[What follows is the text of a letter from Dr Jim Swire published in Friday’s edition of The Guardian:]
Sixteen hours before my daughter Flora was killed on the Lockerbie flight in 1988, the airside of Heathrow was broken into, close to where the bomb was loaded the following evening. Security was immediately informed by its own night watchman but did nothing effective to discover who had broken in, nor why. That was before the official "war on terror", but at a time when the airport had just been warned of increased terrorist risk to US aircraft. Medicine has its single golden hour in which to save life. Heathrow wasted 16 hours. The Scots then amplified the time delay. Told about the break-in by the Met police a month after the atrocity, their police and crown office kept it hidden from the court which tried the Libyan, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, more than a decade later, until after he'd been convicted. Surely these days we could have immediate central security warning of perimeter breaches, with automatic "lock down" of the airport including all outgoing flights, till the cause is discovered (Gunmen pull off £30m diamond heist at airport, 20 February)?
Saturday, 23 February 2013
Friday, 22 February 2013
From the archive: Lockerbie investigators to travel to Malta to seek new evidence
[During this fallow period for news relating to the Lockerbie case, here is an item originally posted on this blog four years ago on 22 February 2009:]
A delegation from the Scottish Crown is due to travel to Malta in the very near future to “actively seek the consent for disclosure” of sensitive documents that could determine a the outcome of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi’s appeal, the High Court in Edinburgh was told on Friday.
The delegation will be looking for previously undisclosed documents related to statements given by a friend of Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, David Wright, who in 1989 raised concerns over Gauci’s identification of al-Megrahi.
The news comes amid arguments presented by al-Megrahi’s defence team, which contended evidence given by the potential witness in the Lockerbie bombing investigation could have undermined the prosecution’s case, but had never been presented in court or given to the defence team. (...)
Gauci claimed that on 7 December 1988 he had sold the former Libyan intelligence officer the clothes later found inside the suitcase holding the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing all 270 people aboard.
Al-Megrahi’s defence team argued on Friday that evidence given by a friend of Gauci, a certain David Wright could very well have scuttled the prosecution’s case but the evidence had never been presented in court or handed over to the defence team.
Wright was said to have approached the Maltese police in September 1989 and the officers in England in December with a statement contradicting Gauci’s evidence.
Defence counsel Maggie Scot argued that Wright had given a “remarkably” similar description to that used by Gauci to implicate al-Megrahi in the bombing of another unrelated sale made by Gauci at his family’s shop, Mary’s House in Sliema.
But, Ms Scott argued that the details of Wright’s statement, which could contradict and possibly negate Gauci’s evidence, had never been presented in court and that the defence team had never even seen it.
But, Ms Scott argued that the details of Wright’s statement, which could contradict and possibly negate Gauci’s evidence, had never been presented in court and that the defence team had never even seen it.
Speaking in court on Friday, Ms Scott said, “Mr Wright gave statements to police in England saying he was a friend of Mr Gauci and that he had witnessed a transaction at Mr Gauci’s shop which bears a remarkable resemblance to the sale to the two men Mr Gauci described.”
Al-Megrahi’s defence is demanding that the previously undisclosed evidence it believes will help free their client be made available in time for the commencement of the appeal hearing, due to begin on 27 April.
Such evidence includes any documents related to Wright, as well as any documents showing Mr Gauci had been interested in a financial reward for his evidence.
Al-Megrahi’s lawyers are also asking for video footage of the identification parade in which Gauci had singled out al-Megrahi, as well as the details of those who had been selected to participate in the parade.
In addition to Malta, the Crown will also be approaching other foreign sources, but stressed some of the material being requested could have security implications in the respective countries should it be made public.
The call for documents related to Gauci’s interest in a financial reward for positively identifying al-Megrahi comes amid claims that Tony Gauci and his brother Paul were paid millions of dollars each by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation as a reward for their help in convicting al-Megrahi, claims the FBI vehemently denies. (...)
Al Megrahi was found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing in 2001 and although he lost a previous appeal against his conviction in 2002, the SCCRC in June 2007 referred the appeal back to court after it found six grounds that may have constituted a miscarriage of justice. Grounds mainly related to Gauci’s evidence.
In approving a new appeal, the Commission had found “there is no reasonable basis in the trial court’s judgment for its conclusion that the purchase of the items from Mary’s House took place on 7 December 1988” as Gauci had claimed.
Although it had been proven that al-Megrahi had been in Malta on several occasions in the month in question, it had determined that 7 December 1988 was the only date on which he would have had the opportunity to make the purchases from Mary’s House.
New evidence given to the Commission concerned the date on which Christmas lights had been turned on in Tower Road, Sliema near Mary’s House. Taken together with Gauci’s evidence at the trial and the contents of his police statements, the date indicates that the purchase of the incriminating items had taken place before 6 December 1988 – when no evidence had been presented at trial to the effect that the al-Megrahi was in Malta before the date.
Yet more new evidence given to the Commission indicated Gauci, four days before the identification parade at which he picked out al-Megrahi, had seen a photograph of al-Megrahi in a magazine article linking him to the bombing.
The Commission found that Mr Gauci’s exposure to the photograph, so close to the date of the identity parade, “undermines the reliability of his identification of the applicant at that time and at the trial itself”.
[From an article by David Lindsay in the online version of today's (ie 22/02/09) edition of The Malta Independent. The full article can be read here.]
A delegation from the Scottish Crown is due to travel to Malta in the very near future to “actively seek the consent for disclosure” of sensitive documents that could determine a the outcome of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi’s appeal, the High Court in Edinburgh was told on Friday.
The delegation will be looking for previously undisclosed documents related to statements given by a friend of Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, David Wright, who in 1989 raised concerns over Gauci’s identification of al-Megrahi.
The news comes amid arguments presented by al-Megrahi’s defence team, which contended evidence given by the potential witness in the Lockerbie bombing investigation could have undermined the prosecution’s case, but had never been presented in court or given to the defence team. (...)
Gauci claimed that on 7 December 1988 he had sold the former Libyan intelligence officer the clothes later found inside the suitcase holding the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing all 270 people aboard.
Al-Megrahi’s defence team argued on Friday that evidence given by a friend of Gauci, a certain David Wright could very well have scuttled the prosecution’s case but the evidence had never been presented in court or handed over to the defence team.
Wright was said to have approached the Maltese police in September 1989 and the officers in England in December with a statement contradicting Gauci’s evidence.
Defence counsel Maggie Scot argued that Wright had given a “remarkably” similar description to that used by Gauci to implicate al-Megrahi in the bombing of another unrelated sale made by Gauci at his family’s shop, Mary’s House in Sliema.
But, Ms Scott argued that the details of Wright’s statement, which could contradict and possibly negate Gauci’s evidence, had never been presented in court and that the defence team had never even seen it.
But, Ms Scott argued that the details of Wright’s statement, which could contradict and possibly negate Gauci’s evidence, had never been presented in court and that the defence team had never even seen it.
