Secret CIA testimony identifies real Lockerbie mastermind.

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Channel 4 News UK

An exclusive report to be broadcast on Channel 4 News at 7pm reveals that a deep cover CIA agent was told by up to 15 high-level Syrian officials that the Syria-based group was involved.

The revelations, which feature in tonight's programme, were made in a US court deposition by CIA asset Dr Richard Fuisz in early 2001.

He claimed that between 1990 and 1995, 10 to 15 senior Syrian officials told him the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, led by Ahmed Jibril, was responsible.

The interview was tightly controlled by US government lawyers and CIA observers sat in. There was to be nothing on his CIA employment - what he called "context" - only "broad brush" answers.

"Broad brush would simply be that numerous high officials in the Syrian government were quite affirmative on Jibril's involvement in Pan Am 103."

Read more: http://www.channel4.com/news/lockerbie-bombing-libya-palestine-cia-murder-thatcher

---

Need to read whole article.

[geek tragedy]

1. Hmmm, not sure I believe "pin the blame on the Syrians" stories

that pop up nowadays for past incidents.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Article explains why the evidence was not used at the trial.

I have no concept of why our Channel 4 News should be either pro or anti Syria. It may be you can provide links to indicate otherwise.

[geek tragedy]

8. Not casting aspersions on anyone's credibility, just very skeptical given

the current climate.

[blm]

4. Anyone 'deep' in CIA back in 1990 means that they are more loyal to BFEE than to USA.

Of course he testified in 2001 under Bush2 - They wanted to expand war into Syria and Iran throughout Bush's term, and if they had shown even SOME competence in handling Iraq invasion they would have.

[pkdu]

11. Maybe it's not the Syrians the hawks are targeting.....(key snippet below)

The PFLP-GC were the original prime suspects in the bombing, thought to have been commissioned by the Iranian government to avenge the 290 lives lost when Iran Air flight 665 was accidentally shot down by a US battleship over the Persian Gulf a few months before Lockerbie.

[geek tragedy]

16. part of the problem is that we can't trust anyone who might know the real answer

they're all professional liars--perps, middlemen, sources, intelligence, politicians.

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. It's been a suggestion for a long time:

So was Libya even involved in the Lockerbie bombing? The answer is that nobody knows. Libya certainly had a grim record in state-sponsored terrorism, but there was scant evidence to link it directly to Lockerbie at the Zeist trial. The links to Libya came from the suggestion that a fragment of a timing device which survived the blast was an MST-13 timer produced by a Swiss company, Mebo, which had supplied some to Libya. But it had also supplied them to East Germany; and in any event Libya could have sold them on. Libya could well have had links with the PFLP and PPF cells; but again there was no evidence of such a link.

So why, then, was all this evidence against the Syrian- and Iranian-backed PFLP and PPF ignored? As Paul Foot explained in Private Eye’s special report, Lockerbie: The Flight from Justice, initially they were pursued - for a solid 18 months, right up to the point of announcing that arrests were imminent. Then suddenly the political mood in the Middle East changed dramatically. Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the US/UN forces needed Arab support beyond their usual friends in Egypt. The Syrians were themselves worried about Hussein’s expansion in the area, and in November 1990 deals were signed to both neutralize Iran and to bring Syrian forces into the combined operation known as Desert Storm to reclaim Kuwait.

As Paul Foot described it, Lockerbie was to be played down and President Bush snr declared: “Syria took a bum rap on this.” No wonder no one now wants a public inquiry and the question remains: who was really behind the biggest ever terrorist atrocity on British soil?

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/sections.php?section_link=in_the_back&article=122

There is, in my opinion (not necessarily shared by the families), an explanation for all this, an explanation so shocking that no one in high places can contemplate it. It is that the Lockerbie bombing was carried out not by Libyans at all but by terrorists based in Syria and hired by Iran to avenge the shooting down in the summer of 1988 of an Iranian civil airliner by a US warship. This was the line followed by both British and US police and intelligence investigators after Lockerbie. Through favoured newspapers like the Sunday Times, the investigators named the suspects - some of whom had been found with home-made bombs similar to the one used at Lockerbie.

This line of inquiry persisted until April 1989, when a phone call from President Bush senior to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher warned her not to proceed with it. A year later, British and US armed forces prepared for an attack on Saddam Hussein's occupying forces in Kuwait. Their coalition desperately needed troops from an Arab country. These were supplied by Syria, which promptly dropped out of the frame of Lockerbie suspects. Libya, not Syria or Iran, mysteriously became the suspect country, and in 1991 the US drew up an indictment against two Libyan suspects. The indictment was based on the "evidence" of a Libyan "defector", handsomely paid by the CIA. His story was such a fantastic farrago of lies and fantasies that it was thrown out by the Scottish judges.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/mar/31/lockerbie.libya

[louis-t]

2. Aw jeez, the hawks will be clinging to this

until they get a war with Syria.

