Criminal investigation
We should look away from the idea, that the bomb aboard Pan Am 103 maybe could have been an accident. That maybe someone carried a bomb or even just some explosive material, and it went off by accident. That DOES happen sometimes, since the world is full of careless idiots. But it is most possible, the bomb was put on Pan Am 103 and timed to blast by purpose and evil intention.
Did the US government do anything in regard to that warning ? YES - they made sure no important personell of their own stayed on that plane. Many people believe the US government knew Pan Am 103 was a dangerous plane to be on - and that perhaps the passengers of Pan Am 103 became sacrified on the altar of hostage politics with ... Iran.
Criminal investigationThe Scottish criminal investigation was headed by Chief Inspector Watson McAteer from Scottish Police. Superintendent JOHN ORR from Strathclyde Police was the senior investigating Officer for the first 8 months or so of the enquiry.He then went on to become the Deputy Chief Constable of Dumfries and Galloway Police and is now the Chief Constable of Strathclyde Polic
The head of the American FBI-team was Lawrence G. Whittaker. The American Justice Department used Robert Muller as head for their investigation into Lockerbie. The American CIA mingled into the investigations because CIA-people had been travelling with Pan Am 103. The CIA-team was headed by Vincent Cannistraro. Pan Am had their lawyers doing investigations, too, among them James M.Shaugnessy.
There was another investigations brach, with less legal accuracy and less technical approach: the mass media. The crash of Pan Am 103 was and is still a good story for the mass media. In the aftermath of the Lockerbie Incident, the mass media almost every day had a new suspect to blame. Few countries in the Middle East escaped this media circus. The accusations of the mass mediaare what people remember best. The hard evidence and facts play only a little role.
Most evidence in the case is not available for the public....and don't put up your hopes on the upcoming Lockerbie bombing trial in the Netherlands! This page will discuss some of the criminal investigation, the evidence and the many theories of the perhaps worst criminal act in aviation history ever.
Right after the crash of Pan Am 103 in 1988, several "islamic" organizations
took responsibility, claiming by anonymous phonecalls and messages, that
they were the ones behind the attack on Pan Am 103. The public and the
investigators did actually for a long time believe the downing of the plane
was an act of revenge for the shooting down of a civil Iranian airplane
by the US army a few months before. And as Sherlock Holmes might have said:
the first and the most obvious explenation of a crime is probably also
the real and the most possible explenation as well.....
But then came the 14th of November 1991 - the world was struck by surprise
as Iran suddenly and with no appearant reason was pushed back and Libya
dragged into the spotlight of the investigation. 2 days after the US federal
attorney made his public statement that Libya was to blame for the downing
of Pan Am 103 and that neither Syria nor Iran had any involvment.....two
important American hostages were released from their captivity in Lebanon
by shiamuslim resistance fighters!
Calculating
all the hours and hours of work done in the Lockerbie investigation, and
calculating the seriousness of the case, it is shocking to see such scamped
and contradicious outcome. Accusations changed from country to country,
persons to persons, and then suddenly two Libyan citizens are pulled into
the culprit's bar. Did the investigators have a hard time making up their
final minds ???
Read the official American indictment from the District
Court of Columbia (14/11/1991)
NB! For more information, a copy of the official Scottish petition on the upcoming trial, please go to the Lockerbie bombing trial website.
The two Libyans were named as possible suspects at a joint press conference in the UK and USA at the same time.
Let's take a look at the alleged evidence against the two Libyans:
and Lamen Khalifa Fhima.
"We'll follow them (Megrahi and Fhimah) to the ends of the world
to bring them to court," said deputy FBI director Robert Bryant. Hear
his statement regarding the two Libyans in a 255
K/22 sec. WAV sound- file
The
electronic timer - vital evidence or technical perjury?
A tiny fragment of an electronic circuit board was found in the contents
of the explosion-struck baggage container of Pan Am 103. Experts do believe
it to be a piece of a MST-13 timing device used for military engeneering
operations. The board was allegedly manufactured by the Swiss firm Meister
et Bollier of Zurich, MeBo AG. The firm had sold such timing devices
to Libya in 1985.
However, MeBo AG had sold the same timer-devices to other countries
at that time, too. In fact it is a good piece of equipment, used by many
military services in the world. Edwin Bollier, co-owner of the manufacturing
firm told Swiss Police about some of the pre-manufactured timer circuit
boards beeing missing from his stock, during a series of break-inns during
1985-87.
