Saturday 28 September 2013

Syracuse University's Lockerbie oral history project

[The following are extracts from an article posted yesterday on The Post-Standard’s Syracuse website:]

What do you remember about the bombing of Pan Am flight 103?

Syracuse University's Pan Am 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives is seeking people to share their reflections about the incident.

Twenty-five years ago, on Dec 21, 1988, 40 people from Central New York were among the 259 killed when the plane fell on the Scottish village of Lockerbie. Eleven townspeople died on the ground. Among the dead were 35 students from Syracuse University, a Clay couple and three students from other Central New York colleges.

"Telling the Stories: The Pan Am 103 Story Archive Project" is an attempt to gather oral histories from those who have firsthand knowledge of Pan Am Flight 103, those who have experienced the impact of the tragedy over the years and those who draw lessons from it. Faculty, staff, students, alumni, former Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars and family and friends of the victims are encouraged to participate. (...)

The oral histories collected will become a part of the Pan Am 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives, a center located in Bird Library that is dedicated to research and scholarship on the tragedy and to remembering the 270 victims.

The collection of oral histories will be done during Syracuse University's Remembrance Week, Mon Oct 7, through Sat Oct 12, from 9 am to 4 pm.

An appointment is required. For more information or to make an appointment, call 315-443-0632 or e-mail pa103archives@syr.edu.

More information can also be found at http://syr.edu/pa103remembrance25/.

[The fruits of an earlier oral history project, focusing on the stories of inhabitants of Lockerbie, are to be found in Jill Haldane’s 2008 book An' Then the World Came Tae Oor Doorstep: Lockerbie Lives and Stories.  My foreword can be read here.]

9 comments:

  1. MISSION LOCKERBIE, 2013: Substantive and formal rights (google translation,
    german/english):

    Scotland and Switzerland work together with the investigation by the attack on PanAm 103, over Lockerbie (Dec. 21, 1988) and obvious together also in the "Lockerbie Affair" with the use of the strategy - under the guise of "NATIONAL SECURITY" - and the questionable
    factor "FORFEITED" !

    To protect yourself, nasty and disgusting word terms are used by some official institutions of democratic states to block the TRUTH or a Claim for Damages:

    1) Sections of the Intelligence and Security Services in an emergency, blocked the possible Truth with an "under NATIONAL SECURITY DOCUMENT" (eg. PII) ...

    2) From official financial departments is intentionally trying to claims for damages with the "word block" - "FORFEITED" - to ward off early...

    Substantive rights are basic human rights possessed by people in an ordered society and includes rights granted by natural law as well as the substantive law. Substantive rights involve a right to the substance of being human (life, liberty, happiness), rather than a right to a procedure to enforce that right, which is defined by procedural law.

    Independent investigation:
    The Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office must be incorporate from the Scottish Justiciary, on the basis of the completed each other legal assistance, to find the truth in these political criminal case.
    A criminal complaint filed by Edwin Bollier (MEBO Ltd.) against known and unknown Swiss official servants, supported on an affidavit by Ingenieur Ulrich. Lumpert, was deported since November 2011, until today. (a clear law delay)!
    +++

    in german language:

    Scotland und die Sweiz arbeiten nebst den Ermittlungen um das Attentat auf PanAm 103, über Lockerbie (21. Dez. 1988) offensichtlich auch in der "Lockerbie-Affäre", mit der Benützung der Strategie under "NATIONAL SECURITY " - und dem fragwürdigen Faktor "VERWIRKT", zusammen !

    Um sich zu schützen werden fiese und widerliche Wortbegriffe von offiziellen Institutionen einiger demokratischer Staaten benützt, um die Wahrheit oder eine Schadenersatzklage zu blockieren:

    1.) Von Abteilungen der Intelligence- und Security-Diensten wird im Notfall, die mögliche Wahrheit immerzu mit einem "DOCUMENT unter NATIONAL SECURITY" abgeblockt... (z.B. PII)

    2.) Von offiziellen Finanzdepartementen wird vorsätzlich versucht, Schaden-ersatzforderungen mit der "Wort-Blockade" - "VERWIRKT" - frühzeitig abzuwehren ...

