‘I’ve proved Lockerbie bomb not from Malta’

[This is the headline over a report published yesterday afternoon on the website of The Times of Malta.  It reads as follows:]

New book’s author says explosive device was planted on plane at Heathrow

The bomb that blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie originated at Heathrow and not Malta, a new book “proves” 25 years after the deadly explosion.

“I have proved the bomb originated at Heathrow,” said author Morag Kerr, who has been given access to statements, reports and photographs, some of which have not been publicly available until now.

The book Adequately Explained by Stupidity? – Lockerbie, Luggage and Lies comprehensively destroys the official account of what happened on December 21, 1988.

In 2001 Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of placing the bomb in a brown Samsonite suitcase and loading it on to an Air Malta aircraft at Luqa. It was then purportedly transferred to a feeder flight at Frankfurt before reaching the doomed aircraft at Heathrow. Minutes later it exploded over Scotland, killing 270 people, 11 on the ground.

The book by Dr Kerr, deputy secretary of the Justice for Megrahi committee, deals specifically with the detail of the transfer baggage evidence.

It exposes deficiencies in both the police enquiry and the forensic investigation which led the hunt in entirely the wrong direction.

“Al-Megrahi was nowhere near the place at the time and could not possibly have had anything to do with it. The Lockerbie investigation was horrifically bungled thanks to stupidity, carelessness and tunnel vision,” the author says.

The police made a fatal error in 1989 and eliminated Heathrow on a false assumption.

“The biggest mystery of the entire saga is why the police persisted in their absolute conviction that the bomb had travelled on that flight from Malta. All luggage loaded on to the aircraft in question was accounted for and there were no unaccompanied bags,” Dr Kerr says.

Within weeks of the disaster, the investigation had very strong evidence indicating the bomb had actually been smuggled into a baggage container at Heathrow Airport.

In early January 1989, a Heathrow baggage handler said he had seen a brown Samsonite suitcase which had mysteriously appeared in the baggage container on his return from a tea break. This container held luggage that was to be loaded on to Pan Am 103 and that precise corner of the container was known by investigators to be where the explosion had happened.

Rather than pursuing this vital lead vigorously, the police more or less ignored it, the author insists.

By scrutinising baggage records, witness statements, police memos, forensic reports and original case photographs, Dr Kerr has pinpointed the precise location of the blast-damaged suitcases. The author said her detailed findings have been in the hands of the Scottish police for over a year now.

Jim Swire, whose daughter was killed at Lockerbie, said when contacted yesterday that Dr Kerr’s book was compatible with his own probe into the matter.

Despite the new evidence, Dr Swire said the US and British governments will remain determined to sell the theory that al-Megrahi planted the bomb in Malta.

“Sadly they are determined to obstruct the truth. But we have long been convinced that al-Megrahi was not the Lockerbie bomber,” Dr Swire told Times of Malta.

As the world marks the 25th anniversary of the Lockerbie tragedy, a number of new facts and theories are emerging. A documentary to be released by Al Jazeera on Sunday will look into who could have really been the Lockerbie bomber.

Speaking on Times Talk recently, Maltese Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella said he was sure al-Megrahi was innocent.

Lockerbie bomb started at Heathrow, not Malta via Frankfurt

[Lockerbie bomb was loaded at Heathrow is the heading over a press release issued to mark the appearance of Dr Morag Kerr’s book Adequately Explained by Stupidity? Lockerbie, Luggage and Lies. The official publication date is 21 December, the 25th anniversary of the Lockerbie disaster, but the book will be available on 10 December or very shortly thereafter.  The press release reads as follows:]

A new book proves that the bomb that blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie originated at Heathrow and not at Malta as the Court accepted.

Adequately Explained by Stupidity? - Lockerbie, Luggage and Lies has been written by Dr Morag Kerr, Secretary-Depute of the Justice for Megrahi committee.

It’s the only book about Lockerbie to deal specifically with the detail of the transfer baggage evidence. It exposes shocking deficiencies in both the police enquiry and the forensic investigation which led the hunt in entirely the wrong direction.

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the outrage, the 220-page book comprehensively destroys the official account of what happened on December 21, 1988.

Dr Kerr’s book, described by Terry Waite in his foreword as “a masterpiece of forensic investigation”, shows with faultless logic that the bomb was loaded at Heathrow.

