“It was pure expediency to call on democratic South Africa to turn its back on Libya and Qaddafi, who had assisted us in obtaining democracy at a time when those who now made that call were the friends of the enemies of democracy in South Africa.”

Nelson Mandela
Cape Town (June 13 1999)

February 11 2023 — At a Downing Street meeting in April 2001, Mandela told Tony Blair it was “wrong to hold Libya legally responsible for the Lockerbie bombing.” Mandela surely understood the difference between personal responsibility and state responsibility. So I always doubted very much that he would have made such a statement if he had really believed that Megrahi (and Libya) was actually responsible for the Lockerbie tragedy. Do you seriously think Mandela would have visited Megrahi in prison if he had believed that Megrahi was a terrorist? Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

RELATED POST: On this Day — Nelson Mandela Quits (July 18, 1918 – December 5, 2013)

RELATED POST: Nelson Mandela International Day (July 18 2020)

RELATED POST: On This Day — Mandela Is Released From Prison (February 11 1990)

RELATED POST : Lockerbie — Newly Declassified Doc Reveals True Reason of Trial [UPDATE — Mandela to Blair: “Wrong to hold Libya legally responsible.”]

Lockerbie — Three Decades of Lies: J’Accuse…!

QUICK NOTE — 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…!

At a Downing Street meeting in April 2001, the former South African leader told Tony Blair it was “wrong to hold Libya legally responsible for the Lockerbie bombing”, and against public international law, despite the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in January 2001.

The Guardian (Dec. 30 2022)

On December 30 2022, the [UK] National Archives released Cabinet Office files (PREM 49) covering the period 2000-2002.

The newly released files shed light on a range of subjects both at home and abroad under Tony Blair’s leadership, including file PREM 49/1811 DISASTERS.

Policy: part 4. This file contains a variety of letters of condolence from across the world, following the Paddington Rail Disaster and the Selby Rail Disaster. Material relating to discussions between the Prime Minister and Nelson Mandela about the Lockerbie bombing is also covered.

In the piece published in the Guardian — Blair government had misgivings about Mandela mediation role over Lockerbie — the following paragraphs got my attention.

At a Downing Street meeting in April 2001, the former South African leader told Tony Blair it was “wrong to hold Libya legally responsible for the Lockerbie bombing”, and against public international law, despite the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in January 2001 after a trial in the Netherlands.

Blair’s foreign policy adviser, John Sawers, later head of MI6.wrote that the crucial point was Libyan acceptance of responsibility. “We might even be able to use Mandela back against [Gaddafi] if the Libyan’s reject a reasonable offer,” he concluded.

In a briefing note to Sawers, Mark Sedwill, the private secretary to the foreign secretary, Robin Cook, wrote: “Mandela is, at best, suffering from selective memory and a basic misunderstanding of international law.”

Well, this is unfortunately NOT news! A few days after the verdict, Mandela said publicly:

“The condition that Qadhafi must accept responsibility for Lockerbie is totally unacceptable. As President [of South Africa] for five years I know that my intelligence services many times didn’t inform me before they took action. Sometimes I approved, sometimes I reprimanded them. Unless it’s clear that Qadhafi was involved in giving orders, it’s unfair to act on that basis.”

Mandela surely understood the difference between personal responsibility and state responsibility. So I always doubted very much that he would have made such a statement if he had really believed that Megrahi (and Libya) was actually responsible for the Lockerbie tragedy. Do you seriously think Mandela would have visited Megrahi in prison?

Well, here is the bit that The Guardian does not want you to know. Mandela did not think that the opinion of the Lockerbie judges was logical.

Once again, Mandela was absolutely right. Let me remind you what the Libyan defector [Majid] actually said at the trial. [Opinion of the court, 43]

“In July 1991 Abdul Majid told investigators that he had seen the first accused and the second accused arriving at Luqa off the Tripoli flight some time between October and December 1988. This comparatively innocuous statement gradually enlarged until by the time he gave evidence he said that he saw them at the luggage carousel, that the second accused collected a brown Samsonite type suitcase which he took through Customs, that then he met the two accused who were accompanied by two other people one of whom was introduced to him by the first accused as Abougela Masoud, a technician, that Vincent Vassallo (an associate of the second accused) was also present having arrived in the second accused’s new car, and that they then drove off. As other evidence established that the date of delivery of the second accused’s car was 14 December 1988, it follows that if Abdul Majid’s story is true this incident must have occurred on 20 December.”

This account is pure fiction. I am 100% certain that this event NEVER occurred! First thing first. It has been established that Mr Vassallo was not at the airport on 20 December 1988.

Next, Majid testified that Megrahi introduced him to Abougela Masoud during that evening. However, during his debriefing in 1991, Majid told the FBI agents that he did not know who Abougela Masoud was!

Majid claimed that he had told his CIA handlers about this incident at the time. The CIA cables for this period disclose no mention of this incident at all.

“The case was largely based on this inside guy [Libyan defector Abdul Majid Giaka]. It wasn’t until the trial that I learned this guy was a nut-job and that the CIA had absolutely no confidence in him and that they knew he was a liar. The CIA and the FBI kept the State Department in the dark. It worked for them for us to be fully committed to the theory that Libya was responsible.”

Michael Scharf —  Director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law

According to Giaka, Megrahi arrived in Malta with the infamous  brown Samsonite suitcase on December 20 1988.

Actually,  Giaka never reported this event to his CIA’s handler because he never witnessed it. At the time of Megrahi’s arrival at Luqa airport, Giaka was in a CIA safe house meeting his handlers.

The CIA knew that Giaka could not have witnessed the arrival of Megrahi in the afternoon but, of course,  they never told the FBI. Surprisingly, the Bureau never asked. Why not?

Question — If it is ever proven — as I am absolutely convinced — that the CIA planted PT/35(b) at Lockerbie to incriminate Libya, do you think for a moment that the US Government will accept full responsibility for the acts and omissions of its officials, and agencies (CIA and FBI)?

REFERENCES

Nelson Mandela: CIA tip-off led to 1962 Durban arrest — BBC News

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Mandela & Lockerbie : What The Guardian does not want you to know

“In an atmosphere so hostile that the witness’s fear could be heard even in the voices of his translators, the testimony of the most important witness in the Lockerbie trial was systematically torn to pieces by defense lawyers today.
Two defense lawyers spent the day battering every important point made on Tuesday by Abdul Majid Giaka, a Libyan double agent who has been in a United States federal witness protection program for the last decade.
Mr. Abdul Majid’s tentative performance today, coupled with his failure on Tuesday to link the two defendants firmly to the bomb, seemed seriously to undermine his usefulness to the prosecution and its effort to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the two Libyans on trial, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, blew up Pan Am 103 in 1988, killing 270 people.
Today the defense lawyers called Mr. Abdul Majid a liar at least 30 times, and only once the whole day did a prosecutor rise to object.”

The New York Times
September 28 2000