“According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, in the winter of 1988, Masud was summoned by a Libyan intelligence official to meet at that official’s office in Tripoli, Libya, where he was directed to fly to Malta with a prepared suitcase.”
FBI Agent Rachel F. Otto (Dec 14 2020)
December 25 2020 — On the 32nd anniversary of the Lockerbie tragedy, the US DoJ announced new charges against a third former Libyan intelligence operative for his role in the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103. Here is a quick analysis of this new indictment. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
RELATED POST: On This Day — Pan Am Flight 103 disintegrates over Lockerbie
RELATED POST: LOCKERBIE — US DOJ to unseal charges against 3rd Libyan [UPDATE — Blast from the Past]
Lockerbie — Three Decades of Lies: J’Accuse…!
QUICK NOTES — To make it easier for the readers to retrieve various chapters of my book, I have created a special page “Lockerbie” where all the links to the chapters will be listed with a brief description. You can access that page directly as it appears at the far right of the top bar of this blog.
On March 11 2020, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission [SCCRC] decided to refer the Lockerbie case back to the High Court of Justiciary for determination. As a result of the Commission’s decision, Mr. Megrahi’s family was therefore entitled to instruct an appeal against his conviction.
The first procedural hearing took place on Friday August 21 2020. The Appeal started on November 24 2020 and ended 3 days later. The five judges will now produce a written submission as soon as practicable.
RELATED POST: Lockerbie Third Appeal — Day 1 (November 24 2020)
RELATED POST: Lockerbie Third Appeal — Day 2 (November 25 2020)
RELATED POST: Lockerbie Third Appeal — Day 3 (November 26 2020)
Lockerbie — Three Decades of Lies: J’Accuse…!
On December 21 2020 (15:30 GMT), Attorney General William Barr, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers, and Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Michael Sherwin, announce new charges against a former Libyan intelligence operative, Abu Agela Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, aka, “Hasan Abu Ojalya Ibrahim” (Masud), for his role in building the bomb that killed 270 individuals in the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on Dec. 21, 1988.
Time heals all wounds. But sometimes, time wounds old heels. Give Bill Barr some credit. The new indictment is slightly better than the first one.
Indeed, many of the mistakes which I have long ago pointed out seem to have been corrected in this document.
The most important information is probably related to the IED that is alleged to have destroyed Pan Am 103. The document no longer claims that the explosive was hidden in the infamous TOSHIBA radio. And as a consequence, a much larger amount of SEMTEX is suggested. This is a very interesting development which I will discuss in following posts.
Today, I will start this new series with the “Magic Suitcase”. Initially, the FBI claimed that Megrahi brought it himself to Malta on December 20 1988. Now they claim that Masud brought the infamous SAMSONITE suitcase on December 14 1988. This may solve one issue I pointed in my book, but it raises several problems.
Allow me to explain…
According to US DoJ / FBI star witness Majid Giaka, Megrahi arrived in Malta with the brown Samsonite suitcase on December 20 1988.
Actually, as I point out in my book, Giaka never reported this event to his CIA’s handler.
Richard Marquise has suggested an explanation in his book.
“Giaka had met his CIA handlers in the morning of December 20, 1988. He had not yet been to the Luqa airport. (…)
He next met his CIA handler about one month later and this travel was not fresh in his mind; He either did not report it or his CIA case officer failed to document it.”
The truth is actually far more simple. Giaka did not report this event because he never witnessed it.
The debriefing with his CIA handler — at a CIA safe house away from the airport — did NOT occur in the morning of December 20 but in the afternoon, between 12:00 and 18:00.
Why did Marquise lie about the time of Giaka’s meeting with his CIA’s handlers?
So, here is the new story…. [US DoJ Website: Former Senior Libyan Intelligence Officer and Bomb-Maker for the Muamar Qaddafi Regime Charged for The December 21, 1988 Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103]
“According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, in the winter of 1988, Masud was summoned by a Libyan intelligence official to meet at that official’s office in Tripoli, Libya, where he was directed to fly to Malta with a prepared suitcase.
He did so, where he was met by Megrahi and Fhimah at the airport. After Masud spent approximately three or four days in the hotel, Megrahi and Fhimah instructed Masud to set the timer on the device in the suitcase for the following morning, so that the explosion would occur exactly eleven hours later.
According to the affidavit, the suitcase used by Masud was a medium-sized Samsonite suitcase that he used for traveling. Megrahi and Fhimah were both at the airport on the morning of Dec. 21, 1988, and Masud handed the suitcase to Fhimah after Fhimah gave him a signal to do so.
Fhimah then placed the suitcase on the conveyor belt. Masud then left. He was given a boarding pass for a Libyan flight to Tripoli, which was to take off at 9:00 a.m.
Nice story.
OK. Let start with the obvious. Now, the indictment no longer claims that Megrahi brought the primary suitcase to Luqa airport on December 20 1988.
But there is one problem. The FBI claims that Masud arrived in Malta on December 14 1988, bizarrely also described as “three or four days” before the tragedy.
At the same time, the indictment alleges that Masud was met by Megrahi at the airport.
That is of course impossible as Megrahi was not in Malta from December 9 to December 17 1988.
Somebody is lying. Again…
“MASUD recalled that one of the Libyan intelligence officials informed him that Megrahi and Fhimah would be there to meet him at the airport in Malta, and he stated that the pair did in fact meet him at the airport.”
FBI Agent Rachel F. Otto (Dec 14 2020)
TIMELINE (Verbatim from the indictment)
December 7, 1988 — MASUD and Megrahi traveled from Tripoli, Libya,
to Malta on separate flightsDecember 9, 1988 — MASUD traveled from Malta to Tripoli
December 9, 1988 — Megrahi traveled from Malta to Zurich, Switzerland, and other records show that he continued on to Prague, Czechoslovakia
December 14, 1988 — MASUD traveled from Tripoli to Malta
December 17, 1988, Megrahi returned to Malta from Zurich, and he
continued on to Tripoli that same day; other records established that Megrahi had returned to Zurich from Prague on or about December 16, 1988December 18, 1988 — Fhimah traveled from Malta to Tripoli
December 20, 1988 — Megrahi and Fhimah traveled from Tripoli to Malta on the same flight
December 21, 1988 — Megrahi and MASUD traveled from Malta to
Tripoli on the same flight
These guys just can’t get it right! This is just one of the many errors contained in this new indictment. It will take me some times to cover them all. But I will… Stay tuned!
Former Senior Libyan Intelligence Officer and Bomb-Maker for the Muamar Qaddafi Regime Charged for The December 21, 1988 Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
REFERENCES
US DoJ Website : Former Senior Libyan Intelligence Officer and Bomb-Maker for the Muamar Qaddafi Regime Charged for The December 21, 1988 Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
AFFIDAVIT IN SUPPORT OF A CRIMINAL COMPLAINT
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LOCKERBIE — Analysis of the New Indictment
Intel Today 