Speaking in court on Friday, Ms Scott said, “Mr Wright gave statements to police in England saying he was a friend of Mr Gauci and that he had witnessed a transaction at Mr Gauci’s shop which bears a remarkable resemblance to the sale to the two men Mr Gauci described.”
Al-Megrahi’s defence is demanding that the previously undisclosed evidence it believes will help free their client be made available in time for the commencement of the appeal hearing, due to begin on 27 April.
Such evidence includes any documents related to Wright, as well as any documents showing Mr Gauci had been interested in a financial reward for his evidence.
Al-Megrahi’s lawyers are also asking for video footage of the identification parade in which Gauci had singled out al-Megrahi, as well as the details of those who had been selected to participate in the parade.
In addition to Malta, the Crown will also be approaching other foreign sources, but stressed some of the material being requested could have security implications in the respective countries should it be made public.
The call for documents related to Gauci’s interest in a financial reward for positively identifying al-Megrahi comes amid claims that Tony Gauci and his brother Paul were paid millions of dollars each by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation as a reward for their help in convicting al-Megrahi, claims the FBI vehemently denies. (...)
Al Megrahi was found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing in 2001 and although he lost a previous appeal against his conviction in 2002, the SCCRC in June 2007 referred the appeal back to court after it found six grounds that may have constituted a miscarriage of justice. Grounds mainly related to Gauci’s evidence.
In approving a new appeal, the Commission had found “there is no reasonable basis in the trial court’s judgment for its conclusion that the purchase of the items from Mary’s House took place on 7 December 1988” as Gauci had claimed.
Although it had been proven that al-Megrahi had been in Malta on several occasions in the month in question, it had determined that 7 December 1988 was the only date on which he would have had the opportunity to make the purchases from Mary’s House.
New evidence given to the Commission concerned the date on which Christmas lights had been turned on in Tower Road, Sliema near Mary’s House. Taken together with Gauci’s evidence at the trial and the contents of his police statements, the date indicates that the purchase of the incriminating items had taken place before 6 December 1988 – when no evidence had been presented at trial to the effect that the al-Megrahi was in Malta before the date.
Yet more new evidence given to the Commission indicated Gauci, four days before the identification parade at which he picked out al-Megrahi, had seen a photograph of al-Megrahi in a magazine article linking him to the bombing.
The Commission found that Mr Gauci’s exposure to the photograph, so close to the date of the identity parade, “undermines the reliability of his identification of the applicant at that time and at the trial itself”.
[From an article by David Lindsay in the online version of today's (ie 22/02/09) edition of The Malta Independent. The full article can be read here.]
Monday, 18 February 2013
Inquiry call on Malta’s last link to Lockerbie
[This is the headline over an article by Herman Grech in yesterday’s edition of the Maltese newspaper The Sunday Times. It reads as follows:]
The father of a Lockerbie victim has called for an immediate inquiry into an aircraft circuit board fragment which links the 1988 disaster to Malta.
“There is now no evidence that a long-running timer was used. Without that link, Malta is out of the frame once and for all in my opinion,” Jim Swire told The Sunday Times.
Dr Swire has written to Scotland’s Lord Advocate after it emerged last week that the three experts most involved in defining the significance of the discrepancy over the metal were never approached by the Crown Office or the police.
This circuit board fragment was the crucial link at the trial, and suggested that the bomb departed from Malta. But investigators concluded last year that the circuit board fragment used in evidence at the original trial, although mimicking circuit boards owned by Libya, could never have come from any such board.
The latest development comes in the wake of a petition calling for an independent inquiry into the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for the bombing of the US airliner over Scotland, which killed 270.
According to the prosecution, the suitcase containing the bomb left Malta on an Air Malta flight to Frankfurt before being transferred to another flight to Heathrow. But in 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission concluded that a miscarriage of justice may have taken place.
Dr Swire called on the authorities to probe the circuit board fragment, its origin, and the way it found its way inside a police evidence bag to be used by the prosecution as a key part of their evidence.
In a letter sent to Scotland’s Lord Advocate, seen by The Sunday Times, Dr Swire said the circuit board fragment was the one last remaining credible link to Malta.
“The misuse of this one piece of evidence should surely be enough on its own to destroy the prosecution case.
“Now that we know that that link never existed, since the fragment was clearly fraudulent in its intent, there is little reason to pay attention to the buyer of the clothing, the Gaucis, the happenings at Luqa that day and so on,” Dr Swire said.
“There is of course no proof, intelligence services try hard not to leave any. There is also however something called common sense.”
Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci had identified Mr Megrahi as the person who had purchased clothes (whose fragments were found on the disaster site) from his shop in Sliema in December 1988. However, Mr Gauci’s testimony was subsequently undermined by news that the CIA had compensated him for his evidence and the fact that he had been coached by investigators to pick out Mr Megrahi, who died last year.
Dr Swire said adherence to the Camp Zeist 2001 verdict, in the face of the immediate criticisms of the UN’s special observer, among others, while at the same time refusing to investigate well-supported allegations, would be seen as dereliction of the Crown Office’s duty to deliver timely justice. Effectively it would also amount to protection for the real perpetrators.
“As her father I have a right to know who murdered her and why her life was not protected,” Dr Swire said, in reference to his daughter Flora, who was 24 at the time.
“I am proud simply to be involved in a search for the truth, concerning my daughter’s murder, and not in any attempt to denigrate others in the process.”
The father of a Lockerbie victim has called for an immediate inquiry into an aircraft circuit board fragment which links the 1988 disaster to Malta.
“There is now no evidence that a long-running timer was used. Without that link, Malta is out of the frame once and for all in my opinion,” Jim Swire told The Sunday Times.
Dr Swire has written to Scotland’s Lord Advocate after it emerged last week that the three experts most involved in defining the significance of the discrepancy over the metal were never approached by the Crown Office or the police.
This circuit board fragment was the crucial link at the trial, and suggested that the bomb departed from Malta. But investigators concluded last year that the circuit board fragment used in evidence at the original trial, although mimicking circuit boards owned by Libya, could never have come from any such board.
The latest development comes in the wake of a petition calling for an independent inquiry into the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for the bombing of the US airliner over Scotland, which killed 270.
According to the prosecution, the suitcase containing the bomb left Malta on an Air Malta flight to Frankfurt before being transferred to another flight to Heathrow. But in 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission concluded that a miscarriage of justice may have taken place.
Dr Swire called on the authorities to probe the circuit board fragment, its origin, and the way it found its way inside a police evidence bag to be used by the prosecution as a key part of their evidence.
In a letter sent to Scotland’s Lord Advocate, seen by The Sunday Times, Dr Swire said the circuit board fragment was the one last remaining credible link to Malta.
“The misuse of this one piece of evidence should surely be enough on its own to destroy the prosecution case.
“Now that we know that that link never existed, since the fragment was clearly fraudulent in its intent, there is little reason to pay attention to the buyer of the clothing, the Gaucis, the happenings at Luqa that day and so on,” Dr Swire said.
