“After writing about the ‘ravers’ who regularly turn up at lectures to claim that President Bush/the CIA/the Pentagon/Mossad etc perpetrated the crimes against humanity of 11 September, I received a letter this week from Marion Irvine, who feared that members of her family run the risk of being just such ‘ravers’ and ‘voices heard in the wilderness’. Far from it. For Mrs Irvine was writing about Lockerbie, and, like her, I believe there are many dark and sinister corners to this atrocity. I urge anyone who is aware of government lies over Flight 103 to come forward.”
Robert Fisk — Do you know the truth about Lockerbie?
November 14 2022 — On this day (November 14 1991), the Lord Advocate (Lord Fraser of Carmyllie) and the acting United States Attorney General (William P Barr) jointly announced that they had obtained warrants for the arrest of Abdelbasset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
RELATED POST: OBITUARY — Robert Fisk dies aged 74 (July 12 1946 – October 30 2020)
RELATED POST:Lockerbie — CIA’s Adventures in Africa : Senegal Shenanigans [New Evidence]
RELATED POST: Lockerbie – The TRUTH, And Now What? [Leo Tolstoy on Time and Truth] — [UPDATE : Quick Note from Lobster Magazine]
“It’s not an investigative piece.”
John Dower, Director for Mindhouse Productions
UPDATE (November 30 2022) — This is almost funny…. Just a few days after promising that the new Lockerbie documentary would be a ‘forensic deep dive into the story’, the project director appears to make a U-turn!
John Dower is directing the three part series for Sky Documentaries, produced by Mindhouse Productions. It is scheduled to air late next year.
Barely days after I ridiculed the project, he told DNG24 that he aims to make a programme that is “careful, considerate and thoughtful”.
“I totally understand the ‘oh not again’ and am sympathetic to that, but we come in good faith.
“It’s not an investigative piece. We are setting out to tell a story, a very large story.
“Our intention and ambitions are to attempt to capture the complexity of this story which I feel has not entirely been done.”
I guess that “It’s never too early to panic.” But seriously… Do we really need more factless opinions?
“Without PT/35(b), there would have been no indictment.”
Richard Marquise
FBI Agent who led the US side of the Lockerbie investigation
If you are a serious director, I encourage you to consider making a documentary on PT/35(b).
RELATED POST : Lockerbie – Three Decades of Lies: J’Accuse…! [Chapter VIII : PT/35(b) — The Most Expensive Forgery in History]
This is the central piece in this case. And every scientist will agree that it is a forgery!
END of UPDATE
“Most people go through life with a whole world of beliefs that have no sort of rational justification, and that one man’s world of beliefs is apt to be incompatible with another man’s, so that they cannot both be right. People’s opinions are mainly designed to make them feel comfortable. Truth, for most people is a secondary consideration.”
Bertrand Russell, The Art of Philosophizing and other Essays (1942)
UPDATE (November 14 2022) — The 1988 Lockerbie disaster is set to be re-explored in a new documentary by British filmmakers. Sky has announced production has commenced on the three-part series.
Produced by Louis Theroux’s Mindhouse Productions in association with Sky Studios the documentary will speak to individuals closely linked to the disaster and the years-long investigation that followed it. The series is executive produced by Arron Fellows and Nancy Strang for Mindhouse Productions and award-winning director John Dower, who made My Scientology Movie and Thriller in Manila.
Poppy Dixon, director of documentaries and factual for Sky, says:
“The tragedy of Lockerbie still looms large in our recent history, and yet we’ve not seen a long form, forensic deep dive into the story, and nothing which brings it up to the present day. The rigorous and thoughtful approach the team are taking leaves me in no doubt this series will do justice to this complex story, and we’re honoured to be bringing it to our customers at Sky.”
Forensic deep dive into the story… Really? Let us take a look at just one quote. [Lockerbie disaster to be probed with fresh interviews in three-part documentary series]
“The bomb was later found to be made from the odourless plastic explosive Semtex, hidden in a cassette player in a suitcase.”
