The Shaylergate Files
www.nlpwessex.org/docs/shaylergatehtm.htm
How MI6 Sponsored Al Qaeda In Libya

Anas al-Liby
The al Qaeda terrorist funded and sheltered by Britain

"A top-secret report linking MI6 with a failed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi appeared on an American internet site yesterday, refuting Robin Cook's claim that British intelligence was not involved. The document, marked 'UK Eyes Alpha', details contacts between MI6 and a group of Middle Eastern plotters who tried unsuccessfully to blow up Gadaffi's motorcade. The report, coded CX95/ 53452, was passed to senior Foreign Office officials. It revealed when and where the assassination attempt was due and said that at least 250 British-made weapons were distributed among the plotters. The four-page CX document was published on the California-based Yahoo! website. The Sunday Times has complied with a request by Rear-Admiral Nick Wilkinson, secretary of the government's defence, press and broadcasting advisory committee, not to print the address of the website on which the CX report is published."
Revealed: Cook misled public over Libya plot
Sunday Times, 13 February 2000

"The document published on the internet and marked 'UK eyes alpha' alleges that MI6 had been told of the plot two months before it was said to have taken place in February 1996.... Mr Cook refused to confirm whether the document was genuine or a forgery. But despite this, Rear admiral Nick Wilkinson, secretary of the D notice committee which operates an agreed self-censorship system with the media on matters of national security, asked journalists not to publish the document's website address. According to the document, coded CX95/53452 and published on a Yahoo internet site, at least 250 British-made weapons were distributed to the plotters. The document detailed how an uprising was planned for the capital Tripoli and plotters would use vehicles similar to those in the colonel's security service. Shadow foreign secretary Francis Maude said that the documents raised 'serious questions' over Mr Cook's previous comments and demanded an immediate inquiry. And the Liberal Democrat's foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell said: 'Knowing that there were plots against Gaddafi is one thing, but being involved in them is something entirely different.' The Libyan government has summoned Britain's ambassador to ask to take part in any investigations over the plot."
Shayler: Cook 'misled' over Gaddafi plot
BBC Online, 15 February 2000

"A top secret report for senior Whitehall officials which linked MI6 to a bomb plot to kill Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi was today believed to have been posted on the Internet. Foreign Secretary Robin Cook denied two years ago that British secret agents had been involved in the assassination attempt which narrowly failed to kill Gaddafi, but killed a number of bodyguards.... The report, coded CX95/53452, detailed when and where the assassination attempt was due to take place and said that 250 British-made weapons were distributed among the plotters. CX reports reportedly summarise MI6's key intelligence findings and are circulated to the Prime Minister, the Cabinet Office and the Joint Intelligence Committee. Whitehall sources confirmed to The Sunday Times that the four page report - which carried a coded header sheet - was genuine. It was headed: 'Libya: Plans to overthrow Gaddafi in early 1996 are well advanced.' The Government's defence, press and broadcasting advisory committee asked for the address of the website on which the report was published to be withheld from publication. In a statement, the Foreign Office declined to state that the intelligence report was a fake. And it conceded that the British Government had known of plots against Gaddafi.... a storm is likely to engulf the Foreign Secretary over the disclosure that British intelligence apparently knew about the plot in advance. Shadow foreign secretary Francis Maude demanded an immediate inquiry. He told The Sunday Times: 'Did Cook conceal the truth? Was it kept from him or did he ignore it?' Claims of British involvement in a plot to kill Gaddafi first emerged when former MI5 officer David Shayler alleged MI6 paid about £100,000 to help purchase jeeps and weapons. The intelligence report leaked on the web was said to have been passed to Sir John Coles, the most senior civil servant at the Foreign Office, and to GCHQ, the Government listening base, MI5, and the Ministry of Defence. It read: 'The coup was scheduled to start at around the time of the next General People's Congress on February 14, 1996. 'Coup will start with unrest in Tripoli, Misratah and Benghazi. The source said that the plotters would have cars similar to those in QADHAFI's security entourage with fake security number plates. They would infiltrate themselves in order to kill or arrest QADHAFI."
'Kill Gaddafi plot report' posted on net
Independent, 13 February 2000

"From late 1989 to 1992 I was the Head of the Maritime Section of the FCO and No 2 in the Aviation and Maritime Department (for those into FCO arcana, the Maritime Section was headed by a Grade 5 First Secretary and the Aviation Section by a Grade 6 First Secretary). This was the period of the invasion of Kuwait and first Gulf War, in which the Maritime Section, including me, mostly got picked up and deposited in an underground bunker as the FCO part of the Embargo Surveillance Centre. We did intelligence analysis on Iraqi attempts at weapons procurement and organised interdiction worldwide. In this period I mostly lived in my underground bunker, quite literally, and didn't get back to the FCO much to keep an eye on the rest of my section. On one occasion when I did, I was told something remarkable by a colleague in Aviation section. At this time we suddenly switched from blaming Iran and Syria for the Lockerbie bombing to blaming Libya. This was part of a diplomatic drive to isolate Iraq from its neighbours in the run-up to the invasion. Aviation section were seeing all the intelligence on Lockerbie, for obvious reasons. A colleague there told me, in a deeply worried way, that he/she had the most extraordinary intelligence report which showed conclusively that it was really Syria, not Libya, that bombed the Pan Am jet, and that the switch was pure expediency. I asked if I could see the report, and my colleague declined, saying this was too sensitive and dangerous; the report was marked for named eyes only. That in itself was extremely unusual - normally we would pass intelligence reports freely to each other, signing the register for them. That is all I know. I never saw the report myself, and I do not know what it said, or why it was so conclusive. I am sorry to say it was such an incredibly busy time, we never discussed it again. I do not know, for instance, whether the intelligence contained an actual admission the charge aganst Libya was fake, or merely evidence that proved Syria did it (a communications intercept, for example). I suspect it will never be made public. But the knowledge has remained with me ever since, and I was extremely sorry at the conviction of al-Magrahi. I do hope his appeal is successful. I am particularly impressed at the upright stand of Dr Swire and other victims' representatives on this issue."
Craig Murray, Former British Ambassador To Uzbekistan
Craig Murray Blog, 29 June 2007

The Shayler Affair

"This tragic episode is fast becoming British Watergate..... As the head of Britain's intelligence services, Tony Blair now has a simple - and honourable - choice. To expose the truth."
David Shayler, ex- M15 counter-terrorism officer, on British state-sponsored terrorism
'Don't shoot the messenger'
Observer, 27 August 2000

"British intelligence paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996 and thwarted early attempts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.... two French intelligence experts ......reveal that the first Interpol arrest warrant for bin Laden was issued by Libya in March 1998. According to journalist Guillaume Dasquié and Jean-Charles Brisard, an adviser to French President Jacques Chirac, British and US intelligence agencies buried the fact that the arrest warrant had come from Libya ....... Five months after the warrant was issued, al-Qaeda killed more than 200 people in the truck bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.... The Libyan al-Qaeda cell included Anas al-Liby, who remains on the US government's most wanted list with a reward of $25 million for his capture. He is wanted for his involvement in the African embassy bombings. Al-Liby was with bin Laden in Sudan before the al-Qaeda leader returned to Afghanistan in 1996. Astonishingly, despite suspicions that he was a high-level al-Qaeda operative, al-Liby was given political asylum in Britain and lived in Manchester until May of 2000..... The Observer has been restrained from printing details of the allegations during the course of the trial of David Shayler, who was last week sentenced to six months in prison for disclosing documents obtained during his time as an MI5 officer..... Shayler claims he was first briefed about the plot during formal meetings with colleagues from the foreign intelligence service MI6 when he was working on MI5's Libya desk in the mid-Nineties. The Observer can today reveal that the MI6 officers involved in the alleged plot were Richard Bartlett, who has previously only been known under the codename PT16 and had overall responsibility for the operation; and David Watson, codename PT16B. As Shayler's opposite number in MI6, Watson was responsible for running a Libyan agent, 'Tunworth', who was was providing information from within the cell. According to Shayler, MI6 passed £100,000 to the al-Qaeda plotters.... Shayler, who conducted his own defence in the trial, intended to call Bartlett and Watson as witnesses, but was prevented from doing so by the narrow focus of the court case.... During the Shayler trial, Home Secretary David Blunkett and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw signed Public Interest Immunity certificates to protect national security. Reporters were not able to report allegations about the Gadaffi plot during the course of the trial.... These restrictions have led to a row between the Attorney General and the so-called D-Notice Committee, which advises the press on national security issues..... Members of the committee, who include senior national newspaper executives, are said to be horrified at the unprecedented attempt to censor the media during the trial."
MI6 'halted bid to arrest bin Laden'
Observer, 10 November 2002

"Michael Tugendhat, QC, appearing for various national newspapers, is expected to argue that the Government has provided no evidence that national security will be threatened by the trial and will underline the importance of open justice..... Shayler will be defending himself during the trial. He is expected to claim that British secret service agents paid up to £100,000 to al Qaeda terrorists for an assassination attempt on Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffy in 1996. He is seeking permission to plead a defence of 'necessity' - that he acted for the greater good by revealing wrongdoing by the security service... "
Calls for secret Shayler trial
London Evening Standard, 7 October 2002

"...Brisard and Dasquié discovered that the first country to issue an international arrest warrant against bin Laden was not the US, but Moamar Gadafy's Libya, in March 1998.... Bin Laden supported a fundamentalist group called al-Muqatila... Al-Muqatila wanted to assassinate Gadafy, whom it considered an infidel. According to the former MI5 agent David Shayler, British intelligence - also in league with al-Muqatila - tried to assassinate Gadafy in November 1996. It was because of British collaboration with al-Muqatila that the Interpol warrant [for Bin Laden] was ignored, Brisard says..."
US efforts to make peace summed up by 'oil'
Irish Times, 19 November 2001

Libya shows film of 1996 Gaddafi assassination attempt

"....the real criminals in this affair are the British Government and the intelligence services. The Government has a duty to uphold the law. It cannot simply be ignored because crimes are carried out by friends of the Government. In November 1999, I sent the Home Secretary Jack Straw detailed evidence of involvement by MI6 officers in a plot to murder Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi. Although the assassination failed when attempted in 1996, innocent Libyan civilians were killed. In a dossier I presented to Mr Straw, I included the names of those who had also been briefed about the plot within MI5. .....When presented with this compelling evidence these very senior Ministers should, of course, have called in the police immediately. We would never countenance two police officers conspiring to murder a criminal. Why should we accept that two MI6 officers could do the same to Colonel Gaddafi? This week, I will be writing to both the police and the Crown Prosecution Service asking them to investigate the role of the Government in this case.... I am left wondering why Sir Stephen did not perform his clear public duty and call in Special Branch to investigate the Gadaffi plot as soon as he realised that MI6 did not have Ministerial authorisation to plot to assassinate a foreign head of state. In August 1998, I also pointed out publicly that MI5 had evidence of the plot on its file SF754-0168. .... The Government's failure to ensure that two MI6 officers are brought to justice for their part in planning a murder is what I would expect of despots and dictators.... It is corruption. It is sleaze. And sleaze was where New Labour came in as a supposed breath of fresh air after the Conservatives had grown corrupt. ..... This tragic episode is fast becoming British Watergate..... If people want to live in a country where the intelligence services work in absolute secrecy with no respect for the rule of law or basic human rights, they should go and live in Libya, Iraq or Iran..... As the head of Britain's intelligence services, Tony Blair now has a simple - and honourable - choice. To expose the truth."
David Shayler
Don't shoot the messenger
Observer, 27 August 2000

"A police inquiry into a student arrested under the Official Secrets Act in connection with the former MI5 officer David Shayler has been abandoned, the Guardian learned yesterday. Julie Ann Davies, a mature student at Kingston University in Surrey, was taken out of a lecture in March to be arrested by four special branch officers, who removed her computer and other personal belongings while holding her in a cell. Ms Davies had been active in the campaign to have charges against Mr Shayler dropped and for more accountability of the secret agencies. She was questioned about an MI6 report which appeared on the internet that lent credence to Mr Shayler's allegations about MI6 involvement in a plot to kill the Libyan leader, Colonel Gadafy. She had been bailed three times and was recently told to appear again before the police next month."
Charges dropped against student in Shayler case
Guardian, 23 August 2000

"An ex-MI5 officer has joined David Shayler in speaking out about mismanagement in the UK's security service. Jestyn Thirkell-White, who resigned from the service in 1996, said MI5 was in desperate need of reform and modernisation. He said it was 'totally wrong' that no investigations had been launched into Mr Shayler's claims - including one that MI6 colluded in an assassination plot to kill Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi.... 'MI5 and special branch were acting like the very police state they are supposed to be protecting us from.' [said Mr Thirkell-White] Mr Thirkell-White and Mr Shayler served together in the anti-terrorism T Branch of MI5..... John Wadham, director of Liberty, which represents both Mr Shayler and Mr Thirkell-White, said the new revelations confirmed what Mr Shayler had been saying all along. 'It is now time to stop attacking whistleblowers and instead to investigate the allegations they have made about MI5,' he said. Mr Shayler, currently in exile in France, faces attempts in the UK to prosecute him under the Official Secrets Act."
Ex-MI5 agent backs Shayler
BBC Online, 22 July 2000

