Mobdi Goben and Paul Foot

Ed's Blog City has a recent post on the Goben Memorandum, speculating that it may be the mysterious foreign document that Megrahi's legal team has been calling on the Crown to hand over. See http://edsblogcity.blogspot.com/2007/12/goben-memorandum.html. It also reprints Paul Foot's classic Private Eye article "Three Lords A Leaping.....To Conclusions." See
http://edsblogcity.blogspot.com/2007/12/three-lords-leapingto-conclusions.html.

Second procedural hearing on 20 December

A second procedural hearing in Mr Megrahi's appeal is to be held on Thursday, 20 December at 10am in Court 3 of the High Court Building, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh (the same courtroom as the first procedural hearing on 11 October).

I understand that the Crown has not disclosed to Megrahi's legal team the document (relating to timers) emanating from a foreign government that was seen by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission but which the Crown has refused to hand over to the appellant. (New readers should consult the postings on this blog on 11 and 12 October 2007 for background.) It may therefore be that this new procedural hearing has been called to enable the court to hear argument on, and then to decide, this issue. But this is simply speculation on my part.

Megrahi's legal team have until 21 December (ie one day later) to lodge his Grounds of Appeal. I would not therefore expect there to be any discussion on Thursday of whether any of those grounds should be excluded from the Appeal Court's consideration. The court did, however, indicate in October that it wished to have lodged in advance any grounds of appeal relating to inadequate representation by Megrahi's former lawyers. So it is just possible that, if this has been done, there might be some discussion of whether these grounds should go forward to the full appeal hearing. It is more likely, though, that all matters relating to the Grounds of Appeal will be deferred to a later procedural hearing, perhaps in January 2008.

UK Call for United Nations Inquiry into 1988 Lockerbie Bombing

This is the title of an article on the website of the Mathaba News Agency. It refers to Patrick Haseldine's online petition to the Prime Minister
( http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/UNInquiry/) to urge a United Nations inquiry into the death of the UN's Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, aboard Pan Am 103.

The article contains the following passage about the Lockerbie trial: 'However, the conduct of the trial and resignation of judges before it even began "due to political pressures [from the British government to have Libya found guilty]" led to much criticism, and did not throw any light on the truth of what happened.'

As far as I am aware, no judges allocated to the case resigned before the trial began, for reasons of "political pressure" or any other reasons. It may be that what is being alluded to is the resignation of the Lord Advocate (Scotland's chief prosecutor) Lord Hardie of Blackford QC, shortly before the trial started. I am sure that there was nothing sinister in this resignation (unlike many other aspects of the Lockerbie affair). Lord Hardie's resignation was due to his appointment as a judge and he was replaced by his second in command, the Solicitor General for Scotland, Colin Boyd QC, who had been intimately involved in the preparation of the Lockerbie prosecution and who had always been expected to exercise day to day supervision over it.

For the full Mathaba article, see http://mathaba.net/news/?x=574616

Senators call for Libya to complete payments to Lockerbie relatives

Agence France Presse has a story to the effect that Hillary Clinton and seven other US senators have written to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stressing that the process of normalization of US relations with Libya should not proceed further until Libya has fully compensated, amongst others, the relatives of those killed in the Lockerbie disaster. See
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jxda-5ybZ7Gzj3OtpbouZ7vpDeUg

The inference in the senators' letter that Libya has reneged on its compensation undertakings is unwarranted. The agreement that was reached between the Lockerbie relatives' lawyers and Libya involved staged payments on the occurrence of certain events within a specified time frame. One of those events, which it was within the power of the United States -- not Libya -- to bring about, did not take place within the specified period. The final compensation payment was accordingly never triggered.

For details of the compensation agreement, see
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/08/13/lockerbie/

The story has now been picked up by the Albany NY Times Union whose website runs the following:

"Pressuring Libya

Three years after it committed to compensate victims of the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, the Libyan government still hasn't paid all that was due. Ditto a 2006 promise to pay victims of a 1986 dance club bombing in Germany.

Now New York's U.S. senators want Libya to put its money where its mouth is. Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chuck Schumer are among eight senators who sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, calling on her to use an upcoming diplomatic visit to Libya to pressure that nation's longtime leader, Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi.

"Congress has made it clear that the U.S. is not ready for full normalization of relations with Libya," the senators wrote. "If you do decide to travel there, we assume this is because you are confident that the Libyan government will fulfill the settlement obligations it has made with American victims of Libyan terrorism."

Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, en route from London to New York City. The attack killed 270 people on the plane and on the ground, including 35 Syracuse University students, and several people with ties to the Capital Region.

