“As I told the Prime Minister the last time, he vastly overestimates the competence of the CIA.”
Henri Kissinger
(Answer to Zhou Enlai about the US involvement in the bombing of the Kashmir Princess)
April 11, 2025 — On April 11, 1955, the Kashmir Princess — a chartered Lockheed L-749A Constellation aircraft owned by Air India — was damaged mid-air by a bomb explosion. The plane crashed into the South China Sea while en route from Hong Kong to Jakarta, Indonesia. Sixteen of those on board were killed, while three survived. The target of the assassination was none other than Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. Responsibility for the bombing was initially attributed to Indian intelligence agencies, but it was later discovered that the CIA was behind the plot. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today
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“Zhou Enlai was a man of extraordinary intelligence, one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met.”
Henry Kissinger
Zhou Enlai was expected to be on board. He had planned to fly from Beijing to Hong Kong and then to Jakarta on the Kashmir Princess, but an emergency appendectomy delayed his arrival in Hong Kong by several days.
From the outset, China accused the United States of involvement in the bombing. The day after the crash, China’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement describing the bombing as “a murder by the special service organizations of the United States and Chiang Kai-shek.”
“Fingers began pointing at the Central Intelligence Agency as the possible culprit. (…) Undoubtedly, the CIA had supplied MK-7 triggers to Taiwan.”
On the same day, Hong Kong Governor Sir Alexander Grantham stated that the plane had not been tampered with in Hong Kong.
However, on May 26, 1955, an Indonesian board of inquiry announced that a time bomb — equipped with an American-made MK-7 detonator — was responsible for the crash. The investigators concluded that it was highly probable the bomb had been placed on the plane in Hong Kong.
The successful investigation of the Kashmir Princess bombing and the identification of its culprits was made possible by the recovery of part of the detonator device. That lesson was not lost on the CIA and other American intelligence agencies.
In the late 1980s, the U.S. intelligence community ‘miraculously’ identified Libya as the culprit in two separate airline bombings — thanks to the investigation of a tiny fragment known as PT/35(b), which came from a MST-13 Swiss timer (in the case of Pan Am 103, December 21, 1988) and a Taiwanese timer (in the UTA 772 bombing, September 19, 1989).
In both cases, these timers were ‘unambiguously’ linked to Libya’s Gaddafi. In both cases, the identification was made by the same FBI investigator — Tom Thurman — who was later discredited for altering official reports.
Incidentally, despite playing a central role in forensic investigations, Thurman held no scientific qualifications. His academic background was in Political Science — not chemistry, engineering, or any technical field relevant to explosive analysis.
“Years later, Thurman admitted that he had been instructed by the FBI to lie about the Lockerbie timer to a Grand Jury in order to cover up for the role of the CIA.”
One of Thurman’s students and protégés — former FBI agent Rick Hahn — investigated the crash of Avianca 203 (November 27, 1989) and concluded that the Colombian plane had been destroyed by a bomb on the orders of Pablo Escobar.
A recent investigation, however, concluded that the crash was due to mechanical failure. Again, that agent had no scientific qualifications.
After several years of inquiry, the U.S. Department of Justice ordered these two agents, as well as any other individuals without proper scientific qualifications, removed from the FBI’s explosives unit. Better late than never.
“Thurman and other examiners rendered conclusions supporting the prevailing investigative or prosecutorial theory but which were unsupported by scientific fact. (…) I put no credence into any scientific or technical conclusions rendered by anyone without a suitable scientific background.”
William Tobin
Former FBI Engineer
(Email to Intel Today)
DNI Tulsi Gabbard has pledged to launch a sweeping investigation into historical cases where intelligence may have been manipulated or outright fabricated.
Among these, Lockerbie stands as the textbook case — a masterclass in disinformation masquerading as justice.
At the center of this deception lies PT/35(b): not just a sliver of circuitry, but the Holy Grail of forged evidence, the crown jewel in the weaponization of intelligence.
“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.”
FBI Agent Richard Marquise
REFERENCES
Assassination via the Kashmir Princess — Flights Stories
French journalist Pierre Péan — “African Manipulations”
“It is striking to note the similarity of the ‘scientific’ evidence discovered by the FBI’s Tom Thurman in both the Lockerbie and UTA cases. Of the tens of thousands of pieces of debris collected at each disaster site, one lone piece of printed circuit was found and, miracle of miracles, in each case the fragment bore markings that allowed for positive identification: MEBO in the Lockerbie case and TY in the case of UTA Flight 772. Despite the common findings of the DCPJ, the DST and the Prefecture of Police crime laboratory, Juge Bruguière chose to believe Thurman, the expert in fabricating evidence.”
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70 Years Ago — Target Zhou Enlai: The Bombing of the “Kashmir Princess” (April 11, 1955)[Lockerbie ‘Truth Seeding’ and the Genesis of PT/35(b)]
“I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. It’s – it was like – we had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.”
CIA Director Mike Pompeo
Texas A&M University
(April 15, 2019)
Intel Today 