Zurich, 12.08.2002
inquiry

If you believe, as I do, that Megrahi is a political prisoner in a Scottish jail, please send him a postcard to say that there are many institutions, newspaper reporters and individuals who are fighting to have the truth revealed about the Lockerbie case.

The following institutions, leaders of countries, newspaper reporters and individuals do not accept the verdict imposed upon Al-Megrahi.

l. Professor Hans Koechler - a United Nations observer.

2. The Organization of African Unity.

3. President Nelson Mandela of South Africa

4. Safia Aoude (Ms. Aoude runs the most comprehensive website on the Lockerbie disaster and has dedicated endless hours to this effort. This website has the most comprehensive links for your consideration.)

5. Edwin Bollier, MEBO Communications, Zurich. Mr. Bollier's website is very comprehensive, both politically and technically speaking. This is a very important website.

6. Joe Vialls (Australian air crash investigator - very interesting comments and conclusions)

7. The Libyan government and many other African countries

8. Neil Mackay - The Sunday Herald, Edinburgh, Scotland - latest article at

9. Professor Robert Black, Edinburgh Law School

Professor Black was the architect of the Lockerbie trial. He created a Scottish Court in Zeist, The Netherlands. He has worked tirelessly to ensure that the Libyans have received excellent Scottish justice, and has been dismayed by the outcome of the trial. He continues his valuable work, which is not only to seek the truth, but to ensure that the laws of Scotland are maintained at the highest level of integrity.

10. Ian Ferguson, reporter - http://www.thelockerbietrial.com - author of "Cover-up of Convenience".

11. Dr. Jim Swire. Dr. Jim Swire has also worked tirelessly to bring to justice those who are responsible for the Lockerbie disaster. He has made it clear that he does not believe that Libya was responsible for the bombing of Pan Am 103, and is pressing the British government to initiate an independent inquiry.

12. Robert Baer. Mr. Baer worked on the Lockerbie investigation for the CIA and has made it very clear that Libya was not responsible for the crash of Pan Am 103.

13. Paul Foot, "Private Eye" (May/June 2001)

14. Lester B. Coleman, author of "The Trail of the Octopus. From Beirut to Lockerbie" (censored in the U.K. and U.S.A.)

15. Sir Thomas Dalyell, M.P. for Linlithgow, Scotland

16. Joe Misfud - internationally renowned, Maltese reporter, author of "Lockerbie - Before the Verdict".

On March 14, 2002, Megrahi lost his appeal at Camp Zeist. This is a shameful injustice and if I were one of the judges, I would not be able to sleep at night thinking that I had been responsible for having a foreign, political hostage jailed in my country.

Mr. Megrahi has his own special cell which will cost the Scottish taxpayers 100,000 Scottish pounds per year. At this point in time, there are several avenues that the defense team can pursue - Megrahi has the option of an appeal to the Britain's Privy Council, the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights.

According to my sources, there are several other avenues to pursue - the most likely will be the civil case where considerable information that was not presented by the defense will introduced. Dozens of witnesses who were not brought to the original trial will be cross-examined in the civil case.

Libya also has another option to file a lawsuit in either the U.S. or the UK, based upon economic sanctions that have been imposed for nearly 10 years on the Libyan people. This is a violation of their human rights. (See my webpage "Conclusions").

In my opinion, if Libya is forced to pay compensation to the victims' families for economic reasons, to have the draconian sanctions against the people of Libya lifted, this will simply be another reason for the Arab world to feel bullied by the Western world.
by http://www.plane-truth.com

Nicholas Pyke
Friday August 23, 2002
The Guardian

The Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal admitted to a meeting of his most trusted colleagues that he was behind the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing and the culprits were not Libyans, it is claimed today in a leading Arabic newspaper.

In an interview with the London daily, Al-Hayat, a former colleague, Atef Abu Bakr, says Nidal made the confession to the inner circle of his revolutionary council some time before his death earlier this week.