"The threat of legal action [against Shayler] has led to a dramatic escalation of tensions, with Shayler revealing to the Observer the identity of the two serving intelligence officers who he claims were involved in the alleged plot against Gaddafi. The paper said that for legal reasons it was prevented from publishing the names.... It is now thought that Shayler is also prepared to name others names, including the agent's boss, code-named PT16, who is alleged to have authorized the operation, and his own MI5 line manager, to whom he voiced concerns about what he called a 'Boys' Own' operation.... Shayler said he had embarked on the path of disclosing intelligence operations in a bid to force the government to launch a full inquiry into the security services, which, he claims, are increasingly out of control."
Renegrade MI5 spy threatens: I'll name officer who failed to warn of '94 embassy bombing
Jerusalem Post, 29 February 2000

"We will only know the truth of the matter if we have a full independent enquiry into the plot (and my other disclosures). Without that no one can say hand on heart what happened (apart from me. I was briefed on the plot at the time). Anything less sends out the wrong signal to MI6. Anything less suggests that MI6 is above the law or that MI6 can continue to carry out illegal operations without government interference. I need hardly tell you how that begins to eat away at the rule of law and also to undermine our democracy because unelected intelligence officers decide our foreign policy, not our elected representatives... Many MPs including the Intelligence and Security Committee are now looking negligent and foolhardy for not pursuing my disclosures more vigorously. They shouldn't be caught out a second time or the people will begin to think that parliament and the opposition in general has no credibility whatsoever".
Statement from David Shayler, former MI5 officer, on earlier illegal activities of MI6
15 February 2000

"Former M15 agent David Shayler has said the UK foreign secretary may have been misled over whether British secret services were involved in a plot to assassinate Libyan leader Colonel Muhammar Gaddafi.... Speaking on BBC's Newsnight programme, Mr Shayler said that it was possible that the foreign secretary had not been given the truth. He said the document vindicated his allegations and warranted a full investigation into others made by him. 'It is established that there was certainly a Gaddafi plot, so when Robin Cook unequivocally said I'm perfectly clear these allegations are foundless and it is pure fantasy - he went too far. I accept that in normal circumstances, people would be more inclined to believe a government minister than a whistleblower. But now we have shown that the government has certainly compromised the truth if not outrightly lied about this, then I'm vindicated and I think we have to have a full inquiry now.' The claims will be studied by Parliament's Security and Intelligence Committee, the committee's chairman, Tom King, said. However he pointed out that the document, if genuine, only showed that British agents knew about a plot and did not show they were involved in it. Mr Cook's denial two years ago came after the government sought Mr Shayler's extradition from France. Mr Shayler had alleged that British intelligence paid about £100,000 towards jeeps and weapons for the assassination. The extradition attempt failed but Mr Shayler is effectively exiled to France. The document published on the internet and marked 'UK eyes alpha' alleges that MI6 had been told of the plot two months before it was said to have taken place in February 1996.... Mr Cook refused to confirm whether the document was genuine or a forgery. But despite this, Rear admiral Nick Wilkinson, secretary of the D notice committee which operates an agreed self-censorship system with the media on matters of national security, asked journalists not to publish the document's website address. According to the document, coded CX95/53452 and published on a Yahoo internet site, at least 250 British-made weapons were distributed to the plotters. The document detailed how an uprising was planned for the capital Tripoli and plotters would use vehicles similar to those in the colonel's security service. Shadow foreign secretary Francis Maude said that the documents raised 'serious questions' over Mr Cook's previous comments and demanded an immediate inquiry. And the Liberal Democrat's foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell said: 'Knowing that there were plots against Gaddafi is one thing, but being involved in them is something entirely different.' The Libyan government has summoned Britain's ambassador to ask to take part in any investigations over the plot."
Shayler: Cook 'misled' over Gaddafi plot
BBC Online, 15 February 2000

"A top secret report for senior Whitehall officials which linked MI6 to a bomb plot to kill Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi was today believed to have been posted on the Internet. Foreign Secretary Robin Cook denied two years ago that British secret agents had been involved in the assassination attempt which narrowly failed to kill Gaddafi, but killed a number of bodyguards.... The report, coded CX95/53452, detailed when and where the assassination attempt was due to take place and said that 250 British-made weapons were distributed among the plotters. CX reports reportedly summarise MI6's key intelligence findings and are circulated to the Prime Minister, the Cabinet Office and the Joint Intelligence Committee. Whitehall sources confirmed to The Sunday Times that the four page report - which carried a coded header sheet - was genuine. It was headed: 'Libya: Plans to overthrow Gaddafi in early 1996 are well advanced.' The Government's defence, press and broadcasting advisory committee asked for the address of the website on which the report was published to be withheld from publication. In a statement, the Foreign Office declined to state that the intelligence report was a fake. And it conceded that the British Government had known of plots against Gaddafi.... a storm is likely to engulf the Foreign Secretary over the disclosure that British intelligence apparently knew about the plot in advance. Shadow foreign secretary Francis Maude demanded an immediate inquiry. He told The Sunday Times: 'Did Cook conceal the truth? Was it kept from him or did he ignore it?' Claims of British involvement in a plot to kill Gaddafi first emerged when former MI5 officer David Shayler alleged MI6 paid about £100,000 to help purchase jeeps and weapons. The intelligence report leaked on the web was said to have been passed to Sir John Coles, the most senior civil servant at the Foreign Office, and to GCHQ, the Government listening base, MI5, and the Ministry of Defence. It read: 'The coup was scheduled to start at around the time of the next General People's Congress on February 14, 1996. 'Coup will start with unrest in Tripoli, Misratah and Benghazi. The source said that the plotters would have cars similar to those in QADHAFI's security entourage with fake security number plates. They would infiltrate themselves in order to kill or arrest QADHAFI."
'Kill Gaddafi plot report' posted on net
Independent, 13 February 2000

"A top-secret report linking MI6 with a failed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi appeared on an American internet site yesterday, refuting Robin Cook's claim that British intelligence was not involved. The document, marked 'UK Eyes Alpha', details contacts between MI6 and a group of Middle Eastern plotters who tried unsuccessfully to blow up Gadaffi's motorcade. The report, coded CX95/ 53452, was passed to senior Foreign Office officials. It revealed when and where the assassination attempt was due and said that at least 250 British-made weapons were distributed among the plotters. The four-page CX document was published on the California-based Yahoo! website. The Sunday Times has complied with a request by Rear-Admiral Nick Wilkinson, secretary of the government's defence, press and broadcasting advisory committee, not to print the address of the website on which the CX report is published."
Revealed: Cook misled public over Libya plot
Sunday Times, 13 February 2000

"The BBC has broadcast an interview with the former MI5 officier David Shayler in which he spoke about an alleged plot by the UK's Secret Intelligence Service to kill Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi. The interview with Panorama was recorded before his arrest in France at the request of the UK Government. In it, he told how a £100,000 payment to an agent 'Tunworth' funded a militant plot to murder Gaddafi. The film was not broadcast until Friday because the government has an injunction designed, it says, to protect national security. The BBC decided to go ahead with the transmission after parts of the script were submitted to government solicitors, who gave authority to proceed. 'We are talking about tens of thousand pounds of tax-payers' money being used to attempt to assassinate a foreign head of state,' Mr Shayler said. He said he was told that authorisation for the plot by the SIS, the UK's overseas spying service, had come from the very top of the Foreign Office. The revelations, after investigations by BBC journalist Mark Urban, are among the most damaging against the security services for decades and will put further pressure on the government to examine allegations that it has dismissed as 'inconceivable'. .... Mr Shayler joined MI5 in 1994, as part of the G9 section dealing with Libya. At a joint meeting on Libya with the SIS he heard of an agent known as Tunworth. Also at the meeting was PT16B, who controlled Tunworth and detailed Tunworth's collaboration with an extremist group in Libya trying to kill Colonel Gaddafi. However the CX Report, circulated to officals, GCHQ and the Foreign Office, did not say that Tunworth was actively involved in the plot. Mr Shayler later learned that as the assassination plot gathered pace, about £100,000 was given to Tunworth.... In February 1996 a bomb was planted under Gaddafi's motorcade, but it exploded under the wrong car. Several bodyguards were killed and in the ensuing gunbattle three extremists were reportedly killed. Mr Shayler spoke of his surprise when told of the alleged plot.... Mr Urban obtained evidence that meetings did take place with PT16B, that Britian had advance knowledge of the attempt on Gaddafi's life and that Tunworth was a go-between with Islamic militant groups in Libya. However, Foreign Office ministers at the time of the affair said they had not given any authorisation for a murder attempt. Mr Urban concluded that one answer was that security services had acted without any political authority. He said that the BBC had obtained other evidence of SIS activities, but these were withheld for security reasons."
BBC screens Shayler interview
BBC Online, 8 August 1998

Hutton And The Libyan Black Gold Rush - 8 Feb 2004

Why Britain Wouldn't Support
Gadaffi's Interpol Arrest Warrant For Bin Laden

"So 'brave' Muammar Gadafy has agreed on the importance of combating terrorism. A handshake with Tony Blair has sealed his re-entry into the international community, with contracts worth several hundred million pounds for Shell and BAE to follow. His compliance in opening up Libya to nuclear weapons inspectors has been spun as a major triumph in the 'war on terror'. The motives, however, are rather more cynical. Negotiations for a rehabilitated public image for Colonel Gadafy, linked to improved western access to Libyan oil, began to surface in August 2002 with the visit by the Foreign Office minister, Mike O'Brien, to Sirte, near Tripoli. As the BBC said at the time, Libya was keen to re-enter the world economy, and the UK did not want to lose out on potentially lucrative oil contracts.... The problem of access to Libyan hydrocarbons was Gadafy's record of running a state terrorist machine - responsible for arming the IRA, the shooting of PC Yvonne Fletcher and the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988. Britain had even, according to the former MI5 agent David Shayler, paid £100,000 to an al-Qaida cell in Libya to assassinate Gadafy in 1996, and then granted asylum to a member of the cell named Anas al-Liby, who lived in Manchester until 2000."
The path to friendship goes via the oil and gas fields
Guardian, 27 March 2004

Gadaffi And Al Qaeda Were Enemies
Which Is Why MI6 Sponsored Al Qaeda To Assassinate Him
And Why Britain Wouldn't Support Gadaffi's Interpol Arrest Warrant For Bin Laden

".... the first country in the world to seek the arrest of Osama bin Laden was Libya...."
Ronald K. Noble, Secretary General of Interpol
PBS, 16 April 2003

"As was seen in Sudan in 1995, diplomatic and political pressure and shortage of resources can threaten the [al Qaeda] network. Similarly, when Libya pressured Sudan, Bin Laden asked Al-Qaeda's Libyan members to leave the group."
Blowback
Jane's Intelligence Review, 26 July 2001

"Far from being soul-mates, Qadhafi and bin Laden have long been at odds; it was Qadhafi who, in March 1998, issued the first Interpol arrest warrant for bin Laden, a fact little known in the West. The warrant was issued in connection with the March 1994 murders of German anti-terrorism agents Silvan and Vera Becker, who were in charge of missions in Africa. Western intelligence agencies for a number of reasons chose to downplay and ignore the warrant; five months later the U.S. embassies in East Africa were bombed.... Ironically, the common thread running through Libya, bin Laden and the U.S. is the 1979-1988 Afghan war. Among the Arab volunteers were several thousand Libyans and in the early 1990s Libyan 'Afghan vets' formed the shadowy Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG,) whose purpose was to overthrow Qadhafi and establish an Islamic state based on sharia law. The following year, they attempted to assassinate Qadhafi when an LIFG group led by Wadi al-Shateh threw a bomb beneath his motorcade. Qadhafi cracked down and many LIFG members fled to Europe and the Middle East. Another LIFG assassination attempt occurred in 1998 when Qadhafi's motorcade was attacked..... On February 24, 2004, Former CIA director George Tenet told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that, 'one of the most immediate threats is from smaller Sunni extremist groups that have benefited from al-Qaida links. They include…the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group,' an assertion Tenet repeated to the 9/11 Commission the following month."
Libya and Al-Qaeda: A Complex Relationship
Terrorism Monitor, Volume 3, Issue 6 (March 24, 2005)