Let me repeat once again. There is simply no evidence of SEMTEX involved in this tragedy. Every expert and every serious researcher agrees on this conclusion.
Those who — for whatever motive — argue otherwise are simply dishonest. Their lies are not only stupid. It also speaks volumes about their incompetence. And it is terribly counter-productive as it prevents the truth from being uncovered.
I will come back to this very important issue, but let me give you a preview of what is really going on.
The two pieces ‘discovered’ by FBI Tom Thurman show no evidence of SEMTEX. FULL STOP.
15 years ago, this was not controversial among Lockerbie researchers. Even Dr. Swire and his assistant Peter Biddulph were in complete agreement with me regarding this fairly obvious issue.
So why do these people now insist on the evidence of SEMTEX? Short answer is that they believe this could be interpreted as evidence that there was no bomb aboard Pan Am 103.
That is of course my own conclusion, but NOT because of the SEMTEX analysis. It is of course expected that no residues could be found on these pieces, as they were found several days after being exposed to heavy rain and strong wind.
If the evidence of SEMTEX was real, you would know at once that these pieces had been planted just a few hours before they were discovered. But there is nothing you can conclude from the absence of evidence.
A document not disclosed to the defense makes it clear that the investigators knew full well that there was no evidence of SEMTEX. But there was evidence that these pieces had been in close contact with an explosive charge.
So ask yourself a simple question. Why did they decide — at the request of an intelligence agency — not to disclose this document?
I will give you a hint. The evidence of an explosion — very well described in that document — is fully incompatible with the prosecution case.
Among other things, this document makes it clear that the explosive was in direct contact with the floor of the luggage container, which is impossible if the suitcase came from Malta!
And wait before jumping to a conclusion. There is more. Much more… Stay tuned!
END of UPDATE
“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
UPDATE (November 14 2021) — 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.
Although Intel Today had long predicted the outcome of this appeal, the judges 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?
“I have also determined, from my review of other evidence, and speaking with other investigators from Scotland and the FBI, that MASUD’s confession is corroborated, as laid out in greater detail below, by evidence gathered by Scottish and American investigators in the years following the bombing, as well as evidence gathered and provided by other countries.”
FBI agent Rachel F. Otto (Dec. 21 2020)
On December 21 2020 (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.
Contrary to the statement made by FBI agent Rachel F. Otto, the confession of Abu Agila Masud is NOT “corroborated by evidence gathered by Scottish and American investigators in the years following the bombing, as well as evidence gathered and provided by other countries.”
RELATED POST: LOCKERBIE — Analysis of the New Indictment [UPDATE : Libyan 3rd Suspect to be extradited to the U.S.]
To be clear, this FBI statement is totally incorrect. As I have explained in this series, these new charges fully contradict the initial indictment as well as some of the facts which were established (by the CIA) even before the Lockerbie tragedy.
Allow me to remind you that there is ZERO evidence of a bomb having caused the tragedy of Pan Am 103. I have summarized all my research on this subject in a single graphic.
RELATED POST: Lockerbie — Why I ruled out the bomb theory [Technical Analysis of the Debris Lines]
I would argue that anyone who understands these data does not need to wait until at least 2026, and possibly much longer, to determine the real cause of the tragedy. It is plain obvious!
Let us end this very sad post with a note of humor… After loosing the third Lockerbie appeal, Megrahi’s lawyer Aamer Anwar issued the following statement:
“I have no doubt that the new democratic Libyan government headed by Abdul Hamid Dabaiba will support this final appeal for justice on behalf of the al-Megrahi family and help in our efforts to prove the innocence of Libya and its people.”
At the time, I wrote a single short comment:
“Good luck with that… Let me repeat this one more time. The Lockerbie saga is now over as far as Justice is concerned. I can only feel sorry for those who still do not understand this reality.”
Well, this week we just learned that Abdul Hamid Dabaiba (also spelled Dbeibah or Dbeibeh) might be willing to work with the US DoJ to find a solution to the case of Abu Agila Masud.