Bakr, once a politburo member of Nidal's Fatah-Revolutionary Council, told the paper that Nidal had said: "I will tell you something very important and serious. The reports which link the Lockerbie act to others are false reports. We are behind what happened."

According to Bakr, Nidal threatened anyone who leaked what he said with death, "even if he is in the arms of his wife".

Last night a spokesman for Al Hayat confirmed that the interview with Bakr was conducted some time before Nidal's death.

The Lockerbie disaster happened when a New York-bound Pan Am plane blew up over the town in Scotland, in December 1988, killing 259 passengers and crew, and 11 local residents. A Scottish court sitting in Holland convicted a former Libyan agent, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, over the bombing and in January 2001 gave him a life sentence.

The group led by Nidal, once one of the world's most wanted men, has been blamed for a series of horrific attacks in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Iraqi authorities have claimed that Nidal, found dead in his Baghdad apartment, committed suicide. Members of the Fatah-Revolutionary Council, better known as the Abu Nidal organisation, said he committed suicide as he was suffering from cancer.

Nidal set up his headquarters in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in 1987. He was put under house arrest when Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, came under pressure to crack down on militants after the Lockerbie bombing.

Bakr and another dissident split from Nidal's group in late 1989, almost a year after the bombing. After the attack, Bakr was quoted as extending condolences to victims on behalf of Nidal's group.

Tam Dalyell, Labour MP for Linlithgow, has long maintained that Nidal was to blame, and not Libyans. Last night he said: "If true, this is a hugely important development. If he has said that no one else had anything to do with it, where does that leave Mr al-Megrahi? I believe the Libyans had nothing to do with it. This is one hell of a thing."

He said that the Foreign Office must now investigate Bakr's claims "as a matter of the utmost urgency".

He added: "If these allegations are true they blow everything relating to Lockerbie out of the water, including the trial in Holland."

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002

Zürich, 25.08. 2002
recom

MEBO's vision of a neutral recommendation for compensation payment, in the "Lockerbie-Affair":

-Zusammenfassend kann heute, gestützt auf umfangreiche Nach-Untersuchungen im "Lockerbie-Fall", mit grösster Wahrscheinlichkeit angenommen werden, dass der zu lebenslänglich verurteilte Mr. Abdelbaset Al Megrahi;- nicht-schuldig ist! Er wurde das Opfer politischer Machenschaften gegen Libya!

1.-Kurzer Rückblick:

-Nach Eröffnung der USA-und UK-Indictment's, (Anklagen vom, (14/15. Nov. 1991), gegen die beiden libyschen Staatsangehörigen Mr. Abdel Baset al-Megrahi und Mr. Amin Khalifa Fhimah, verlangten USA und UK von Libya, dass beide an ein US-oder UK-Gericht ausgeliefert werden müssen. Als der Aufforderung keine Folge geleistet wurde, setzte man das UN-Embargo gegen Libya ein, unter welchem das libyschen Volk sehr stark gelitten hatte.

-Als die beiden Angeklagten sich freiwillig dem schottischen Sonder-Gericht in Kamp van Zeist zur Anklage stellten, wurde 1999 das UN-Embargo gegen Libya provisorisch ausgesetzt, jedoch nicht aufgehoben!

-Der Angeklagte Mr. Amin Khalifa Fhimah, wurde nach dem Gerichtsurteil in Kamp van Zeist;- als nicht schuldig, sofort entlassen.

-Nach der Verurteilung des zweiten Angeklagten Mr. Abdel Baset al Megrahi;- als schuldig am PanAm-103 Attentat, werden von den "Lockerbie-Geschädigten", insgesamt Schadenersatz von, US$ 2.7milliarden, vom Staat Libya, gefordert!

2.-Das "Compensation-Payment":

-Die offiziellen früheren Stellungsnahmen vom Staat Libya, letzmals im Juli 2002, lauteten: "Libya hat mit dem "Lockerbie-Attentat" nichts zu tun"!