    Materielle Rechte sind die grundlegenden Menschenrechte von Menschen in einer geordneten Gesellschaft beinhaltet und somit wird Naturrecht sowie materielles Recht gewährt. Materielle Rechte beinhalten ein Recht auf die Substanz des Menschseins (Leben, Freiheit, Glück), sondern auch als ein Recht auf ein Verfahren dieses Rechtes zu, die durch das Verfahrensrecht definiert ist durchzu-setzen.

    by Edwin and Mahnaz Bollier, MEBO Ltd. Telecommunication, Switzerland. Webpage: www.lockerbie.ch





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  2. I remember very clearly that night but also some issues prior to the crash.At the time I ran a Branch Office of an Air Cargo Freight Forwarding business in Carlisle (Atlas Air). The Friday before the crash one of my customers told me that they would have about 2 tonnes of freight for JFK on the Monday for our mid week consolodation service booked on the Wednesday Pan Am 103 flight from LHR-JFK. We checked with PA and were advised they were not taking any cargo bookings for the flight as there was a full load of passengers and being close to Christmas the passenger baggage load would be high.When the plane crashed there were many empty seats and it looked as if many passengers had switched carriers that weekend from American Carriers to European Carriers. Someone in the US knew that there would be a US Aircraft targetted soon which looks to be the reason people moved their bookings.The flight actually blew up over Langholm where i lived and we heard what we thought was a low flying aircraft roar and then less than a minute later the lights all went out for a second or 2. It was sometime before we heard on the news about the crash.

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  3. There was an inquiry into whether or not people had switched their bookings away from 103 that night, and there was no evidence at all that they had. The flight had never been fully booked. The data presented in that report is comprehensive and detailed, and I have never seen it challenged. I don't think it's reasonable to make statements like the above without addressing that report and explaining why it is not to be trusted.

    The plane cannot possibly have disintegrated over Langholm. It's in the wrong direction. It was coming from the south-east and Langholm is due east of Lockerbie.

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  4. If we agree there was nothing odd happening regarding bookings and cancellations, particularly for a plane containing VIPs at Christmas, then this implies an absence of any knowledge of an impending attack!

    And yet if we are to believe the ‘revenge theory’ then presumably the secret services would have been closely watching and infiltrating suspect groups and taking all warnings seriously?

    Therefore the absence of information and credible warnings of an attack on 103 and the absence of a claim of responsibility by those responsible for the ‘bomb’, casts reasonable doubt on the existence of a bomb planted to do harm – as opposed to evidence of blast damage!

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  5. There were warnings - they just didn't specify that particular flight. The secret services were closely watching and infiltrating suspect groups. They screwed up big time. The bombmaker who made they type of bomb which blew up that plane was supposed to be a double agent making dummy bombs. Oops.

    The plane containing the VIPs was the preceding flight, PA101. That was subjected to extra security checks. Oops.

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  6. There are warnings all the time, mostly due to hoax calls from a variety of sources and from experience the authorities know how to filter these and decide what ones are credible.

    There are also periods when there is a higher level of general alert due to wars and/or a higher percentage of travelling VIPs.

    This is why with or without IR655 (the revenge theory) you would expect increased security regarding American flights at Heathrow and a higher general alert, because all flights at Christmas are carrying VIPs.

    But there were no specific warnings for flight 103 or any other flight!

    Rolfe says the preceding flight 101 was subject to extra security checks because it contained VIPs, implying that this extra check was related to ‘the warnings’.

    But this extra check was a routine check unrelated to ‘the warnings’, because otherwise all flights would have had an extra security check, because all flights would be at risk and carrying VIPs.

    And 103 would definitely have got an extra security check following the discovery of anonymous suitcases and a known break-in if ‘the warnings’ were deemed credible and thus being taken seriously.

    Although I’m sure the authorities were unofficially aware of the ‘innocent’ explanations for both.

    In other words no specific or credible warnings of an impending attack.

    And Rolfe’s comments about the ‘bomb-maker’ and CIA incompetence, is brazen wishful thinking, to fit a theory.

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  7. "...from experience the authorities know how to filter these and decide what ones are credible."

    So that means that whenever areas are cleared because of a bomb threat, the authorities had already figured out it was a hoax, and just evacuate people to keep them scared -

    "But there were no specific warnings for flight 103 or any other flight!"

    - and if no warnings have been received, then you can safely exclude that a bomb attack took place.

    It follows that in each of the cases we know where bomb attacks were successful, there will have been warnings (that authorities would have known to classify as genuine).
    But still they didn't prevent the disaster. Shame on them!

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  8. The point is considering there were:-

    • no specific warnings despite infiltration of the ‘suspect’ groups
    • no claim of responsibility by those responsible for the ‘bomb’
    • no ‘bomb’ remains, as opposed to evidence of blast damage

    This does cast reasonable doubt about the authorities ‘bomb’ explanation, particularly when the person they jailed for the 'bomb' is obviously innocent!

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  9. "Brazen". That goes with "desperate" I suppose. I remember why I wasn't going to talk to Dave, again.

    I don't think there's anything more brazen than making stuff up on the hoof, and that's all Dave seems to do here.

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