New evidence has been laid before the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament that sheds a very different light on the whole Lockerbie disaster. The evidence includes a summary of a comprehensive report from the well-respected Centre for Conflict Resolution at Bradford University, new findings unearthed following the fall of Colonel Gaddafi and a statement by John Ashton, who has interviewed the convicted bomber, Mr. Megrahi on several occasions and reviewed all the evidence disclosed by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.
The submission indicates that, contrary to the evidence submitted by the intelligence services at the time of Mr Megrahi’s indictment, a Syrian terrorist group was suspected of having supplied the Lockerbie bomb.
The Lockerbie Disaster
Thirty-eight minutes after taking off on December 23rd 1988, Pan Am flight 103 exploded near the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, subsequently ploughing into the town itself and scattering wreckage and the bodies of passengers over a wide area. Lockerbie lies just off the main truck road in southern Scotland, a few moments flying time from the densely populated area around Glasgow. The disaster seared the heart of the nation - almost every family and community in Scotland had a relative, a friend or a colleague in Lockerbie, or on the plane. When two Libyans were ultimately indicted and convicted of the bombing in 1991, there was a sense of justice having been served on both sides of the Atlantic. Now it would appear that the convictions may have been as cold-hearted, convenient a travesty as the French Dreyfus Affair.
Evidence Provided by the Intelligence Services at the Time of the Indictment
The Centre for Conflict Resolution’s lengthy report was provided by Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter during the Lockerbie disaster but is nevertheless now convinced that the wrong people were convicted of the crime. He states that the investigation into the Lockerbie bombing was deeply dependent upon the US and British intelligence agencies but that there were major inconsistencies between the intelligence community’s public and private views. Concerns have also been expressed about significant anomalies in the forensic evidence.
A major theory put forward at the time was that the bomb was placed on the plane at an earlier destination on its journey rather than just before its final leg. The bomb was controlled by a timer set to explode over the sea so that all evidence would be lost. A slight delay in the flight caused it to explode over land instead. If the bomb had been placed on the plane earlier in its flight, the Libyan suspects may have had access to the plane to plant the bomb.
New Evidence revealed in the Report
The report from the Centre for Conflict resolution now reveals that even while the two Libyans were being indicted, US intelligence considered that the bomb was of a wholly different construction, a unique trademark of a Syrian-backed offshoot from the Palestine Liberation Front (PFLP), a splinter group called the PFLP-GC (the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command), whose leader, Ahmed Jibril, was actively being sought in relation to the Lockerbie atrocity.
Rather than manually set on a timer, the bomb was thought by the intelligence services to be of a type sensitive to changes in air pressure. Such bombs were perfectly safe on the ground but armed themselves and initiated a countdown to detonation when the air pressure dropped significantly (as it does, for instance, in the unpressurized hold of a plane as the aircraft climbs after take-off). The bomb would explode automatically 35-45 minutes after being armed by the drop in pressure. The Pan-Am plane was 38 minutes into its flight when it exploded over Lockerbie.
Such bombs were unique to the PFLP-GC, so this Syrian-backed group must have supplied the bomb, rather than Libyan resources. The bomb was also designed to explode over land, quite possibly over the Glasgow conurbation just a few moments’ flying time further along Flight 103’s route.
A Travesty of Justice Emulating the Dreyfus Affair
This evidence now being presented to the Scottish Parliament goes a long way towards explaining the reasons for the release of Mr. Megrahi on medical grounds,partway through his sentence, so that he can see out his final days in his native Libya. Passions are still high over the Lockerbie bombing and there have been many scathing comments regarding the fact that Mr. Megrahi is still clinging on to life.
The evidence includes a statement from Mr. John Ashton who has had access to all the disclosed Crown evidence and the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission’s statement of reasons fro granting Mr. Megrahi a second appeal, plus all the evidence gathered for that appeal. He has also interviewed Mr Megrahi on numerous occasions. Based on the evidence and testimony he has examined he is convinced of Mr. Megrahi’s innocence.
If Mr Ashton is correct in his convictions, then Mr. Magrehi has been used as a politically or strategically convenient scapegoat instead of the actual culprits. This would be by no means an unusual occurrence in the case of terrorist attacks in that era: to name just two instances, Police in Birmingham and in Guildford rounded up a convenient group of Irishmen after an IRA bombing and created evidence for their conviction – essentially ‘fitting them up’. The convictions were only overturned many years later after careful re-examination of the evidence. In the case of the Lockerbie bombing, it was the intelligence services who were the chief experts on terrorist organizations and activities. The case is assuming all the hallmarks of an Anglo-American Dreyfus Affair.
In an interview with the Scottish Herald newspaper, Robert Black, one of the original architects of the trial, stated: “The fact they were trying to extradite Megrahi when they still believed another man was responsible, shows that privately they were saying Jibril was responsible yet publicly they wanted to blame someone else. The Libyan scenario was never intended to stand up in court. It was simply intended to be good enough to convince the media in the US and UK someone had been caught. But … they were lucky enough to get a bench of judges that swallowed it hook line and sinker.”
Sources:
Evidence Syrians bombed Pan Am flight 103 - Herald Scotland - Sunday 6 November 2011
MSNBC - AP: Panel backs appeal for jailed Lockerbie bomber
Martin Cross - A translator, former chef and marketeer, currently disabled. I write articles on food,, travel, politics, religion and technology.