“There is of course no proof, intelligence services try hard not to leave any. There is also however something called common sense.”
Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci had identified Mr Megrahi as the person who had purchased clothes (whose fragments were found on the disaster site) from his shop in Sliema in December 1988. However, Mr Gauci’s testimony was subsequently undermined by news that the CIA had compensated him for his evidence and the fact that he had been coached by investigators to pick out Mr Megrahi, who died last year.
Dr Swire said adherence to the Camp Zeist 2001 verdict, in the face of the immediate criticisms of the UN’s special observer, among others, while at the same time refusing to investigate well-supported allegations, would be seen as dereliction of the Crown Office’s duty to deliver timely justice. Effectively it would also amount to protection for the real perpetrators.
“As her father I have a right to know who murdered her and why her life was not protected,” Dr Swire said, in reference to his daughter Flora, who was 24 at the time.
“I am proud simply to be involved in a search for the truth, concerning my daughter’s murder, and not in any attempt to denigrate others in the process.”
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Victim's father calls for inquiry on Malta's last link to Lockerbie
[This is the headline over a report published today on the website of the Maltese newspaper The Times. It reads as follows:]
The father of a Lockerbie victim has called for an immediate inquiry into an aircraft circuit board fragment which links the 1988 disaster to Malta.
Jim Swire wrote to Scotland’s Lord Advocate after it emerged last week that the three experts most involved in defining the significance of the discrepancy over the metal were never approached by the Crown Office of the police.
He says there is now no evidence that a long-running timer was used and without that link, Malta is out of that frame once and for all.
The circuit board fragment was the crucial link at the trial and suggested that the bomb departed from Malta.
Read the full story in The Sunday Times.
[The “full story” is now (Monday) available on the website of The Sunday Times of Malta. See the immediately following blogpost.]
The father of a Lockerbie victim has called for an immediate inquiry into an aircraft circuit board fragment which links the 1988 disaster to Malta.
Jim Swire wrote to Scotland’s Lord Advocate after it emerged last week that the three experts most involved in defining the significance of the discrepancy over the metal were never approached by the Crown Office of the police.
He says there is now no evidence that a long-running timer was used and without that link, Malta is out of that frame once and for all.
The circuit board fragment was the crucial link at the trial and suggested that the bomb departed from Malta.
Read the full story in The Sunday Times.
[The “full story” is now (Monday) available on the website of The Sunday Times of Malta. See the immediately following blogpost.]
Lockerbie - yet again the clues lead to a Palestinian terrorist group
[This is the headline over an article posted on Friday by Swedish journalist Anders Carlgren on his website. It reads in part:]
Just two months before the Lockerbie bombing, West German police had cracked down on a terrorist cell outside of Düsseldorf, apprehending 17 members of none other than PFLP-GC. The most important find was four Semtex bombs build into Toshiba radios.
But a fifth bomb had gone missing, and it turned out that it had been hidden by the bomb builder of the terrorist cell, Marwan Kreeshat. The legendary European correspondent for ABC News Pierre Salinger later interviewed Kreeshat in prison. In that interview Kreeshat said that he was convinced that it was precisely his bomb that had brought down Pan Am Flight 103. It is also documented that during the fall of 1988, great sums were transferred from Iran to the German terrorist cell, in several batches via a variety of Middle Eastern banks.
But the Palestinian-Iranian trail sudden went cold and non-existent in August 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait. That invasion and the first Gulf war entirely changed the direction of the investigation, documentably at American request. During the preparation for the war, it was important to keep both Syria and Iran calm. The PFLP-GC was now entirely uninteresting and – unexpectedly – the rogue state Libya was pointed to as responsible for the act. The United Nations complied with a request to impose extensive sanctions against Libya.
One of the persons no longer under investigation was the Swedish-Palestinian Mohammed Abu Talb, then a resident of Uppsala. He had entered Sweden on a false passport. Abu Talb probably had ties to the German terrorist cell, as he and three other Swedish-Palestinians repeatedly traveled to places like Frankfurt and Munich. Abu Talb had a background as chief of bodyguard forces in Lebanon and in Syria, and in the Soviet Union he had received training in handling targeting robots.
Today many investigators and relatives of victims are convinced that Abu Talb obtained the fifth Semtex bomb and had it loaded onto the airplane in Frankfurt, where Pan Am 103 had begun its route. It was determined that the bomb-containing suitcase had been loaded without belonging to any passenger.
Three years before the Lockerbie bombing, in 1985, Abu Talb along with three Palestinian co-conspirators were behind the bombing of a synagogue in Copenhagen and similar bombs against airplane companies in Copenhagen and Amsterdam, both of which caused much death and destruction.
In May 1989 the four terrorists were apprehended in Sweden, and December 21st, one year after Lockerbie, Mohammed Abu Talb and Marten Imandi were sentenced to life prison. The two others received significantly milder punishments.
Investigations showed that Abu Talb had been in Malta during the fall of 1988, and that Marten Imandi had stayed in Malta for a longer period. In the Uppsala home of Abu Talb, police also found a calendar with a circle around December 21st. And in a recorded wiretap , the Abu Talb’s wife was heard saying to someone else: ”get rid of the clothes immediately.” A suitcase similar to the one holding the bomb was found at that person’s residence.
Both Abu Talb and Marten Imandi are now free after having had their life sentences converted. Abu Talb was also sentenced to deportation, but is nevertheless still in Sweden, as the government cannot decide which country he is to be deported to – Egypt, Syria or Lebanon. He has repeatedly applied to have his deportation cancelled, most recently last year, but his application was turned down every time. Marten Imandi, however, cannot be deported, as he is a Swedish citizen.
But this Swedish trail to the Lockerbie bombing has never been followed to the end, after the US and Great Britain surprisingly pointed to Libya as the guilty party. After many long and hard negotiations, Moammar Gadaffi agreed to turn over two Libyans to a special Scottish court located at an old military base in the Netherlands. After two rounds of mock trial, one of them, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, was convicted to 27 years of prison. Gadaffi paid 2.7 billion dollars to the relatives of the victims. The sanctions were lifted, and in return, Great Britain obtained profitable oil contracts. Al Megrahi was returned to Libya in 2009, where he died later from prostate cancer.
We know today that the owner of the shop in Malta, Tony Gauci, who sold the clothes found in the bomber’s suitcase, lied when he pointed out Al Megrahi in a confrontation; he had been shown a picture of Al Megrahi in advance. We also know that Tony Gauci received two million dollars from the US for testifying in the two mock trials. There are many other errors and repeatedly changing explanations in his testimony.
Abu Talb was also forced to testify during the trials, but he denied any kind of involvement, and claimed that he had been babysitting in Uppsala at the time. That alibi, however, has never been verified.
A year ago, Scottish newspapers published an 800-page report of the investigation from the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), which had been classified since 2007. The report pointed out extensive lying, fraud, perjury, bought witnesses and other mistakes during the legal process.
