Lockerbie "bomber"... really? - the conviction of al-Megrahi a CIA fix

So now you have a good idea why the Obama Administration requested he die in isolation:

The United States government, which opposed Megrahi's early release, said it "deeply regrets" the decision.

"As we have expressed repeatedly to officials of the government of the United Kingdom and to Scottish authorities, we continue to believe that Megrahi should serve out his sentence in Scotland," the White House said in a statement.

The FBI, CIA, State Dept. certainly don't want it known that they framed a man and a country. And possibly protected Iran?!!! It would raise too many awkward questions about why, and do they do this sort of thing often.

Lockerbie "bomber"... really?

Powell Gammill
Date: 08-20-2009
Subject: TERRORISM

Reuters reports: Scotland released on Thursday a former Libyan agent jailed for life [27 years actually] for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, most of them Americans, because he is dying of cancer. [He was the only person so convicted.]

But in 2006 - 2007 disturbing reports emerged alleging the case against him was faked, and he was framed.

Lockerbie trial was a CIA fix, US intelligence insider claims

Sunday Herald
Nov 12, 2006
by Liam McDougall, Home Affairs Editor


THE CIA manipulated the Lockerbie trial and lied about the strength of the prosecution case to get a result that was politically convenient for America, according to a former US State Department lawyer.

Michael Scharf, who was the counsel to the US counter-terrorism bureau when the two Libyans were indicted for the bombing, described the case as "so full of holes it was like Swiss cheese" and said it should never have gone to trial.
.... [story continues at above link]

Wikipedia reports: .... The clothes were traced to a Maltese merchant, Tony Gauci, who became a key prosecution witness, testifying that he sold the clothes to a man of Libyan appearance, whom he later identified as Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi. However, an official report providing information not available during the original trial stated that Gauci had seen a picture of al-Megrahi in a magazine which connected al-Megrahi to the bombing, a fact which could have distorted his judgment.[29]

A circuit board fragment, allegedly found embedded in a piece of charred material, was identified as part of an electronic timer similar to that found on a Libyan intelligence agent who had been arrested 10 months previously, carrying materials for a Semtex bomb. The timer allegedly was traced through its Swiss manufacturer, Mebo, to the Libyan military, and Mebo employee Ulrich Lumpert identified the fragment at al-Megrahi's trial. Mebo's owner, Edwin Bollier, later revealed that in 1991 he had declined an offer from the FBI of $4 million to testify that the timer fragment was part of a Mebo MST-13 timer supplied to Libya. On 18 July 2007, Ulrich Lumpert admitted he had lied at the trial.[30] In a sworn affidavit before a Zurich notary, Lumpert stated that he had stolen a prototype MST-13 timer PC-board from Mebo and gave it without permission on 22 June 1989, to "an official person investigating the Lockerbie case".[31] Dr Hans Köchler, UN observer at the Lockerbie trial, who was sent a copy of Lumpert's affidavit, said: "The Scottish authorities are now obliged to investigate this situation. Not only has Mr Lumpert admitted to stealing a sample of the timer, but to the fact he gave it to an official and then lied in court".

In a documentary entitled "Lockerbie revisited" aired on April 27, 2009, the film's director and narrator, Gideon Levy interviewed officials involved with the case. Former FBI laboratory scientist Fred Whitehurst described the FBI laboratory itself as a "crime scene", where an unqualified colleague Thomas Thurman would routinely alter his scientific reports. The interviews also revealed that the timer fragment had never been tested for explosives residue due to "budgetary reasons". Thurman, who led the forensic investigation and identified the fragments' Libyan connection, confirmed that it was the "only real piece of evidence against Libya" and when asked of the importance of the timer in the conviction of al-Megrahi, FBI Task Force Chief Richard Marquise stated, "It would be a very difficult case to prove ... I don't think we would ever (have) had an indictment".[32]

Investigators also discovered that an unaccompanied bag had been routed onto PA 103, via the interline baggage system, from Luqa airport on Air Malta flight KM180 to Frankfurt, and then by feeder flight PA 103A to Heathrow. This unaccompanied bag was shown at the trial to have been the suitcase that contained the bomb. In 2009 it was revealed that security guard Ray Manley had reported that Heathrow's Pan Am baggage area had been broken into 17 hours before flight 103 took off. Police lost the report and it was never investigated or brought up at trial. [33]....

Lockerbie: The awkward questions

by Roger Hardy
BBC Middle East analyst
June 28, 2007

The legal review of the case of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has re-opened the Lockerbie affair in a dramatic fashion.

It raises a host of awkward questions.

Was the original trial of the former Libyan intelligence agent fatally flawed, as his lawyers maintain?

Was the evidence contaminated by the American or British authorities?

Was Libya implicated out of political expediency, when all along the main suspect was Iran? .... [story continues at above link]

Scottish Panel Challenges Lockerbie Conviction

by ALAN COWELL
NY Times
June 29, 2007

A Scottish judicial review body ruled Thursday that a former Libyan intelligence official jailed for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing might have been wrongfully convicted and was entitled to appeal the verdict against him.

After an investigation lasting nearly four years, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission delivered an 800-page report — much of it still secret — that identified several areas where “a miscarriage of justice may have occurred.” .... [story continues at above link]

Vital Lockerbie evidence 'was tampered with'

by Alex Duval Smith, Europe correspondent
The Observer
September 2, 2007

The key piece of material evidence used by prosecutors to implicate Libya in the Lockerbie bombing has emerged as a probable fake.

Nearly two decades after Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Scotland on 21 December, 1988, allegations of international political intrigue and shoddy investigative work are being levelled at the British government, the FBI and the Scottish police as one of the crucial witnesses, Swiss engineer Ulrich Lumpert, has apparently confessed that he lied about the origins of a crucial 'timer' - evidence that helped tie the man convicted of the bombing to the crime. .... [story continues at above link]

Probe into Lockerbie timer claims

The Herald
LUCY ADAMS, Chief Reporter
September 5, 2007

The makers of the timer used to explode the Lockerbie bomb will travel to Scotland following the revelation that their former employee planted vital evidence.

Edwin Bollier, whose now bankrupt company Mebo manufactured the timer switch that prosecutors used to implicate Libya, plans to visit Scotland with police forensics experts, following news that an engineer was asked to fabricate evidence. .... [story continues at above link]

So now you have a good idea why the Obama Administration requested he die in isolation:

The United States government, which opposed Megrahi's early release, said it "deeply regrets" the decision.

"As we have expressed repeatedly to officials of the government of the United Kingdom and to Scottish authorities, we continue to believe that Megrahi should serve out his sentence in Scotland," the White House said in a statement.

The FBI, CIA, State Dept. certainly don't want it known that they framed a man and a country. And possibly protected Iran?!!! It would raise too many awkward questions about why, and do they do this sort of thing often.