“The disparity between historical reality and the description of history in books and newspapers can lead our youth only to lack of belief, to cynicism, whereas we need belief, but real belief can be based only on the truth.”
Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko — Open Letter (New York Times – February 17 1974)
January 31 2021 — On January 31, 2001, a kangaroo Court in the Netherlands rendered its verdict. Although two Libyan citizens had been prosecuted for the ‘bombing’ conspiracy of Pan Am 103, the judges found one of them not guilty and sentenced the other one for murder. Go figure! I guess that, given enough whiskey, it does not take two to tango in Scotland. Twenty years later, on January 15 2021, Lord Carloway — The Lord Justice General in the appeal — delivered the opinion of the Scottish Appeal Court. Without surprise to the readers of this blog, the Court upheld the guilty verdict of the trial court. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
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.
Lockerbie — Three Decades of Lies: J’Accuse…!
“I regard the Lockerbie verdict against Megrahi as a Grand Monument to Human Stupidity, a remarkable document that claims an honoured place in the history of British miscarriages of justice.” Intel Today
Although Intel Today had predicted the outcome of this appeal almost a year ago, the judges have nevertheless found a way to amuse me.
In January 2001, the three Lockerbie judges wrote [Court Opinion] :
[1] At 1903 hours on 22 December 1988 Pan Am flight 103 fell out of the sky. The 259 passengers and crew members who were on board and 11 residents of Lockerbie where the debris fell were killed. The Crown case is that the cause of the disaster was that an explosive device had been introduced into the hold of the aircraft by the two accused whether acting alone or in concert with each other and others.
[2] It is not disputed, and was amply proved, that the cause of the disaster was indeed the explosion of a device within the aircraft. Nor is it disputed that the person or persons who were responsible for the deliberate introduction of the explosive device would be guilty of the crime of murder.
Twenty years later… Posted on the official website “Judiciary of Scotland” on January 15 2021 , the first sentence of the Megrahi decision summary reads:
“Mr Megrahi was convicted in January, 2001 of the murders of 270 people after a bomb was planted on a passenger plane which flew from London to New York. The plane disintegrated over the town of Lockerbie on 22 December 1988.”
On November 2 2016, the UK Government [Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS)] decided to withhold all Lockerbie air accident investigation reports [dating from 1990 Jan 01 to 1992 Dec 31] until at least 2026, and possibly indefinitely.
The last chapter of my book begins with this sentence:
“Pan Am Flight 103 disintegrated in flight over Lockerbie on December 21 1988 — not December 22 — because of a massive structural failure due to well-known issues of metal fatigue in section 41 and 42 of the Boeing 747, not because of an explosive device.”
I have always known that I would have to be patient and wait at least until 2026 — and most likely for ever — to prove that no bomb was involved in the disintegration of Pan Am Flight 103.
But surely, after one trial, two decisions by the SCCRC and three appeals, the judges could at least agree on the correct date of this tragedy. Is it too much to ask?
“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”
Albert Einstein
For the record…
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.
On that very day, I wrote:
“To many observers, the SCCRC decision marks the beginning of Justice. I am afraid that I share neither their joy, nor their hopes. The Devil is in the detail. And a careful reading of the SCCRC statement of reasons indicates that all hopes of Justice have already been annihilated.”
As soon as the grounds of appeal were available, Intel Today predicted correctly this outcome.
On March 16 2020, I wrote [Lockerbie — Diabolical Endgame] :
“Oliver Cromwell died in 1658. His body was exhumed in 1661 to be hanged in chains. Later, he was decapitated and his head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall until 1685. There is a pole waiting for Megrahi’s head.”
I was entirely correct and it should have been obvious to all.
“Amer Anwar — the lawyer for Megrahi’s family — is repeating all the old mistakes that brought us this spectacular miscarriage of justice, including a grandiose press release, that is riddled with nonsensical, erroneous, illogical, and counter-productive statements. I expect that the judges will unanimously uphold the guilty verdict. In the end, this appeal will do more harm than good.”
Intel Today — Aug. 26 2020
Game Over
Clearly, the Lockerbie saga is now over as far as Justice is concerned. Let me repeat this. It is over. Full stop.
There are three kinds of people. Those who understand events before they happen. Those who only understand events after they have happened. And there are some people who never understand events, even after they have happened.
Obviously, Mr Aamer Anwar and Pr. Robert Black are among those people who never understand…
After miserably losing the third appeal, Mr Anwar said the second ground of appeal — the failure to disclose information to the defence — hinged on a “compatibility issue” arising from a question relating to a breach of human rights.
“This will be the basis for the application to the Supreme Court,” Anwar stated.
Commenting on Anwar’s press release, Pr Black suggested that the case would be brought before the European Court of Human Rights [ECHR] next if necessary.
These clowns never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.
This is just a pathetic attempt to cover their many mistakes and it is total nonsense as far as the law is concerned.
Of course, it is true that evidence has been withheld from the defence on public interest grounds.
But withholding evidence does not necessarily equate to a breach of human rights.
In any case, the ECHR does not decide whether such a decision was absolutely necessary, as it is a matter for the domestic courts to assess the evidence produced before them.
The ECHR, if the submission is ever accepted, would only check the decision-making procedure to ensure that, as far as possible, the appeal judges complied with the requirements to provide adversarial proceedings and equality of arms to protect the interests of Megrahi. ECHR’s decisions are clear and consistent.
Long before the appeal, I have explained that the two secret documents withheld from the defence on public interest grounds are useless to the defense of Megrahi and potentially harmful to national security.
The judges have carefully studied these documents and they came to the exact same conclusion.
[32] The court also agrees with the Advocate depute that the first document would not, in any event, have been adduced in evidence by the defence at the trial because it would have pointed towards Libya as the source of the timer; a matter which the defence were anxious to deny.
[33] Accordingly, having regard to the nature and content of the two documents, notably the fact that most of it was already known to the defence, and that which was not would neither have been of use to the defence nor would it have been adduced by the defence, and balancing the very limited value of that content with the danger to the public interest as set out in the public interest immunity certificate, the court will refuse to order recovery of the protectively marked documents.
In other words, the appeal judges did more than comply with the requirements to provide adversarial proceedings and equality of arms.
By withholding these documents, they prevented Anwar to hurt his own client!
Case over.
As Pr. Michael P. Scharf wrote long ago, achieving justice was never the main objective.
“U.S. officials saw the indictment itself as a diplomatic tool that would help them persuade members of the Security Council to impose sanctions on Libya, thereby furthering their goal of isolating a rogue regime.”
Indeed, deflecting attention from the truth and obtaining a UN Resolution were the real goals of the ‘Lockerbie Solution’ from the very beginning.
The Lockerbie case is a complete fiasco. Thirteen judges have managed to find a man guilty of a crime that never occurred in the first place!
PS — On April 28 2020, Intel Today wrote:
“Aamer Anwar will have to be far more accurate when the new Lockerbie trial begins. This should be a warning, or else this trial will be just another disaster.”
And instead of listening to a real expert, this complete idiot decided to block me on Twitter. From that moment on, there was no hope for truth. The Lockerbie case was lost.
“So Resolution 731 was adopted. Everyone at the Security Council knew it was wrong. Everyone knew that Libya had nothing to do with the Lockerbie bombing, and that Libya had once again been made a scapegoat by the United States.”
Francis Boyle — International Law Professor
REFERENCES
Family of Lockerbie bomber lose posthumous appeal against his conviction — Thomson Reuters Foundation News
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20 Years Ago — Kangaroo Zeist Court issues Infamous Lockerbie verdict (January 31 2001)
Intel Today 