Mohammed Abu Talb and his terrorist associates in Sweden and Germany do not enjoy immunity from the Scottish authorities. Therefore there are good reasons to resume investigation of the Swedish-Palestinian trail.
Just two months before the Lockerbie bombing, West German police had cracked down on a terrorist cell outside of Düsseldorf, apprehending 17 members of none other than PFLP-GC. The most important find was four Semtex bombs build into Toshiba radios.
But a fifth bomb had gone missing, and it turned out that it had been hidden by the bomb builder of the terrorist cell, Marwan Kreeshat. The legendary European correspondent for ABC News Pierre Salinger later interviewed Kreeshat in prison. In that interview Kreeshat said that he was convinced that it was precisely his bomb that had brought down Pan Am Flight 103. It is also documented that during the fall of 1988, great sums were transferred from Iran to the German terrorist cell, in several batches via a variety of Middle Eastern banks.
But the Palestinian-Iranian trail sudden went cold and non-existent in August 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait. That invasion and the first Gulf war entirely changed the direction of the investigation, documentably at American request. During the preparation for the war, it was important to keep both Syria and Iran calm. The PFLP-GC was now entirely uninteresting and – unexpectedly – the rogue state Libya was pointed to as responsible for the act. The United Nations complied with a request to impose extensive sanctions against Libya.
One of the persons no longer under investigation was the Swedish-Palestinian Mohammed Abu Talb, then a resident of Uppsala. He had entered Sweden on a false passport. Abu Talb probably had ties to the German terrorist cell, as he and three other Swedish-Palestinians repeatedly traveled to places like Frankfurt and Munich. Abu Talb had a background as chief of bodyguard forces in Lebanon and in Syria, and in the Soviet Union he had received training in handling targeting robots.
Today many investigators and relatives of victims are convinced that Abu Talb obtained the fifth Semtex bomb and had it loaded onto the airplane in Frankfurt, where Pan Am 103 had begun its route. It was determined that the bomb-containing suitcase had been loaded without belonging to any passenger.
Three years before the Lockerbie bombing, in 1985, Abu Talb along with three Palestinian co-conspirators were behind the bombing of a synagogue in Copenhagen and similar bombs against airplane companies in Copenhagen and Amsterdam, both of which caused much death and destruction.
In May 1989 the four terrorists were apprehended in Sweden, and December 21st, one year after Lockerbie, Mohammed Abu Talb and Marten Imandi were sentenced to life prison. The two others received significantly milder punishments.
Investigations showed that Abu Talb had been in Malta during the fall of 1988, and that Marten Imandi had stayed in Malta for a longer period. In the Uppsala home of Abu Talb, police also found a calendar with a circle around December 21st. And in a recorded wiretap , the Abu Talb’s wife was heard saying to someone else: ”get rid of the clothes immediately.” A suitcase similar to the one holding the bomb was found at that person’s residence.
Both Abu Talb and Marten Imandi are now free after having had their life sentences converted. Abu Talb was also sentenced to deportation, but is nevertheless still in Sweden, as the government cannot decide which country he is to be deported to – Egypt, Syria or Lebanon. He has repeatedly applied to have his deportation cancelled, most recently last year, but his application was turned down every time. Marten Imandi, however, cannot be deported, as he is a Swedish citizen.
But this Swedish trail to the Lockerbie bombing has never been followed to the end, after the US and Great Britain surprisingly pointed to Libya as the guilty party. After many long and hard negotiations, Moammar Gadaffi agreed to turn over two Libyans to a special Scottish court located at an old military base in the Netherlands. After two rounds of mock trial, one of them, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, was convicted to 27 years of prison. Gadaffi paid 2.7 billion dollars to the relatives of the victims. The sanctions were lifted, and in return, Great Britain obtained profitable oil contracts. Al Megrahi was returned to Libya in 2009, where he died later from prostate cancer.
We know today that the owner of the shop in Malta, Tony Gauci, who sold the clothes found in the bomber’s suitcase, lied when he pointed out Al Megrahi in a confrontation; he had been shown a picture of Al Megrahi in advance. We also know that Tony Gauci received two million dollars from the US for testifying in the two mock trials. There are many other errors and repeatedly changing explanations in his testimony.
Abu Talb was also forced to testify during the trials, but he denied any kind of involvement, and claimed that he had been babysitting in Uppsala at the time. That alibi, however, has never been verified.
A year ago, Scottish newspapers published an 800-page report of the investigation from the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), which had been classified since 2007. The report pointed out extensive lying, fraud, perjury, bought witnesses and other mistakes during the legal process.
Mohammed Abu Talb and his terrorist associates in Sweden and Germany do not enjoy immunity from the Scottish authorities. Therefore there are good reasons to resume investigation of the Swedish-Palestinian trail.
Saturday, 16 February 2013
Pope's resignation all about Lockerbie cover-up says 'deep throat'
Washington - A cover-up about mad-as-hatter former Pontiff Karol Wojtyla is lying in tatters following the resignation of his German successor and top apologist Pope Joseph Ratzinger.
"No wonder US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta begged Pope Benny-the-Dip to pray for him at an audience in Rome last month," a well-placed Pentagon insider commented this evening.
"They're shitting themselves at what's about to hit the fan."
An immensely successful 25-year PR campaign blaming the Libyans has completely whitewashed that they were little more than 'hired hands'.
According to a top Deep Throat with Pentagon clearance in Cold War stuff saved from the shredder Pope John Paul II ordered the hit soon after seeing the plane's First Class passenger list.
"No wonder US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta begged Pope Benny-the-Dip to pray for him at an audience in Rome last month," a well-placed Pentagon insider commented this evening.
"They're shitting themselves at what's about to hit the fan."
An immensely successful 25-year PR campaign blaming the Libyans has completely whitewashed that they were little more than 'hired hands'.
According to a top Deep Throat with Pentagon clearance in Cold War stuff saved from the shredder Pope John Paul II ordered the hit soon after seeing the plane's First Class passenger list.
The plot to blow up the US-bound Pan Am flight then moved fast in a bid to destroy vital evidence in the God's Banker case after Opus Dei informers claimed the papers 'were dynamite'.
But a last minute change of plans saw the courier carrying the explosive file cancel his trip after coming down with the flu.
Late last year he handed the new Libyan regime a copy of that evidence in a secret deal to prosecute previously protected double agents.
Expect a whiff of black smoke from St Peter's any day now as Ratzinger bites the bullet to take his secret to the grave.
Expect a whiff of black smoke from St Peter's any day now as Ratzinger bites the bullet to take his secret to the grave.
[For the avoidance of all doubt, the above is a spoof, published yesterday on The Spoof! website.]
Friday, 15 February 2013
Libya appeals ICC order to hand over Senussi
[A week ago the International Criminal Court ordered Libya to hand over Abdullah al-Senussi -- the man whom some suspect of having orchestrated the Lockerbie bombing. The Reuters news agency has now reported that Libya has formally appealed this order:]
Libya appealed on Tuesday against an order to hand over Muammar Gaddafi's former spy chief to an international tribunal, saying it is capable of trying Gaddafi-era officials at home.
Judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague have said Libya must extradite Abdullah al-Senussi over his alleged role in orchestrating reprisals against protesters in the 2011 uprising that overthrew Gaddafi.
They would decide later how to respond if the North African state continues to hold Senussi, the judges added. The court has the power to refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council.
Ahmed al-Jehani, the Libyan lawyer who liaises between the Libyan government and the ICC, said Libya would continue to push for its right to judge Senussi.
"Today we completed the appeal to the ICC after the order to hand him over," Jehani told Reuters, flipping through the papers of the appeal.
"Libya continues in this appeal process to prove that it wants to be part of the international community. The old Libya would not have bothered."
Last week, ICC judges ordered Libya to hand over Senussi and let him see his lawyer, raising the stakes in a dispute over who has the right to try the deposed strongman's top lieutenants.
Libya has become a test case of the effectiveness of the 10-year-old court, which relies on the cooperation of member countries to arrest suspects and enforce its orders.
Libya appealed on Tuesday against an order to hand over Muammar Gaddafi's former spy chief to an international tribunal, saying it is capable of trying Gaddafi-era officials at home.
Judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague have said Libya must extradite Abdullah al-Senussi over his alleged role in orchestrating reprisals against protesters in the 2011 uprising that overthrew Gaddafi.
They would decide later how to respond if the North African state continues to hold Senussi, the judges added. The court has the power to refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council.
Ahmed al-Jehani, the Libyan lawyer who liaises between the Libyan government and the ICC, said Libya would continue to push for its right to judge Senussi.
"Today we completed the appeal to the ICC after the order to hand him over," Jehani told Reuters, flipping through the papers of the appeal.
"Libya continues in this appeal process to prove that it wants to be part of the international community. The old Libya would not have bothered."
Last week, ICC judges ordered Libya to hand over Senussi and let him see his lawyer, raising the stakes in a dispute over who has the right to try the deposed strongman's top lieutenants.
Libya has become a test case of the effectiveness of the 10-year-old court, which relies on the cooperation of member countries to arrest suspects and enforce its orders.
Monday, 11 February 2013
Dereliction of duty
[What follows is the text of a letter sent on Saturday by Dr Jim Swire to the Lord Advocate, Frank Mulholland QC:]
9th February 2013
Dear Lord Advocate,
With the publication almost a year ago of the book Megrahi: You are my Jury, it became public knowledge that there is scientific proof that the fragment of circuit board led in evidence at Zeist and known as PT35b although mimicking circuit boards owned by Libya, could never have come from any such board.
This circuit board fragment was the crucial link at trial, suggesting that the bomb could have come from Malta, since it represented a fragment from a long running timer.
I am horrified to hear this week that Urs Bonfadelli (Thuring’s production manager and maker of the MEBO boards), Dr Chris McArdle and Dr Jess Cawley, the three experts most involved in defining the significance of the discrepancy over the metallurgy of PT35b have never been approached by the Crown Office or the Dumfries and Galloway police in connection with this devastating discovery during the whole of the time since publication of Mr Ashton’s book.
I must therefore ask that you will immediately launch an inquiry into all matters surrounding PT35b, its origin, and its discovery inside a Dumfries and Galloway police evidence bag.
It is, Sir, now over 24 years since my daughter Flora was murdered at Lockerbie. As her father I have a right to know who murdered her and why her life was not protected. Such lethargy as this is intolerable.
Adherence to the Zeist verdict, in the face of the immediate criticisms of the UN’s special observer Professor Hans Koechler, and those of Professor Robert Black QC, and many others, along with the SCCRC findings, and now this metallurgical finding, while at the same time refusing to investigate all these apparently well supported allegations would in the event that those allegations are found to be justified, be seen as dereliction of the duty of the Crown Office to deliver timely justice. Effectively it would also amount to protection for the real perpetrators.
May I remind you of these words often attributed to philosopher Edmund Burke:
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
I request therefore that you immediately commence a credible investigation, into all these matters, specifically including the circuit board fragment PT35b, its origin, and its finding inside a Dumfries and Galloway police evidence bag, without any further delay.
Further, in view of the extraordinary public statement made by the Crown Office concerning the 'allegations of criminality', lodged by the group known as JFM, before even receiving their supporting evidence, and accusing them of being fantasist conspiracy theorists, I feel that this letter should be made publicly available at once. I have therefore copied it elsewhere.
I am proud simply to be involved in a search for the truth, concerning my daughter’s murder, and not in any attempt to denigrate others in the process.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Jim Swire
9th February 2013
Dear Lord Advocate,
With the publication almost a year ago of the book Megrahi: You are my Jury, it became public knowledge that there is scientific proof that the fragment of circuit board led in evidence at Zeist and known as PT35b although mimicking circuit boards owned by Libya, could never have come from any such board.
This circuit board fragment was the crucial link at trial, suggesting that the bomb could have come from Malta, since it represented a fragment from a long running timer.
I am horrified to hear this week that Urs Bonfadelli (Thuring’s production manager and maker of the MEBO boards), Dr Chris McArdle and Dr Jess Cawley, the three experts most involved in defining the significance of the discrepancy over the metallurgy of PT35b have never been approached by the Crown Office or the Dumfries and Galloway police in connection with this devastating discovery during the whole of the time since publication of Mr Ashton’s book.
I must therefore ask that you will immediately launch an inquiry into all matters surrounding PT35b, its origin, and its discovery inside a Dumfries and Galloway police evidence bag.
It is, Sir, now over 24 years since my daughter Flora was murdered at Lockerbie. As her father I have a right to know who murdered her and why her life was not protected. Such lethargy as this is intolerable.
Adherence to the Zeist verdict, in the face of the immediate criticisms of the UN’s special observer Professor Hans Koechler, and those of Professor Robert Black QC, and many others, along with the SCCRC findings, and now this metallurgical finding, while at the same time refusing to investigate all these apparently well supported allegations would in the event that those allegations are found to be justified, be seen as dereliction of the duty of the Crown Office to deliver timely justice. Effectively it would also amount to protection for the real perpetrators.
May I remind you of these words often attributed to philosopher Edmund Burke:
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
I request therefore that you immediately commence a credible investigation, into all these matters, specifically including the circuit board fragment PT35b, its origin, and its finding inside a Dumfries and Galloway police evidence bag, without any further delay.
Further, in view of the extraordinary public statement made by the Crown Office concerning the 'allegations of criminality', lodged by the group known as JFM, before even receiving their supporting evidence, and accusing them of being fantasist conspiracy theorists, I feel that this letter should be made publicly available at once. I have therefore copied it elsewhere.
I am proud simply to be involved in a search for the truth, concerning my daughter’s murder, and not in any attempt to denigrate others in the process.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Jim Swire
Megrahi pal: cops should stay home
This is the headline over an article by Bob Smyth in yesterday’s Sunday Mail. It reports the view of Megrahi: You are my Jury author John Ashton on the forthcoming visit to Libya of officers from Dumfries and Galloway Police. It can be read here.