RELATED POST: LOCKERBIE — Analysis of the New Indictment [UPDATE II : Unhindered by truth, BBC doubles down on factless allegations]
And, lo and behold, following this week Paris Summit (and contrary to previously agreed UN restrictions), Al-Dabaiba may be allowed to run for the upcoming election… Obviously, Aamer Anwar needs a new crystal ball!
END of UPDATE
“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”
Albert Einstein
UPDATE (November 14 2020) — The Lockerbie investigation was really a joke. Please take 5 minutes to educate yourself about this pseudo-scientific investigation.
RELATED POST: FBI — Do you have what it takes to be an Intelligence Analyst? [Parody] // UPDATE
The coverage of this tragedy by the MSM was nothing short of a true scandal.
RELATED POST: One Year Ago — Should You Trust The New York Times and Its Anonymous Sources? [Lockerbie]
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 date is set to November 24 2020.
Although I truly believe that Megrahi is innocent, I expect that the judges will unanimously uphold the guilty verdict.
Why? The defense strategy adopted by Mr Anwar — the lawyer for Megrahi’s family — can only backfire as it actually makes the case stronger against Megrahi. Let me explain.
The simplified case of the Crown against Megrahi is based on the following premises:
A — Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed by a bomb activated by a timer (MST-13)
B — Megrahi had access to such timers and he personally put that bomb aboard Pan Am Flight 103
In my book, I explain that scientific evidence — developed 30 years ago and recently confirmed — demonstrates conclusively that the fragment of the MST-13 timer found among the Lockerbie debris is a forgery that does not belong to a genuine MST-13 timer.
And yet, Mr Anwar submitted to the SCCRC and the Court that the evidence regarding PT/35(b) was NEW evidence. That is of course entirely false and was therefore rejected by the judges.
Alas, without a thorough review of the investigation of PT/35(b), the new appeal is simply useless.
Sadly, Amer Anwar is repeating all the old mistakes that brought us this spectacular miscarriage of justice, including a grandiose press release, that is rid 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.
PS — I believe that the indictment was broadcast live both in the US and the UK. If you have a video recording of this event, please contact me. I would like very much to have a copy of Robert Mueller’s presentation during the indictment. I want to hear what he said about PT/35(b). Thank you.
END of UPDATE
Lockerbie — Three Decades of Lies: J’Accuse…!
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…!
PT/35(b) is a small fragment of a timer circuit that was allegedly found among the debris of Pan Am 103 near the town of Lockerbie.
After many years of studies, I have come to the conclusion that PT/35(b) is a forgery that was planted among the debris to implicate Libya in the bombing of Pan Am 103 and to steer the investigation away from the original suspects; not necessarily the culprits as I have explained in my book…
“Without PT/35(b), there would have been no indictment.”
Richard Marquise — FBI Agent who led the US side of the Lockerbie investigation
Perhaps you are not familiar with the Lockerbie case or your memory may be a bit fuzzy about this extraordinary affair that began three decades ago. Therefore, I have written a summary of the Lockerbie investigation and trial which you might find useful.
We would like to know what you think. Please, take this poll and encourage your friends to participate.
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The Lockerbie Case — Official Timeline & Legal Truth
On 21 December 1988 Pan Am flight 103 fell out of the sky. All 259 passengers and crew members died. Eleven residents of Lockerbie were killed.
A strong westerly wind spread the debris over two trails stretching from the south of Scotland through the north of England and out into the North Sea.
Actually, this is a key piece of information! As I explain in my book, a correct analysis of the debris lines clearly indicates that Pan Am Flight 103 disintegrated in flight over Lockerbie 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.
“Published two years after the indictment of Fhimah and Megrahi, Thatcher’s Memoirs is evidence that the Iron Lady was well aware that Libya had no involvement in the Lockerbie tragedy.
On July 24 2018, the UK National Archives released files from the Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet Office predominantly covering the year of 1993. A Lockerbie file dated 1992-93 was however withheld.
Two years before, 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. Why on earth?
