The American press on the death of the "Lockerbie bomber"

[This is the heading over an article by Ambassador Andrew I Killgore just published on the website of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.  It reads as follows:]

The Washington Post, New York Times and the US edition of the Financial Times all carried articles on the May 20 death in Tripoli, Libya of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, convicted of bombing Pan American Flight 103 on Dec 21, 1988.

The Post, whose pro-Israel sympathies cause its Middle East coverage to be unreliable at best, had a straight one-column article. It expressed no doubts that the bomb that destroyed Pan Am 103 was transported from Valletta, Malta to Frankfurt, Germany to London, where it was loaded onto the doomed plane.

Determined to publish as little as possible on the Lockerbie tragedy, the news of Megrahi's death was published in the Post's little-read obituary section—alongside the death of singer Robin Gibb of the disco group the Bee Gees. In a stunning example of the paper's priorities, the Post devoted nearly twice as much space to Gibb's obituary as it did to Megrahi's.

The Financial Times article is better, and much less linear. "Discrepancies at the trial led many to believe in Megrahi's innocence," it informs its readers. The former Scottish lord advocate, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, in expressing his doubts about Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci's identification of Megrahi as having bought certain clothes from his shop in Valletta, remarked that Gauci was "an apple short of a picnic." The Financial Times also notes that "there were reports that Gauci received at least $2 million from the US, possibly via the CIA."

As a result, the paper concludes, "we may never know who placed the bomb that brought down terror and death to a planeload of passengers, to the crew that served them, and civilians in a sleepy Scottish town [Lockerbie] below."

The New York Times carried two articles on Megrahi's death, one by John F Burns and the other by Robert D McFadden. Neither is bad, given the American media's strange silence on the Lockerbie issue. Burns writes, "Even Megrahi's death may not end the saga of Flight 103."

Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the Pan Am 103 crash, is mentioned by name, but Dr Robert Black is not. It was Black, professor emeritus of Scots Law at the University of Edinburgh, who originated the idea of holding the Lockerbie trial in The Netherlands with Scottish judges under Scottish law. Nor is any mention made of the Justice for Megrahi Committee (of which this writer is a member).

Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, noted in a television interview that the Scottish police investigation of the bombing had never been closed, and that Libya's new government had "promised to cooperate" in an effort to settle who was responsible.

Dr Swire, whom Burns describes as "the most persistent—and most controversial—of Megrahi's defenders in Britain," fainted in court when Megrahi was convicted and his indicted co-defendant Lamen Khalifa Fhimah acquitted. Swire is a vigorous advocate of an independent inquiry into the bombing, Burns writes, and was reported to have said in broadcast interviews on May 20 that there were two false pieces of evidence in Megrahi's conviction. According to Swire, shopowner Gauci had been paid "millions of dollars" by Western intelligence agencies. Also, the bomb's circuit board was one used by Iranian—not Libyan—intelligence.

McFadden provides much evidence on doubts about Megrahi's guilt. The Lockerbie court "found the case circumstantial, the evidence incomplete and some witnesses unreliable," he writes, but nevertheless left "no reasonable doubt" on Megrahi's guilt. He quotes Hans Koechler, a United Nations observer at the trial, as calling it "a spectacular miscarriage of justice." McFadden continues: "Many legal experts and investigative journalists challenged the evidence, calling Megrahi a scapegoat for a Libyan government long identified with terrorism." While denying involvement, he writes, Libya paid $2.7 million to the victims' families in 2003 in a bid to end years of diplomatic isolation.

Join the queue, Tommy

[The following are excerpts from an article in today's edition of The Scotsman headlined MP calls for Sheridan trial probe in light of hacking scandal:]

Labour MP Tom Watson, who helped uncover the News of the World phone hacking scandal, is to write to Mr Salmond asking him to order the Scottish Government's law officers to investigate why the case against Mr Sheridan came to court.

Mr Watson said Mr Sheridan's perjury conviction was a "travesty of justice" as he claimed that the allegations about the News of the World's phone-hacking operation cast doubt on the credibility of key trial witnesses from the defunct newspaper who were called to give evidence by the Crown Office.

Bob Bird, former editor of the News of the World's Scottish edition, and former news editor Douglas Wight were both called by the Crown Office as witnesses in Mr Sheridan's trial, which led to the former MSP being handed a three-year jail term. Both men deny being part of any phone-tapping activities. (...)

Mr Watson will argue that the Crown Office was wrong to pursue the case against Mr Sheridan and in particular should not have relied on evidence from News of the World employees.

He said: "It's now absolutely certain that the judgment is unsound and if Alex Salmond had a shred of decency he would use all the power he has to ensure that this is urgently dealt with. (...)" 

A Crown Office spokeswoman said: "The majority of the evidence led by the Crown against Tommy Sheridan was from witnesses who were his former friends and colleagues and who had no relationship whatsoever with the News of the World.

"Any appeal against conviction or sentence would be a matter for Mr Sheridan and his legal team."

The Scottish Government said ministers would not personally intervene over Mr Sheridan's conviction, but added that any concerns about a case could be taken up with the administration's top law officer, Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland.

[Much more urgent, of course, is an inquiry into the prosecution and conviction of Abdelbaset Megrahi.  The SCCRC found six grounds for concluding that his conviction might have amounted to a miscarriage of justice, one of them being that, on a matter absolutely central to conviction, no reasonable court on the evidence led could have reached the conclusion that the trial court arrived at. Since the SCCRC reported, much more evidence has become available -- much of it relating to misconduct in the conduct of the investigation and the prosecution -- and is set out in detail in John Ashton's Megrahi: You are my Jury and elsewhere.  For the Scottish Government to suggest to concerned citizens that their remedy is to ask the Crown Office to conduct an investigation into misconduct in a criminal investigation and prosecution when the Crown Office is now headed, not by independent lawyers brought in from private practice, but by career civil servants from that very office, is nothing short of risible.
Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm's account of this issue can be seen here.]