This means that Megrahi, the only man convicted of the bombing, is innocent. He didn’t do it.

“I have proved the bomb originated at Heathrow,” says Dr Kerr.

“I have been given access to statements, reports and photographs, some of which have not until now been publicly available. Detailed analysis of the forensic findings, something not done by the investigators themselves, contradicts the conclusions reached by the court.

“It is a very simple narrative. Heathrow was indeed the scene of the crime. There is irrefutable evidence the bomb was in a suitcase seen at Heathrow before the feeder flight from Frankfurt landed. Megrahi was nowhere near the place at the time and could not possibly have had anything to do with it. The Lockerbie investigation was horrifically bungled thanks to stupidity, carelessness and tunnel vision. The Police made a fatal error in 1989 and eliminated Heathrow on a false assumption.

”The damaged suitcases which were recovered at Lockerbie are like the pieces of a large jigsaw puzzle. The forensic scientists made no attempt to solve this puzzle but it’s actually not difficult. Once the puzzle is solved, the truth is revealed.

”The prosecution’s case was that two Libyans, Megrahi and Fhimah, had placed the bomb in a brown Samsonite suitcase in Malta. They then put the suitcase into the baggage system at Malta’s Luqa Airport as unaccompanied luggage. It then went on an Air Malta flight to Frankfurt, it was transferred to a feeder flight to Heathrow and was subsequently loaded onto Pan Am 103 where it exploded after thirty-eight minutes killing 270 people.”

Dr Kerr says: “The biggest mystery of the entire saga is why the police persisted in their absolute conviction that the bomb had travelled on that flight from Malta. All the luggage loaded onto the aircraft in question was accounted for and there were no unaccompanied bags.

“This is even more surprising when you realise that within weeks of the disaster, the investigation had very strong evidence indicating that the bomb had actually been smuggled into a baggage container at Heathrow Airport, an hour before the feeder flight from Frankfurt landed.”

In early January 1989, John Bedford, a baggage handler in the Heathrow interline shed, said he had seen a brown Samsonite suitcase which had mysteriously appeared in the bottom front left-hand corner of an aluminium baggage container, AVE4041, on his return from a tea break. This container held luggage that was to be loaded onto Pan Am 103 and that precise corner of the container was known by investigators to be where the explosion had happened.

The case John Bedford saw that afternoon has become known as the “Bedford suitcase”.

Dr Kerr writes: “Rather than pursuing this vital lead vigorously, the police more or less ignored it. Everyone seemed to be waiting for the forensic results to declare: bomb on second layer, no Heathrow-origin luggage on second layer, therefore bomb arrived fromFrankfurt.”

But by meticulously scrutinising baggage records, witness statements, police memos, forensic reports and original case photographs, Dr Kerr has pinpointed the precise location of the blast-damaged suitcases inside AVE4041 in relation to the seat of the explosion to show that the “Bedford suitcase” contained the bomb.

“We have to ask how the Scottish police managed to overlook a shed-load of evidence showing that the bomb had been introduced at Heathrow; how the forensic scientists and Air Accident Investigation Branch inspectors compounded this error by misinterpreting and failing to interpret the evidence from the recovered debris; and why the Crown prosecution at the Camp Zeist trial chose to conceal so much important information from the court and present a contrived scenario that was entirely at odds with fundamental forensic thinking about the case since 1989.”

She adds: “We convicted Megrahi on evidence that wouldn’t support the issuing of a parking ticket, imprisoned him 1800 miles from his home and family and turned him into an international hate figure while he was in the terminal stages of aggressive prostate cancer.

“They say “never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity”, but is that enough to account for what happened in the Lockerbie inquiry? Was this simply incompetence and tunnel vision or were the investigators deliberately lured away from making the Heathrow connection?”

Professor Robert Black QC commented: “Morag Kerr has analysed the information with forensic rigour and the prosecution scenario of the bomb being in an unaccompanied bag from Malta via Frankfurt to Heathrow is utterly destroyed. Whoever was responsible for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, Morag Kerr has conclusively demonstrated that it was not Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.”

Dr Kerr's detailed findings have been in the hands of the Scottish police for over a year now as part of the investigations surrounding allegations of criminality lodged by Justice for Megrahi against forensic, legal and police officials involved in the Lockerbie investigation and subsequent Camp Zeist trial.

The book’s publication date is December 21 but it has been released early by publishers Troubador Publications (www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=2499).