Why on earth would the UK Government decide to withhold these technical reports if they did not reveal foul play or gross incompetence?
If ever released, these reports will show that the AAIB investigators knew all along that there was no bomb on Pan Am Flight 103, and that they knew the real cause of the tragedy long before the crash even happened.”
Intel Today — September 10 2020
On 28 December 1988, Michael Charles, Inspector of Accidents for the AAIB, announced that traces of high explosive had been found on two pieces of metal. On that date, a criminal investigation was officially launched. The crime scene covered about 845 square miles.
Comment — Contrary to what Charles stated, there is actually ZERO evidence of SEMTEX! Out of 4 million pieces collected at Lockerbie — only the two pieces discovered by Thomas Thurman were ever reported to indicate the presence of explosive residues: SEMTEX.
When I first saw these data, I immediately understood that something was badly wrong. The spectrum indicated that all kinds of explosive residues were present in the swabs. This is clearly nonsense as some of these explosives, such as TNT and SEMTEX components, do not mix. Obviously, this was a case of contamination.
RELATED POST: TOP INTEL TODAY 2018 STORIES — #10 : “Salisbury Incident — Skripal Case Investigators Could Learn From The Lockerbie Affair”
Years later, we learned that the laboratory that had conducted these measurements was indeed totally contaminated, due to the faulty O-ring of a centrifuge. One could find explosive residues in the offices, in the library, in the restaurant, just anywhere.
On 13 January 1989, Detective Constables Thomas Gilchrist and Thomas McColm found a fragment of charred clothing in search sector I, near Newcastleton. This piece of charred grey cloth was bagged, labelled “Charred Debris” and given a reference number: PI/995.
The evidence regarding PI/995 and the SLALOM shirt was obviously fabricated.
Lockerbie – Three Decades of Lies: J’Accuse…! [Chapter VII : The SLALOM Shirt]
On 17 January 1989, it was registered in the Dexstar log.
On 6 February 1989, PI/995 was sent to the Forensic Explosives Laboratory at Fort Halstead in Kent for forensic examination.
On 12 May 1989, Dr. Thomas Hayes examined PI/995. Inside the cloth, Dr.Hayes found fragments of paper, fragments of black plastic and a tiny piece of circuitry. Dr. Hayes gave to these items the reference number PT/35 as well as an alphabetical suffix to each one of them. The fragment of the circuit board was named PT/35 (b).
In June 1990, with some help from the FBI, Allen Feraday of the Explosives Laboratory was able to match PT/35 (b) to the board of a Swiss timer known as a MST-13 timer.
Comment — After many years of study and research, I have come to the conclusion that PT/35(b) is a forgery that was planted among the debris to implicate Libya in the bombing of Pan Am 103.
Two MST-13 timers had been seized in Togo in September 1986. BATF agent Richard Sherrow had brought one of these back to the US. Two Libyan citizens were caught in possession of an other MST-13 timer in Senegal in 1988.
MST-13 Timer seized in TOGO
An analysis of the Togo timer led the investigators to a small business named MEBO in Zürich. The owners of MEBO told the investigators that these timers had been manufactured to the order of two Libyans: Ezzadin Hinshin, the director of the Central Security Organisation of the Libyan External Security Organisation and Said Rashid, the head of the Operations Administration of the ESO.
Main board of the MST-13
On 14 November 1991, the Lord Advocate and the acting United States Attorney General jointly announced that they had obtained warrants for the arrest of Abdelbasset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah.
On 27 November 1991, the British and United States Governments issued a joint statement calling on the Libyan government to surrender the two men for trial. [Wisdom of the Crowd — Can you help? I would like very much to have a video of Mueller’s presentation during the indictment. I want to hear what he said about PT/35(b).]
On 21 January 1992, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 731 calling on Libya to surrender Megrahi and Fhimah for trial either in the United States or in the United Kingdom.
On 31 March 1992, the Security Council passed resolution 748 imposing mandatory sanctions on Libya for failing to hand over Megrahi and Fhimah. On 11 November 1993, the Security Council passed resolution 883 that imposed further international sanctions on Libya.
