Tuesday 27 September 2011

Lockerbie: time for us to reveal the true culprits

[This is the headline over an article by David Wolchover published today on the website of The Jewish Chronicle.  It reads as follows:]

The Arab Spring may have heightened tensions between Egypt and Israel but, on the upside, it also achieved Colonel Gaddafi's overthrow. Strangely, this could actually benefit the Jewish state - but only if Libya takes the initiative.

With Gaddafi gone, the world could recognise, finally, that the perpetrators of the Lockerbie bomb were not from the Libyan secret service, did not include the man who was ultimately convicted, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, and indeed had nothing to do with Libya. The world could learn that the culprits were the original suspects, a gang of Palestinian terrorists. 

As it takes its first steps, the new Libyan leadership will likely want to remove the stigma of Libya's association with the atrocity of December 1988 and seek international acceptance of al-Megrahi's innocence. A democratic Libya could wield a good deal of clout if it applied the sort of economic and diplomatic pressures Gaddafi used to secure al-Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds to urging the Scottish and British governments to declare him innocent. And they may be pushing at an open door. 

It is no conspiracy theory to claim that the case against al-Megrahi and Libya was manifestly absurd, or that the government knows that. Any study of the details of his trial, a decade ago at Camp van Zeist in Holland, will reveal that, unbelievable as it seems, the Scottish judges who convicted him and rejected his appeal made an utter hash of the evidence. Moreover, they actually missed a key piece of evidence which, alone, would have been enough to sink the prosecution.

The Scottish government say they "do not doubt the safety" of al-Megrahi's conviction, a statement which implies a rational consideration of the evidence. Yet they have stonewalled on revealing whether the cabinet ever actually deliberated on the issue. 

They know they are on weak ground. A little prodding from a powerful, influential, oil-rich country looking to restock its armoury and they will admit the obvious.

How do we know the true culprits were Palestinian terrorists? In July 1988, the battle cruiser USS Vincennes shot down IranAir flight 655 over the Straits of Hormuz. The Americans were steeled for a terrorist response and the Western intelligence community was tipped off, probably by Mossad, that a deal to carry out such an attack had been struck between Iran and Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, "General Command". This was a Syrian-based ultra-extremist splinter group of the PFLP, with an active cell in West Germany. The deal was that Iran would pay them a bounty to destroy an American civil airliner departing from a European airport. 

As a result, the West German police set up the "Autumn Leaves" surveillance operation, whereby a CIA proxy double-agent named Marwen Khreesat, an expert bomb-maker from Jordan, was infiltrated into the cell. He built a number of similar improvised explosive devices (IEDs) one of which was virtually identical to that which brought down Pan Am flight 103 a mere two months later. 

The device was removed from under his nose and delivered to the cell's airport security expert, Abu Elias. Khreesat tipped off his control in Jordan and the police immediately swooped, rounding up members of the cell and seizing a second device, also virtually identical to the Lockerbie bomb.

"Abu Elias was never seized and the missing IED was never recovered, two facts enough in themselves to prompt the strongest suspicion. Combined with other compelling circumstantial evidence they plainly connected the cell with the bombing."

This is not conspiracy theory. It is non-contentious stuff, most of it given in evidence at Camp Zeist. Yet the judges turned a blind eye to the obvious and based their decision on a series of weak findings. What the Scottish judges did not appreciate was the utter horror Khreesat's CIA controllers must have felt in the aftermath of the Lockerbie tragedy: that a bomb made by their proxy in pursuance of his cover on their behalf was almost certainly used to bring down the Pan Am jet. 

Therein lies the clue to why attention was drawn away from Iran and the PFLP-GC and why Libya became the scapegoat. But Israel has no need to defer to the embarrassed sensibilities of a handful of long-retired CIA staffers. Nor need it wait for pressure to build up from the new Libyan leadership.

Benjamin Netanyahu's government might not want to be seen too openly pressing for al-Megrahi's vindication and the corresponding condemnation of Palestinian extremists. Yet behind the scenes they ought to be attempting to secure that outcome. It can do Israel no harm for the world to learn that her enemies were paid $4.5 million to murder 11 residents of Lockerbie, and 259 innocent passengers, of all religions.

8 comments:

  1. I woudn't be too sure that the new Libyan government wants to "remove the stigma of Libya's association with the atrocity of December 1988 and seek international acceptance of al-Megrahi's innocence." The current line is "case closed".

    It's one thing telling the Western powers to bugger off, you're not getting any more Lockerbie smokescreen from us, but intimating an intention to undermine the smokescreen already in place might be going a bit too far if they want to retain favour.