"Brisard and Dasquie have long experience in intelligence analysis. Brisard was until the late 1990s director of economic analysis and strategy for Vivendi, a French company. He also worked for French secret services, and wrote for them in 1997 a report on the now famous Al Qaeda network, headed by bin Laden. Dasquie is an investigative journalist and publisher of Intelligence Online, a respected newsletter on diplomacy, economic analysis and strategy, available through the Internet..... Brisard and Dasquie contend the U.S. government's claim that it had been prosecuting bin Laden since 1998. 'Actually,' Dasquie says, 'the first state to officially prosecute bin Laden was Libya, on the charges of terrorism.' 'Bin Laden wanted [to] settle in Libya in the early 1990s, but was hindered by the government of Muammar Qaddafi,' Dasquie claims. 'Enraged by Libya's refusal, bin Laden organised attacks inside Libya, including assassination attempts against Qaddafi.' Dasquie singles out one group, the Islamic Fighting Group (IFG), reputedly the most powerful Libyan dissident organisation, based in London, and directly linked with bin Laden. 'Qaddafi even demanded Western police institutions, such as Interpol, to pursue the IFG and bin Laden, but never obtained co- operation,' Dasquie says. 'Until today, members of IFG openly live in London.'"
U.S. Policy Towards Taliban Influenced by Oil - Say Authors
Inter Press Service, 15 November 2001

"In the 1990s Islamism found a strong popular following in Libya. Despite its oil wealth, the country has suffered from chronic socio-economic problems brought about by a combination of economic mismanagement, falling oil prices and the international sanctions that were imposed upon Libya in 1992. ..... militant groups also appeared on the scene in the 1990s, made up largely of veterans of the war in Afghanistan. These included the LIFG [Libyan Islamic Fighting Group] and the much smaller and less well known groups that mostly consisted of a leader (emir) and a handful of followers, such as Harakat al-Shuhada' al-Islamiyyah (Libyan Islamic Martyrs Movement), headed by al-Hami; and Ansar Allah (supporters of Allah). The LIFG stood out among these groups because it tried to bring all of the militant groups under its wing to create a more united front against the regime, but to no avail. The exact date of the formation of The LIFG (al-Jama'a al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah fi-Libya) is unknown because a formal declaration of its establishment did not come until October 1995. The LIFG traces its origins, to the clandestine jihadist organization established in Libya in 1982, and currently led by Awatha al-Zuwawi. This small organization had contacts with Islamic movements outside Libya, especially in Afghanistan, where many of its members went. Among them was Zuwawi himself, who spent number of weeks in Afghanistan in 1986, before returning to Libya. In Afghanistan these Jihadists honed their fighting skills in guerilla warfare. There, they were also exposed to Islamist scholars such as 'Abdallah 'Azzam, many of whose writings are posted on the group's site.It seems that the Libyan fighters in Afghanistan established the LIFG in 1992. At the same time, the LIFG seems to have formed a basis infrastructure in Libya proper, from which they began to plan activities against the regime of Mu’ammar Qadhafi..... That Britain has not designated LIFG a terrorist organization is significant, as several prominent leaders of the group continue to live and act in London and Manchester..... In June 1995 militants, disguised as members of Qadhafi's Revolutionary Committees, launched an operation to free a detained comrade from a hospital. Weeks later, they stormed a prison in Benghazi and released more of their comrades. Fierce clashes between security forces and LIFG's members erupted in Benghazi in September 1995, leaving dozens killed on both sides. After weeks of intense fighting the LIFG formally declared its existence in a communiqué. This and future LIFG communiqués were issued by Libyan Afghan veterans who had been granted political asylum in Britain, were anti-Qadhafi sentiments stemming from the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, soared. The involvement of the British government in the LIFG campaign against Qadhafi remains the subject of immense controversy. The next big operation of the LIFG was a failed attempt to assassinate Qadhafi in February 1996 that killed several of his bodyguards."
‘The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group’ (LIFG)
Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, Volume 3 (2005), Number 2 (June 2005)

"Early 1990s - Violence in a number of regions worldwide, including Afghanistan, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Chechnya, Bosnia, Tajikistan, East Africa, Yemen and Philippines. Groups that would later be a significant international terrorist threat formed eg Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines. Extremist support networks created in the UK and Europe.... 1990s - Radical young men from the UK go to support jihad overseas...."
Annex C - TIMELINE OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST THREAT
[Home Office] Report of the Official Account of the Bombings in London on 7th July 2005

Libya shows film of 1996 Gaddafi assassination attempt

"Pakistan’s problem is that extremist organisations and training camps, such as those linked to the London bombers, were either created by, or supported and used by, ISI. The camps were set up in the late 1980s with US backing to train fighters for jihad in Afghanistan."
Just whose side is Pakistan really on?
Sunday Times, 13 August 2006

"Trying to unravel where the thousands of British volunteers received training in Pakistan over the past decade is a tortuous business. So, too, is determining how various jihadi groups are tied to al-Qaeda’s leadership, which is believed to be in the mountainous border areas of Waziristan. The training camps have been operating there for more than 15 years, frequently switching location and importing instructors from militant groups from Europe to Indonesia..... Scotland Yard is known to be frustrated by the assistance that the Pakistani intelligence organisation, the ISI, has provided in the hunt for those who assisted the 7/7 bombers."
Top al-Qaeda trainer 'taught suspects to use explosive'
London Times, 12 August 2006

Britain Shelters Anti-Gadaffi Terrorists In UK
Until Deal Oil Is Done

"Over the years, some dissidents suspected by foreign governments of involvement in terrorist acts have been protected by the British government for one reason or another from deportation or extradition.... In the past, terrorism experts say, Britain benefited significantly from its willingness to extend at least conditional hospitality to a wide range of Arab dissidents and opposition figures .... Mustafa Alani, a terrorism expert at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense Studies, a London think tank, said [Anas] al-Liby was probably left in legal limbo by the British government, allowing him to be used or discarded as circumstances permitted.... According to a renegade officer for the British intelligence service MI5, David Shayler, British intelligence plotted with Islamic extremists [including al-Liby] to assassinate Gaddafi in early 1996..."
Britain a Refuge for Mideast Dissidents - Some With Suspected Ties to Bin Laden Resist Extradition
Washington Post, 7 October 2001

Anas al-Liby is affiliated with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) - Click Here

"British intelligence paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996 and thwarted early attempts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.... two French intelligence experts ......reveal that the first Interpol arrest warrant for bin Laden was issued by Libya in March 1998. According to journalist Guillaume Dasquié and Jean-Charles Brisard, an adviser to French President Jacques Chirac, British and US intelligence agencies buried the fact that the arrest warrant had come from Libya ....... Five months after the warrant was issued, al-Qaeda killed more than 200 people in the truck bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.... The Libyan al-Qaeda cell included Anas al-Liby, who remains on the US government's most wanted list with a reward of $25 million for his capture. He is wanted for his involvement in the African embassy bombings. Al-Liby was with bin Laden in Sudan before the al-Qaeda leader returned to Afghanistan in 1996. Astonishingly, despite suspicions that he was a high-level al-Qaeda operative, al-Liby was given political asylum in Britain and lived in Manchester until May of 2000..... "
MI6 'halted bid to arrest bin Laden'
Observer, 10 November 2002

The Deal

"So 'brave' Muammar Gadafy has agreed on the importance of combating terrorism. A handshake with Tony Blair has sealed his re-entry into the international community, with contracts worth several hundred million pounds for Shell and BAE to follow. His compliance in opening up Libya to nuclear weapons inspectors has been spun as a major triumph in the 'war on terror'. The motives, however, are rather more cynical. Negotiations for a rehabilitated public image for Colonel Gadafy, linked to improved western access to Libyan oil, began to surface in August 2002 with the visit by the Foreign Office minister, Mike O'Brien, to Sirte, near Tripoli. As the BBC said at the time, Libya was keen to re-enter the world economy, and the UK did not want to lose out on potentially lucrative oil contracts.... The problem of access to Libyan hydrocarbons was Gadafy's record of running a state terrorist machine - responsible for arming the IRA, the shooting of PC Yvonne Fletcher and the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988. Britain had even, according to the former MI5 agent David Shayler, paid £100,000 to an al-Qaida cell in Libya to assassinate Gadafy in 1996, and then granted asylum to a member of the cell named Anas al-Liby, who lived in Manchester until 2000."
The path to friendship goes via the oil and gas fields
Guardian, 27 March 2004

Now That Things Have Been Patched Up With Gaddafi
Britain Is Rounding Up His Terrorist Enemies That It Had Been
Sheltering In The UK For Years

"Anas Al-Liby recently lived in the United Kingdom, where he has political asylum. He is believed to currently be in Afghanistan. Speaks Arabic and English. Indicted for: conspiracy to kill United States nationals, to murder, to destroy buildings and property of the United States, and to destroy National Defense utilities of the United States. Usama Bin Laden,  Muhammad Atef,  Ayman Al Zawahiri ,  Mustafa Mohammed Fadhil ,  Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam,  Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan ,  Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah,  Saif Al-Adel,  Anas Al-Liby , Ahmed Mohamed Hamed Ali , and Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah ,  and others already in custody are believed to be responsible for the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya on August, 7, 1998.  These terrorist attacks indiscriminately killed 224 innocent civilians and wounded over 5,000 others. These terrorist are believed to be part of an international criminal conspiracy headed by Usama Bin Laden.  The U. S. Government is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction, in any country, of those people listed above."
Wanted, Anas Al-Liby, Up to $5 Million Reward
US Department of Justice, 'Rewards For Justice' web site as at 18 June 2005

Anas al-Liby is affiliated with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) - Click Here

"The British government’s decision in October 2005 to designate the al-Jama'a al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah fi-Libya (Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, LIFG) as a terrorist organization must have come as welcome news to Colonel Qadhafi, given that at its peak the group represented the strongest challenge the Libyan regime has ever faced. Indeed, Qadhafi had long been complaining that the British were hosting Libyan nationals intent on overthrowing his regime. While the U.S. government placed the LIFG on its list of designated terrorist organizations back in 2004, it appears to have taken the London bombings to push the British to follow suit. Following this designation the British authorities arrested five members of the LIFG and, despite the protestations of human rights organizations, also signed an agreement with the Qadhafi regime that would enable the men to be deported to Libya. The deal marks a major success for the Libyan regime in its victory over the Islamists and, if the men are returned, it is likely to be the final nail in the coffin of what, for all intents and purposes, is a dying organization. The LIFG was set up in Afghanistan in 1990 by a group of jihadists who had travelled to fight the Soviets during the 1980s. After the Soviet withdrawal the Libyans, like many other Arab mujahideen, turned their attention to establishing an Islamic state in their own country. Some of the group’s members returned to Libya in the early 1990s and began preparing themselves to launch an armed struggle against the Qadhafi regime....The regime’s response upon discovering the existence of the LIFG was to embark upon a large-scale liquidation campaign. The group was able to put up enough of a fight to enter into a series of clashes with the security services and to launch an assassination attempt against Qadhafi, but the regime ultimately succeeded in killing or arresting a large number of the group’s members or sympathizers.... Following this crushing defeat, the LIFG existed primarily as a movement in exile. As such, their abilities have always been limited and their members scattered across a range of countries. Some who fled Libya returned to Afghanistan where the Taliban were happy to provide them with refuge and from where they hoped to regroup and focus their attention on taking the jihad to Libya. However, after the bombing of Afghanistan in November 2001 they were once again on the run. Many went to Iran and others fled further a-field to Europe or to Asia but this did not enable them to evade capture.... Accordingly, the arrests of the five men in Birmingham, Cardiff and London in October [2005] look more like a symbolic defeat for the remnants of a fading organization."
LIFG: An Organization in Eclipse
Terrorism Monitor, 3 November 2005

"British police and immigration authorities on Wednesday said they arrested eight people suspected of 'facilitating terrorism abroad' in pre-dawn raids that involved 500 officers from London to Manchester.Police and officials at the Home Office, which is responsible for domestic security, declined to identify those arrested or offer details of the allegations against them, except to say that the allegations did not involve potential attacks in Britain.... U.S. officials, however, have said the group is affiliated with al-Qaeda and has attempted to overthrow the Libyan leader, Moammar Gaddafi. In February, the U.S. Treasury Department formally designated Sanabel a group providing financial assistance to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and froze its assets."
Britain Arrests 8 for 'Facilitating Terrorism Abroad'
Washington Post, 26 May 2006

"A Libyan Islamist group has joined al-Qaeda, according to an audio message on the internet attributed to the radical network's second-in-command. Ayman al-Zawahri purportedly said the Fighting Islamic Group in Libya was becoming part of al-Qaeda. Earlier this year Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat also claimed to have joined the network.... In the message, the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, is described as 'an enemy of Islam' and criticised for giving up weapons of mass destruction in 2003, in exchange for an end to Libya's international isolation..... In the same tape, a leader of the Fighting Islamic Group in Libya is introduced as Abu Laith al-Libi. 'We proclaim our alliance with the Al-Qaeda network... to become the faithful soldiers of Osama Bin Laden,' it says. The group was formed in the early 1990s by Libyans who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan and has dozens of members arrested and jailed throughout North Africa."
Libyan Islamists 'join al-Qaeda'
BBC Online, 3 November 2007

More British And American Crimes
Lockerbie Flight 103
What They Did Before The Deal With Gaddafi