Friday, 8 February 2013
Libyan spy chief linked to Lockerbie sought by ICC
[This is the headline over a report published in today’s edition of The Scotsman. It reads in part:]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ordered Libya to hand over Abdullah al-Senussi -- the man suspected of having orchestrated the Lockerbie bombing.
Experts believe that Senussi, Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi’s former spy chief, has information that could help the US and UK establish the full facts about the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, in which 270 people died. But the order places the Hague-based court on a collision course with Libya’s new rulers, who say Gaddafi-era leaders in their custody should face local justice over charges of mass- killings and other atrocities.
Senussi is suspected of having been responsible for recruiting Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in connection with the bombing, who died in May last year following his release from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds in August 2009 by justice secretary Kenny MacAskill.
Both Senussi and Megrahi were members of one of Libya’s biggest tribes, the Magarha.
Yesterday, ICC judges said Libya must extradite Senussi over his alleged role in orchestrating reprisals against protesters in the 2011 uprising that overthrew Gaddafi.
“Libya remains under obligation to comply with the surrender request,” the judges said.
They also insisted that he should be allowed to see his lawyer, adding they would decide later how to respond if the north African state continues to hold Senussi. The court has the power to refer the matter to the United Nations Security Council. (...)
Despite having risen from relatively low beginnings, Senussi became one of Libya’s most powerful individuals. His marriage to Gaddafi’s sister-in-law saw him brought into the ruling circle, taking on various senior roles including deputy chief of external security.
He was also said to be a close adviser to Saif al-Islam, according to leaked US embassy documents.
The former intelligence chief is thought to have information about Libyans kidnapped and assassinated in Europe and elsewhere during Gaddafi’s rule, and the financing of terrorist organisations, especially in Africa.
[A similar report in The Guardian can be read here. It contains the following paragraph:]
Senussi's lengthy service as spy chief means he may be in possession of crucial information relating not only to the Lockerbie bombing but also to the 1984 shooting of police officer Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London, as well as arms shipments to the IRA.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ordered Libya to hand over Abdullah al-Senussi -- the man suspected of having orchestrated the Lockerbie bombing.
Experts believe that Senussi, Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi’s former spy chief, has information that could help the US and UK establish the full facts about the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, in which 270 people died. But the order places the Hague-based court on a collision course with Libya’s new rulers, who say Gaddafi-era leaders in their custody should face local justice over charges of mass- killings and other atrocities.
Senussi is suspected of having been responsible for recruiting Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in connection with the bombing, who died in May last year following his release from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds in August 2009 by justice secretary Kenny MacAskill.
Both Senussi and Megrahi were members of one of Libya’s biggest tribes, the Magarha.
Yesterday, ICC judges said Libya must extradite Senussi over his alleged role in orchestrating reprisals against protesters in the 2011 uprising that overthrew Gaddafi.
“Libya remains under obligation to comply with the surrender request,” the judges said.
They also insisted that he should be allowed to see his lawyer, adding they would decide later how to respond if the north African state continues to hold Senussi. The court has the power to refer the matter to the United Nations Security Council. (...)
Despite having risen from relatively low beginnings, Senussi became one of Libya’s most powerful individuals. His marriage to Gaddafi’s sister-in-law saw him brought into the ruling circle, taking on various senior roles including deputy chief of external security.
He was also said to be a close adviser to Saif al-Islam, according to leaked US embassy documents.
The former intelligence chief is thought to have information about Libyans kidnapped and assassinated in Europe and elsewhere during Gaddafi’s rule, and the financing of terrorist organisations, especially in Africa.
[A similar report in The Guardian can be read here. It contains the following paragraph:]
Senussi's lengthy service as spy chief means he may be in possession of crucial information relating not only to the Lockerbie bombing but also to the 1984 shooting of police officer Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London, as well as arms shipments to the IRA.
Thursday, 7 February 2013
Truth and justice -v- national security
[From this blog, four years ago today:]
Truth and justice mean more than national security
[The following letter from Rev John Mosey, whose daughter Helga died aboard Pan Am 103, appears in today's edition of The Herald.]
The Herald is to be congratulated on its excellent coverage of the comments made in London by Their Lordships Thomas and Lloyd Jones in their written ruling concerning "threats" to "national security" were they to publish a summary of alleged torture of a suspect detained at Guantanamo Bay ("MP demands truth on UK torture claim", and Leader, The Herald, February 5).
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, has commented at some length (and with obvious discomfort) on the "intelligence relationship" and the "real risk" posed by the disclosure of terror-related intelligence in the public arena. This is not a new ploy but one being increasingly used by western politicians to hide embarrassing and unpalatable truths.
As a member of UK Families Flight 103 (the British Lockerbie victims families support group) I attended all but 12 days of the 10-month Lockerbie trial in Zeist and the subsequent first appeal. More recently, during the initial stages of the second appeal of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, allegedly "significant information" which, in the submission of the Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission could significantly affect the verdict has been deliberately withheld from the defence and thereby the public by virtue of the fact that (being the subject of a Public Interest Immunity Certificate signed by Mr Miliband) it may not be revealed in open court because it "might jeopardise UK security".
The main guarantees of justice in both England and Scotland are (a) the independence of the judiciary to be free and unrestrained by "political" inducements, threats or considerations and (b) a free press allowed to report and comment on what is said within the court confines.
So, we currently have two cases (in England and Scotland) where the full and impartial administration of justice is being actively obstructed and inhibited by political considerations said to be on the basis of national security. The European Convention on Human Rights requires that any accused should enjoy "equality of arms" and both English and Scottish law require that "justice shall be done and be seen to be done". That all now seems to be subject to any dubious and unexplorable claim that it is "not in the interests of national security"
In the first century the satirist Juvenal asked: "Who will guard the guards themselves?" Now we find that in two separate jurisdictions the Foreign Secretary and person or persons unknown are trying to obstruct or inhibit the fair and impartial conduct of two very major cases.
When is truth and justice going to become more important than vested geopolitical interests?
Truth and justice mean more than national security
[The following letter from Rev John Mosey, whose daughter Helga died aboard Pan Am 103, appears in today's edition of The Herald.]
The Herald is to be congratulated on its excellent coverage of the comments made in London by Their Lordships Thomas and Lloyd Jones in their written ruling concerning "threats" to "national security" were they to publish a summary of alleged torture of a suspect detained at Guantanamo Bay ("MP demands truth on UK torture claim", and Leader, The Herald, February 5).
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, has commented at some length (and with obvious discomfort) on the "intelligence relationship" and the "real risk" posed by the disclosure of terror-related intelligence in the public arena. This is not a new ploy but one being increasingly used by western politicians to hide embarrassing and unpalatable truths.
