Henk Ruyssenaars + The Sunday TimesThe Lockerbie disaster was one big matrix media fakeMon Oct 24, 2005 04:4780.56.53.55
The Sunday Times October 23, 2005
Focus: Was justice done?
A HUSH fell over the room as Lord Fraser of Carmyllie steeled himself for the most dramatic announcement of his life. In the august, dark wood-panelled rooms of the Crown Office in Edinburgh, the then Lord Advocate revealed the names of those accused of one of the world’s worst terrorist atrocities.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, agents of the Libyan intelligence service, were wanted on charges of murder and conspiracy to murder for the downing of Pan Am flight 103 over the Dumfriesshire town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, with the loss of 270 lives.
“Warrants have been issued,” Fraser revealed to the world’s media packed into the cramped room. “The two accused should surrender themselves for trial.” Fifteen years on, Fraser should be reflecting on the successful administration of justice. Following an unprecedented trial heard by three Scottish judges sitting in the Netherlands, one of the two Libyans, Megrahi, is now languishing in a Scottish jail, serving a life sentence for the crime. His co-accused was cleared of involvement.
As Scotland’s most senior legal officer when Megrahi was indicted, Fraser played a crucial role in bringing the Libyan to book. Yet he has now joined a growing number of people to voice disquiet about the legal proceedings which resulted in the subsequent conviction.
Fraser’s apparent concern over the reliability of Tony Gauci, the principal witness in the trial upon whose evidence the case against Megrahi hung, follows a recent steady drip of “revelations” which have stoked the fires of conspiracy.
That Megrahi’s appeal to the Scottish criminal cases review commission is imminent is perhaps no coincidence but some of the new evidence appears more compelling than that presented at his trial and subsequent appeal.
The Crown’s case rested on a theory that the Lockerbie bomb was hidden inside a Toshiba radio-cassette player packed inside a Samsonite suitcase and wrapped in clothing. Fingertip searches of the crash site found remains of these items covered in explosive residue. Investigators claimed both the suitcase and clothing were linked to Megrahi. However, earlier this year a senior Scottish police officer, now retired, was reported to have accused American intelligence agents of planting a circuit board fragment, identified as part of a sophisticated explosive timing device made by Swiss firm Mebo and only supplied to Libya and the East German Stasi. The officer has given a statement to Megrahi’s lawyers.
The commission will also be asked to consider the reliability of Allen Feraday, an expert forensic scientist who confirmed the circuit board fragment was part of a detonator. At least three other convictions in which Feraday gave evidence have been quashed.
The commission will also be asked to consider apparent anomalies suggesting that forensic evidence presented by the Crown came from tests conducted months after the terror attack. To prove that the bomb was inside the case, investigators set off a series of explosions using an identical suitcase and contents to check how they would be damaged. Megrahi’s lawyers believe material produced during the tests was presented to the court as if it were the original suitcase.
Earlier this month it was reported that the British, American and Libyan governments were negotiating the transfer of Megrahi to a prison in his home country on the condition that he drops his appeal. It was a proviso of his conviction that he serve his 27-year jail term in Scotland.
Such a deal would suggest the British and American governments would prefer the case was not reopened, especially given that a successful appeal could sour their new détente with Libya and would prove highly embarrassing for the Scottish judicial system.
Fraser’s intervention raises fresh questions about the reliability of evidence presented by Gauci, a Maltese shopkeeper who claimed he sold Megrahi the clothes that were wrapped around the bomb.
Megrahi was charged following an international investigation co-ordinated by detectives from Dumfries and Galloway police. During their three-year investigation, and with help from police and intelligence forces around the world, they interviewed 15,000 witnesses, checked 20,000 names and analysed 180,000 pieces of evidence.
They discovered Megrahi had travelled from Tripoli to Malta on December 20, the day the suitcase containing the bomb and clothing was believed to have taken the same route. It was subsequently packed onto a plane bound for Frankfurt and then Heathrow.
“The Crown had a situation because it was quite clear Megrahi had travelled from Tripoli to Malta on the 20th and back on the 21st but they couldn’t establish what he had done in Malta or that he had done anything untoward,” said a source who followed the case closely.