The Libyan government assumed responsibility for the attack and agreed to pay $10 million to each family killed. Part of the $2.7 billion has been paid. A final $2 million installment to each family is outstanding.

In addition to Schumer and Clinton, the letter was signed by Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menedez of New Jersey, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and Chris Dodd, all Democrats, and Republican Norm Coleman of Minnesota."

See http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=647150&category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=LOCAL&newsdate=12/15/2007

And here is a slightly more balanced paragraph from US News and World Report of 15 December 2007:

"The two cases that have the Senate's attention are the 1988 downing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, and the 1986 bombing of the La Belle disco in West Berlin, which took the lives of two U.S. servicemen. The Pan Am families—some of whom find the U.S.-Libyan rapprochement scandalous—say Libya reneged on the last $2 million-per-family installment of a legal settlement. Libya says the United States missed a legal deadline for removing it from the list of state sponsors of terrorism—it did so later—thus freeing it from its obligation. On the La Belle case, Libya has not made any payments to American victims or their families, though a settlement was considered close last year."

See http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/world/2007/12/13/libya-moves-back-into-circulation.html

Saif on Lockerbie

Le Figaro of Saturday, 8 December publishes a lengthy interview with Colonel Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam. Here is what he had to say about Lockerbie:

Le Figaro: Quelle est votre position sur Abd el-Basset al-Megrahi, le responsable des renseignements emprisonné en Écosse pour l’attentat de Lockerbie, et qui a obtenu le droit à faire appel ?

Saif: Nous pensons qu’il est innocent, et nous nous battrons jusqu’au bout pour qu’il rentre chez lui. Les preuves contre lui sont très faibles. Elles ont été manipulées.

Le Figaro: S’il est innocenté, la Libye demandera-t-elle le remboursement des compensations qu’elle a versées aux familles ?

Saif: Je ne sais pas.

For the full interview, see
http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2007/12/07/01003-20071207ARTFIG00487-seif-el-islam-kadhafi-la-libye-sera-un-pays-heureux.php

Gaddafi's visit to France

A recent Agence France Presse report on the five-day visit to France next week by Colonel Gaddafi contains the following passage:

'Franco-Libyan relations have steadily improved since a 2004 accord on a Libyan compensation deal for the victims of a French DC-10 airliner bombing over Niger. The crash in 1989 killed 170 people, including 54 French.

The upturn paved the way for a visit by President Jacques Chirac in November 2004. The two countries resumed defence cooperation in February 2005.

The west's former bogey has for many years set about a policy of mending bridges with Europe and the United States, in 2003 announcing the end of Libya's illegal weapons programmes and accepting formal responsibility for the Lockerbie plane bombing over Scotland.

But opposition French politicians and intellectuals criticised the Kadhafi visit as an affront to victims of Libyan "terrorism".'

See http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5inMzZftJ5lv3LKDvO6fjcljpyiIQ

Abu Nidal

Ed's Blog City has posted a 2002 report from CNN (based on a story in the Al Hayat newspaper) in which, a matter of days after Abu Nidal shot himself in a hotel room in Iraq, a former top aide disclosed that, shortly after the disaster, Abu Nidal had stated at a meeting that his group was solely responsible for the bombing of Pan Am 103. See
http://edsblogcity.blogspot.com/2007/12/abu-nidal-behind-lockerbie-says-aide.html

A German perspective

A lengthy article by Susanne Härpfer entitled "Versclusssache Lockerbie" has just been published on the German website Telepolis. The translated subtitle reads "When the case of the attack on flight Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie is reconsidered, the solution probably lies in Germany." The author relies on two books written by a former BND (German intelligence service) officer,Wilhem Dietl, and on the views of Dr David Thomas Schiller, an expert on terrorism and the Middle East. The "true" Lockerbie story, as related by Ms Härpfer, involves the familiar names of Khreesat, Dalkamoni and the Herbstlaub (Autumn Leaves) operation in Neuss. The article is long, detailed and closely argued, and should be particularly interesting to English-speaking readers in that it uses sources not familiar to those who have had to rely on English-language coverage of the affair. A full translation into English would be welcome for those who have no German or whose German, like mine, is rusty.

For the full German text, see
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/26/26718/1.html

Scotland's Legal Who's Who

To see "A full run down of the 100 most powerful and influential people in the Scottish justice system and legal profession as voted for by readers of The Firm" go to
http://www.firmmagazine.com/members/feature.php?id=350.

At no 11 (from nowhere in last year's rankings) is Dr Jim Swire and at no 29 (up from 74) is Tony Kelly, Mr Megrahi's solicitor. Evidence, I think, that the Scottish legal profession at least is getting the message about the Lockerbie miscarriage of justice.