As a member of UK Families Flight 103 (the British Lockerbie victims families support group) I attended all but 12 days of the 10-month Lockerbie trial in Zeist and the subsequent first appeal. More recently, during the initial stages of the second appeal of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, allegedly "significant information" which, in the submission of the Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission could significantly affect the verdict has been deliberately withheld from the defence and thereby the public by virtue of the fact that (being the subject of a Public Interest Immunity Certificate signed by Mr Miliband) it may not be revealed in open court because it "might jeopardise UK security".
The main guarantees of justice in both England and Scotland are (a) the independence of the judiciary to be free and unrestrained by "political" inducements, threats or considerations and (b) a free press allowed to report and comment on what is said within the court confines.
So, we currently have two cases (in England and Scotland) where the full and impartial administration of justice is being actively obstructed and inhibited by political considerations said to be on the basis of national security. The European Convention on Human Rights requires that any accused should enjoy "equality of arms" and both English and Scottish law require that "justice shall be done and be seen to be done". That all now seems to be subject to any dubious and unexplorable claim that it is "not in the interests of national security"
In the first century the satirist Juvenal asked: "Who will guard the guards themselves?" Now we find that in two separate jurisdictions the Foreign Secretary and person or persons unknown are trying to obstruct or inhibit the fair and impartial conduct of two very major cases.
When is truth and justice going to become more important than vested geopolitical interests?
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
Lockerbie novel: it was Iran, not Libya
[This is the headline over an item posted today on Alex Massie’s blog on the website of The Spectator. It reads as follows:]
From a very entertaining New York Times profile of Gérard de Villiers, the French novelist who, though little known in this country, is seemingly better connected in the spy world than any mere hack novelist has any right to be:
Why do all these people divulge so much to a pulp novelist? I put the question to de Villiers the last time we met, in the cavernous living room of his Paris apartment on a cold winter evening. He was leaving on a reporting trip to Tunisia the next day, and on the coffee table in front of me, next to a cluster of expensive scotches and liqueurs, was a black military-made ammunition belt. “They always have a motive,” he said, absently stroking one of his two longhaired cats like a Bond villain at leisure. “They want the information to go out. And they know a lot of people read my books, all the intelligence agencies.”
Renaud Girard, de Villiers’s old friend and traveling companion, arrived at the apartment for a drink and offered a simpler explanation. “Everybody likes to talk to someone who appreciates their work,” he said. “And it’s fun. If the source is a military attaché, he can show off the book to his friends, with his character drawn in it.” He also suggested that if the source happens to have a beautiful wife, she will appear in a sex scene with Malko, and some of them enjoy this, too. “If you have read the books,” he said, “it’s fun to enter the books.”
I asked de Villiers about his next novel, and his eyes lighted up. “It goes back to an old story,” he said. “Lockerbie.” The book is based on the premise that it was Iran — not Libya — that carried out the notorious 1988 airliner bombing. The Iranians went to great lengths to persuade Muammar el-Qaddafi to take the fall for the attack, which was carried out in revenge for the downing of an Iranian passenger plane by American missiles six months earlier, de Villiers said. This has long been an unverified conspiracy theory, but when I returned to the United States, I learned that de Villiers was onto something. I spoke to a former CIA operative who told me that “the best intelligence” on the Lockerbie bombing points to an Iranian role. It is a subject of intense controversy at the CIA and the FBI, he said, in part because the evidence against Iran is classified and cannot be used in court, but many at the agency believe Iran directed the bombing.
Now, of course, this hardly proves the case one way or another but it is another small, but telling, data point supporting the suggestion that we still don’t know the full truth about Lockerbie. The Iranian involvement – or putative Iranian involvement – has long been a staple part of the discussion in this country but it’s less widely held, I believe, in the United States. Which makes it interesting that so many people at Langley apparently now give credence to the Iranian dimension to the plot.
From a very entertaining New York Times profile of Gérard de Villiers, the French novelist who, though little known in this country, is seemingly better connected in the spy world than any mere hack novelist has any right to be:
Why do all these people divulge so much to a pulp novelist? I put the question to de Villiers the last time we met, in the cavernous living room of his Paris apartment on a cold winter evening. He was leaving on a reporting trip to Tunisia the next day, and on the coffee table in front of me, next to a cluster of expensive scotches and liqueurs, was a black military-made ammunition belt. “They always have a motive,” he said, absently stroking one of his two longhaired cats like a Bond villain at leisure. “They want the information to go out. And they know a lot of people read my books, all the intelligence agencies.”
Renaud Girard, de Villiers’s old friend and traveling companion, arrived at the apartment for a drink and offered a simpler explanation. “Everybody likes to talk to someone who appreciates their work,” he said. “And it’s fun. If the source is a military attaché, he can show off the book to his friends, with his character drawn in it.” He also suggested that if the source happens to have a beautiful wife, she will appear in a sex scene with Malko, and some of them enjoy this, too. “If you have read the books,” he said, “it’s fun to enter the books.”
I asked de Villiers about his next novel, and his eyes lighted up. “It goes back to an old story,” he said. “Lockerbie.” The book is based on the premise that it was Iran — not Libya — that carried out the notorious 1988 airliner bombing. The Iranians went to great lengths to persuade Muammar el-Qaddafi to take the fall for the attack, which was carried out in revenge for the downing of an Iranian passenger plane by American missiles six months earlier, de Villiers said. This has long been an unverified conspiracy theory, but when I returned to the United States, I learned that de Villiers was onto something. I spoke to a former CIA operative who told me that “the best intelligence” on the Lockerbie bombing points to an Iranian role. It is a subject of intense controversy at the CIA and the FBI, he said, in part because the evidence against Iran is classified and cannot be used in court, but many at the agency believe Iran directed the bombing.
Now, of course, this hardly proves the case one way or another but it is another small, but telling, data point supporting the suggestion that we still don’t know the full truth about Lockerbie. The Iranian involvement – or putative Iranian involvement – has long been a staple part of the discussion in this country but it’s less widely held, I believe, in the United States. Which makes it interesting that so many people at Langley apparently now give credence to the Iranian dimension to the plot.
The Charles McKee/Monzer al-Kassar theory resurrected
Using the recent profile of Gérard de Villiers in The New York Times as a peg, the German-language website Recentr yesterday published a long article entitled New York Times versucht nachträglich, dem Iran Lockerbie-Anschlag unterzuschieben. The article concentrates on the Charles McKee/Monzer al-Kassar theory. For those who wish to learn more about this theory and whose German is not good enough to plough through the Recentr article, here is a link to an account in English. More information about Monzer al-Kassar can be found by entering “Kassar” in this blog’s search facility.
Monday, 4 February 2013
You read it here first
The mainstream media are catching up with stories featured on this blog some time ago. Yesterday it was The Sunday Times with Professor Francis A Boyle’s view, expressed in a forthcoming book, that Libya was not responsible for Lockerbie. Today it is the Daily Mail with a report, based on The New York Times’s profile of French novelist, journalist and editor Gérard de Villiers, that the US intelligence community has always known that Libya was not responsible. These stories were posted on this blog on 26 January and 2 February respectively.