In interviews with detectives Gauci repeatedly described the man who bought the clothes from his shop, Mary’s House, in the Maltese capital, Sliema, as 6ft tall and around 50 years old, while Megrahi is 5ft 8in tall and was 36 in 1988.
Gauci also claimed that Megrahi stuck in his mind because he appeared to pay no attention to sizes. However Gauci also picked out Mohammed Abu Talb, a convicted terrorist, from a newspaper photograph, as the man who bought the clothes. Like Megrahi, Talb travelled to Malta late in 1988, close to the time when the clothing was purchased yet, despite the discrepancy, Gauci’s evidence was accepted by the trial judges.
Fraser was a prominent Conservative figure in the 1980s and 1990s, appointed solicitor-general by Margaret Thatcher in 1982 and later made minister of state in the Scottish Office, where he served as health minister. Last year he was appointed by Jack McConnell to head an independent inquiry into the Holyrood parliament building debacle.
As early as November 1991 Fraser publicly denied speculation that investigators into the Lockerbie bombing had been placed under political pressure not to implicate countries such as Syria and Iran.
“Speculative pieces have come dismayingly close to impugning the integrity of the investigation which led to the issue of warrants,” he said at the time, dismissing suggestions that the charges had been “restricted to meet what might be perceived as changing political expedience”. He added: “The judicial process has begun and I insist, simply and bluntly, that these two men be brought to face trial.”
Among the theories which have competed with the explanation that Megrahi carried out the atrocity singlehandedly is that the bombers were agents of the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command.
Some even claim the attack was sponsored by Iran in revenge for the shooting down of an Iranian civilian airliner by the American warship USS Vincennes in July 1988 killing all 290 passengers and crew on board.
William Taylor QC, Megrahi’s defence advocate, said Fraser’s latest comments are highly significant.
“For the first time in my life I find myself in agreement with Lord Fraser,” he said. “I’ve always held the opinion that Megrahi did not purchase clothing in Mary’s House.
“Without that there was insufficient evidence to convict him.
“[Gauci] made so many errors between the descriptions he gave of the man who bought the clothing at the time and his identification some 14 years later. To say that the evidence could in any way, shape or form be relied upon struck me as being beyond belief.”
Tam Dalyell, the former Labour MP instrumental in organising the trial at Camp Zeist, described Fraser’s comments as an “extraordinary development”.
“I think there is an obligation for the chairman and members of the Scottish criminal review body to ask Lord Fraser to see them and testify under oath — it’s that serious,” he said.
“Fraser should have said this at the time and if not then, he was under a moral obligation to do so before the trial at Zeist. I think there will be all sorts of consequences.”
Lisa Mosey, whose 19-year-old daughter, Helga, was one of the victims, said: “I think it’s an amazing thing for him to say. I’m surprised. “The trial of Megrahi did not convince us of his guilt, it left more questions than answers. I hope this encourages the commission to review Megrahi’s appeal.”
Professor Robert Black, emeritus professor of Scots law at Edinburgh university also believes Fraser’s apparent shift is important. “It’s very interesting that someone who was Lord Advocate, the man who, with the attorney-general of the United States, said ‘we know who did it’ is clearly less confident now than he was back then. I am always pleased at any sign of people coming round to the view of Lockerbie which I have held since the trial.”
Meanwhile in Greenock prison, as Megrahi whiles away the hours in his cell, where he is said to enjoy a range of perks including unlimited telephone calls and access to Arabic television, he may take some comfort from Lord Fraser’s comments.
While Fraser is this weekend being criticised for failing to voice his concerns sooner, Megrahi, who faces at least another two decades in jail, can only wait and watch, and perhaps allow himself a small hope. The Libyan may even dare to believe that freedom is within his grasp. For those convinced of his innocence, justice may yet prevail.
[enditem]
2005 Times Newspapers Ltd. - The Times - Scotland - Url.: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1839039,00.html
How matrix media work - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8g3dp
Earlier text:
FPF: The general manager of Al Arabiya television
Disinformation: What's Syria's Next Move
Sun Oct 23, 2005 12:27
80.56.52.141
Concerns: What's Syria's Next Move* - an item by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed
''Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven''
The general manager of Al Arabiya television, Mr. Al Rashed is also the former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly magazine, Al Majalla. He is also a senior Columnist in the daily newspapers of Al Madina and Al Bilad.