Highest honour for Lord Cullen

"A former senior judge has been given Scotland's highest honour.Lord Cullen of Whitekirk has been appointed a Knight of the Thistle on St Andrew's Day.

He led inquiries into the Pipa Alpha disaster and the Dunblane shootings, and in March 2002 led the five-judge tribunal which heard the failed appeal of the Lockerbie bomber.

The Order of the Thistle represents the highest honour in Scotland, and is second only in precedence in the UK to the Order of the Garter.

It honours Scottish men and women who have held public office or who have contributed in a particular way to national life."

See http://www.midlothianadvertiser.co.uk/latest-scottish-news/Highest-honour-for-Lord-Cullen.3546370.jp

This story, which I could not previously find on any other Scottish or UK news website, has now (2 December) been picked up by Scotland on Sunday:
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1883612007

US Disinformation

A release dated 29 November 2007 from the US Department of State USINFO service entitled "Libya Lays Out Welcome Mat for U.S. Trade and Investment" contains the following paragraph:

"The warming in U.S. ties with Libya began in 2003 when Tripoli admitted blowing up a Pan American airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and a French UTC airliner over Africa in 1989, and paid billions of dollars in compensation."

The true position, of course, is that Tripoli made no such admission. What it did was accept responsibility for the actings of Libyan state servants. If it transpires that the conviction of Mr Megrahi constituted a miscarriage of justice and is quashed, then there is no Libyan admission whatsoever of any involvement at all in the destruction of Pan Am 103. See
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2007&m=November&x=20071129144104cpataruk0.800152

Another lockerbie blog

I am ashamed to say that until this morning I was unaware of Ed's Blog City which is advertised as containing "Notes, information, articles, opinions and other writings on the Pan Am 103 disaster at Lockerbie, 21st December 1988." It contains lots of useful material, much of it not easily accessible elsewhere. See
http://edsblogcity.blogspot.com/

Lockerbie evidence withheld from defence

This is the title of an article posted today on the Cossacks Breaking News website. Internal evidence suggests that it derives from The Scotsman but I have not been able to find the piece on that newspaper's website. Part of the story reads:

"Fresh doubt has been cast over the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber after it emerged a document containing vital evidence about the bomb timer has never been shown to the defence.

The Scotsman has learned that the failure to disclose the classified document, which concerns the supply of timers identical to the one said to have been used to blow up Pan Am Flight 103, led a review body that examined the case against Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to conclude a miscarriage of justice may have occurred.

It was not previously known that doubts over the timer were grounds for an appeal.

The content of the document remains a mystery as sensitive details of the report seen by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) have been blacked out, or redacted. It is understood that security services also prevented the SCCRC from releasing the report, or disclosing any of its contents, to Megrahi or his lawyers, who are thought likely to seek a court order forcing the Crown Office to hand it over.

The document is among six points in the case which the SCCRC has concluded casts doubt over the reliability of Megrahi’s conviction. The SCCRC detailed some of these in a summary of its findings in June, but others, including the failure to disclose this document, remained secret."

For the full text, see
http://cossacks.org.uk/business/lockerbie-evidence-withheld-from-defence/

None of this seems terribly earth-shattering: those who attended, or followed proceedings at, the procedural hearing on 11 October had already reached the inevitable conclusion that the failure by the Crown to disclose the document relating to timers was one of the grounds upon which the SCCRC had referred the case back to the appeal court.

From Terrorism blog

Here are links to two posts, dated 07 September and 11 October 2007 respectively, that I have just discovered on the Terrorism blog. Both contain matter directly or indirectly relevant to Lockerbie.
http://spookterror.blogspot.com/2007/09/classic-false-flag-operation-disco-la.html
and
http://spookterror.blogspot.com/2007/10/lockerbie-truth-will-media-finally.html

As far as the information contained in the second item is concerned, it should be noted that Bill Taylor QC has not become a sheriff, but Alistair Duff has.

Another anniversary

On 24 November 2003, the High Court of Justiciary, sitting in Glasgow, determined that Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi, convicted on 31 January 2001 in the Scottish Court in The Netherlands for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, should serve 27 years in prison before becoming eligible for release on licence from his life sentence. The trial judges' original recommendation that he serve at least twenty years of the life sentence before being considered for release, required to be reconsidered following changes in Scots penal law following the incorporation into domestic law of the European Convention on Human Rights. The "punishment part" of 27 years now imposed (by the same three judges as had imposed the original sentence) was backdated to April 1999, when Megrahi was remanded in custody to await trial. Both the Crown and the defence have appealed the 27-year punishment part, but it is unlikely that these appeals will be heard unless and until Megrahi's new appeal is dismissed.