After microscope examinations of the fragment - and the official forensic photographs - Mr Bollier insisted that the circuit board evidence had never been "connected electrically". He is understood to be adamant that the fragment was not from a timer supplied to Libya and can no longer be connected to the Pan Am bombing. Mr Bollier was questiond by the Scottish police in September 1999, and he personally got to see, for the first time, the fragment from the circuit board. After careful examination he found these had not even been connected electrically. So, how can it be used as evidence?
Mr Bollier was accompanied by a personal adviser, Anthony Meli, during a visit to police headquarters in Dumfries to examine the fragment. Mr Meli said yesterday: "The actual viewing of the fragment and the many photographs did prove that this forensic piece of evidence was actually not from any timers sold to Libya. "You can now judge for yourself if such facts will be able to put the entire Lockerbie trial in doubt."
What did Ed Bollier actually tell the Scottish police ? Read and view the official witness statements from the Lockerbie police below!
Documents:
All documents are scanned from photocopies and available in jpg-format only as for now. Working on a text based edition for better reading - stay tuned.
Read more about Meister et Bollier - and you'd be surprised to know....
Actually, it is hard to believe the electronic timer device-story.
It is most fascinating, how incredible lucky the USA was, finding the tiny
piece of plastic, and even the piece that luckily had the timer-registration
number printed on it ! And imagine finding it almost 2 years after the
crash and not in the weeks after...!
In fact, the USA seems to be so incredibly lucky, that one might ask
the question, if it could have been possible, that the fragment of the
MST-13 timer could have been planted on the spot by the CIA or anyone else.
It is funny they even say it was at the crash scene - because Scottish
police hasn't any list of evidence-on-crime-secene with that timer device
fragment listed!
And remember: there are no traces of the bomb found! Only an electronic circuit, some blast exposure and less than 0,5 mg chemicals. The bomb itself is not there. In a court the evidence found on place will never be enough to actually proove a bomb has been aboard.... and even more important: there is no concrte evidence linking the electronic board to either ones of the suspects.
The circuit board was allegedly found inside the remains of another electronical device which later was identified as the remains of a Toshiba Cassette Recorder model 8016 - exactly the same brand as found in Frankfurt, when the German police raided terrorist hideouts and found 3 such devices together with timers, explosive chemicals and other tools of evil.
19/11/99 In the light of the recent Scottish investigation reports in the media, the chairman of MEBO Ag. has sent following comments:
The latter report contains new evidence of the alleged Toshiba Bombeat radio-recorder that was said to contain the bomb on PA 103, as well as thoughts around the identity mismatch of a passenger aboard the plane. And why is the crash of Pan Am 103 still classified with the military security level "National Security" in the US, although being a civil airline crash ???
Thomas
Thurman: the crook inside FBI
Where did the tiny circuit board fragment come from ? Someone might say "it came out of the blue", but the first person to "discover" the fragment was FBI's forensic "expert" Thomas James Thurman. Why are we putting "" around the words expert and discover ?
Already while Thurman was working on another case, along side with the Lockerbie Case, his collegue at the FBI's Scientific Analysis Section (SAS), Frederic Whitehurst, wrote a memo to his chief:
"SSA Tom Thurman, the principle examiner of evidence in this matter, circumvented established procedures and protocols in the assignment of evidence to examiners in the SAS, testified to areas of expertise that he had no qualifications in therefore fabricating evidence in his testimony, in order to prove the guilt of Walter Leroy Moody instead of establishing the true significance and weight of the scientific data. Thurman was fully aware of the fact that he was in violation of procedures and protocols of the FBI laboratory and did knowingly and purposely commit perjury and obstruction of justice in this matter."
...and that was one case, Thurman was working with. More perjury
and obstructance of justice followed after the Leroy Moody case. And since
the indictment, Thurman has been suspended from the FBI after his laboratory
was suspected of falsifying evidence.
Later on Whitehurst testified to these points in a court of law:
..... and much more of the same stuff. It quicly became clear that Thomas Thurman had no idea of what he has been working with. Furthermore, Thurman went to Germany to interview Pan Am 103-suspect and bomb-wizard Marwan Khreesat - but he completely forgot to tell Scottish police about that. They never got any report...
If there ever will be a trial against Fhima or Megrahi or any other
suspect in the Lockerbie Case - pray that the FBI is not using Thurmans
testimony and "evidence"! Thurman today does not work at the FBI as forensic
"expert" anymore.
The alleged circuit board was claimed found wrapped inside a child's
t-shirt. Taggings indicated the t-shirt to be of Maltese origin, and supposedly
only sold in one single shop in Malta, Marys House, Tower Road in
Valetta.