"Andrew Fulton, a former top MI6 spy, has joined Armor Group, the security personnel business that provides bodyguards in Iraq, in a role to bring in new business. Mr Fulton, 62, is reckoned to have risen through the ranks of the Secret Intelligence Services to become Britain's sixth most powerful spy. He was head of station in Washington in his last posting, from 1995 to 1999. Mr Fulton was catapulted involuntarily into the limelight in 2000 when, as a Glasgow university law professor, he was forced to step down as legal adviser to the Lockerbie Commission into the 1998 bombing of an airliner, when his MI6 career was revealed....In 1999, he was among 116 MI6 agents and officers named on the internet by Mr Tomlinson.Mr Fulton was appointed chairman of a leading firm of corporate investigators, GPW, earlier this year.....Mr Fulton was appointed chairman of a leading firm of corporate investigators, GPW, earlier this year. In his role at Armor Group, which is chaired by Tory grandee Malcolm Rifkind, Mr Fulton will have 'a mandate to focus on developing new business opportunities in the security consulting market'. In a press release, he is described by Armor simply as a 'former senior diplomat'. In an unrelated spy connection, Armor's chief operating officer stepped down earlier this year in order to return to the CIA to become its deputy director-general. Steven Kappes had joined Armor just six months earlier from the CIA, where he had been director of operations....Armor Group is based in London and employs over 9,000 personnel in 45 countries, with operations across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa."
Former MI6 spy joins Armor Group to hunt down new business
Belfast Telegraph, 21 August 2006

"It's a long way from Rothesay Academy to the art deco HQ of MI6 on the banks of the Thames at Vauxhall Cross. But Andrew Fulton did it. In fact, this gentlemanly, erudite son of a Scottish reverend rose so rapidly through the ranks of the Secret Intelligence Service that he became the sixth most powerful spy in the United Kingdom.  Today, Fulton faces losing his job as co-ordinator of Glasgow University's Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit following investigations into his MI6 career. Revelations that he was one of the most glittering talents in MI6 have destroyed claims by the briefing unit that its self- appointed task of briefing the world's press over Lockerbie was carried out with the highest standards of impartiality and fairness. Fulton was recruited into '6' while still an undergraduate at Glasgow University by a member of the academic staff. He was posted to Siagon in 1969 where he worked as a junior but operational MI6 officer. In 1992, he took one of the most senior jobs in the Secret Intelligence Service - the Security Officer responsible for eastern European operations - codenamed SBO/T. He was one of the MI6 chiefs handed the plans to kill Serb president Slobodan Milosevic. Fulton's last posting, which he held from 1995-99, saw him installed as head of station for MI6 in Washington - codenamed H/WAS. This is the sixth most powerful position within MI6. Only four MI6 directors and the service's chief, Sir David Spedding, were above him. Fulton officially retired from the Foreign Office in 1999. When questioned by the Sunday Herald, Fulton denied that he had any 'substantial' knowledge of Lockerbie prior to joining the university's briefing unit. One MI6 source described this claim as 'rubbish', saying: 'At one time, Lockerbie would have been right at the top of his agenda. He would have been up to his neck in discussions with the CIA about the bombing, and would have massive inside knowledge about the case.  MI6 chiefs don't retire. They just step down, but they are in constant contact with their former colleagues, passing them information. MI6 has a vested interest in the outcome of this case. We act for Britain and Britain has taken this prosecution. Everything British intelli-gence knew about Lockerbie is contained in Fulton's head.'... Fulton volunteered his services to the unit when he was asked by the university to join as a visiting professor to the School of Law. The work of the unit is funded by the university, although the US Justice Department's Office for the Victims of Crime and the Law Society of Scotland sponsored the production of a trial hand-book co-written by Fulton. The unit has given hundreds of briefings to journalists and coached a variety of news organisations, including the entire Washington press corps, on aspects of the trial. So far its website has received 1.7 million hits. .... Fulton, who has never practised law, is not listed as a certified lawyer in Scotland."
MI6 link to Lockerbie briefings
Sunday Herald, 21 May 2000

"A former MI6 spy who served behind the Iron Curtain at the height of the Cold War is in line to become chairman of the Scottish Conservative Party in a surprise move agreed by David Cameron and Annabel Goldie, the Scottish leader. Andrew Fulton, whose last posting was as 'head of station' in Washington, has emerged as one of the favourites for the post that fell vacant when Peter Duncan, the former MP for Dumfries, stood down last summer. Since then David Mundell, Scotland's only Westminster MP, has acted as temporary chairman. The appointment of the former intelligence officer, now a visiting law professor at Glasgow University, would be seen as an attempt by senior Tories to inject fresh blood and new thinking into the Scottish party, which has struggled to recover from its 1997 wipe-out when it lost all its Scottish MPs. Last year, he became the first high-profile former spy to join a listed British company when he was appointed as an adviser to the Armor Group, a firm that provides security services to national governments and large corporations. Its non-executive chairman is the Tory grandee Sir Malcolm Rifkind. Listed in Who's Who as a diplomat, Prof Fulton in fact spent most of his career with MI6, serving in Saigon, Rome, East Berlin, New York and Washington. Originally from Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, he was recruited into the secret service as a golf-mad law student at Glasgow University, went to Saigon in 1969 and was First Secretary in East Berlin in the late 1970s.....He was unmasked as a former spy in 2000 when he was forced to step down as a member of the Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit which provided media briefings on the trial in Holland of the two Libyans accused of the Lockerbie bombing. His cover was blown soon after he was included in a list of 116 MI6 officers published on the internet by a disaffected agent in 1999. The revelation raised concerns that he may be in a position to influence the way the Lockerbie trial was being reported to ensure the minimum of criticism of the British and American intelligence services....Tory sources have confirmed to The Daily Telegraph that Professor Fulton has been approached about the vacant position as chairman and that discussions were still underway."
Former spy in line for top Scottish Tory job
Sunday Telegraph, 10 February 2008

"A former Scottish police chief has given lawyers a signed statement claiming that key evidence in the Lockerbie bombing trial was fabricated. The retired officer - of assistant chief constable rank or higher - has testified that the CIA planted the tiny fragment of circuit board crucial in convicting a Libyan for the 1989 mass murder of 270 people.... The officer, who was a member of the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland, is supporting earlier claims by a former CIA agent that his bosses 'wrote the script' to incriminate Libya.... A source close to Megrahi's defence said: 'Britain and the US were telling the world it was Libya, but in their private communications they acknowledged that they knew it was the PFLP-GC [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command]'. 'The case is starting to unravel largely because when they wrote the script, they never expected to have to act it out. Nobody expected agreement for a trial to be reached, but it was, and in preparing a manufactured case, mistakes were made.'"
Police chief- Lockerbie evidence was faked
Scotsman, 28 August 2005

"Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, the former lord advocate who issued the arrest warrant for the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, has cast doubt on the reliability of the main witness in the trial..... His intervention is the most significant yet in a series of developments that have cast doubt on the safety of the conviction against Megrahi..... Lawyers acting for the former intelligence officer and head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines have since claimed to have uncovered anomalies suggesting that vital evidence presented at the trial came from tests conducted months after the terror attack. The new evidence is due to be presented in an appeal to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission next year. Earlier this month it was reported that officials from Britain, America and Libya had met to discuss moving Megrahi back to Libya on the condition that the appeal is dropped. A key plank in the case against Megrahi was provided by Gauci who claimed that he sold Megrahi clothes that were believed to have been wrapped around the bomb. Fraser said that he believes Gauci was a 'weak point' in the case and has expressed concern that he was a 'simple' man who might have been 'easily led'.... Jim Swire, spokesman for the families of victims and who lost his daughter Flora in the atrocity, said: 'Lord Fraser had detailed knowledge of events and I think we have to take seriously anything he says now that is relevant to those who gave evidence at Zeist. It is significant that a man who has been as close as he has to the investigation should be making comments like this.' "
Fraser: my Lockerbie trial doubts
Sunday Times, 23 October 2005

"New doubts have been cast over the testimony of Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, whose testimony was a key factor in the conviction of Lockerbie bomb suspect Abdelbasset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi. In comments to the Sunday Times of London, the former Lord Advocate who issued the arrest warrant for the Libyan, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, described Gauci as 'not quite the full shilling' and 'an apple short of a picnic'. ... the admissions have clearly attracted grave reactions from other parties, especially following a former Scottish police chief’s claims that key evidence in the bombing trial had been fabricated by the CIA. In a signed statement to Megrahi’s lawyers, the retired officer said the CIA planted the tiny fragment of circuit board crucial in convicting the Libyan. The evidence will be crucial for Megrahi who is attempting to get a retrial ordered by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC)."
Lockerbie returns to haunt 'tricky' Malta witness
Malta Today, 23 October 2005

"A senior Scottish police officer, now retired, claims that American intelligence agents planted one of the fragments of the cassette-player in order to implicate the Libyans. Doubts have been cast on the reliability of an expert forensic scientist who gave evidence about the detonating of the bomb — three other convictions in which he gave testimony have been quashed. And it now seems that tests on the suitcase may have been misrepresented to the court. All this might easily be dismissed as the conspiracy fog that tends to gather around cases of this kind. Except that last weekend Lord Fraser himself, who was in charge of the Crown evidence, suggested that he too had begun to have doubts. In an interview with The Sunday Times he said that the Maltese shopkeeper, Tony Gauci, whose identification of the two Libyans was central to the prosecution case, might not have been a reliable witness.... Gauci’s evidence was critical in linking al-Megrahi to the attack. Without it, al-Megrahi would certainly have walked free. Lord Fraser’s remarks have been described as 'an extraordinary development' by Tam Dalyell, who was a key figure throughout the investigation. Senior legal experts in Scotland have expressed amazement at his comments. And William Taylor QC, al-Megrahi’s defence advocate, has called for a review of the case....Does any of this matter now, so many years after the event? After all, there have been no noticeable protests from the Libyan Government. So long as al-Megrahi is allowed to serve the rest of his sentence in Libya, rather than in Scotland, it is unlikely to want to resurrect a case that could undermine its newly established relationship with the West."
It's time to look again at Lockerbie
London Times, 26 October 2005

"The UK Government has published details of a deal struck with Libya on prisoner exchange, which it insists does not cover the Lockerbie bomber's case. Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond had voiced concern at Holyrood that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi could be transferred back to a jail in Libya. A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said no deal had been signed over the future of al-Megrahi. The Libyan is serving life for killing 270 people in the 1988 Pan Am bombing.  He was convicted in 2001 of blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. He was tried under Scottish law at a specially convened court at Camp Zeist, in the Netherlands, and is currently held in Gateside Prison in Greenock, near Glasgow.... Former Labour MP Tam Dalyell, who has believed throughout in al-Megrahi's innocence, said: 'The prime minister may think he can draw a line under all this. Surprisingly I am sympathetic to Mr Salmond. The only way that Megrahi can prove his innocence is through the Scottish legal system.'"
'No deal' over Lockerbie bomber
BBC Online, 7 June 2007

"Pressure is growing for a full public inquiry into the Lockerbie disaster, in response to new evidence that suggests a miscarriage of justice took place in the trial of the Libyan convicted of the bombing.... A judicial review of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi’s conviction is to decide this week whether to refer his case back to the Appeal Court. If it does, al-Megrahi would almost certainly be cleared. 'Where that would leave the Scottish judicial system and the Scottish police, God knows,' said Tam Dalyell, the former MP who has long campaigned for an inquiry. Jim Swire, whose daughter, Flora, died in the 1988 bombing, described al-Megrahi’s conviction as 'one of the most disgraceful miscarriages of justice in history'....... Now new evidence has been produced to challenge further the safety of the conviction:  — The Maltese shopkeeper, whose identification of al-Meg-rahi was crucial, changed his story several times in the course of inquiries, first identifying Abu Talb as the man who had entered his shop, then contradicting his evidence about individual items he had sold. — A log that detailing the exact dates of the discovery of evidence was altered. Page numbers were changed and a new page containing additional evidence was inserted at a late stage. The description of the clothing recovered – whether damaged or not – was also changed. — One of the investigators claims that evidence was fabricated, and that some of his colleagues were unhappy when the focus of police inquiries switched from Syria and Iran to Libya. — Claims by a Heathrow luggage-handler that he had noticed the briefcase had been added at the last minute to the Pan Am flight were never properly tested. — Al-Megrahi, who was said to have been a Libyan intelligence officer working at a Maltese airport, was in fact part of a sanctions-busting team, and had nothing to do with airport work. He claims that he never met the Maltese shopowner.... Mr Dalyell said: 'I have no doubt that evidence was planted, and I have said so repeatedly in the Commons. Only a full, public and nonadversarial inquiry can finally settle this matter.'"
Demand grows for full Lockerbie inquiry
London Times, 25 June 2007