-Medien-Publikationen: Sieben mal wurde in der Welt-Presse publiziert:---Libya bezahlt "Compensation";--- Libya bezahlt nicht;

dann, letzmals am 8.Aug.2002 im, "Scotsman", folgende Bekanntgabe:.

THE SCOTSMAN

Libya ready to pay for Lockerbie bombing!
LIBYA indicated yesterday it was prepared to accept responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and pay compensation to the relatives of 270 victims of the worst terrorist attack on mainland Britain.

The agreement was brokwered at a historic meeting between Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi and the British foreign minister Mike O'Brien, during which the Libyan leader said he was ready to address the question of compensation in return for the lifting of UN sanctions.

The Libyan foreign minister, Abdurrahman Shalgam, speaking after three-hour talks in the port of Surt, said Col Gaddafi wanted to formalise relations with the US.

"Regarding compensation, as a principle, yes, we are going to do something on that topic," Mr. Shalgam said. "Regarding responsibility, we are discussing this.... we are ready to get rid of this obstacle."

British officials said the comments are the clearest public declaration so far that Libya is prepared to meet conditions for the lifting of sanctions imposed over its involvement in the Lockerbie bombing. (by The Scotsman, Jason Beattie Chief Political Correspondent)

-Sollte Libya, unter Nötigung von UN-Sanktionen, Schadenersatz von 2.7milliarden US$ bezahlen, erlaubt sich, MEBO, folgendes vorzuschlagen:

-Der Staat Libya beharrt, nach wie vor darauf, von der UNO, USA und UK zu akzeptieren;-nichts mit dem "Lockerbie-Attentat" zu tun gehabt zu haben!

-Libya ist bereit für den im "Lockerbie-Fall", rechtsgültig verurteilten, schuldig befundenen, libyschen Staatsbürger Mr. Abdel Baset al Megrahi, unter *Vorbehalt, ein noch zu bestimmendes "Compensations-Payment" von den "Lockerbie-Geschädigten", zu akzeptieren.

-Die Akzeptierung und Bezahlung der "Compensation", schliesst eine Schuld-Anerkennung Libya's im "Lockerbie-Fall", aus!

-Um seine NICHT-SCHULDIGKEIT im "Lockerbie-Fall" beweisen zu können, appeliert Mr. Abdelbaset al Megrahi an "The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, The House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights."

-Dazu wird eine sofortige Neu-Untersuchung über das angebliche "Malta-Bag" No. B 8849 und über andere mysteriöse, von MEBO aufgelistete, Vorkommnisse verlangt!

-* Vorbehalt: Da für Mr. Abdelbaset al Megrahi, durch neue Beweise im "Lockerbie-Fall", grosse Chancen für seine NICHT-SCHULDIGKEIT bestehen, sollte das "Compensations-Payment", bis zum Resultat der endgültigen Ausschöpfung aller Rechtsmittel, folgendermassen abgesichert werden:

-Das "Compensation-Payment" im Wert von USD 2.7milliarden, bezugsweise die ausgehandelte Summe beider Parteien, wird vom Staat Libya anerkannt und auf ein "Sperr-Kontokorrent", (blocked account), der schweizerischen Gross-Bank UBS, (Rating AA), verzinslich, einbezahlt.

-Die Auflagen der UNO sind damit erfüllt und die Sanktionen müssten nach der Überweisung des "Compensations-Payment's", definitiv aufgehoben werden.

-Wird nach einer Neu-Untersuchung im "Lockerbie-Fall", sowie der Ausschöpfung aller Rechtsmittel, Mr. Abdelbaset al Megrahi, weiterhin als schuldig beurteilt, tritt der Status quo in Kraft und das "UBS-blocked Account" wird den Geschädigten, ohne weiteres Hindernis geöffnet. Das Guthaben inkl. Zins-Ertrag, steht dann den Geschädigten sofort zur Verfügung.