Morag Kerr was born in Lanarkshire in 1953. She qualified as a veterinary surgeon fromGlasgow University in 1976 and continued postgraduate study in biochemistry. She was awarded her PhD in 1985 and specialised in clinical pathology and laboratory medicine. She taught at the Royal Veterinary College from 1982-8 and then worked in private diagnostic laboratories in Scotland and England. She joined Justice for Megrahi in 2010. She lives in Peeblesshire

[Today's edition of The Scotsman carries this story.  The Herald also carries a report, which can be read here. The reaction of the Crown Office is reported in it as follows:]

Last night a Crown Office spokesman dismissed Ms Kerr's claims. He said: "The theory set out in this book was rejected as speculation by the court. [RB: The evidence uncovered and analysed by Dr Kerr was never placed before the court at Zeist. The Crown Office, as so often in this case, is being economical with the truth.]

"The only appropriate forum for the determination of guilt or innocence is the criminal court, and Mr Megrahi was convicted unanimously by three senior judges. His conviction was upheld unanimously by five judges, in an Appeal Court presided over by the Lord Justice General, Scotland's most senior judge.

"As the investigation remains live, it would not be appropriate to offer further comment."

Lockerbie: 25 years on - a message from Justice for Megrahi

[What follows is the text of a message sent yesterday to Justice for Megrahi  signatory members and supporters by JFM’s secretary, Robert Forrester:]

On 21 December 1988, Europe was subject to its most notorious peacetime assault. In a matter of moments, the Lockerbie atrocity took 270 lives. All our hearts go out in love and comradeship to those the victims left behind as they remember their losses of a quarter of a century ago.

At Kamp van Zeist in 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted for the villainy behind Pan Am 103. In 2009, his second appeal supported by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) was dropped against a background of arguably dubious political double dealing which secured his repatriation to Libya and his family due to his terminal medical condition. He died in 2012, without having succeeded in clearing his name.

As one of the country’s most renowned political and legal figures has put it: “There is not a lawyer in Scotland who believes he was guilty.” In 2011, a leading Scottish newspaper’s poll found that 52% of Scots agreed there should be an independent inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing while 34% disagreed and 14% were unsure. A petition for an inquiry has been before the Scottish Parliament for three years now calling for such an inquiry. The petition continues to receive unanimous parliamentarian support.  Allegations of criminality against police, forensic and Crown officials have been sidelined by the Scottish police and the Crown Office since August of this year because it is claimed that the allegations conflict with the Crown’s attempts to shore up the indefensible. Would the Crown Office, Police Scotland and the FBI be going on trips to Libya and Malta in their futile and secretive attempts to maintain the charade of implicating further Libyan nationals 25 years after the event were it not for the pressure they have found themselves under due to the overwhelming evidence presented by activists? Doubtful. What seems to be being presented is a cynical blind for public consumption.

Precisely how is justice being served by such intransigence as is being displayed by both the Crown Office and the Scottish Government? What kind of justice is it that produces more victims than it started with? Many good and honest folk firmly believe that justice has not been either done or seen to be done in this tragic case. There has been no completion, nor has there been any finality. A resolution is required.  The hearts and minds of the bereaved, the al-Megrahi family and all who invest their trust and faith in our justice system must be satisfied.

In the last few weeks another flood of information further undermines the Crown Office and Scottish Government position. The Foreign Minister of Malta has declared his profound doubts over the conviction. Documentary evidence has been revealed which proves that a key witness in the case against Mr. Megrahi was paid $2 million by the American authorities. This mounting evidence, on top of the evidence the SCCRC relied on for the basis of the second appeal, only serves to prove that our justice system has failed.

A third appeal must be referred. Methodical and persistent pressure can rectify the mistakes of dubious forensics, a bungled investigation and a misguided judgement. Something is seriously wrong in this case. Something seems deeply rotten in a state when public officials attempt to bluster their way out of having to deal with mass murder and a deranged court process to preserve a fantasy of reputation and as a result risk allowing those who may have committed this gross act to escape justice.

As the 25th anniversary of the Lockerbie tragedy approaches and the legacy of Nelson Mandela unfolds we demand no retribution or vengeance, we do not even seek to attribute blame, we simply ask that those who profess to serve justice do so without fear, favour or prejudice.