"Pressure is growing for a full public inquiry into the Lockerbie disaster, in response to new evidence that suggests a miscarriage of justice took place in the trial of the Libyan convicted of the bombing.... A judicial review of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi’s conviction is to decide this week whether to refer his case back to the Appeal Court. If it does, al-Megrahi would almost certainly be cleared. 'Where that would leave the Scottish judicial system and the Scottish police, God knows,' said Tam Dalyell, the former MP who has long campaigned for an inquiry. Jim Swire, whose daughter, Flora, died in the 1988 bombing, described al-Megrahi’s conviction as 'one of the most disgraceful miscarriages of justice in history'....... Now new evidence has been produced to challenge further the safety of the conviction:  — The Maltese shopkeeper, whose identification of al-Meg-rahi was crucial, changed his story several times in the course of inquiries, first identifying Abu Talb as the man who had entered his shop, then contradicting his evidence about individual items he had sold. — A log that detailing the exact dates of the discovery of evidence was altered. Page numbers were changed and a new page containing additional evidence was inserted at a late stage. The description of the clothing recovered – whether damaged or not – was also changed. — One of the investigators claims that evidence was fabricated, and that some of his colleagues were unhappy when the focus of police inquiries switched from Syria and Iran to Libya. — Claims by a Heathrow luggage-handler that he had noticed the briefcase had been added at the last minute to the Pan Am flight were never properly tested. — Al-Megrahi, who was said to have been a Libyan intelligence officer working at a Maltese airport, was in fact part of a sanctions-busting team, and had nothing to do with airport work. He claims that he never met the Maltese shopowner.... Mr Dalyell said: 'I have no doubt that evidence was planted, and I have said so repeatedly in the Commons. Only a full, public and nonadversarial inquiry can finally settle this matter.'"
Demand grows for full Lockerbie inquiry
London Times, 25 June 2007

"Evidence used against Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, was subject to deliberate destruction and manipulation for political reasons, according to leaked documents from his defence team. The allegations suggest authorities on both sides of the Atlantic attempted to mislead the original inquiry into the 1988 disaster to divert attention away from the original Iranian-backed suspects to Libya, with evidence apparently tampered with, destroyed and overlooked. In a decision that could send shockwaves through the Scottish legal system, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) is expected to conclude this week that the conviction of Megrahi - jailed in 2001 for his part in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 which killed 270 people - is unsafe. Amid claims from his defence team of a 'co-ordinated effort to mislead the court', tantamount to a perversion of the course of justice, the SCCRC is studying hundreds of documents and photographs that suggest evidence was deliberately fabricated, manipulated or ignored by police and CIA operatives. Should Megrahi's case be referred back to the appeal court, his legal team intends to lodge an application for him to be freed while the court decides whether to quash his conviction or order a retrial. Megrahi's team believes the evidence was manipulated to avoid antagonising Iran at the time of the first Gulf War. Tam Dalyell, a long-term Lockerbie campaigner, last night said the SCCRC report should be made public, followed by a public inquiry."
Lockerbie evidence 'was tampered with, destroyed and overlooked'
Scotsman, 25 June 2007

"Scotland's High Court must hear a new appeal by Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi against his conviction for the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing, an independent review board said on Thursday. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission said it had 'identified six grounds where it believes that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred and that it is in the interests of justice to refer the matter to the court of appeal.' Megrahi was found guilty in 2001 of the bombing of a Pan Am flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, which killed 270 people. He is serving a life sentence in a prison near Glasgow and was told of Thursday's decision three hours before the announcement. Nearly two-thirds of recent cases referred to the High Court by the commission have ended with appeals being granted, suggesting Megrahi has a reasonable chance of success. That would throw the case wide open after nearly two decades and raise questions about how Libya would respond, after paying more than $2 billion to victims' families on the basis that Megrahi was guilty.... Libya, seeking international rehabilitation after Washington had long branded it a rogue state, paid compensation to victims' relatives after telling the United Nations in a 2003 letter it 'accepts responsibility for the actions of its officials.' Lawyers and analysts say that careful wording could enable Libya to deny any role if Megrahi's conviction were quashed. Some believe it may even demand compensation from the United States and Britain."
Libyan to get High Court appeal on Lockerbie
Reuters, 28 June 2007

"From late 1989 to 1992 I was the Head of the Maritime Section of the FCO and No 2 in the Aviation and Maritime Department (for those into FCO arcana, the Maritime Section was headed by a Grade 5 First Secretary and the Aviation Section by a Grade 6 First Secretary). This was the period of the invasion of Kuwait and first Gulf War, in which the Maritime Section, including me, mostly got picked up and deposited in an underground bunker as the FCO part of the Embargo Surveillance Centre. We did intelligence analysis on Iraqi attempts at weapons procurement and organised interdiction worldwide. In this period I mostly lived in my underground bunker, quite literally, and didn't get back to the FCO much to keep an eye on the rest of my section. On one occasion when I did, I was told something remarkable by a colleague in Aviation section. At this time we suddenly switched from blaming Iran and Syria for the Lockerbie bombing to blaming Libya. This was part of a diplomatic drive to isolate Iraq from its neighbours in the run-up to the invasion. Aviation section were seeing all the intelligence on Lockerbie, for obvious reasons. A colleague there told me, in a deeply worried way, that he/she had the most extraordinary intelligence report which showed conclusively that it was really Syria, not Libya, that bombed the Pan Am jet, and that the switch was pure expediency. I asked if I could see the report, and my colleague declined, saying this was too sensitive and dangerous; the report was marked for named eyes only. That in itself was extremely unusual - normally we would pass intelligence reports freely to each other, signing the register for them. That is all I know. I never saw the report myself, and I do not know what it said, or why it was so conclusive. I am sorry to say it was such an incredibly busy time, we never discussed it again. I do not know, for instance, whether the intelligence contained an actual admission the charge aganst Libya was fake, or merely evidence that proved Syria did it (a communications intercept, for example). I suspect it will never be made public. But the knowledge has remained with me ever since, and I was extremely sorry at the conviction of al-Magrahi. I do hope his appeal is successful. I am particularly impressed at the upright stand of Dr Swire and other victims' representatives on this issue."
Craig Murray, Former British Ambassador To Uzbekistan
Craig Murray Blog, 29 June 2007

Confining The Row To Gauci

"Among the 400 pages of documents submitted by lawyers for Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission were claims of evidence tampering, withholding of vital documents and a distortion of the truth to try to 'reverse-engineer' the case against the Libyan – in short, to make the evidence fit the proseuction case. However, in a statement, the commission said yesterday that it had found 'no basis for concluding that evidence in the case was fabricated by the police, the Crown, forensic scientists, or any other representatives of official bodies or government agencies'.  Its findings are that the eight-month trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands was potentially flawed, not because of a giant conspiracy or cover-up, but because a single human witness was at fault. Key to the prosecution’s case was the testimony of Tony Gauci, owner of a small shop in Sliema, Malta. It was here, according to the Crown, that clothes were bought that were placed inside the Samsonite suitcase that carried the bomb. Mr Gauci’s evidence linked the bomb timer directly to Megrahi via an apparently random selection of clothes bought from his shop on a date – December 7, 1988 – when the Libyan was in Malta....In a 14-page summary of its 800-page report, which will not be made public, the SCCRC said it had found six grounds where it believed that 'a miscarriage of justice may have occurred and that it is in the interests of justice to refer the matter to the Court of Appeal'. Although it revealed just three of the six grounds, it said that there was no 'reasonable basis' for the court’s conclusion that the clothes were bought from Mr Gauci’s shop on December 7, 1988. It said that new evidence suggested that the clothes were bought some time before December 6. The SCCRC’s four investigators also raised questions about Mr Gauci’s reliability after discovering that he was found with a photograph of Megrahi four days before an identification parade in April 1999. It added that 'other evidence' in its possession may further undermine Mr Gauci’s testimony, but did not elaborate. However, it is believed that at least some of this evidence may be classified material from intelligence sources..... Mr Gauci’s testimony was crucial in securing Megrahi’s conviction, but the Libyan was also linked to the bomb through a tiny fragment of circuit board, said to have come from the detonator, which was traced to a Swiss electronics manufacturer with whom Megrahi had a known association. The precise circumstances surrounding the discovery of the fragment – who found it and when – have long been shrouded in mystery. But the SCCRC insisted that the circuit board had not been tampered with or fabricated, as some have suggested. It added that there was no evidence to suggest there had been 'unofficial CIA involvement' at the crash site or that items found at the scene had been 'spirited away'."
Flawed evidence casts doubt on bomb conviction
London Times, 29 June 2007

".... a CIA 'supergrass' inside Libya named Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifah Fhimah, another Libyan, as the two agents involved in the attacks. The supergrass – codenamed 'Puzzlepiece' – claimed he had discussed the bomb plot with Megrahi and saw both men with explosives and the suitcase used for the bomb. In November 1991 the Americans and British jointly accused the pair of the Lockerbie bombing. At their 2001 trial before three Scottish judges in the Neth-erlands, Fhimah was acquitted. But Megrahi was found guilty of the murder of 270 people. Gauci’s identification evidence was the linchpin of their verdict. However last week, after a three-year investigation, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission announced that it was referring his case to the Scottish Court of Appeal. It dismissed claims by lawyers for Megrahi that vital evidence, including the circuit board from the Mebo timer, had been planted among the debris by police. Some of the more excitable conspiracy theorists suggested that was part of a plot by the security services to implicate Libya and exonerate Iran and Syria at a time when their neutrality was required in the run-up to the first Iraq war. But, crucially, the commission did say it had identified six grounds where it believed a miscarriage of justice 'may have occurred'. While the commission has inexplicably refrained from publishing details of each of these grounds, it is clear that doubts about Gauci’s testimony form the core of its concerns."
Unpicking the Lockerbie truth
Sunday Times, 1 July 2007

No Noticable Protests From Libya About These Revelations?
The 2004 Gadaffi Oil Deal Is The Reason Why

"The failure of US-led forces to uncover evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prompted a quick revision of the invasion's goals. Putting the elusive weapons issue aside, the neo-conservatives of the Bush Administration emphasised that liberating Iraq would also rid the volatile Middle East of a particularly odious dictator, thus unsettling despots elsewhere....the deal over Libya's weapons - with accompanying sweeteners such as the lifting of sanctions and new Western investment in the oil industry - may actually serve to keep this particular dictator in control."
Dancing with Libya's dictator
Sydney Morning Herald, 27 December 2003

"UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has praised 'positive' talks with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, on the start of his week-long tour of Africa. Mr Blair, who discussed defence, counter-terrorism and business with the Libyan leader, said relations had been 'completely transformed'. He spoke as British oil giant BP announced a return to Libya after 30 years, in a gas exploration deal. Speaking after a two-hour meeting in a tent outside the coastal city of Sirte, Mr Blair said BP's decision to return to operations in Libya marked a 'huge investment'."
Blair hails positive Libya talks
BBC Online, 29 May 2007

"Oil giant BP has announced that it has struck a deal to return to Libya after an absence of more than 30 years. Chief executive Tony Hayward said the $900m (£453m) joint venture with the Libya Investment Corporation was BP's 'biggest exploration commitment'. The group will explore about 54,000 square kilometres - at the onshore Ghadames and offshore Sirt basins. The announcement was made during Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to the Libyan capital, Tripoli.  BP withdrew from Libya in 1974, when its oil industry was nationalised. 'We are now beginning to develop an economic relationship with Libya,' Mr Blair's spokesman said.  'That's why companies such as BP can begin to go back into the country today. Mr Hayward said that BP was 'delighted' to be working with the state-owned National Oil Company of Libya, 'to develop their natural resources for domestic and international markets'. 'Our agreement is the start of an enduring, long-term and mutually beneficial partnership with Libya,? he added. The deal is the latest stage in Libya's gradual return to the international fold since the US lifted its sanctions in 2004. Royal Dutch Shell signed a contract two years ago to return to Libya. That deal was timed to coincide with Mr Blair's first visit to the country."
BP returns to Libya in $900m deal
BBC Online, 29 May 2007

"When his reputation as the 'Sun King' who could do no wrong was still intact, BP's chief executive, Lord Browne, signed a landmark deal to create TNK-BP, a joint venture with Russian businessmen to extract their country's oil and natural gas. Four years on, Lord Browne's reign at BP has come to a dramatic end - and one of the prize assets of TNK-BP is on the brink of being snatched away. Russian authorities are expected to revoke TNK-BP's licence to operate the huge Kovykta field, with an estimated 2 trillion cubic metres of gas reserves, although a final decision was delayed on Friday for two weeks. A bigger headache still for Lord Browne's successor, Tony Hayward, is the impending sale by BP's Russian partners of their 50 per cent stake in the joint venture, which is responsible for about a quarter of the group's reserves and total production. Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled gas giant, is the likely buyer and could try to take over other BP assets. With continuing uncertainty over TNK-BP, it must have been doubly galling for Mr Hayward, who became chief executive on 1 May, to hear Tony Blair announce his company's $900m (£450m) gas deal with Libya last week before it had been signed. BP has not been dubbed 'Blair Petroleum' for nothing. The deal gives BP the right to drill 17 wells in and off the coast of the north African state, a project in which it could invest up to $2bn over the next decade. BP returns to the country more than three decades after being thrown out - along with other foreign oil firms - when Libya's leader Colonel Gaddafi nationalised the industry."
Gazprom v BP: Russian roulette - and next stop, Libya
Independent On Sunday, 3 June 2007