-Reziprok, wird Mr. Abdelbaset al Megrahi als nicht-schuldig beurteilt, steht das "Compensations-Payment" inkl. Zins-Ertrag, wieder dem Staat Libya zur Verfügung.

3. PS:- Via der schweizerischen Gross-Bank UBS, wurden bereits über ein "blocked Account" die Entschädigungen der "IRAN-Airline-Opfer", abgewickelt....

In memory: The USS Vincennes shootdown of Iran Air Flight 655 on July 3, 1988 which resulted in the deaths of 290 innocent passengers, and the U.S. Navy's attempted cover-up.
In comparison with: The US government paid about US$ 2.9 million to non-Iranian relatives of passengers aboard the plane. (Newsweek, July 13,1992)

The payments to each Iranian relatives was, US$ 300'000.-!!!

See Link: SEA OF LIES-- http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5260/vince.html
-The inside story of how an America naval vessel blundered into an attack on Iran Air 655 at the height of tensions during the Iran-Iraq War, and how the Pentagon tried to cover its tracks after 290 innocent civilians died. (Newsweek, July 13, 1992)

from Sunday Herald - 25.Aug. 2002

Lockerbie: another piece of the jigsaw is gone forever

The death of Abu Nidal could make it even harder to get to the truth of PanAm flight 103. Neil MacKay investigates

IT was sometime in 1989 that Abu Nidal sat down with inner-circle members of his Fatah Revolutionary Council and said these words: 'I will tell you something very important and serious -- the reports which link the Lockerbie act to others are false reports. We are behind what happened.'

He looked at each man in the room one by one and warned them icily what would happen if they were foolish enough to talk. 'If any one of you lets this out, I will kill him,' said Nidal, 'even if he is in the arms of his wife.'

It was Atef Abu Bakr, Nidal's former right-hand man, who revealed details of the brief meeting of terrorist chiefs more than a decade ago. His claims add to the ever-mounting evidence that Abdel Baset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, the Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the Lockerbie atrocity, is innocent.

There are a few problems with Bakr's revelations. Firstly, he fell out with Nidal in 1989 -- Nidal is not a man many would like to fall out with. Born Sabri al-Banna, his nomme de guerre sums up his ruthlessness. Abu Nidal translates as 'father of the struggle'. That struggle, which reached its peak in the 1970s and 1980s when the FRC broke away from Yasser Arafat's PLO movement, ended in the deaths of some 900 Nidal enemies in more than 20 countries.

Nidal's atrocities include the 1985 gun and grenade attack on Israeli airline desks in Rome and Vienna in which 19 people died. His men executed four British diplomats, scores of rival PLO leaders and hijacked an Egyptian airliner in 1985 in which more than 50 people died. The FRC also downed a TWA plane in 1974 killing all 88 on board.

The second problem with the Bakr claims is that Bakr -- a wanted man himself -- is in hiding, so it's pretty difficult to verify the allegations he made to the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper on Thursday. Lastly, and most importantly, Nidal died in Baghdad on August 17 aged 65. Iraqi intelligence claim he shot himself in his bathroom when they came to arrest him for illegally entering the country. There were also reports Nidal shot himself as he was suffering from terminal cancer. That can't quite explain, however, the four gunshot wounds to his head and body.

Bakr is now being hunted by Megrahi's Scottish lawyer, Eddie MacKechnie. MacKechnie successfully won the freedom of Megrahi's co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, during the original Lockerbie trial at Camp Zeist in Holland. After Megrahi lost his appeal, MacKechnie took over the case and is now preparing to take Megrahi's fight to the European Court of Human Rights and to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission which can refer the case to the Scottish courts for an appeal.

'I am aware of the fact that Bakr was a member of the FRC and a close aide to Abu Nidal, therefore, what he has to say must be taken seriously,' MacKechnie says. 'But what he says is limited in content and therefore limited in value. What I want is hard, useable evidence -- such as the modus operandi of the terrorists and the names of the actual perpetrators involved. That information is so far lacking and what the Bakr comments amount to are a second-hand confession that can't be verified.'

