The following brief article appears in the current issue of Private Eye. My [ie John Ashton’s] comments follow.
Disappointment among the relatives of those who died in the Lockerbie atrocity: Ed Miliband is not blocking [sic; presumably “backing” is what is meant] their call for a public inquiry following the release “on compassionate grounds” of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi in 2009.
The Labour leader has written to Pam Dix, whose brother was one of
the 270 who died when Pan Am flight 103 was blown out of the skies in December
1988, saying that while criminal investigations continue “nothing should be
done to undermine them”.
Miliband must be aware that the Levenson inquiry is doing an
extraordinary job unearthing material that may aid a now very active criminal
investigation, where hacks, police and a member of the armed forces have all
been arrested. But how “active” is the Lockerbie investigation?
The Scottish Crown Office told the Eye
that six legal staff “have been involved and continue to be involved”. But when
asked whether anyone who had spoken to the two forensic experts who have cast
doubt on the scientific evidence used to incriminate Megrahi, a spokeswoman
said: “As the investigation remains live, it would not be appropriate to offer
further comment.” In other words, er, no.
Miliband appears to be adopting the same position towards the UK’s
biggest terrorist mass murder as the rest of the political establishment.
The fact that the Lockerbie investigation
remains open was, of course, recently underlined by the Lord Advocate Frank
Mulholland’s visit to Tripoli with
FBI director Robert Mueller. Back in December,
Mulholland said: “I think I would be failing in my duty if I didn’t properly
seek to take advantage of the opportunity that has opened up with the fall of
Gaddafi.” However, it seems that he does not regard it as a failure of duty to
ignore the two scientists (Dr Jess Cawley and Dr Chris McArdle), whose work
demonstrates that the circuit board fragment, PT/35b, could not have been from
one of the 20 timers supplied to Libya by the Swiss firm Mebo. This new
evidence destroys the case against Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, yet the Crown is
acting like nothing has happened.
MISSION LOCKERBIE 2012, doc. nr. 8135,rtf. (google translation german/english):
ReplyDeleteFrom a professional Examination of the MST-13 timer fragment (forensic separated by company Siemens into two parts) PT/35 (b) and DP/31(a)-- the responsible Official Persons fear like the devil fore the holy water !
By the way the costs for the examination amounted to maximum £ 500.
Actions of Strathclyde police Inspector Keith Harrower, witness No. 261 in Kamp van Zeist concerning his examination of the real carbonized "ex brown" MST-13 timer fragment marked as "PT-35" (Prod. photo 334):
In January of 1990 Keith Harrower was informed of the existence of an crucial piece of evidence (a carbonized brown fragment from an MST-13 timer). Along with Detective Inspector William Williamson, he then carried out some inquiries in relation to the MST-13 fragment to identify where the circuit board had come from.
In the beginning of his inquiries he took advice from several persons having experience in the manufacturing of printed circuit boards.
After several contacts with the printed circuit industry between January and April 1990, Harrower received from Mr. Woroll, Ferranti International in Lancashire UK, the recommendation to visit the company Siemens in Germany.
On the 27th of April 1990 Harrower visited the company Siemens AG in Munich, Germany. There he meet with electronic Eng. Brosante who examined the the real "carbonized brown MST-13 fragment".
Eng. Brosante saw the fragment into two parts. The larger part received nr. 353 = PT/35(a) the smaller part" nr. 419 = DP/31(a) .
Afterwards it was clear the real circuit board (PT-35) was fabricated out of a standard manufactured 8 layers glass fiber (prototype) and was not from one of the 20 MST-13 Timer delivered to Libya !
Harrower and several other officers returned with the results to Scotland. At Strathclide police the result was played down and this particular inquiry was followed up by other police officers...
Later-- after April 1990-- the larger "carbonized brown fragment" part nr. 353 = PT/35 was subsequently replaced by a duplicate green circuit board and got the police designation PT/35(b). The removed smaller "carbonized brown part" nr. 419 = DP/31(a) was about technical reasons (complicated fire marking) still stay in the original "carbonized part fragment".
by Edwin Bollier, MEBO Ltd Telecommunication Switzerland. URL: www.lockerbie.ch