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  2. Why undermine the article with an unecessary and casual dismissal of Gadaffi and the Libyan people who over-whelmingly stand with him ?
    Libya is still engaged in a widening and changing civil war.
    The NTC is holed up in Benghazi - and not likely to be safe there for long, as factions split off for various reasons - some seeking revenge over the slaying of Gen Younis and others sick of being used as cannon-fodder, whilst Western-assets appeare on TV 'speaking for the rebels'.

    Really, dismissing the killing going on in Libya to crush the Libyan people, as the US carries out yet another violent regime-change attempt, is in the same callous vein as the original blaming of Gadaffi & Libya for Lockerbie. Good grief :(

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  3. Written in framework to get those that support a new investigation to support a new Libyan government as a condition. They just need to cooperate with the Gadaffi officials and ignore the NTC.

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  4. Also, it seems impolitic now for the NTC to be deflecting blame for Lockerbie onto the PFLP-GC, when Palestinian statehood is in the offing - although such a deflection would be unlikely to displease Israel!

    Much better therefore to play down any PFLP-GC involvement, and apportion blame to the 'true culprits' Iran and apartheid South Africa - Lockerbie: Ayatollah's Vengeance Exacted By Botha's Regime.

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  5. Maybe the Western powers would rather not have this case kick started again. Maybe the pressure is really going the opposite way from that which is suggested by the writer.
    Let's face it, all we really know about Lockerbie is that there was not nearly enough evidence led to fairly convict Megraghi and subsequent investigations, often by people who frequent this site, has uncovered more evidence pointing to his innocence.
    What we do not have is much real evidence suggesting who actually did it.
    This suggests to me that it was not some small, semi-autonomous nationalist group because such organisations tend to divide and fall apart over time and the truth slowly leaks out. If it wasn't the Libyans then it was an organisation which has remained impressively watertight for more than 20 years.

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  6. MISSION LOCKERBIE, 2011, doc. nr. 7025.rtf (google translation, german/english):

    Do not forget--- we have it to do in the "Lockerbie-case" with two different "forms of facts" and with an political colored process at Kamp van Zeist (2000) ...:

    1) On 21 December 1988 with a political terrorist act of revenge on Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie (this real attack, have nothing to do with the official of Libya Mr. Abdelbaset Al Megrahi ---
    and
    2) from * 14-15. November 1991, with a political conspiracy against the Libyan regime, in connection with the alleged bombing , on 21 December 1988, on
    Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie. * (Date of the US / UK Indictment);

    3) The Observer of the UN, Professor Dr. Hans Köchler which the "Scottish" process at Kamp van Zeist monitored for the UN,
    appraise the alleged criminal
    case against Lamin Khalifa Fhimah and Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, was clear a political Process !

    Please visit Friends of Justice for Megrahi on facebook:
    http://www.facebook.com/groups/161241207237021/
    +++

    Nicht vergessen--- wir haben es im "Lockerbie-Fall" mit zwei verschiedenen "Tat-Formen" und einem politisch gefärbten Prozess in Kamp van Zeist (2000) zutun...:

    1.) Am 21. Dezember 1988 mit einem politischen Terror-Racheakt auf Flug PanAm 103, über Lockerbie (reales Attentat, welches nichts mit dem libyschen Offiziellen Abdelbaset Al Megrahi und Libyen zutun hat ---
    und
    2.) ab *14./15. November 1991, mit einer politischen Verschwörung gegen das Libysche Regime, im Zusammenhang mit der angeblichen Ausführung des Attentats, am 21. Dezember 1988, auf den Flug PanAm 103 über Lockerbie. *(Datum der US/UK Indictments);

    3.)Der Observer der UNO, Professor Dr. Hans Koechler, welcher den
    "schottischen" Prozess in Kamp van Zeist für die UNO überwachte, wertete den angeblichen Strafprozess gegen die Angeklgten Fhimah Lamin Khalifa und Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, klar als einen politischen Prozess ein !

    by Edwin Bollier, MEBO Ltd.Telecommunication Switzerland. URL: www.lockerbie.ch

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  7. I wouldn't take "the Jewish Chronicle" too seriously. Their "support" for Libya will be about Israel rather than Libya and the chance to go for Palestine once again. This last week we saw the disgrace that is Obama more or less say to hell with the UN, its what Israel says that counts. No wonder America is hated, no wonder Israel is hated. And earlier this month they wanted us all to mourn on 9/11. Truly these people are blind to all except their own interests both Israel and its big brother the US. Make no mistake, if the Jewish Chronicle appears to "defend" Libya it is probably because it wants to flatten Palestine once and for all. The support of Israel should be rejected. It is no one's friend but its own.

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  8. Thanks for that. Obvious now he's just another of the many puppet legions who have been activated by Israel to win the propaganda war following Palestine's request at the UN for nation status - and consequently any of his scribblings must be read as having an ulterior motive.
    What chutzpah! The maven yutz must think we're all schnooks who will believe his dreck megillah.

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