The shop-owner was shown a series of photographs of arab men, mostly
involved in terrorism, among these pictures, the two Libyans. His descrotion
of the man buying the clothes was "6 foot tall, Arab looking, about
50 years of age and heavy body." Megrahi was at the time of PA 103
less than 6 foot tall, Arab looking, about 34 of age and had a thin, small
body....
The shop owner then, according to FBI, identified Megrahi as
the man, that had bought the t-shirt.
Later on, he changed his mind, and went to identify a palestinian terrorist
arrested in Sweden. He withdrew his identification of Megrahi, but this
was not accepted by American investigators.
However, the description given by the shopowner resembled a bomb expert
from the PFLP, currently serving a verdict for life in a Swedish prison
under maximum security: Mohammed Abu Talb.
NB! Abu Talb - in 1999 he suddenly re-appears into the investigation into the Lockerboe bombing.
And again: in a court of law, the circuit alone is not enough evidence to actually state, that the circuit was responsible for setting of a bomb. There are no traces of a bomb, and the circuit may very well just be a piece of an electronic board, that someone was carrying with him in his luggage. A court needs the indoubtable link between the circuit and an explosive device. And there is none...
By carefully matching 400 bags with their murdered owners, the investigators discovered that there was only one bag unaccounted for among the luggage that was loaded on to Pan Am 103A at Frankfurt for Heathrow, where they were transferred into the jumbo designated as Pan Am 103 for the flight to New York.
The investigators also discovered that the bag in question was put into
the Frankfurt baggage system at the same point, and at
about the same time, as baggage was coming off Air Malta's incoming
flight 180 from Luqa. But, as the defence will no doubt
show, this does not conclusively prove that the bag actually came from
Malta, since there appears to be no direct computer
record of its origin.
Both Libyans were at the time of the crime working as airline officials in the office of Libyan Arab Airlines at Luqa International Airport in Malta. It is the opinion of the prosecution, that only they could have smuggled a bomb through the luggage transferring system. How the bomb then came aboard Pan Am 103 in Frankfurt Airport remains unanswered by the prosecution. How did the suitcase, as claimed by the prosecution, enter Pan Am 103 in Frankfurt, and from where ?
It is claimed, the suitcase came to Frankfurt from Malta with Air Malta flight KM 180. The German company of FAG, operating the highly sophisticated luggage transfer-system, found in its printouts, that a suitcase was logged in at Coding Station 206 at 1:07 p.m. and then routed to gate 44 in terminal B, where it was to be put aboard the Pan Am 103. However the printout does not clearly show, what actually happened to the suitcase, only what was supposed to happen, and not what the suitcase looked like.
Both C.I.Watson McAteer and FBI special agent Lawrence Whittaker later proved, that it was possible for any employee at Frankfurt Airport to subsitute the suitcase, or even put a new suitcase on the luggage transfer-system. And furtheromore, it was proved that two American suitcases were logged into the computer as beeing put aboard Pan Am 103 in Frankfurt, but only one of them was ever found at Lockerbie. The FBI has a report about these two points - and published it in TIME magazine 1992.
Air Malta denial of transferred suitcase
- 1989
So - as they say in court - the guilt of the two Libyans
is far from being proved beyond any doubt...in fact their guilt has not
been proved at all. Vincent Cannistraro, former head of the CIA-investigation
of the crash, told New York Times, that it "was outrageous to pin the
whole thing on Libya." Later he changed his mind.
Aviation disasters can bring out the worst in people. In Lockerbie it
seems like the crash of Pan Am 103 brought out only the best in people.
Helping hands and comforting words...relatives received the belongings
of their dead family almost without anything missing. The Lockerbi'ers
washed the clothes and ironed them and packed the belongings of the victims
in the battered suitcase for shipment home to the US or elsewhere.
But a few individuals did not have the same sincere kindness and compassion
regarding the crash of Pan Am 103. They were caught looting by the Lockerbie
Police. (Looting = stealing from the dead). Several Lockerbi'ers and other
people having come to the crash site to view the disaster as if it was
a TV-programme did steal parts of the plane, including victim's possesions.
It is logical to assume that some of them weren't taken in or discovered
by the police. How many people have "souvenirs" of Pan Am 103 in their
homes today ?
Is looting important to the criminal investigation at all ? Yes, because
it shows that parts of the plane could easily be removed without notice,
and that could very well mean that "planting" of "evidence" without someone
noticing could have happened as well. Could evidence have been removed
or put on the spot by someone. Yes...
