Corrections, Additions and Definitions
The BBC Scotland's Radio Documentary Series on Lockerbie Panam103 fails to join the dots and as a result is not a truthfull account in my opinion.As a journalist who was on the ground at the time I have listened to whole six parts, which although the writing style is compelling it adds nothing new so far to the story that unfolded at the time in 1988. In fact it seems a rehash of previous better documentaries in such a way that it is frustrating to listen to because it does not offer anything of originality in either descriptions or facts. The better portrayals of the evidence goes to two other documentaries namely and firstly The Maltese Double Cross an Independent piece made in the 90's, which details the involvement of the PFLPCG the Palestinian Popular Front in its German cell known for creating 5 Barametric bombs from the same materials as the one relating to Panam103. And secondly the later 2011 documentary made by Algazeera which documents the investigation of the Private Investigator David Thompson, who looked into the details of the Syrian timer and how it mysteriously disappeared from the investigation to be replaced by the Maltese clothes narrative of Mary's shop and Guchie. Both those documentaries point to an Iranian connection in that the PPLF were regarded as proxy gofers for the Iranians back then via a complex line of command from the Syrian Government which was revealed by the drug-running lackie elements of the double agent system that had been allegedly created by the CIA in the Middle East according to the research in Maltese Double Cross. It is therefore perhaps no accident that early rumours circulating around Lockerbie in 1989, were that there was a group of about 6 Syrians on the plane. Along side the well known suitcase full of class A drugs found near the cockpit, as described in an article by Private Eye some time ago, it does seem plausible that there were drug running PPLF/Syrian Ops on the plane. It is born out by the presence of Khalid Jaffar on the plane who was a Member of the PPLP and he had a seat and ticket. He was also related to one of the commanderies of that organisation. This was known at the time and described in Maltese Double Cross. This does not seem to be a conspiracy theory but based on the profiles of the people on the plane, including an Iranian who was an Engineer with expertise in Aviation. What's not to understand here? Read on.
With better material available to Lockerbie officinados like me, who know its conspiracies theories from back to front and back again Intrigues Lockerbie is so far a big frustrating disappointment because I had hoped it would interview the original group of BBC Radio reporters who were on the ground at the time at the radio Station BBC Radio Solway where there was a team of 6 reporters including myself as a trainee roukie community reporter. But no, a glaring hole in the actuality and authenticity of the piece. Instead, it relies on the non-local reporter David Johnson from Radio Forth miles away in Edinburgh to give his first impressions of the Lockerbie Bombing in 1988. It is a shame that the other Johnson, William the head of the local Radio Solway only 10 miles from Lockerbie was not asked for comment or the rest of his team.
In doing so they missed out key facts that may be of interest to
many who have followed the twists and turns of the Lockerbie story. I would
have thought by now that it was accepted there was an under belly of an
alternative story hidden under the swamp like a brooding crocodile about the
removal of evidence that occurred after the death of the first legal
investigator of Lockerbie Bombing, Michael Hughes, who compiled all the working
evidence of 135 witnesses for the Fatal Accident Enquiry of 1990 and who died
in a car crash on the first day of the said enquiry. What are missing are his conclusions
about his unheard contentions that there were concerning inconsistencies in the
passenger list that may have hidden the elements of a premeditated operation to
bring the plane down in mid-air. His theories may have been revolving around
the diminished passenger list of the number of Syrians and Iranian operatives
on the plane along side the defensive existence of 12 US military special
forces on the plane, whose presence may have been to prevent a possible high
jacking either in connection with the known PPLF threat or the presence of Bernt Carlson Head of the United Nations Namibian delegation who was on the plane too and a known target.
Furthermore and more heavily resonant is that one of the
other things Michael Hughes and
associate lawyers were trying to do before his death was to supena the CIA for
their cables and papers relating to their 4 operatives who got off the plane
in London after the known Helsinki warning and who ashamedly saved themselves
and let the other passengers go down. It was as if ' like a lamb to the slaughter ' as Jim Swire
father of Victim Flora Swire so aptly said in the Maltese Double Cross Documentary.
It certainly was a known narrative that had been going around at
the time that was part of common knowledge about Lockerbie back then. Suddenly after
that lawyer's death a new team were flown in from New York headed by Krindlier,
within 48 hours to represent the American families and to down grade the Fatal
Accident Inquiry evidence which eventually morphed into the Megrahi trial. None
of this is present in the part one and part two of this Intrigue series and as such it belittles the
missing evidence that has plagued the investigators from the inception of the
case.
The shows then digs itself a hole in part 3 to 6 where its descriptions of characters on the periphery of the action take up the attention of the presenter in a negative way like his fixation on David Benaryeah a one time friend of Jim Swire, whose importance to the investigation lacks significance in that he was neither part of the legal investigations nor a cog in the recovery of items and facts to do with Lockerbie but rather he was a dilitante for the club known as the 'UK Families Flight 103 and not much else. Such tangents are disappointing because they lead the listener away from the main points of the investigation. The most enlightening episode is Part 5 about the Senussi Files allegedly found in an office held by the Gaddafi s security boss and discovered at the end of the war in Libya in 2011 The papers they discovered show records that apparently prove Megrahi and Massouds guilt with papers written in Megrahi's handwriting of requests to do with a plane they were planning to down, though it makes no mention of Panam103. Somehow it all sounds too convenient and lacks credibility that papers would be found in a war zone exactly detailing Megrahi's activities. To me it sounded that they could have been faked but the BBC were determined that it must be right and they arranged to challenge Jim Swire about it who takes it like a gentleman and refuses to swerve from his belief that Megrahi is innocent. He makes the point that these new papers just seem to be backing up the CIA's own agenda. There, the main thrust of the piece ends with its aim seeming to be to promote the Senussi Files as the next best thing for the conviction of Massoud and the safety of Megrahi's conviction. Anyone with a wider view on the Lockerbie bombing is surely going to be very disappointed by these conclusions. Intrigue as an investigative piece is a narrow-minded approach to a huge subject that needed a broader view and thus a more holistic view on the material. Having said that, Bonnar's presentation style is cogent and alluring despite the lack of original content.
Many like myself believe this missing evidence may have contributed to the ability of the uncaught perpetrators to go on to matermind the 911 bombings of the New York World Trade Centre. So far this BBC Radio piece Intrigue fails to convey the seriousness of all that or to give the gravitas it needs in these present day times when the emergence of a new manifestation of the Iranian Terror threat has morphed into The Caliphate, regarded as an alliance between Isis (Daesh) of Levant in Syria, Iran, and the Pakistani Khoresan of Old Alqueda, who likely instigated the Lockerbie bombings and who still remain at large as a threat to the public and if Im right they put more than just one bomb of the plane due to the multiple targets on it.
In the light of all that we must think bigger see bigger and
understand the global security issues that the Lockerbie bombings exert on the
present safety of planet and its inhabitants. So far BBC's Intrigue failed to look
into that pandoras box but instead took the usual route most travelled by many who had already poured over the facts and as such it had nothing of note to add. It was also a six parter that seemed only to want to back up the present impending trial and provide pre-packed evidence from a dubious unverified source in a war zone, that seemed designed to repeat yet another miscarriage of justice.