On 31 January 2001, a Court found Megrahi guilty and Fimah not guilty.
On 28 June 2007, the SCCRC announced that Megrahi may have been the victim of a miscarriage of justice. The SCCRC announced that there were six grounds upon which it had concluded that a miscarriage of justice might have occurred. Accordingly, the SCCRC decided to refer the case to the Court of Criminal Appeal.
On 25 July 2009, Megrahi applied to be released from jail on compassionate grounds. On 12 August 2009, Megrahi — under enormous pressure — applied to have his second appeal dropped. Megrahi was granted compassionate release for his terminal prostate cancer.
On 20 August 2009, Megrahi was released from prison and returned to Libya where he died on May 20 2012.
On July 4 2017, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission [SCCRC] confirmed that it has received a new application to review the conviction in the case of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi.
On May 3 2018, SCCRC chief executive Gerard Sinclair stated that “the (SCCRC) commission has decided that it is in the interests of justice to accept the current application for a full review of his conviction.”
RELATED POST: Lockerbie — Megrahi Conviction to be Reviewed by the SCCRC
In July 2019, the SCCRC has announced that a decision is not expected before 2020.
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.
The first procedural hearing took place on Friday August 21 2020. The Appeal date is set to November 24 2020.
NB — Most facts and dates cited in this timeline are taken from a presentation made by Lord Boyd at the 15th International Conference in Australia in late August 2001. (See references.) This timeline must therefore be regarded as the “legal truth”.
About Lockerbie and Pan Am 103
Those who want to study the forensic history of PT/35(b) will find many resources and original documents on the PT35B blog.
The book “Megrahi: You Are My Jury: The Lockerbie Evidence” by John Ashton is truly excellent and a must-read.
President Ronald Reagan comments on PAN AM 103 plane crash that carried some Americans
Reagan is obviously at pain to explain why NOTHING was done about the Helsinki warning. The US President is also asked why the civilians — unlike the US diplomats in Moscow — were NOT told about the Helsinki warning.
George Lardner Jr. — EMBASSY OFFICIALS DESCRIBE WARNING BEFORE LOCKERBIE CRASH (Washington Post – May 1990)
A warning of a terrorist attack was broadly circulated to Americans in Moscow a week before the December 1988 explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
“It named a carrier {Pan Am}. It named a route {Frankfurt to the United States}. And it covered a time period” when many Americans in Moscow would be going home for Christmas, Smith said. “Here, it seems to me we have a moral obligation to let people know.”
The warning was posted Dec. 14 at a number of places, including the embassy’s press office, the commercial office frequented by American businessmen, the U.S. Information Service where students congregate, the Anglo-American school, and a bulletin board at the entrance to the cafeteria in the new U.S. Embassy complex.
Jennifer S. Young, who was Pan Am station manager in Moscow, said a reservations clerk told her of the posting. Young, in turn, sent a telex to Pan Am officials in Frankfurt asserting that “approximately 80 percent” of Pan Am’s holiday traffic from the embassy was “now rebooking” to other flights.
Also, notice that a journalist already suggested that Iran had a role in the tragedy at a time where no evidence of a bombing had been found and mechanical failure was suspected.
Lockerbie: Case closed
This film investigates the case against Abdel Baset al-Megrahi and finds evidence to suggest he may have been wrongly accused.
“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
REFERENCES
THE LOCKERBIE TRIAL by RT. HON COLIN BOYD QC, LORD ADVOCATE, SCOTLAND
SCOTBOM: Evidence and the Lockerbie Investigation by Richard A. Marquise
Megrahi: You Are My Jury: The Lockerbie Evidence by John Ashton
Lockerbie bomber’s conviction to be reviewed — BBC
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30 Years Ago — Lockerbie : US & UK indict Libyans Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah (November 14 1991)
On This Day — Lockerbie : US & UK indict Libyans Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah (November 14 1991) [UPDATE : New Documentary is another wasted Opportunity]
Intel Today 