Sunday 21 September 2014

The CIA and the Lockerbie trial

[As an addendum to the CIA document CIA's rôle in the Pan Am 103 investigation and trial, which has been recently disclosed, here is the text of a message delivered to relatives of the Pan Am 103 victims in September 2000 during the Lockerbie trial (and just before the CIA asset Abdul Majid Giaka was due to testify) by the then Director of the CIA, George J Tenet:]

When the trial began, I made a pledge to you that the Central Intelligence Agency would put its full support behind the prosecution of the case by the Scottish Crown Office. I want to assure you that the CIA remains committed to making every relevant piece of evidence available to the court.

As you know, allegations recently were made that the CIA has not been as forthcoming as it should be in our release of information. Those allegations are false. The men and women of the CIA -starting with me-- are doing all that we possibly can to ensure justice for your loved ones. Whenever we have been asked by prosecuting authorities to release specific information because it may be relevant to the prosecution or defense of the case, we have done so.

In deference to Scottish Law, I cannot comment upon the specific evidence in the trial so I cannot give you a detailed picture of our efforts. I am however permitted to share some general information with you.

The CIA has released numerous operational cables to the Crown Office. Although some limited information in these documents must remain protected from exposure in the interests of national security and the safety of people mentioned in them, we have gone to great lengths to declassify certain information and make it available as evidence. And we will continue to lean forward in response to requests for information by the prosecuting authorities.

Beyond making documents available to the court, we have made current and former employees available to testify as witnesses. Some of them are or were members of the CIA's Directorate of Operations who have served or are now serving undercover in the field. Two agency employees already have appeared. Another witness is a former intelligence source of the CIA. This is unprecedented. Never before has the CIA made one of our intelligence sources available to testify in a trial on foreign soil. Since CIA officers and intelligence sources who testify do so at some risk to themselves and their families, the court has allowed them to testify in alias and in disguise.

The thoughts and prayers of the men and women of CIA remain with all Pan Am 103 families. From the beginning, we have been working closely with the Department of Justice and the Scottish Crown Office, and you have my word that we will continue to cooperate intensively with them until justice is fully and finally served.

1 comment:

  1. Living with the "Lockerbie Affair", 2014

    Naive opinion by FBI Spezial Agent Richard A. Marquise, he led the U.S. Task Force, which included the FBI, Department of Justice and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
    In Richard Marquise's "diary" SCOTBOM: 'Evidence and the Lockerbie Investigation' - in excerpts is held by Marquis:

    +++ 29 April, 1990 - morning in Edinburgh - I rode Jourdan to Lockerbie for the meeting at the LICC with Hans Cretton* and Peter Humert* of the Swiss police 'BUPO'. *(cover names).

    --- This chip (MST-13 Timer fragment) became known as 'PT-35', the evidence designation placed on it by the Scots. He spoke of the efforts which led us to MEBO, one familiar to the Swiss. Cretton* - (police chief from Peter Humert*) - expressed his concerns and those of Bollier.
    The first was that the CIA had planted the chip (PT-35) in the wreckage found at Lockerbie. Officer Stuard Henderson (counterpart UK) and I (Marquise) told him this thought had also crossed our minds. Neither of us believed the CIA or any government official would do such a thing, but we had discussed the possibility. Henderson was convonced of the veracity of PT-35, the way it had been found, logged in and the fact it had not been identified even by the forensic examiners until January 1990. +++

    Following google translation, German/english) MEBO:
    At Peter Humert* (a police commissioner) at the time in Switzerland, is a prosecution in progress; in connection with the allegedly found of the crucial evidence piece of a MST-13 Timerfragmentes (PT-35). In context of investigations in a State liability, according to the law of responsibility (art. 15 para 1) - in conection with the "Pan Am 103 bombing" over Lockerbie, 1988 - a criminal investigation was ordered.

    The Swiss Justice and Policedepartment (FDJP) has transferred the criminal Investigation over Peter Humert* after an empowerment decree, from 17 March 2014, to the except ordinary Prosecutor Felix Bänziger, Supervisory Commission of the Prosecution (AB-BA).

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

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