“The families have waited far too long. They deserve transparency, truth and answers.”

Professor Peter Watson

February 16, 2025 — On December 21 1988, N739PA — the Boeing 747 aircraft operating the transatlantic leg of Pan Am Flight 103 — broke up in flight over Scotland. All 243 passengers and 16 crew died as well as 11 residents of Lockerbie. This horrific crime has been called the world’s biggest unsolved murder. 

Professor Peter Watson, a lawyer who represented British victims of the Lockerbie bombing, has called on Donald Trump to release files held by U.S. agencies on the atrocity, insisting the families “deserve transparency, truth, and answers.” Professor Watson is due to speak about the Pan Am 103 tragedy during a visit to Nova Southeastern University in Florida on Monday February 17, 2025. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today

RELATED POST : On This Day — Pan Am Flight 103 disintegrates over Lockerbie (December 21 1988) [UPDATE — Relatives still seek the truth]

RELATED POST : Do you have what it takes to be an FBI Intelligence Analyst? [Parody]

RELATED POST : Lockerbie – Three Decades of Lies: J’Accuse…! [Chapter VIII : PT/35(b) — The Most Expensive Forgery in History]

RELATED POST : The Dark Past of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller — The Bulger Gang, Lockerbie, Anthrax… An Exceptional Failure All Round.

“Raufer established three new facts, all of them pointing — for the first time — to Libya as the culprit of both Pan Am 103 and UTA 772. These facts are false. (…) If that story gains credibility in the media and becomes the ‘new truth’, we will be forced to revisit our position regarding Libya and Gaddafi.”

French Intelligence (DST)
Note to French President Francois Mitterrand 
(June 1991)

With the U.S. president having moved to declassify files related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., Watson urged him to also make public documents concerning Pan Am Flight 103.

The lawyer, who served as secretary for the Lockerbie Disaster Group – a collective of legal representatives advocating for the British victims of the 1988 tragedy – made the request in a letter to Matthew Palmer, the chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in the UK.

If the U.S. holds undisclosed files, their release could provide new insights, confirming or challenging existing narratives. For the families, such transparency would be an essential step toward closure.

However, the political and diplomatic implications – particularly regarding Libya, past U.S.-UK relations, and intelligence-sharing agreements – may complicate efforts to declassify these documents.

“In 1991, I made a pledge to you on behalf of the American law-enforcement community: ‘We will not rest until all those responsible are brought to justice.’ That is still our pledge. For me personally, this is still very much unfinished business.”

US Attorney General
William Barr 
Arlington, VA
December 21, 2019

Bad Strategy, and Wrong Tactic

As you may know already, I have come to the conclusion that there was no bomb aboard Pan Am 103.

RELATED POST: Lockerbie — Why I ruled out the bomb theory [Technical Analysis of the Debris Lines]

So, I doubt that anyone will ever disclose evidence pointing to the ‘real culprits’ of the so-called Lockerbie bombing.

It would be more efficient to look for evidence that the CIA fabricated the infamous fragment of the Swiss timer.

And the FBI must have been aware of this crime for it is difficult to believe that their experts would read SIB upside down as 21B!?! (See details below)

Moreover, I believe that it would be wiser to contact directly Kash Patel and inform him about the background of this affair.

In November 2024, Trump nominated Kash Patel as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to succeed Christopher A. Wray. His nomination hearing took place on January 30, 2025, before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

On February 13, 2025, Patel’s nomination advanced through the committee with a 12-10 party-line vote. The full Senate confirmation vote is expected next week.

Given the Republican majority in the Senate, Patel’s confirmation appears likely. If confirmed, Patel would become the FBI’s ninth director, its first Indian American leader, and its youngest director to date.

In 2023, Patel published “Government Gangsters,” a partial memoir in which he criticized the so-called “deep state.”

In the book, he listed 60 individuals he believed to be part of this entrenched bureaucracy, including Bill Barr and Robert Mueller – both of whom played key roles in the Lockerbie investigation.

There is strong evidence that the CIA planted the key piece of evidence known as PT/35(b) – a fragment of a Swiss timer – to shift blame for the tragedy onto Libya.

Thomas Thurman, the FBI agent credited with identifying PT/35(b), later admitted during legal proceedings that he had been instructed by his superiors to lie to a Grand Jury in order to cover up the CIA’s involvement with the Swiss timer.

Trump’s contentious relationships with Barr and Mueller could make him more inclined to declassify the Lockerbie files, particularly if they contain information that contradicts or undermines their roles in the case. That is the card I would play…

“Without PT/35(b), there would have been no indictment.”

Richard Marquise
FBI Agent
who led the US side of the investigation

The Lockerbie investigators concluded early in the investigation that this fragment was part of the mechanism that triggered a bomb aboard Pan Am 103.

To the eyes, the match between PT/35(b) and the relevant part of the main board of the MST-13 timer is obviously excellent. (See pictures above.)

To manufacture the MST-13 timers, MEBO ordered 20 PCB from the THURING company on August 13, 1985.

The THURING company always ordered its Copper Clad Laminates (CCL) from a Swiss branch of the ISOLA Company: Schweizerische Isolawerke Breitenbach (SIB).

In early 1990, the resin of a board from Schweizerische Isolawerke Breitenbach (SIB) was tested. This analysis shows significant and incompatible differences with the resin of the PT/35(b) fragment.

The conclusion is inescapable. PT/35(b) is NOT a fragment of a MST-13 timers supplied to Libya. PT/35(b) is a forgery. FULL STOP!

Special photography techniques were utilized by FBI scientists to reveal a logo within the figure of an oval on the main printed board with the goal to identify the manufacturer. 

Amazingly, Thurman and the experts from the FBI Explosion Unit incorrectly read the logo upside down as 21B.

Thus, the FBI never visited Schweizerische Isolawerke Breitenbach (SIB), and never established the proper conclusion. Stupidity or malice?

REFERENCES

Trump urged to declassify US files on Lockerbie bombing — STV News

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Lockerbie Lawyer Calls on Donald Trump to Release Secret Files

“Cretton [Real name : Swiss Inspector Hans Knaus] expressed his concerns (…) The first was that the CIA had planted the chip [PT/35(b)] in the wreckage found at Lockerbie. [Detective Superintendant (SIO) Stuart] Henderson and I told him this thought had also crossed our minds. Neither of us believed the CIA or any government official would do such a thing, but we had discussed the possibility.”

Richard Marquise