Signatory members of Justice for Megrahi

Ms Kate Adie (Former Chief News Correspondent for BBC News).

Mr John Ashton (Author of Scotland’s Shame and Megrahi: You are my Jury and Co- author of Cover Up of Convenience).

Mr Mikhail Basmadjian (Actor, Malta).

Mr David Benson (Actor/author of the play Lockerbie: Unfinished Business).

Mrs Jean Berkley (Mother of Alistair Berkley: victim of Pan Am 103).

Mr Peter Biddulph (Lockerbie tragedy researcher).

Mr Benedict Birnberg (Retired senior partner Birnberg Peirce & Partners).

Professor Robert Black QC (‘Architect’ of the Kamp van Zeist Trial).

Mr Christopher Brookmyre (Novelist).

Mr Paul Bull (Close friend of Bill Cadman: killed on Pan Am 103).

Ms Julia Calvert (Actress and creative director, Malta).

Mr Manuel Cauchi (Actor, Malta).

Professor Noam Chomsky (Human rights, social and political commentator).

Mr Tam Dalyell (UK MP: 1962-2005. Father of the House: 2001-2005).

Christina Dunwoodie (Soprano and opera director).

Mr Ian Ferguson (Co-author of: Cover Up of Convenience).

Dr David Fieldhouse (Police surgeon present at the Pan Am 103 crash site).

Mr Robert Forrester (Justice for Megrahi Committee).

Ms Christine Grahame MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament).

Mr Ian Hamilton QC (Advocate, author and former university rector).

Mr Ian Hislop (Editor of Private Eye).

Fr Pat Keegans (Lockerbie parish priest on 21st December 1988).

Ms A L Kennedy (Author).

Dr Morag Kerr (Justice for Megrahi Committee and author of Adequately Explained by Stupidity?).

Mr Andrew Killgore (Former US Ambassador to Qatar).

Mr Adam Larson (Editor and proprietor of The Lockerbie Divide).

Mr Aonghas MacNeacail (Poet and journalist).

Mr Eddie McDaid (Lockerbie commentator).

Mr Rik McHarg (Communications hub coordinator: Lockerbie crash sites).

Mr Iain McKie (Retired Superintendent of Police).

Mr Marcello Mega (Journalist covering the Lockerbie incident).

Ms Heather Mills (Reporter for Private Eye).

Mr Alan Montanaro (Actor and drama school principal, Malta).

Rev’d John F Mosey (Father of Helga Mosey: victim of Pan Am 103).

Ms Denise Mulholland (Actress, Malta).

Mr Len Murray (Retired solicitor).

Mr Alan Paris (Actor and creative director, Malta).

Mr Denis Phipps (Aviation security expert).

Mr John Pilger (Campaigning human rights journalist).

Mr Steven Raeburn (Former editor of The Firm).

Dr Tessa Ransford OBE  (Poetry Practitioner and Adviser).

Mr James Robertson (Author).

Mr Mike Ross (Photographer and designer, Malta).

Dr David Stevenson (Retired medical specialist and Lockerbie commentator).

Dr Jim Swire (Father of Flora Swire: victim of Pan Am 103).

Sir Teddy Taylor (UK MP: 1964-2005. Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland).

Mr George Thomson (Private investigator).

Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize Winner).

Mr Terry Waite CBE (Former envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury and hostage negotiator).

Mr Simon Walker (Close friend of Joyce Dimauro: victim of 103).

Deceased members of Justice for Megrahi

Mr Moses Kungu (Lockerbie Councillor in 1988).

Mr Jock Thomson QC (Former police officer and senior prosecutor. Latterly criminal defence advocate).

Mandela thought handover of Lockerbie suspects one of his biggest foreign policy achievements

[What follows is taken from an article in today’s edition of The Sunday Herald headlined A difficult friend to the West:]

Elsewhere in the Middle East, one of Mandela's first visits after his release was to travel to Libya to thank President Gaddafi for his unbending support for the ANC, providing funds, training and weapons to the armed wing. Four years later, in 1994, Gaddafi was an official guest at Mandela's swearing in as president. The gesture was all the more remarkable because at the time the Libyan president was a pariah in the international community. When Western governments made clear their displeasure, Mandela responded: "Those who feel irritated by our friendship with President Gaddafi can go jump in the pool."