Sunday, 3 February 2013
Gadaffi lawyer says Libya probe is futile
[This is the headline over an article (behind the paywall) in today’s edition of The Sunday Times. It picks up on an item posted on this blog over a week ago. The article (with its eccentric spelling of Gaddafi) reads in part:]
Colonel Gadaffi’s former lawyer has said that a Scottish police visit to Libya to investigate the Lockerbie bombing will yield no credible evidence implicating the country.
David Cameron announced last week that the Libyan government was to allow officers from Dumfries and Galloway to travel to north Africa to seek fresh evidence about Britain’s worst terrorist attack.
Scottish prosecutors believe Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan agent convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, could not have acted alone.
Investigators are interested in interviewing other Libyan suspects about the atrocity which killed 270 people and in viewing Libyan files relating to the attack.
However, Francis Boyle, a professor of international law who represented Gadaffi at the world court in the 1990s, said he was convinced that Libya was not responsible.
He added that the dictator’s personal files were “blown to hell” during the 2011 uprising which led to Gadaffi’s death in October that year.
Boyle said families of those who died in the 1988 attack stood a better chance of discovering the truth if Cameron ordered Britain’s intelligence agencies and police to release their own files.
Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois, said he had warned Gadaffi’s regime that, while Iran was viewed as the prime suspect for the attack, Libya would be used by the American government as “a convenient scapegoat”.
He claims that British files held on the case before British and US investigators switched their focus on Libya “would get closer to what really happened in this terrible tragedy”.
“My client Muammar Gadaffi had nothing to do with the Lockerbie bombing, he was not involved with it, he did not order it and Libya had nothing to do with it. Megrahi was just a scapegoat,” said Boyle.
“The truth as understood by the British government is in the files of MI5, MI6 and Scotland Yard and I believe that is where the next stage of the investigation should be.
“David Cameron should order up a paper — what evidence did they have, what were their working premises prior to the decision to blame it all on Libya?”
Boyle said he believes Gadaffi’s presidential files were destroyed when his Bab al-Azizia military barracks and compound were reduced to rubble in the uprising. While he believes files from the foreign ministry, security minister and ministry for justice may remain, he also voiced concerns about the authenticity of any files found.
However, news of a likely visit by Scottish police next month was welcomed by Susan Cohen of New Jersey, whose daughter Theodora was killed in the atrocity.
Cohen, who is convinced Libya was to blame, said: “I am encouraged by it. I don’t know how many files monsters like Gadaffi kept but that the police are going is very good.” (...)
[A letter from William Burns in The Scotsman of Monday, 4 February reads as follows:]
The announcement by David Cameron (...) in a joint news conference in Tripoli, with his Libyan counterpart Ali Zeidan, that officers from Dumfries and Galloway constabulary had been granted permission to visit the country and examine all files relating to the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, looks like a thin excuse to try to find a loophole to vindicate bringing to trial Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah.
This new, apparently puppet-regime of the western powers in Libya should be demanding, more appropriately, that officers from Libya visit Scotland to examine all files relating to what was, in the eyes of many, and for all practical purposes, a “show trial” of two innocent Libyans.
It was well documented in the earliest days that the bombing was largely financed by Iran and carried out by Syrians. It was to Britain and America’s advantage to turn a blind eye to Iran’s involvement at the time because Iran sided with the so-called Allies in the Desert Storm offensive against Iraq. On the other hand, Libya’s Colonel Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi, verbally supported Iraq.
However, if the Prime Minister is allowed to use this ploy to pull the final curtain down on the Lockerbie trial, he will be doing a grave disservice to the victims of the bombing and to their families, and not least to the people in Scotland who are fighting to expose the deep-rooted corruption that permeates the Scottish legal system.
Colonel Gadaffi’s former lawyer has said that a Scottish police visit to Libya to investigate the Lockerbie bombing will yield no credible evidence implicating the country.
David Cameron announced last week that the Libyan government was to allow officers from Dumfries and Galloway to travel to north Africa to seek fresh evidence about Britain’s worst terrorist attack.
Scottish prosecutors believe Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan agent convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, could not have acted alone.
Investigators are interested in interviewing other Libyan suspects about the atrocity which killed 270 people and in viewing Libyan files relating to the attack.
However, Francis Boyle, a professor of international law who represented Gadaffi at the world court in the 1990s, said he was convinced that Libya was not responsible.
He added that the dictator’s personal files were “blown to hell” during the 2011 uprising which led to Gadaffi’s death in October that year.
Boyle said families of those who died in the 1988 attack stood a better chance of discovering the truth if Cameron ordered Britain’s intelligence agencies and police to release their own files.
Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois, said he had warned Gadaffi’s regime that, while Iran was viewed as the prime suspect for the attack, Libya would be used by the American government as “a convenient scapegoat”.
He claims that British files held on the case before British and US investigators switched their focus on Libya “would get closer to what really happened in this terrible tragedy”.
“My client Muammar Gadaffi had nothing to do with the Lockerbie bombing, he was not involved with it, he did not order it and Libya had nothing to do with it. Megrahi was just a scapegoat,” said Boyle.
“The truth as understood by the British government is in the files of MI5, MI6 and Scotland Yard and I believe that is where the next stage of the investigation should be.
“David Cameron should order up a paper — what evidence did they have, what were their working premises prior to the decision to blame it all on Libya?”
Boyle said he believes Gadaffi’s presidential files were destroyed when his Bab al-Azizia military barracks and compound were reduced to rubble in the uprising. While he believes files from the foreign ministry, security minister and ministry for justice may remain, he also voiced concerns about the authenticity of any files found.
However, news of a likely visit by Scottish police next month was welcomed by Susan Cohen of New Jersey, whose daughter Theodora was killed in the atrocity.
Cohen, who is convinced Libya was to blame, said: “I am encouraged by it. I don’t know how many files monsters like Gadaffi kept but that the police are going is very good.” (...)
[A letter from William Burns in The Scotsman of Monday, 4 February reads as follows:]
The announcement by David Cameron (...) in a joint news conference in Tripoli, with his Libyan counterpart Ali Zeidan, that officers from Dumfries and Galloway constabulary had been granted permission to visit the country and examine all files relating to the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, looks like a thin excuse to try to find a loophole to vindicate bringing to trial Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah.
This new, apparently puppet-regime of the western powers in Libya should be demanding, more appropriately, that officers from Libya visit Scotland to examine all files relating to what was, in the eyes of many, and for all practical purposes, a “show trial” of two innocent Libyans.
It was well documented in the earliest days that the bombing was largely financed by Iran and carried out by Syrians. It was to Britain and America’s advantage to turn a blind eye to Iran’s involvement at the time because Iran sided with the so-called Allies in the Desert Storm offensive against Iraq. On the other hand, Libya’s Colonel Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi, verbally supported Iraq.
However, if the Prime Minister is allowed to use this ploy to pull the final curtain down on the Lockerbie trial, he will be doing a grave disservice to the victims of the bombing and to their families, and not least to the people in Scotland who are fighting to expose the deep-rooted corruption that permeates the Scottish legal system.
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