Sunday, 3 October 2010

Retour sur l'affaire Lockerbie

Gideon Levy's award-winning documentary Lockerbie Revisited is being broadcast tonight at 20.30 (19.30 BST) by the Swiss channel TV8.

No UK or US television station has yet had the courage to show the film, in spite of its being the 2009 winner of the Prix Europa “Best Television Current Affairs Programme of the Year” award. However, there will be an opportunity to see it at a fringe event hosted by Christine Grahame MSP during the SNP conference in Perth. It is being shown on Friday 15th October 2010, in the Murray Room, at the Salutation Hotel, Perth at 6.00pm.

12 comments:

  1. Will it have English subtitles, or be dubbed into English? The online version is hugely frustrating because about 50% of it is in Dutch!

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  2. Hugely frustrating? Not really: the film's director Gideon Levy narrates in Dutch but conducts all of the interviews in English.

    And don't forget, Rolfe, Lockerbie Revisited concludes with this little gem in the vernacular of journalist Ian Ferguson:

    "This could bring an end to the appeal. If the Crown knew that this was all going to be heard in public, they may well drop their opposition to the appeal and Megrahi goes free. That's how f*****g important it is. This could bring the Scottish judicial system and the FBI into f*****g complete disrepute, and frankly they would not want this linen to be washed in public!"

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  3. It's certainly a clever piece of ambush-journalism, and he manages to surprise quite a few interesting admissions out of certain people.

    The basic premise is a bit of a red herring though. Suppose the timer fragment was taken to the USA? Well, it was, of course it was. It was taken to Germany too, earlier. It was quite well-travelled. The point is that it never left the custody of UK investigators at any point. When it left the UK, it was firmly attached to DC Crawford.

    This seems to be the crux of the misunderstandings in the film - that and people's memories going a bit after 20 years. The thing did leave Scotland, but it never left Scottish custody.

    So does it matter? Maybe its chain of provenance is tainted, and maybe that should have led to its being disallowed in evidence. But that's just a technicality. It's not hard to see that the fragment in the red-circle photo is the same item as the photographs of the actual court exhibit, and all the changes that can be seen to its shape are accounted for in its known history. So in real (as opposed to legal) terms, does it really matter if it took a trip to the USA?

    In my opinion, if anything was going to disallow that thing as evidence, it should be the apparent interpolation in Hayes's notes. But the court weren't going to give up that sweet piece of incrimination lightly.

    I'd love for someone to prove for certain the damn thing was fabricated in the summer of 1989, but I really don't think that's possible. And without that, quibbling about technicalities in 1990 is rather a poor second.

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  4. When it left the UK, it was firmly attached to DC Crawford.

    Sorry, Rolfe, you are wrong.

    Where is the evidence that the timer fragment was attached to DC Crawford? If the timer fragment ever left the UK, it would have travelled with RARDE's Alan Feraday who went hither and thither to try to incriminate Libya.

    Dr Hans Koechler believes that Feraday and his US counterpart Tom Thurman should be charged with perverting the course of justice over the issue of this fragment of the imagination.

    DC Crawford's main claim to fame is that he (personally) failed to investigate the targeting of UN Assistant Secretary-General and UN Commissioner for Namibia Bernt Carlsson on Pan Am Flight 103.

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  5. Well, if I'm wrong I'm wrong, but I don't think so. As I understand it, when that piece of evidence went outside the UK, a member of the Scottish constabulary had to accompany it. Feraday went too, of course.

    Anyway, that's a side issue. Point one is that the travels were almost certainly legitimate. And point two is that there is no evidence of the travels having interfered with the fragment in any way. It's identifiable as the same thing as in the first photograph from 1989, and all the damage is accounted for legitimately. So making an issue of the foreign trips is just a technicality and does nothing to illuminate the truth.

    And Bernt Carlsson, worthy man though I'm sure he was, was only one of 270 victims. Give it a rest why don't you.

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  6. Point one is that the travels [of the timer fragment] were almost certainly legitimate.

    Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, who was interviewed by Gideon Levy in Lockerbie Revisited, categorically denied that he had authorised anyone to take the timer fragment to the United States. So if, as you claim Rolfe, it went to Germany before going to the US its travels were almost certainly not "legitimate"!

    And Bernt Carlsson, worthy man though I'm sure he was, was only one of 270 victims. Give it a rest why don't you.

    Bernt Carlsson was the most prominent of the 259 people killed on Pan Am Flight 103, yet there has never been an investigation into his death. The decision not to investigate was taken by Scottish policeman, Detective Constable John Crawford, on the basis of information supplied to him by "a very helpful lady librarian in Newcastle" (see "The Lockerbie Incident : A Detective's Tale", by John Crawford, pages 88/89).

    To remedy this deficiency, I have put seven questions to the Head of the FBI's Lockerbie Task Force and to Scotland's Senior Investigating Officer.

    Six months on, and I'm still awaiting answers from Richard Marquise and Stuart Henderson.