So important was that connection that one of Mandela's grandsons is named after Gaddafi. Not for the first or the last time the newly elected South African president demonstrated that behind his courtesy and his frankness he had a spine of steel and would not be bullied. To him it was quite simple: while the West had done very little to shackle the apartheid regime in South Africa, Libya had been a close ally and supporter of the ANC and it was unthinkable that the friendship should cease. As ever, though, Mandela was not just following his heart: there was a purpose to his diplomacy. Far from following a personal whim, Mandela played a key role in ending Gaddafi's isolation by brokering a deal with the UK over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Under its terms Gaddafi handed over the two leading suspects, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah and Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, for trial by a Scottish court. The former was acquitted and returned to Libya but Megrahi was jailed for life. At the time that the two men were handed over for trial, Mandela claimed that it was one of his biggest foreign policy achievements and that it underlined the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy.

"No-one can deny that the friendship and trust between South Africa and Libya played a significant part in arriving at this solution," he said in 1999 as he approached the end of his presidency. "It vindicates our view that talking to one another and searching for peaceful solutions remains the surest way to resolve differences and advance peace and progress in the world."

Eight years into his sentence Megrahi was released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds, a decision that was also welcomed by Mandela. In a world in which hard-nosed politics usually takes precedence over humanity and common sense that kind of universalism, backed by strong moral values, is going to be badly missed.

Mandela believed Megrahi had suffered a deep wrong

[An item posted this morning on the Lockerbie Truth website of Dr Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph reads as follows:]

At long last the mainstream media are discovering the significance of the visit by Mandela in June 2002 to comfort Al-Megrahi in his Glasgow prison cell.

Mandela was a major influence in the setting up of the Lockerbie trial, the agreement by Libya to transfer the two suspects to the Lockerbie trial court in Kamp Zeist, and - unknown to many at the time - in pressing for a second appeal so that Al-Megrahi's innocence could be demonstrated in a court of law.  

As an expert lawyer Mandela was aware of the prosecution case and the evidence submitted, and believed that Al-Megrahi had suffered a deep wrong at the hands of the intelligence services of several governments.

A full account of Mandela's visit to see Al-Megrahi, including a privately taken family photo of the two together and a photo of the hand-written inscription by Mandela, is contained in John Ashton's book Megrahi: You are my Jury - The Lockerbie Evidence (2012 - Birlinn).

The details of the visit, together with the two photos, can be read here.

Relatives and inhabitants remember the Lockerbie disaster

[Today’s edition of The Sunday Times contains (behind the paywall) an article headlined Lockerbie remembers. It reads in part:]

Relatives of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing and others who survived say those who died would not want them to be bitter about Britain’s worst terrorist attack.

Speaking on the eve of the 25th anniversary, they said the bombing victims would want them to live “joyfully” rather than give in to terrorism.

Others taking part in a new television documentary about the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Dumfriesshire, have told how the horror of the atrocity, which claimed 270 lives, still lives with them daily.

As Scottish prosecutors continue to investigate the attack, following the death last year of the convicted bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, some of those touched by the tragedy have relived the events around December 21, 1988. (...)

Lockerbie priest [RB: and Justice for Megrahi committee member] Fr (now canon) Patrick Keegans described the moment of impact as he realised he had to get his elderly mother out of their house and away from the flames. He lived at Sherwood Crescent, where the fuselage of the jet landed, destroying three homes and claiming the lives of several residents. “The whole house went dark and shook so much it was impossible to move. I thought, ‘I’m going to die here’ and then everything went still. I opened the front door and the street was gone. The whole street was on fire. There were fires in the garden, rubble and debris everywhere.” (...)

For many relatives of those killed in the attack, the release on compassionate grounds of Megrahi, three years before his death, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer has been a source of anger.

However, Keegans believes the victims would not want those who survived to be bitter. “If those who have died were able to speak to us just now, what would they say? ‘Live your lives joyfully because that’s how we want you to live your lives.’

"Because in the back of my head, there was this thought, we’re not going to allow the terrorists to have our lives as well.”

Janine Boulanger, whose 21-year-old daughter Nicole was returning to the United States after six months in Britain, agrees.

“The world is full of hate and terror and I have decided that I need to concentrate on the goodness that surrounds us and the beauty of life because I don’t think my daughter would want anything else,” she said.

The Lockerbie Bombing is broadcast on December 17 at 9.30pm on STV and 11pm on ITV