Many people, movements, governments and secret services would have had a motive to blast Pan Am 103 right into the history of modern aircraft terrorism. But only few have some degree of possibility. Here are just a few - within reasonable power of divination - that could be the ones behind the Lockerbie incident:
More about Pan Am 103 and the Iranian Airliner
Evidence of mullah-involvment ? Read what Iranian
Resistance reveals...
And why not ? There are many similarities between Pan Am 103 and the Iranian Airbus. For instance, the Iranians were going to perform the pilgrimage in Mekka, Saudi Arabia, the most joyful times of all in the islamic year. The passengers of Pan Am 103 prepared to go home celebrating Christmas, the most joyful time of year in the Christian world...it seems both logical and possible, that the downing of Pan Am 103 was an answer to the downing of the Iranian airbus.
Many other evidence point towards the Iranians. Well, not real evidence, just a lot of roads all beginning and ending in Iran. Charles McKee from the CIA was aboard. He and his team had just finished the latest US government-attempts to conclude a hostage-release-deal, in return delivering vast military equipment to Iran. If the Reagan-gate white-wash hadn't took place in the USA just few months later, nobody would believe such a story.
The former minister, a leading hardliner opposed to the more moderate policies of President Rafsanjani, ordered the bombing in retaliation for the shooting down by the US Navy of an Iranian airliner, it alleged. Both the US-Foreign Office and the US-State Department have always insisted there is no evidence to show any other country or terrorist organisation was involved.
But the document, dated March 4, 1991, and released by the National Security Agency, America's equivalent of GCHQ, alleges that the Iranian paid for the operation. He is "closely connected" to the Palestinian Liberation Front of Abu Abbas, which carried out the hijacking of the Achille Lauro passenger liner, and to the PFLP-GC led by Abu Nidal, the document says."He is actually a long-time friend of Abu Nidal," it says. "He recently paid $10 million (£6.5 million) in cash and gold to these two organisations to carry out terrorist activities and was the one who paid the same amount to bomb Pan Am 103 in retaliation for the US shoot-down of the Iranian Airbus. "
The document was obtained through the US Department of the Air Force by the makers of a controversial film about the Lockerbie bomb attack, The Maltese Double-Cross. But the report didn't change the mind of USA...
As mentioned before, major Charles McKee and his team could be targets for a bomb-contract. Other people on the aircraft are competent targets. Pan Am 103 didn't exactly carry Gods Own Children ! A far out theory is, that someone planned to whack Pan Am Company out of Wall Street. The company went bankrupt because of the crash. Pan Am 103 was used to smuggle drugs. One suitcase found on the ground of Lockerbie consisted of 500.000 USD in cash. Hardly from a lottery-prize or charity-fund....The suitcase was property of the CIA. So many mysteries and thoughts...is the truth hiding somewhere among them ?
The
Long Arm of the Stateless PeopleThe Leader of PFLP-GC is Ahmed Jibril. You might not know this, but throughout the Middle East Ahmed Jibril is known as MR.BOMB. This is no joke of ours ! No other man can build an explosive device, like Jibril. His fingers never shake. He smokes, but never coughes. He knows explosive formulars, like others know pop-melodies. He can make a bomb in any shape, hide it in any place, make it go off with precise timing. And what is most important: he is a formidable and generous teacher. He still gives regular engeneering courses in the Syrian Army.
When someone at a regular level builds a bomb, it's just like a fingerprint. Alas, the full explosive device was never recovered at Lockerbie, just a tiny shrapnel of a timer decice circuit board. But when German police raided the PFLP-GC's hideouts in Dusseldorf and Frankfurt few days before the Lockerbie-crash, they found PFLP-GC-member, faithful student of Jibril and bomb-wizard Marwan Khreesat. They also found explosive material, semtex...and 3 Toshiba Cassette Recorder's, similar to the one in the crashed cargo remains of Pan Am 103.
What motives had the PFLP-GC to blow up Pan Am 103 ?
We should rather ask: what motive didn't they have ? An opportunity
to pay back Amerika, the biggest bully and protector of the Zionist State
in the Midle East. A long-needed cash surplus from Iran, Syria or any other
country to make the party go on. A direct order, or rather an offer, they
neither could nor would refuse. Whatever the reasons may be.
The role of the PFLP-GC is still not crystal clear in this case. But
should they be guilty, it is a poor victory to the USA or UK. Because since
Palestine, alas, still not is a sovereign state and member of the UN, they
cannot use any sanctions to punish the Palestinians. What a relief !