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  7. Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, who was interviewed by Gideon Levy in Lockerbie Revisited, categorically denied that he had authorised anyone to take the timer fragment to the United States. So if, as you claim Rolfe, it went to Germany before going to the US its travels were almost certainly not "legitimate"!

    It's a matter of public record that the timer fragment went to the Siemens factory, among other places, while the police were trying to get an ID on it. Read the court transcripts.

    Peter Fraser seems very "relaxed" during that interview. Merry and indiscreet, even. Also, not exactly at his sharpest. He's being asked about events 20 years ago. He can categorically deny anything he likes, but that doesn't make it so.

    I do not believe there is any case to be made that the timer fragment went anywhere without being at least nominally in the custody of a Scottish policeman. Which puts that premise on a fairly shaky wicket. There is also clear evidence from the photographs of the bloody thing that it hasn't been substituted or interfered with other than the manipulations we know about, at Siemens and elsewhere.

    So, it's an interesting and arresting angle for a documentary. It makes people sit up and take notice. But it's really concentrating on the wrong time period as regards fakery of the fragment, and risks being debunked, which of course only allows people like Marquise to claim a point in their favour.

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  8. Peter Fraser seems very "relaxed" during that interview. Merry and indiscreet, even. Also, not exactly at his sharpest. He's being asked about events 20 years ago. He can categorically deny anything he likes, but that doesn't make it so.

    This is an extract from the summary of Lockerbie Revisited:

    "Thurman confirms that the fragment - the only real piece of evidence against Libya - had been brought over from the UK to the FBI lab, where he had personally identified it as coming from the circuit board of a Mebo MST-13 timer, only 20 of which had been made and all were supplied to Libya. Marquise agrees that 'without the timer fragment we would have been unable to develop additional evidence against Libya.' He says that of all the evidence retrieved from the crash scene, only one piece - the timer fragment - was brought to America.

    "Lord Fraser disagrees saying he would have had to authorise the handing over to the FBI of this crucial piece of evidence, and he had not done so.

    "In another interview towards the end of the film, Marquise changes his mind and is prompted by DCS Henderson to say that the 'fragment never came to the US.' Marquise volunteers that he actually saw the timer fragment (PT-35) in London, but Henderson corrects him saying Marquise had seen it where all the other evidence was kept in the UK.

    Before taking his leave, Henderson emphasises to the camera that there are 'no hidden holes to find because the culprit is in custody - take my word for it'!"

    To reiterate, Rolfe, you are wrong about the alleged travels of this Mebo MST-13 timer fragment!

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  9. Patrick, I have no idea at all why you give so much credence to the faulty memories and backside-covering in evidence in Levy's film. Documentary evidence is what matters.

    As regards the travelling of the fragment to Germany, this is from the Zeist transcript.

    Q As a consequence, did you then go to Germany?
    A I did so, yes.
    Q And did you go to a company by the name of Siemens AG?
    A Yes, sir.
    Q There did you meet a gentleman, Herr Brosante?
    A I did, sir, yes.
    Q And did Mr. or Herr Brosante have a request to make of you?
    A He did, yes.
    Q Was that to remove another fragment -- or another sample, rather -- from the fragment?
    A Yes, sir, that's correct.
    Q Was that acceded to?
    A It was, yes.
    Q Would you look for me, please, at Label 419.
    Do you recognise that, Inspector?
    A Yes.
    Q As being?
    A That's a sample that was removed in Munich, at Siemens.
    Q And can you tell the date?
    A Yes, sir, the 27th of April 1990.
    Q Thank you.


    So it definitely went to Germany, that's beyond doubt.

    The point about the US trip is that the fragment was never "handed over to the FBI". The careful commentators have reported that it "never left Scottish jurisdiction", which appears to be correct, because it was always considered to be within Scottish jurisdiction so long as it was nominally in the custody of a Scottish policeman, which it was, when it was in the USA. It had its own minder.

    Fraser, Marquise and Henderson are just getting themselves tangled up with their early Alzheimer's, unsure of the difference between "Scotland" and "Scottish jurisdiction", and in the end determined they'll all sing from the same hymn sheet even if it's the wrong one.

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  10. Actually, I noticed a mistake I made.

    When it left the UK, it was firmly attached to DC Crawford.

    No, it was firmly attached to DI Williamson.

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  11. Here is what the present Lord Advocate said on 24 September 2010 when Christine Grahame MSP asked a PQ about Peter Fraser's statements in Gideon Levy's documentary:

    (S3W-35943)
    Rt Hon Elish Angiolini QC:
    I am aware of comments reported to have been made by my predecessor, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie.

    The fragment of electronic timer recovered from the wreckage of flight Pan Am 103, known as PT35, was taken to the United States of America by Scottish police officers and a British forensic scientist in June 1990 as part of the investigation into the Lockerbie bombing. The fragment remained in the custody and control of the Scottish police officers and the British forensic scientist during the visit to the United States and was subsequently identified as having come from an electronic timer manufactured by a Swiss company, MEBO, to the order of the Libyan intelligence service.

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