More on Maggie Scott QC's elevation

[What follows is taken from a report published yesterday on the Scottish Law Reporter website:]

Maggie Scott QC, well known as a criminal defence specialist and for her role in the appeal of the late Abdelbaset al Megrahi, the man who most agree was unjustly convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988, has been appointed as a judge to Scotland’s Court of Session. She is expected to take up the post later in the year.

An announcement of Ms Scott’s appointment to the Court of Session, reported as far back as April of this year by The Herald’s Lucy Adams, was expected to have been made in early June, at the same time as the announcement of Scotland’s new Lord President, Lord Gill and the appointments of Lord Colin Boyd QC, Michael Jones QC, and David Burns QC as Senators of the College of Justice (...).

There is no ‘official’ explanation for the delay in announcing Ms Scott’s elevation to the bench, however the delay did enable the famous QC to give a robust defence for the retention of corroboration in Scots Law in the printed media and on television.

Megrahi's QC Maggie Scott appointed High Court judge

[A report published today on the BBC News website reads in part:]

One of Scotland's top lawyers has been appointed as a High Court judge.

Maggie Scott QC, who led the Lockerbie bomber's abandoned appeal case, was chosen as a Senator of the College of Justice by the Queen, following a recommendation from First Minister Alex Salmond.

It means she will sit as a judge in the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary.

She is expected to take up the post later this year.

Mr Salmond is said to have nominated the high-profile QC on the basis of a report by the independent Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland. (...)

The 52-year-old became a solicitor in 1989 and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1991, before becoming a QC in 2002.

Since 1991 she has been involved mainly in criminal defence work, specialising in appeals, and was appointed a part-time sheriff in 2002.

All MPs supplied with copies of "Lockerbie: Fact and Fiction"

Dr Morag Kerr’s overview of the Lockerbie case as contained in the booklet Lockerbie: Fact and Fiction has now been delivered to all 650 members of the House of Commons.  The booklet can be read online here.  A copy has already been delivered to every Member of the Scottish Parliament.

Pan Am flight 103 and Libyan Arab Airlines flight 1103

Last week the Sunday Express ran a story to the effect that Libyan NTC head Mustafa Abdul Jalil was accusing Colonel Gaddafi of destroying a Libyan passenger aircraft (Libyan Arab Airlines flight 1103) on an internal flight in December 1992 (four years after the destruction of Pan Am flight 103 and shortly after it became known that Lockerbie investigators were now blaming Libya) in a tit-for-tat attempt to blame the West. Today's edition of the newspaper contains a follow-up article based on an interview with the widow of a British oil worker killed on the flight.

Dr Jim Swire on Radio Scotland's "Sunday Morning with..."

One of the guests on tomorrow's edition of the BBC Radio Scotland programme Sunday Morning with... (07.05 to 09.00) is Dr Jim Swire. The advertisement for the programme contains the following:


"This Sunday morning Cathy [Macdonald]'s special guest is Dr Jim Swire. His later life has been defined by the death of his daughter Flora in the Lockerbie bombing, but this morning Cathy also discovers Jim's deep love of the Isle of Skye where he grew up, as well as his connection with one of Scotland's greatest heroines." 


The programme is now available on the BBC iPlayer.  The interview with Dr Swire starts 10 minutes into the programme.

Swissair 330, Pan Am 103 and Marwan Khreesat

I am grateful to Edwin Bollier for drawing my attention to an article headed Den Bombenbauer ignorierten sie ("They ignored the bomb maker") in the 4 July 2012 edition of the Swiss newspaper Beobachter. The article discloses (with supporting documentation) that, as early as May 1989, Lockerbie investigators linked both the 1970 Swissair tragedy and the Lockerbie disaster to bombs made by the PFLP-GC's Marwan Khreesat. 


Wikipedia, citing Steven Emerson and Brian Duffy, The Fall of Pan Am 103: Inside the Lockerbie Investigation (1990) ISBN 0-399-13521-9, states:  "Indeed, Scottish police actually wrote up an arrest warrant for Marwan Khreesat in the spring of 1989, but were persuaded by the FBI not to issue it because of his value as an intelligence source."

The bitter knowledge of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi

Saudi Arabia's Arab News website today publishes Neil Berry's review of Megrahi: You are my Jury under this headline, as does the website of MENA-FN ( Middle East North Africa - Financial Network).  The review was first published in Dubai's Khaleej Times.

Mandela Day: a missed Scottish opportunity

The Scottish Government's press release on events to mark Mandela Day can be read here. The last paragraph states: "Last month Archbishop Desmond Tutu sent a video message to the people of Scotland welcoming plans to mark Mandela Day and he said he was delighted that First Minister Alex Salmond, the Scottish Government and the people of Scotland were marking the day."


At the time of Archbishop Tutu's message, I wrote on this blog: "Given that Archbishop Tutu is a Justice for Megrahi signatory, and given the role that Nelson Mandela played in facilitating a Lockerbie trial (and the interest he took in Abdelbaset Megrahi's fate thereafter) would it not be entirely appropriate and gracious for the Scottish Government to mark Mandela Day by announcing the independent inquiry into the Megrahi prosecution and conviction that the Archbishop, along with the other signatories, has called for?"


The Scottish Government press release does not list this as one of the Mandela Day events. What a surprise and disappointment!