He is a US post-graduate degree in mass communications. He has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs. He is currently based in Dubai. - [And writes this lousy story. I wonder who's paying. - HR]
Mr. Al Rashed:
In your article - which I do not agree with because it contains very much disinformation - you write the following: "the existence of clear evidence against Syria similar to the evidence of Libya's involvement in the Lockerbie bombing."
IS THIS WHAT YOU MEAN, AS PUBLISHED IN THE UK: "POLICE CHIEF - LOCKERBIE EVIDENCE WAS FAKED"
The Scotsman by the way, is a rather conservative newspaper - Url.: http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1855852005
This is the bad reality, which you - certainly with your job - should/must know, and either you're an ignorant, or you keep silent. Both is a shame.
Lockerbie - as I wrote in Holland - is a $2.7 billion Sham and Shame
UN quote: "This has been a political court case, where the verdict already was decided upon in advance", a shocked Professor Köchler - UN-observer at the Scottish Lockerbie Court in the Netherlands - stated.
"A SPECTACULAR MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE " THE UN OBSERVER CALLED IT.
Url.: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4460.htm
This should change your point of view, if you're not totally victimized by the matrix many live in.
With the main questions: Who profits? Who's guilty?*
The Matrix story can be found at - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cvzeb
YOU'LL UNDERSTAND REALITY - AND THE ROLE YOU PLAY IN LIFE - MUCH BETTER WHEN READING THIS BOOK: "AMERICA'S 'WAR ON TERRORISM' - by Michel Chossudovsky [ISBN 0-9737147-1-9] - Url.: http://globalresearch.ca/globaloutlook/truth911.html
AND CAREFULLY READING AND TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THE INHUMANITY BEHIND THE MATRIX, AND THE STORIES BEHIND THE LINKS BELOW.
In case you feel like answering:
FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/66dmo
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl
* Syria's Next Move - by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed - Url.: http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=2308
* FPF-HR - The Dutch author this far has worked abroad for international media for more than 4 decades, as a fully independent foreign correspondent, of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab World and the Middle East. Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism.
* The Nuremberg principles: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/byurp
* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v
* The leaked 'Downing Street Memos' expose the criminal lies by war criminals like Bush, Blair, Berlusconi(It.) Balkenende(NL) - their collaborating media and other malignant ilk - Url.:http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/
* MSNBC - Poll: Ninety-four (94) percent believes that George Bush and the neocon media mislead the nation to go to war with Iraq - Url.: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8248969/
* ''The Lancet'' and the ''Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health'' report: ''Over 100.000 killed in the illegal Iraq war''-Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5gys7
* Bush interview. ABC: No WMD's but many killed: "It was worth it" - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6bal9
* Former Secr. of State Madeleine Albright in her comment on half a million dead children in Iraq: "We think it's worth it" On CBS 60' Minutes - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/2vmc8
* The must-see three-part BBC Documentary, "The Power of Nightmares," puts it bluntly: "Al-Qaeda is a (neocon) myth." - See Url.: http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1327904,00.html
* In Indonesia they steal millions, making and 'fighting' their own terror - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cq36f
* Wayne Madsen: ''What has Israel to do with 9/11?'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bj754 - 'American neocons' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/b5vsb - The US Federal Reserve and the private banks owning it - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/d3ntq
* Are their Corporate News Media Incompetent, Criminally Negligent or Complicit? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqpfe
* Brainwashed? - Take the free 'Gullibility Factor' test to find out if you're really a mind slave, or not - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cbgnc
* Colin Powell: 'It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel' - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/22p6c
* Neoconservatism as a Jewish Movement - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5k7vx
* American car magnate Henry Ford investigated 85 years ago the global problem - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/2xz35
* Help all the troops of whatever nationality to come back from abroad! We need them badly at home in many countries - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE PAID FOR BY TAXES - to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/
* The World Can't Wait! - Drive out the neocons and their 'Bush Regime' - Mobilize for November 2, 2005! - Url.: http://www.worldcantwait.org/
FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html
-0-
Message Board by American Patriot Friends Network [APFN]