There is a lot of circumstantial evidence to support the Bakr claim, however. In 1994, Youssef Shaaban, a member of Nidal's gang, confessed in a Beirut court while being tried for assassinating a Jordanian diplomat, that he 'personally blew up the Lockerbie plane'. He later retracted his claims. Just weeks before the Lockerbie atrocity on December 22, 1988, the US embassy in Helsinki was warned that Nidal was planning to bomb a PanAm flight in Europe within days. After the bombing, the US dismissed the threat as a hoax. 'I've never been convinced this was a hoax,' says MacKechnie. 'The warning was horribly accurate.'

The US also issued alerts to all its embassy staff in Europe at the time. Flight 103 also had substantial cancellations, including some from senior US personnel. Even the South African foreign minister, Pik Botha, switched planes.

MacKechnie says he will investigate Bakr's claims and attempt to 'track him down'. It is thought Libya will also assist in locating Bakr. MacKechnie says he has 'no faith' that either the US or UK governments will 'pay any heed to this statement of responsibility from Bakr'. He says: 'For years they have refused to contemplate the notion that any country other than Libya was involved. Thankfully, more and more people now disbelieve that either Libya, and more importantly, my client were responsible.'

MacKechnie is far more excited by recent documents that have been passed to him by 'people of integrity from both the police and the intelligence services' which support Megrahi's claims to innocence.

One alternative theory behind the Lockerbie bombing has long been that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General-Command carried out the bombing with the support of Syria and Iran in retaliation for the US shooting down a Iranian civilian airbus.

One possible theory of how the bomb got on board the plane was that terrorists penetrated a CIA 'black operation'. A number of British relatives of the Lockerbie dead have long been asking questions about the US government's use of routes such as PanAm 103 to run controlled deliveries of drugs from the Middle East to America.

This was said to enable US agents to follow the drugs into America and arrest criminals. However, intelligence service whistleblowers have also claimed this was actually part of a covert operation intended to both fund right-wing Contra rebels in Nicaragua and to send secret ransom money to Beirut and covert arms shipments to Iran which would help free US hostages. The theory goes that the PFLP-GC infiltrated this 'black op' and switched a bag bound for America containing drugs or money for a bagful of Semtex.

'Both the US and the UK governments know perfectly well that Syria and Iran were involved in this,' says MacKechnie. He says the documents he has recently been passed show a 'cover-up' was carried out in the wake of Lockerbie. 'The information is documentary and not capable of being disputed,' he says. At the moment, MacKechnie is keeping the source and exact detail of the documents under wraps in order to protect the individuals co-operating with his investigation.

'The documents relate to the conspiracy involving Syria and Iran and illegal operations run by the CIA,' he says. 'There is also evidence relating to the CIA's presence on the ground at the Lockerbie crash site. This refers to CIA officers fiddling around with bodies and wreckage.' There have long been claims CIA officers at the site were looking for documents and even drugs to remove. 'The CIA has denied it was there, but I have incontrovertible evidence that they were at the site within hours. If they told one lie, then everything is tainted and the whole case against Megrahi is called into question.'

Within the next three weeks, MacKechnie is to lodge an application with the European Court of Human Rights alleging a 'very serious miscarriage of justice' in Megrahi's case. If the application is upheld, the court can fine the UK massively. The UK would also be expected to either re-try Megrahi or refer his case immediately to the Court of Appeal. Following condemnation from the European Court, it is unlikely any domestic court would not overturn the guilty verdict. MacKechnie is also preparing a full submission to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.
©2002 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088. all rights reserved.

After the destruction of policenotebooks, a new important evidence should be "disappear"?

