegation, headed by foreign minister, Pik Botha, cancelled a booking on the flight at short notice.
"There was also a last-minute change of travel plan by the UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson.
"Carlsson is alleged by some to have been the target of South African military intelligence operatives, having been the architect of Namibian independence.
"Instead of flying direct from Brussels to New York, Carlsson was persuaded to stopover in London and join the Pan Am 103 transatlantic flight.
"On the day of the bombing, he arrived at Heathrow from Brussels at 11:06 with a booking to travel onward to New York by flight PA 103 at 18:00.
"Carlsson was met at the airport by Bankole Timothy of De Beers and taken by car to central London.
"After the meeting with De Beers, Carlsson was brought back to Heathrow Airport, arriving at about 17:30.
"His already checked-in suitcase would have remained at Heathrow airport for about seven hours, thus providing South African airside-authorised personnel with ample opportunity to substitute it for the bomb suitcase.
"That South Africa Airlines were involved in unlawfully switching baggage that day was confirmed by a Pan Am security officer, Michael Jones, at the Lockerbie fatal accident inquiry in October 1990.
"Within a week of the death of Bernt Carlsson on flight PA 103, his office safe at the United Nations had allegedly been broken into. And his apartment, which had been sealed by UN security staff, had also apparently been burgled.
"Neither his girlfriend nor his sister could identify a single shred of anything in his luggage at the property store in Lockerbie."
In apparent confirmation of the luggage swap theory, Bernt Carlsson's girl-friend, Sanya Popovic, is quoted as saying:
"[Bernt's] bag was sitting at Heathrow, in the baggage area, from early that day. There is quite an important question about it, as neither I nor his sister was able to identify the bag. Just didn't seem like his (it was apparently immediately underneath the one containing the bomb, and quite considerably shattered). Not to mention the size was totally off (much too small).
"I was quite surprised to find that despite our reactions to that bag, the Crown chose to say there was a definitive identification. Which there certainly wasn't."
A United Nations inquiry into Bernt Carlsson's murder will doubtless focus upon this evidence from Sanya Popovic and his sister, Inger Carlsson-Musser.
Welcome back. I hope you had a great trip!
ReplyDelete