"Britain is stepping up its efforts to secure an arms deal with Libya, the former pariah state visited this week by Tony Blair, the prime minister. The Defence Export Services Organisation, the British government body responsible for arms exports, established a full-time office in Tripoli to promote British arms sales last year. Mr Blair was also joined on his trip by Guy Griffiths, chief operating officer of MBDA, the pan-European missile maker in which Britain’s BAE Systems owns a 37.5 per cent stake. During his visit to Sirte, the hometown of Colonel Muammer Gadaffi, Libya’s ruler, Mr Blair signed an agreement on establishing a defence partnership between London and Tripoli.... Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, Libya’s prime minister, went further, according to Reuters, saying that Libya would buy British missiles and air defence systems..... MBDA has indicated previously that it hopes to win business from Tripoli. The company is already expecting to win large orders for its missiles as part of the sale of 72 Eurofighter Ty­ph­oons by the UK to Saudi Arabia, a deal that had been held up by a British fraud inquiry into former Saudi arms deals. The UK quashed the investigation last year, citing national security. Arms sales to Libya are likely to prove controversial. In its annual report last week, Amnesty International, the campaigning or­ganisation, faulted Libya for ex­cessive use of force and for restrictions on the free­doms of expression and association....Mr Blair’s visit was also marked by the announcement of a $900m (€670m, £455m) gas exploration deal between BP, the global energy group, and Libya."
Britain closer to arms deal with Libya
Financial Times, 30 May 2007

The Framing Of Libya
The Continuing Saga

TIMELINE - Key dates in Lockerbie bombing case - Reuters

UPDATES

"Dr James Swire, known for his involvement in the aftermath of the 1988 Pan-Am airline bombing in which his daughter Flora was killed, has spoken to MaltaToday and reiterated his belief that the bomb that exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie killing 270, did not leave from Malta. Reacting to MaltaToday’s story on the doubts concerning key witness Tony Gauci’s testimony against Libyan convict Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, Swire said Malta was 'long overdue for exoneration and an apology… I do not believe the bomb that killed my daughter started from there, nor do many others.' Swire is also a founder member of the Justice for Megrahi campaign which seeks interim release from jail for Megrahi, who has been diagnosed with metastasized prostatic cancer and is terminally ill, so that he can return to his family in Scotland pending his second appeal against conviction. Swire told MaltaToday that at the trial in the Netherlands, which found Megrahi guilty and convicted him to 27 years’ imprisonment for placing the bomb in the luggage that was found in Pan-Am Flight 103, 'there was simply no evidence as to how Megrahi might have penetrated security at Luqa to put the bomb aboard.' Megrahi, a former Libyan Arab Airlines security official in Malta, was claimed to have bought clothes from Mary’s Shop in Sliema, which were later found wrapped around the bomb. Shopkeeper Tony Gauci was crucial in identifying Megrahi as the man who bought the clothes from him just before Christmas 1988. But Swire told MaltaToday that Air Malta had kept 'exemplary records' of their flight KM180 which showed that all the bags carried belonged to the passengers and that all were returned to their owners, with none left over, at Frankfurt – where the bomb was loaded onto the Pan-Am flight. 'Although Air Malta did force a British TV company to withdraw its allegations that they carried the bomb, I am surprised that neither they nor your government seem to have demanded an explanation for the concealment of evidence from Heathrow, until after the verdict implicating Luqa had been reached. The information only surfaced in Holland in 2000 thanks to the perseverance of the Heathrow security guard who had discovered the break-in,' Swire says. 'The judges were reduced to saying of how Megrahi was supposed to have penetrated security at Luqa and that the absence of evidence was ‘a major problem for the prosecution case’. 'They could surely never have achieved this extraordinary verdict, had they known all the facts.' On the hand, Swire says the bomb was placed inside the luggage at Heathrow airport. 'In the early hours of the day of the disaster at Heathrow airport, London, there was a break-in allowing access for an unidentified person to the ‘secure’ airside portion of the airport, close to the Iran Air facility and to the baggage assembly shed. In that shed, inside the container in which the explosion was later shown to have occurred, was seen an unauthorised suitcase, which was not removed. It was seen well before the flight from Frankfurt had even landed. 'The most sinister aspect of this information about the break-in at Heathrow is that it was concealed for 12 years, until after the verdict had been reached, yet it was known to our anti-terrorist special branch, and fully recorded in the Heathrow security logbooks. 'A verdict has been brought in, dependent upon activities at Luqa for which there is no evidence, while the information about a probably highly relevant criminal act at Heathrow has been deliberately suppressed. What we need to know now is on whose orders the concealment was carried out and why they ordered it,' Swire said."
Lockerbie victim’s dad speaks out: ‘bomb did not leave from Malta’
Malta Today, 10 May 2009

"A former Scottish judge who was the architect of the original Lockerbie trial has told The Sunday Times there was never any evidence that the bomb which claimed the lives of 270 people actually left from Malta. The trial held in the Netherlands under Scottish law led to the conviction in 2001 of Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi as the bomber who placed the explosive on Air Malta flight KM180 on December 21, 1988. It was said that the suitcase containing the bomb was transferred in Frankfurt to Pan Am flight 103A which then headed for London before continuing to the US. 'There is no acceptable evidence that the bomb left Malta. There never was. There was never an explanation given by the judges to contradict the clear evidence from Malta,' Prof. Robert Black said. Malta presented records at the original trial showing there had been no unaccompanied bags on the flight.  Prof. Black echoed comments made last week by a representative of the families of the British victims, Jim Swire, who lost his 24-year-old daughter Flora when Pan Am Flight 103 from London Heathrow to New York's JFK airport exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland an hour into the journey on December 21, 1988. All 259 people on board died as well as 11 locals on the ground. The legal team representing Mr Al-Megrahi, who is eight years into a 27-year sentence for his part in the bombing, began appeal proceedings in Edinburgh on April 28. They are arguing that the evidence against him in the original trial was 'wholly circumstantial'....The ongoing appeal was ordered by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission in 2007, after a four-year investigation that concluded Mr Al-Megrahi may have suffered a 'miscarriage of justice'. According to Prof. Black the appeal took so long to reach the court because the prosecutors and the British Foreign Office used delaying tactics. 'They refused the defence access to documents they were entitled to see and that were an important part of the conclusions reached.' Documentation sought by the defence team includes a fax they say questions the original testimony of key Maltese witness Tony Gauci, who said he sold clothes to Mr Al-Megrahi from his shop in Sliema. It was said the suitcase containing the bomb on the Pan Am flight included those clothes. The evidence the defence team is seeking relates to contact between police and other investigators with another potential Maltese witness, David Wright. They believe Mr Wright may have material evidence that calls into question Mr Gauci's statement. At the start of the appeal, the judges ordered prosecutors to hand over 45 key pieces of evidence to the defence in what was described by British newspaper The Herald as 'an embarrassing setback for the Crown Office'. Prof. Black was not surprised: 'The truth would be extremely embarrassing from the point of view of saving what is left of the reputation of the Scottish criminal justice system. Also, the truth would not place Britain's reputation in a very good light.' He insisted that it was in the interest of the British government that this appeal would 'quietly go away'. 'The easiest way for that to happen is for Mr Al-Megrahi to abandon his appeal and be transferred back to Libya.'"
Scottish legal expert says Lockerbie verdict was flawed
Sunday Times (Malta), 10 May 2009

"A 'Striking discrepancy' undermined crucial evidence which was used to convict the Lockerbie bomber, appeal judges were told yesterday. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi had been identified as resembling a man who bought clothing which was packed into a suitcase with the bomb. But the witness who picked him out, a Maltese shopkeeper, had earlier given descriptions of the purchaser as being taller and more than ten years older."
Lockerbie bomber was 'taller and older' trial witness said
Scotsman, 2 May 2009

"Four crucial pieces of evidence that secured the conviction of the man accused of the Lockerbie bombing were called into question yesterday as the long-awaited appeal of the Libyan Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi opened at the High Court in Edinburgh. Setting out al-Megrahi's line of defence for the first time in public, his counsel, Margaret Scott, QC, challenged the prosecution's central claim - that the Libyan was linked to the Lockerbie atrocity because he had bought clothing that was found inside the suitcase that contained the bomb. Ms Scott told the hearing that al-Megrahi, who has consistently protested his innocence, believed a 'miscarriage of justice' had occurred at his original trial. She said the defence team intended to challenge 'four critical inferences' made during his original trial. These were that al-Megrahi bought the clothing that was in the suitcase containing the bomb; that the purchase happened on December 7, 1988; that the buyer knew the purpose for which the clothing was bought; and that the suitcase containing the bomb entered the system at Luqa airport, in Malta. She said they were 'not supported by the evidence' and that they were the products of 'defective reasoning'. Ms Scott also described the case against her client as 'wholly circumstantial' and said there was 'insufficient evidence' to conclude he was guilty....The appeal, which is expected to last about a year, will be heard in four-week sections, with a break of four weeks in between each set of hearings. The proceedings in Edinburgh could, however, be overtaken by other events. The UK Government is due to ratify a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya that would allow al-Megrahi to return home, but he would have to drop his appeal as part of the deal, leaving him condemned as a guilty man. Among those in the packed courtroom yesterday were relatives of some of the victims of the Lockerbie disaster, including Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed, Kathleen and Jack Flynn, whose son John Patrick died, and the Rev John Mosey, who lost his daughter, Helga."
Libyan appeals Lockerbie conviction
London Times, 28 April 2009

"The key witness in the Lockerbie bombing trial was coached and steered by Scottish detectives into wrongly identifying a Libyan sanctions buster as the bomber, his appeal lawyers claim. Lawyers acting for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi will tell an appeal court that Tony Gauci, a Maltese shopkeeper, was interviewed 23 times by Scottish police before giving the evidence that finally led to Megrahi's conviction for the bombing in 1991. Their allegations are central to Megrahi's appeal, which begins in Edinburgh tomorrow, against his conviction for the murder of 270 passengers, crew and townspeople when Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over Lockerbie on 21 December, 1988. The first stage of the Libyan's lengthy appeal, which may take until next year to complete, will focus on his claims that the original trial judges were wrong in law to convict him and wrong to discard crucial evidence which undermined their guilty verdict. Gauci identified Megrahi as the purchaser of clothes at his shop on Malta which were later allegedly packed in the suitcase carrying the Lockerbie bomb. But the Libyan's lawyers will claim there is now substantial evidence undermining the credibility of Gauci's testimony. Megrahi's lawyers now believe Gauci received a 'substantial' reward from the US government after his conviction thought to be as much as $2m - a payment not disclosed at the trial. The case against Megrahi hinges on Gauci's claim that the clothes allegedly packed into the suitcase bomb were bought on 7 December - the only day when Megrahi was in the area. Megrahi's lawyers say they can now prove they were bought up to two weeks before then, when the Libyan was not in the country. Megrahi's lawyers will claim that in nearly two dozen formal police interviews, Gauci gave contradictory dates of purchase, changed his account of the sale, and on one occasion appeared to identify the Palestinian terrorist leader Abu Talb as the purchaser. Gauci's evidence is made unreliable by "undisputed factors", the appeal court will hear. They include an 'extraordinary' delay in Gauci recalling the events of December 1988 and naming Megrahi; the 'extraordinary amount of post-event suggestion to which the witness was subjected'; and his exposure to photos of Megrahi. The appeal, which Megrahi is expected to watch live on a video link from Greenock prison near Glasgow, is being contested by the Scottish prosecution service, and the British government."
Police coached Lockerbie witness to identify Libyan as bomber, appeal lawyers claim
Guardian, 27 April 2009

"A new witness is expected this week to undermine thoroughly the case against the only person to be convicted of the Lockerbie bombing. New testimony will call into question evidence linking the Libyan Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi to the bomb that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, his lawyers claim. Megrahi, who has terminal cancer, is serving 27 years in Greenock prison for the bombing. Appeal hearings are due to begin on Tuesday, and Megrahi's lawyers insisted this weekend they will go ahead as planned, despite speculation that he may be returned to Libya under the terms of a controversial prisoner transfer agreement, due to be ratified tomorrow. 'We are turning up next week,' said Tony Kelly, his solicitor. 'We are seeking that the court upholds his appeal, admit that there has been a miscarriage of justice, and grant him his liberty. Whatever remedies come after that is for after the appeal.' Appeal documents seen by The Independent on Sunday reveal that testimony from a new witness is expected to undermine the evidence of a key prosecution witness, Tony Gauci, a Maltese shopkeeper. His testimony was vital in connecting Megrahi to the bombing at the trial in 2001. Mr Gauci identified Megrahi as the person who bought the tweed suit, baby sleepsuit and umbrella found among the remnants of the suitcase that contained the bomb on board. The new witness, not named in the documents, will provide an account the defence claims is 'startling in its consistency with Mr Gauci's account of the purchase, but adds considerable doubt to the date the key items were purchased and identification of Megrahi as the purchaser'....'If he goes back to Libya, it will be a bitter pill to swallow, as an appeal would reveal the fallacies in the prosecution case,' said Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed on Flight 103. Dr Swire is a member of UK Families Flight 103, which wants a public inquiry into the crash. 'I've lost faith in the Scottish criminal justice system, but if the appeal is heard, there is not a snowball's chance in hell that the prosecution case will survive.'"
New witness casts doubt on Lockerbie bomb conviction
Independent On Sunday, 26 April 2009