Story supplied by;- The Herald: Wreckage of Lockerbie jet should be scrapped, says peer

A TORY peer has called for the wreckage of the plane that was blown up over Lockerbie to be scrapped. Storage so far has cost the taxpayer £25,465. The call by Lord Monro of Langholm for the remains of PanAm flight 103 to be scrapped came as Eddie MacKechnie, the lawyer acting for Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al Megrahi, revealed that his client, convicted of the terrorist atrocity, would lodge his application to the European Court of Human Rights in the next three weeks, claiming he received an unfair trial. Lord Monro, the former Scottish Office minister Hector Monro, argued that 14 years after Britain's worst act of terrorism and with a man convicted of the crime, the time had come to end the storage of the remains of the Boeing 747. " We have had a fatal accident inquiry and a trial and I wonder what more can be inquired into. The wreckage would be of no use to any further litigation or inquiry. It should be scrapped," the peer told The Herald.

Lord Monro made his comments after receiving a reply to a parliamentary question about the status of the wreckage. Colin Boyd, the lord advocate, told him there were no plans to dispose of the remains and, that if there were, the relatives of the 270 people who died in the 1988 disaster would be consulted first. He said that at present Dumfries and Galloway Police paid for the storage of the fuselage at the air accident investigation site in Farmborough and of the unreconstructed wreckage at a secure scrapyard in Lincolnshire.

Storage costs up to 2003 would be £25,465. "It's a lot of monay and one wonders whether the wreckage will ever be required again. It should be scrapped," Lord Monro addwd.
However, Mr. MacKechnie insisted all the wreckage should be kept for forensic purposes, "I don't want the wreckage parts, whether assembled or loose, to be destroyed. Lord Monro should be advised the lawyers for Megrahi believe it's in the interests of justice that the wreckage should be retained," he said, explaining that some parts might be needed for forensic examination in his client's application to the European court or an appeal via the Scottish criminal cases review commission in Edinburg. Mr. MacKechnie also pointed out that the Crown Office had indicated that some personal items of the Lockerbie victims, such as papers and passports, had been passed back to the relatives after being photographed. He said that his client's application to the European court would be made in the " next two to three weeks". It would cite that Megrahi's human rights were breached in that he did not receive a fair trial, he said. Megrahi's case will centre on a claim there was "concealment of evidence" by the CIA and the British authorities- that is, there was a transatlantic cover-up- and the court failed to produce relevant evidence by third parties. (Aug 28th, 2002 The Herald)

Reminder, MEBO say:- This is why forensic re-investigation must prove any doubt;-
- that there was no explosion from within the infamous container AVE 4041PA.
- that the bizzare skin-fragments of the shatter-zone of the PanAm-103 (Photo B-15) are from an explosion between the fuselage and container AVE 4041PA!

IMPORTANT:

The following minimum wreckage-part's from ex "PanAm-103" should be kept for a forensic re-inquiry by new explosive Experts:
Reference;-Aircraft Accident Report 2/90 (AAIB)

-All Skin-parts between Section Stn Nos No.500 to No.800 (Skin Fracture Plot, Figure B-21, Region "D"/ Fracture 2/ Fracture 1/ Fracture 3/ Region "E".)

- Frame: No. 680/ No.700,/ No.720,/ No.740)

- Stringer: No. 37/ No. 38/ No. 39/680-720

- All parts from the shatter zone of fuselage Figure B-15

- Part from container-rim AVE 4041PA, Figure F-9

- Rest of Container AVE 4041PA, Figure F-8

- Container floor, Figure F-11

- Fibreglass Baggage-Container AVN 7511PA, Figure F-10

- Neighbour Baggage-Container (pos.13L), AVN 8372PA, (no inquiry by AAIB-Rep.)

- Opposite Baggage-Container (pos.14R), AVE 9621PA, Figure F-1 (no inquiry by AAIB-Rep.)

- Vertical "seperator" panels from Region-A, No.600-/ No.700-/ No.800, (no inquiry by AAIB-Rep.)

Stay tuned .....