The Lockerbie Bombing Hoax: Governments & Big Media Told Decades of Lies About The Bombing of Pam Am Flight 103

Pan Am Flight 103 Memorial - Plaque - Arlington National Cemetery.
(Photo by Tim Evanson)

"I cannot accept blood money
when I know that the Libyans are not involved”

-Matt Berkeley, relative of a Pam Am Flight 103 bombing victim, on why his family won't accept
the cash settlement agreed to by the Libyan government.

By Ronald David Jackson
From almost the moment of the downing of Pam Am Flight 103 by a sophisticated time bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988, the finger of blame was pointed at Libya and the government of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Led by the United States, governments of the West accused Libya of involvement in the bombing and the corporate media followed right along. The charade continued for decades and culminated with the imposition of crippling sanctions and diplomatic isolation on Libya; the families of those killed being lied to, manipulated, and exploited, and an innocent man being arrested, put on trial, convicted, vilified and hounded to his death bed.

The West Blames Libya
In 1992, after a four-year blizzard of anti-Libya/anti-Arab propaganda, the UN voted to impose sanctions against Libya. Part of the global puppet show required that Libya hand over an alleged perpetrator, Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi, who was placed on trial at a Scottish court in the Netherlands where he was convicted and jailed in 2001. Sanctions against Libya were finally lifted in 2003—after a decade—when the government of Libya capitulated to international blackmail and agreed to pay up to $10 million to each of the 270 victims of the bombing.

Pan Am Flight 103 Memorial Cairn - Arlington
National Cemetery. The memorial lists the name of
victims at its base. (Photo by Cliff)

Every year, around the anniversary of the bombing (December 21), governments and corporate media re-start the propaganda parade, telling the world the "Libya-did-the-Lockerbie-bombing-and-the-perpetrator got-away" story all over again.

The United States government—and many other governments and corporate media entities—have been involved in a coverup of the key facts surrounding the bombing of Pam Am Flight 103.  The question is, why?

The Trial Was A Sham
The Chief Prosecutor in the Lockerbie trial, Britain's Lord Hardie, shocked the world when he resigned just weeks before the trial was to begin. At the time it was suggested Hardie rather resign than go further with a case that was thoroughly lacking in sufficient evidence and get caught "holding the parcel." A suggestion Hardie denied. Belief in the trial and conviction began to wane when witnesses insisted they never made statements attributed to them by investigators, and a key forensic witness against Al-Megrahi, admitted to lying and other deceptions during the Lockebie trial, including going so far as stealing a key piece of evidence and giving it to criminal investigators.

Al-Megrahi was ultimately granted a new trial on appeal in 2009. By this time the Scottish government no longer believed in Al-Megrahi's guilt. Al-Megrahi had always insisted on his innocence but was allowed to drop the appeal and return to die in Libya (he was gravely ill by the time he won his appeal).

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Despite questions about his trial, and despite the fact that he was freed by the Scottish government and allowed to return to Libya, the chorus of "Libya was involved, and Al-Megrahi did the bombing" continued unabated. As part of the cruel charade, the United States asked the Western-backed rebels who had just overthrown the Libyan government and executed Muammar Gaddafi to "re-examine" the Al-Megrahi case. "This is a guy with blood on his hands, the lives of innocents," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland back in August of 2011. For the most part, the corporate media and US government never bothered to fully inform the gullible public about the facts of the sham trial.

Scotland Knew Al-Megrahi Was Innocent
In March of 2012 (11 years after Al-Megrahi's original conviction and three years after he won the right to a new trial), a Scottish newspaper published a report on the Lockerbie bombing that had been kept secret for five years by the government of Scotland. The full 861-page report was published by the Sunday Herald with the permission of Al-Megrahi. The newspaper admitted that it had "chosen to publish the full report online today to allow the public to see for themselves the analysis of the evidence which could have resulted in the acquittal of Megrahi." The newspaper went on to state that  "the report adds weight to calls for a full public inquiry into the atrocity – something for which many of the relatives have been campaigning for more than two decades."

The blockbuster report was all but ignored by the Western media and governments like the United States.

Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi was hounded by questions about
the Lockerbie bombing even on his death bed. Tribune's caption calls
Al-Megrahi the "convicted Lockerbie bomber" but doesn't point out
that his trial was a sham.
(Screen capture from video, Telegraph, UK)

Pam Am Investigator Raised Questions About Libya's Involvement Early On
Long before the revelation of the report by the Scottish government, the results of an investigation on the Lockerbie bombing surfaced. The investigation was conducted by Interfor (also known as Interforce), a private intelligence contractor which bills itself as an "international investigation firm." Founded by "ex-Mossad agent" Juval Aviv, Interfor was commissioned by Pam Am after Pam Am and its insurance company was sued for negligence (letting the bomb on the plane) by victims' families.

The Interfor report exposed a tangled web of suspects that included a Syrian drug trafficker linked to Major General Richard Secord (Secord had become famous for his association with Colonel Oliver North and the Iran-Contra "Cocaine for Guns" fiasco. The secret operation by the Reagan Administration sought to arm rebels fighting against the Nicaraguan government with guns paid for by drug trafficking).

Artist impressions of the Lockerbie bombing. (Illustration by Anynobody)

The Interfor report was presented to Pam Am officials as well as members of the US Congress. One member of Congress, Jim Traficant of Ohio, took up the issue. Traficant demanded an investigation and entered the report into the Congressional Record. Not long after that, Traficant was accused of corruption and hounded from Congress. The Interfor report itself was attacked and Interfor's founder, Aviv, was subjected to a systematic smear campaign, especially when the issue was raised about possible CIA foreknowledge of an attack on Pam Am Flight 103. Meanwhile, governments and the corporate media continued to sell the "Libya-did-it" hoax.

Latest Report: CIA Held Syrians Responsible

The latest nail in the coffin of the "Libya-did-it" scenario surfaced just a few days ago. A sworn deposition signed by a former US spy who worked in the Middle East, Dr Richard Fuisz,

shows the CIA believed that Syrians—not Libyans—were responsible for the Lockerbie bombing. Dr. Fuisz says he was told directly by his CIA bosses that Syrians operating under orders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) carried out the attack on Pam Am Flight 103.

Libya's Dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi Upon His Capture and Just Before His Summary
Execution by Western-backed 'Rebels':  All Gaddafi got for capitulating to a multi-billion dollar
payoff for a bombing that his country didn't commit and agreeing to all other demands of
the West was a Western-backed overthrow of his country, and a knife up his rear end.
(Screen capture from video)

What We Now Know

We now know what the United States, Scotland, other Western governments and some members of corporate media have known all along: 1) The Lockerbie bombing trial of Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi was a total sham; 2) The Scottish government knew the trial was a sham, Al-Megrahi was innocent, and that Libya was likely not responsible for the Lockerbie bombing (and the Scottish government said as much in its own report); 3) Pam Am Airlines had information that suggested Al-Megrahi was likely innocent, and that Libya was likely not involved based on an investigation Pam Am had commissioned itself, 4) The CIA (and therefore the United States) did not believe the Libyans were involved in the Lockerbie bombing and blamed Syrians and the PFLP-GC instead. However, the United States continued to tell the public otherwise, perhaps to cover-up involvement of some of its "assets" in drug trafficking which perhaps resulted in the bombing of Pam Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie.

Many Questions Still Remain
Why the charade all of these years? Why were sanctions unfairly forced on Libya by the UN at the behest of Western governments? Why did Libya agree to hand over Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi and why did it agree to pay reparations to victims' families (most likely, Libya wanted to rid itself of the UN sanctions and avoid a threatened "Iraq-like" attack)? Most important: Why were victims families (and the world) lied to by the United States, Scotland, the UN and corporate media? 

Maybe one day soon the corporate media—and members of the so-called "progressive media"—will stop yelling "conspiracy theorist" long enough to seek real answers to these questions.

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For a thorough background on the real story of the bombing of Pam Am Flight 103,
this is a "must listen to" radio broadcast:

"Libya and Lockerbie: The Untold Story"

Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone

Ralph Schoenman (Left) and Mya Shone
(Video capture from video: Victoria Indy TV, left; Marin Humane Society, right)

Taking Aim Radio
(Originally broadcast on WBAI, NY Radio, Pacifica Network
September 2, 2003)

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Accused Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi speaks from
his death-bed in Libya: 'truth will soon emerge'
(Notice the Tribune's title for the video still refers to Al-Megrahi as the 'Lockerbie bomber')

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