"Families of the victims of the Lockerbie tragedy are applying pressure to politicians and calling for a fresh inquiry, days before the appeal of the man convicted of the bombing is due to begin. Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the tragedy, has written to other relatives to explain his belief that they have been 'pawns in a political scenario which had nothing to do with truth'. On the day that a new film about Lockerbie that was expected to raise serious questions about the prosecution was screened in the Scottish Parliament, Dr Swire also wrote to The Herald to express his concerns about the case and call for a new inquest into the bombing that killed 270 people in December 1988. The film, which was shown to MSPs and relatives last night, is expected to undermine part of the forensics case put by the prosecution....In his letter, Dr Swire raises serious concerns about the validity of the original trial and the Fatal Accident Inquiry - particularly in light of evidence that came to light after they concluded, which indicated there had been a break-in at Heathrow airport the night before the tragedy.He also told The Herald: 'For me, the passive attitude displayed by Heathrow in not making a realistic response to the break-in, with its terrible implications, remains inexcusable. 'However, we also have a right to know who was behind the suppression of this material, which has undermined the trial as well as our Fatal Accident Inquiry.' It would appear that orders must have come from the very top, and you will remember that Thatcher was never prepared to meet us to discuss an objective inquiry, but later 1993 claimed in her book The Downing Street Years that the USAF bombing of Tripoli in 1986 had prevented further terrorist outrages by Libya. 'We were, I believe, right from the earliest days, pawns in a political scenario which had nothing to do with truth, and whose parameters also conveniently concealed the appalling irresponsibility of the Heathrow authorities.'"
Fresh demands for new inquiry into Lockerbie
The Herald, 24 April 2009

"The father of a British woman killed in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing accused the government on Tuesday of trying to encourage a Libyan found guilty of the attack to abort an appeal against his conviction. Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed along with 269 others when a Pan Am airliner blew up over Lockerbie, told Reuters the government was seeking to hasten a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) with Libya which could allow the convict to return home if he drops his appeal. Libyan Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was convicted under Scottish law in 2001 and given a life sentence for bombing the airliner as it flew from London to New York on December 18, 1988, killing all 259 people on board, including 189 Americans. Eleven residents of the town of Lockerbie were killed by falling wreckage. Megrahi's lawyers said late last year they hoped to open a second appeal against his conviction on April 28. But Swire accused Justice Secretary Jack Straw, whose department will oversee ratification of the PTA, of going to 'extraordinary' lengths to ensure it is ratified before the appeal starts in a bid to ensure it is dropped."
Lockerbie father says Libyan pushed to drop appeal
Reuters, 21 April 2009

"Three senior judges yesterday ordered 45 pieces of key evidence to be handed over to the legal team representing the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing in an embarrassing setback for the Crown Office. The vital documents include a secret fax that could discredit a key prosecution witness. The court of criminal appeal in Edinburgh ordered prosecutors to find and disclose the different evidence, which has so far been kept secret from the defence....But the Crown Office and the UK Advocate General claimed that in some cases the evidence does not exist or is irrelevant. The Libyan's defence team applied to see 48 documents, which included a fax they claim places a fundamental question mark against the original trial testimony of Tony Gauci, who sold clothes later found in the wreckage of PanAm 103 at Lockerbie. The judges rejected three of the requests, including demands for information about the number of times police and US agencies had contact with Mr Gauci. However, the onus will now be on the Crown to identify and share a range of other undisclosed documents, including those expected to show that Scottish police recommended to US authorities that both the main witness in the trial and his brother should be paid a reward of up to $3m, or $1.5m.... Megrahi's appeal is due to begin on April 27 and could last at least 12 months. Megrahi, who is suffering from advanced prostate cancer, is determined to clear his name but it is far from certain that he would survive such a long appeal case. Libyan authorities have been encouraged to apply for a prisoner transfer to allow Megrahi to spend his remaining time with his family, but this would mean dropping the appeal, which he is not prepared to do."
Judges order Crown to hand over undisclosed Lockerbie evidence
The Herald, 18 March 2009

"The delegation will be looking for previously undisclosed documents related to statements given by a friend of Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, David Wright, who in 1989 raised concerns over Gauci’s identification of al-Megrahi. The news comes amid arguments presented by al-Megrahi’s defence team, which contended evidence given by the potential witness in the Lockerbie bombing investigation could have undermined the prosecution’s case, but had never been presented in court or given to the defence team. The terminally ill Al-Megrahi, who is serving a life sentence with a minimum 27-year stint, was convicted largely on the basis of evidence supplied by Gauci.  Gauci claimed that on 7 December 1988 he had sold the former Libyan intelligence officer the clothes later found inside the suitcase holding the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing all 270 people aboard. Al-Megrahi’s defence team argued on Friday that evidence given by a friend of Gauci, a certain David Wright could very well have scuttled the prosecution’s case but the evidence had never been presented in court or handed over to the defence team. Wright was said to have approached the Maltese police in September 1989 and the officers in England in December with a statement contradicting Gauci’s evidence. Defence counsel Maggie Scot argued that Wright had given a 'remarkably' similar description to that used by Gauci to implicate al-Megrahi in the bombing of another unrelated sale made by Gauci at his family’s shop, Mary’s House in Sliema. But, Ms Scott argued that the details of Wright’s statement, which could contradict and possibly negate Gauci’s evidence, had never been presented in court and that the defence team had never even seen it."
Lockerbie investigators to travel to Malta to seek new evidence
Malta Independent. 22 February 2009

"Previously undisclosed documents show that Scottish police recommended to US authorities that both the main witness in the Lockerbie trial and his brother should be paid a reward of up to $3m, or £1.5m. The documents discussed at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh yesterday revealed that Tony Gauci, the Crown's key witness in the case, should receive $2m while his brother - described in papers as having some influence over Tony - should receive $1m. It was also alleged that police notes suggested at one stage that a Mr Gauci - which one was not specified - could tell people he had had a lottery win. Tony Gauci's evidence was crucial: the burned remnants of the articles bought at his shop were later found inside a brown hardshell Samsonite suitcase that contained the bomb that blew up over Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, killing 270 people. Lawyers for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, the man convicted of the bombing, this week began a challenge to demand undisclosed material they believe will help free their terminally ill client. The Crown Office and the Advocate General are opposing disclosure, claiming that in some cases the evidence does not exist. The Herald revealed last year that the defence team for Megrahi, who is serving 27 years in HMP Greenock for the atrocity, was not told of the reward offer."
Lockerbie witness ‘put up for reward’
The Herald, 20 February 2009

"You do not have to be a conspiracy theorist to recognise that nagging questions have gnawed away at the Lockerbie case since the first investigations began. The veteran campaigner, Tam Dalyell, who describes himself as a 'professor of Lockerbie studies', is convinced that neither al-Megrahi nor the Libyan Government had any involvement. He, along with the Rev John Mosey and Dr Jim Swire, who both lost daughters in the atrocity, believe that there has been a spectacular miscarriage of justice. They have raised questions about basic evidence in the original case. They have challenged eyewitness accounts offered by the chief prosecution witness, the Maltese shopowner who originally identified Megrahi as a suspect. They have raised doubts about the forensic evidence, and have pointed out that al-Megrahi, a civilised and intelligent man, is a most unlikely terrorist. Last weekend, their campaign was given fresh impetus when Robert Fisk, the veteran Middle East correspondent, reported that Abu Nidal, the Palestinian terrorist responsible for some of the worst attacks of the 1970s and 1980s, may have been working for the Americans before the invasion of Iraq. Secret documents - the very phrase is a conspiracy idiom - written by Saddam Hussein's security services state that he had been colluding with the Americans trying to find evidence linking Saddam and al-Qaeda. Abu Nidal's alleged suicide in 2002 may have been an execution by the Iraqis for his betrayal.From this tenuous connection stems the idea that the US security services may have had previous contacts within Abu Nidal's terrorist organisation, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, which many experts have long believed was the real perpetrator of Lockerbie. Mr Dalyell, who thinks there may be some weight to this theory, points to incidents such as notices that went up in the US Embassy in Moscow in the days before the bombing, warning diplomats not to travel on PanAm flights, and how senior South African figures were hauled off the plane before the flight, almost as if there had been advance warning. For me, this kind of evidence strays into the territory of 'the second gunman theory' that bedevilled the Kennedy assassination. But there is one aspect of the case that I have never understood: why was it that, for the first 18 months of the investigation, Scottish police, US investigators and European security agents were convinced that the perpetrators were Abu Nidal's PFLP? And why was it that, in the run-up to the Gulf War, when good relations with Syria and Iran were important to Western interests, attention switched abruptly from Abu Nidal's terrorists, and on to Libya? These matters have never satisfactorily been explained, and in the interests of common justice they should be addressed."
Lockerbie questions demand an answer
London Times, 29 October 2008

"Alternative theories surrounding Lockerbie have been given fresh impetus by the revelation that a man thought by many to be responsible may have been a US agent. The former Labour MP Tam Dalyell and Edinburgh law professor Robert Black have long believed that Abu Nidal and his Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command co-ordinated the attack. Robert Fisk, the foreign correspondent, reported that secret documents from Iraq claim Nidal engaged in 'collusion' with US intelligence services around the time of the Gulf war. Mr Dalyell spoke to Fisk over the weekend and is convinced the report is true. If Nidal – once the world's most feared terrorist leader – was working for the Americans in 1991, could the US government have been aware of a plot to commit the Lockerbie atrocity three years earlier? Conspiracy theorists believe links between Nidal and the US would explain why leading diplomatic figures were hauled off the flight at the last minute (their places were taken by those Syracuse students). The theory leads to the incredible conclusion that the US government had advance knowledge of the bomb plot, ordered by Iran and carried out by Nidal, who committed suicide in 2002. But it is a theory Mr Dalyell believes may hold water. He said: 'The Iranian interior minister said ten airliners would fall out of the sky, in retaliation at the US downing an Iranian passenger airliner in 1988. Could Lockerbie have been a damage-limitation exercise?' Mr Dalyell now intends to press the Scottish Government and the Foreign Office to seek answers from the White House."
Could crazy conspiracy theory really be true?
The Scotsman, 28 October 2008

"Lockerbie campaigners have urged the Government to press Washington over claims that a now-dead terrorist leader was an American spy. Former Labour MP Tam Dalyell and Edinburgh law professor Robert Black said the claims should also be investigated by prosecution authorities in Scotland. The claims that Abu Nidal was working for the Americans would explain some of the mysteries that surround the Lockerbie outrage, they said. Nidal died in 2002 in Baghdad, and Mr Dalyell has long argued he could have had a co-ordinating role in the Lockerbie bombing. A former Libyan intelligence agent, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, is serving life with a minimum of 27 years for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988 with the loss of 270 lives. But campaigners have argued that he is innocent and that Nidal's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC) was behind the bombing. Their call came after the Independent newspaper said Iraq secret police who interrogated Nidal in 2002 believed he had been colluding with American and Kuwaiti intelligence services. Intelligence reports, said to have been drawn up for Saddam Hussein's security services, said Kuwaitis had asked Nidal to find out if Al Qaida was present in Iraq. The reports referred to Nidal's 'collusion with both the American and Kuwaiti intelligence apparatuses in co-ordination with Egyptian intelligence'. Mr Dalyell and Professor Black - who with Lockerbie relative Dr Jim Swire persuaded the Libyan government to hand over Megrahi for trial - said they were 'deeply and personally concerned' about the Libyan, who is suffering from cancer. 'For some years we have contended that neither Mr Megrahi nor his country had anything to do with the crime which was Lockerbie,' they said."
Lockerbie campaigners seek answers
The Scotsman, 26 October 2008

"Relatives of some of the Lockerbie bombing victims are planning to release a letter renewing their calls for a comprehensive inquiry into the atrocity, it was revealed today.The UK Families Flight 103 group hopes politicians and other high-profile figures will back the move by signing the document, which it will then publish to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the disaster....Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, is serving a minimum of 27 years in prison after being convicted of the bombing in 2001. He has been granted a second appeal against conviction and won a legal victory at the High Court in Edinburgh today when judges refused to limit the scope of his appeal. Relatives of some of those who died have campaigned for a number of years for a full inquiry to be held into the disaster. A fatal accident inquiry was held in 1990, but its remit was not to apportion blame.Speaking after today's hearing, Dr Swire said: "This is a letter which we will be asking various notable people to sign on behalf of the relatives. It defines why we are still impatient with what has been revealed to us so far. 'We have always called for a comprehensive inquiry and one of the great areas of irritation is the question of why the disaster was not prevented and why our loved ones were allowed to be murdered.' He added: 'In addition to that there are questions surrounding the conduct of the case, the conduct of the investigation, the role of the Scottish authorities in the investigation and the role of both the British and US authorities in the drawing up of evidence'"
Lockerbie bombing families step up calls for full enquiry
Scotsman, 15 October 2008

"The Lockerbie bomber has won the latest round of his long-running legal battle to overturn his conviction. Appeal judges refused to put a limit on Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's list of objections to the trial which convicted him of Scotland's worst mass murder. Al-Megrahi was convicted of the 1988 atrocity, which killed 270 people. In a 790-page report, the SCCRC had highlighted five reasons which led it to believe that Megrahi's conviction might be a miscarriage of justice. But Scotland's top judge, Lord Hamilton, sitting with Lords Kingarth and Eassie, rejected arguments from the Crown that only the concerns voiced by the commission should be considered by the appeal court. Megrahi's legal team asked for its own grounds of appeal to be added and submitted its list, running to 317 pages."
Legal victory in Lockerbie appeal
BBC Online, 15 October 2008

"The Appeal Court in Edinburgh has decided to appoint a special defender to view confidential documents thought to contain vital information about the electronic timer that detonated the Lockerbie bomb. The decision follows an unprecedented hearing, held behind closed doors, at which the UK Government argued that revealing the documents would compromise security. The Advocate general, who represents the UK Government in Scottish courts, asked the court to appoint a security-vetted lawyer who could look at the documents on behalf of the defence team of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the bombing This special defender would then argue which parts of the document should be published - although judges would make the final decision about how much, if anything, should be revealed. So far the court has not published its decision, but Foreign Office minister Kim Howells has written a letter confirming that the court has decided to appoint a special defender.... David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, has already said the document should remain confidential. However, Megrahi's defence team believes the failure to disclose the document calls into question the ultimate right to a fair hearing. The document from an undisclosed foreign country was uncovered during the three-year investigation of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which resulted in the case being referred back to the courts for a new appeal last summer. The commission concluded that the failure to disclose the document during the original trial could constitute a miscarriage of justice. Although the Crown allowed the commission to see the material, it has refused to disclose it to Megrahi's defence team. Mr Miliband says that to hand over the documents to defence lawyers would put national security at risk."
Court rules Lockerbie timer details stay secret
Herald, 19 September 2008

"Two leading authorities on the Lockerbie trial have called for a new public inquiry to reinvestigate the atrocity, which killed 270 people nearly 20 years ago.Dr Hans Koechler, the United Nations observer at the trial, has been strongly critical of the original proceedings and conviction of Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who is serving life for the killings. Professor Robert Black, professor emeritus of Scots Law at Edinburgh University and an adviser on setting up the trial in the Netherlands, has also spoken out against the hearing. Both now expect Megrahi, who is seeking to appeal his sentence, to be sent home to Libya and fear the circumstances of the tragedy and who is responsible could remain a mystery. This week they will urge the Scottish legal system to assert its independence and re-examine the case, and were in Skye yesterday, on the invitation of campaigners. Pan Am flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie on 21 December, 1988, killing all 243 passengers, 16 crew and 11 people on the ground. After a three-year investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Police and the FBI, indictments for murder were issued for Megrahi and al-Amin Khalifah Fhimah. They were tried at a Scottish court convened at Kamp Zeist in the Netherlands. Fhimah was acquitted but Megrahi was sentenced to 27 years in jail.Last year the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission said Megrahi had grounds for an appeal, including a possible miscarriage of justice because the Crown had not disclosed a document which an unidentified country had provided to the UK government in 1996. Dr Koechler said the Kamp Zeist trial was not independent or impartial, and that the presence of FBI agents in the court added to the 'appearance of outside influence'. He also said there is evidence 'rewards' involving millions of dollars were paid to prosecution witnesses. He added: 'Irrespective of the outcome of the current appeal, there should be a reinvestigation of the incident by the Scottish authorities.' This, he said, should be at least another fatal accident inquiry, but a wider-ranging public inquiry would be more appropriate. 'It is extremely frustrating that with regard to such an incident just one person has been presented as the culprit and no further questions asked. Only a child would believe such a story.'"
Legal experts call for new public inquiry on Lockerbie bomb
The Scotsman, 17 September 2008

"There were no facts left unturned in The Conspiracy Files: Lockerbie, an impressively exhaustive account of the continuing efforts to establish who was really behind the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988 which resulted in 270 deaths, Britain's worst ever air disaster. You needed to concentrate hard to follow the trail of plot and counterplot which criss-crossed back and forth between Reagan's America and Gaddafi's Libya. But, through the fog of claim and counterclaim, it wasn't hard to work out that the Libyan intelligence officer sentenced to life for the crime was merely the fall guy in a game much bigger than one man. A second appeal trial is pending; until then the relatives of the victims are no nearer to answers now than they were 20 years ago."
Painful questions linger over Lockerbie
Metrolife, 31 August 2008

"A Libyan 'double agent' who was central to the CIA's investigation into the Lockerbie bombing exaggerated his importance in Tripoli's intelligence apparatus and gave little information of value, yet is still living at the US taxpayers' expense in a witness protection programme, according to previously unseen CIA cables. Five months before the destruction of Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988, 27-year-old Majid Giaka turned up at the US embassy in Malta and 'expressed a desire to relocate ... in return for sensitive information on Libya', in the words of a cable sent by a CIA case officer to his headquarters in Langley, Virginia, the same day. Mr Giaka claimed he was an agent of Libya's feared Jamahiriya security organisation, but it later turned out that he worked in the agency's garage.... Mr Giaka eventually returned to Tripoli in 1990 after the CIA money dried up. But the agency kept in touch with him and finally persuaded him in 1991 to come to America. Nine years later, Majid Giaka arrived at the Lockerbie bombing trial in the Netherlands. He described how he had seen Megrahi and his co-accused, Khalifa Fhimah, at Luqa airport before the bombing with a large brown suitcase. But the CIA cables confirm that nearly two years before, Mr Giaka didn't remember anything. At the Lockerbie trial, the four judges described some of his evidence as 'at best grossly exaggerated and at worst simply untrue" and concluded he was 'largely motivated by financial considerations'."
CIA memos reveal doubts over 'key' Lockerbie witness
Independent, 31 August 2008

"Seif al-Islam, the son of the country’s leader Colonel Gadaffi, has said that Tripoli only accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie plane bombing in 1988 to ensure that United Nations security council sanctions were lifted. In 2001 Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, was jailed for 27 years for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which blew up over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing 270 people. On Friday al-Islam said: 'We wrote a letter saying we’re responsible for the acts of our employees, our people, but it doesn’t mean that we did it in fact . . . What can you do? Without writing that letter, you will not be able to get rid of the sanctions.'”
This week's top stories from around the world
London Times, 31 August 2008

"Scottish police had information that might have changed the outcome of the Lockerbie bombing trial, a BBC TV programme has learned. The information could have affected the credibility of key evidence, but was not passed to the defence team. Libyan national Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi is serving life for killing 270 people in the 1988 bombing. A prosecution witness had seen a picture linking al-Megrahi to the bombing before he identified him. Al-Megrahi, 56, who maintains he is the victim of a miscarriage of justice, has been granted leave to appeal against his conviction for a second time. One significant reason for the appeal is that Tony Gauci, who picked al-Megrahi out in a line-up, had looked at a magazine photograph of him just four days before he made the identification. BBC TV programme The Conspiracy Files: Lockerbie has now seen documentary evidence that Scottish police knew this was the case. That information should have been passed to the defence, but the disclosure did not take place..... The prosecution case was that al-Megrahi took the bomb, wrapped in clothes bought from a shop in Malta, to the island's Luqa airport, where it was checked in and then transferred onto Pan Am flight 103. A key witness against al-Megrahi was the Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, who owned Mary's House, where the police say the garments were bought. He identified al-Megrahi as having been in his shop some weeks before the bombing. The Conspiracy Files: Lockerbie reports that some of his evidence contradicted itself and that Mr Gauci had seen al-Megrahi's photograph in a magazine under a headline 'Who planted the bomb?' a few days before he picked him out at an identity parade. The SCCRC discovered this was the case, and this is one of the grounds on which they recommended that the case should be looked at again. The BBC programme has discovered that the Scottish police knew Mr Gauci had looked at al-Megrahi's photograph just days before the line-up. But contrary to police rules of disclosure, designed to ensure a fair trial, this crucial information was not passed on to the defence. Mr al-Gaddafi, who carries out political and diplomatic roles on behalf of his father, was interviewed in the programme about whether Libya truly accepts guilt for the Lockerbie bombing. He admitted to the programme's producer Guy Smith that the Libyan government had merely accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing in order to get international sanctions lifted. 'Yes, we wrote a letter to the Security Council saying we are responsible for the acts of our employees... but it doesn't mean that we did it in fact. I admit that we played with words - we had to. 'What can you do? Without writing that letter we would not be able to get rid of sanctions.'...Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has visited Col Gaddafi, and the man who used to support terrorism against the West has now been welcomed as an ally in the so called 'war on terror'. But ever since the Lockerbie bombing, conspiracy theories have circulated about who was behind the terrorist attack and what was their motivation. Martin Cadman, whose son Bill died in the disaster, told the programme: 'The truth has not come out. I think the investigation found what it was told to find'. Al-Megrahi's appeal is expected to be heard early next year."
Lockerbie evidence not disclosed
BBC Online, 28 August 2008

"Prosecutors have launched a legal bid to limit the scope of the Lockerbie bomber's appeal against conviction. Lawyers for Abdelbasset al Megrahi have lodged full grounds of appeal with the Appeal Court in Edinburgh. But the Crown said it should be limited to the issues raised by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission."
Effort to limit Lockerbie appeal
BBC Online, 17 June 2008

"The UN observer at the Lockerbie trial, Hans Köchler, has said that the Libyan convicted of the bombing will not get a fair hearing in Scotland. Köchler, who advises the European Commission on democracy and human rights, has condemned government interference in the appeal of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi and said the hearing should be held in a neutral country. His intervention follows an attempt by the British government to block the release of secret papers that could help clear the former Libyan intelligence agent convicted of the 1988 bombing, which claimed 270 lives. Köchler said Megrahi’s case was handled 'more like an intelligence operation than a genuine undertaking of criminal justice' and criticised MSPs for failing to hold inquiries into the downing of Pan Am 103 and its judicial aftermath. 'It is almost trivial to say that a fair trial requires the availability of evidence to the prosecution and defence. Only in a totalitarian system would the executive power interfere in court proceedings and order the withholding of evidence.'”
Lockerbie bomber hearing 'flawed'
Sunday Times, 15 June 2008

"The top-secret document at the heart of the Lockerbie bombing appeal confirms beyond doubt the bomb timer was supplied to countries other than Libya Scotland on Sunday can reveal. The document also gives 'considerable detail' on how the use of a small bomb concealed inside a radio-cassette recorder was consistent with Palestinian terrorists rather than Libyans, according to a prominent legal source who has seen the paper. Important pillars of the Crown's case against Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Libyan serving life for the atrocity, are ‘knocked down’ by the contents of the document, added the source. Last week, during a three-day hearing in Edinburgh, Scotland's senior judge, Lord Hamilton, and two of his colleagues listened to legal arguments about whether Megrahi's defence should be allowed to see the document, which was passed to the UK by a foreign power. The UK Government, represented by Advocate General Neil Davidson QC, is opposing the defence application. Lord Advocate Eilish Angiolini has indicated she would hand it to the defence team but for the public interest immunity status afforded to it by Westminster. The existence of the document emerged during the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission's exhaustive three-year investigation into whether Megrahi may have suffered a miscarriage of justice when he was convicted of the murder of 270 people. The information in the document was a key part of the Crown's case that the timer used in the bomb was supplied only to Libya. It also appears to confirm that the method of attack was typical of a Palestinian terror cell in Germany Scotland on Sunday's source confirmed: ‘The document dispels any doubts about the supply of MST-13s (timers] elsewhere.’ He added: ‘There is considerable detail about the method used to conceal the bomb. The use of a small Semtex bomb concealed inside a Toshiba radio-cassette recorder was not linked to Libyan terror activity, but to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC), the first suspects in the case.'...There is growing suspicion among Lockerbie experts that the document could even provide the UK with a way to get Megrahi out of jail without facing a re-trial and thorough examination of aspects of the case that would embarrass the Crown Office and Westminster. It is possible Megrahi will be freed this year on the fairly straightforward grounds published by the SCCRC. The normal practice in such a landmark case would be to order a retrial, but that has the potential to discredit the UK and the US on the world stage. However, if Megrahi's conviction were quashed and the appeal court ruled he could not have a fair re-trial without the hidden material going to his defence, he would be freed on those grounds and the matter would eventually draw to a quiet conclusion."
Truth revealed on Lockerbie bomb timer
Scotland On Sunday, 1 June 2008