[dipsydoodle]

7. There would also be the issue

of damages paid by Libya being refunded.

[idwiyo]

5. I do not beleive that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was responcible for that bombing.

This is an interesting development.

[dipsydoodle]

10. On the program itself

one of the forensic specialists involved said that it had already become apparent that the part from the timer , which was one of the main pieces of evidence, had been misidentified and was not in fact from the Libyan batch.

[azurnoir]

6. The PFLP-GC was responsible for a number of terrorist attacks in the 1970's and 80's

it has been an ally of Bashir Assad's during the current Syrian civil war and broke with the main body of the PFLP back in 1968 and has had little influence on mainstream Palestinian politics, it largely operates in Syria and to a limited degree in Lebanon

[mainer]

9. Libya always denied it.

They only paid reparations because they had no other choice.

[Demeter]

12. And so, justification for War on Syria is manufactured again...

Why The US, UK, EU & Israel Want To Destroy Syria By Adrian Salbuchi

&feature=player_embedded

TEXT: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36173.htm

[Egnever]

28. Sorry but that video is full of WOOO

[JackRiddler]

13. Recalling the Lockerbie context, since 1988...

1) 1988: US warship, the Vincennes, shoots down Iranian airbus flying over Persian Gulf.

2) 1989: Lockerbie.

3) After weeks of searching, circuit board for a timer found that's said to be the key to solving the case.

4) U.S. officials insinuate Syria, as terror-sponsoring state, blew up Pan Am as a contractor for Iran.

5) 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait.

6) U.S. switches to openly accusing Libya of Lockerbie bombing.

7) Bush Sr. visits Assad Sr. to recruit him for upcoming Gulf War (Desert Shield/Desert Storm). Bush and Assad appear together in Damascus.

8) Costly sanctions imposed on Libya for more than decade.

9) Libya caves in, produces 2 suspects for Scottish trial (held in Netherlands).

10) One acquittal, one conviction. Libya pays ransom to lift sanctions, even as Gaddafi continues to deny the verdict.

11) After 9/11, Libya and U.S. reconcile, Gaddafi takes a moral membership in the GWoT, practically makes love with Bush Jr. and Blair. Many arms deals with West, joint friendly summits with Western leaders follow.

12) 15 years after Lockerbie, Scottish police chief says CIA planted circuit board.

13) Scottish review board orders retrial of Libyan convict.

14) 2009: Convict is released for health reasons just prior to completion of retrial, preventing a verdict.

15) 2011: Arab Spring, uprising in Libya. Overnight, Gaddafi is enemy again. US-UK propaganda rediscovers Lockerbie as an unpunished atrocity.

16) 2013: Syria is enemy again. We have always been at war with Syria. Syria's probably responsible for Lockerbie!

[okaawhatever]

14. Good summary. Thanks. nt

[dipsydoodle]

17. Yes - correct timeline.

Thanks for that.

See reply 10 re. timer.

[Poll_Blind]

30. +1

PB

[marias23]

15. More secrecy, Less Government

I don't want to sound like a right winger in talking about "taking our government back," but we simply cannot tolerate a "two-tiered" government any longer. We own all but the most senstive information. This is not "government by the people." O ne-percent now owns most of the money - will they end up with most of our rights too?

[PeoViejo]

18. The PFLP is a Christian group

so, please don't blame Muslims.

[grantcart]

19. Hmmmm

To begin with there is a huge difference between being a 'deep cover CIA agent' and being a 'CIA asset' and if the writer of the article doesn't understand the difference its hard to give much weight to the rest of the article.

Fuisz wiki article shows a guy involved in a lot of crazy stuff (including beauty shows) but the most interesting is the fact that he was primary source for a big Hersh NYT article that the Times later found to be completely false and issued a retraction

He told the House Agriculture Committee in 1992 that Terex Corporation had built mobile Scud missile launchers for Saddam Hussein with the "CIA's blessing".[9][10] Terex "vigorously denied" the charge and started a libel suit against Fuisz. A 16-month federal investigation concluded that there was "no credible evidence that Terex supplied Scud missile launchers to Iraq" and the New York Times printed a retraction of their Seymour M. Hersh article saying "The Times has no evidence that contradicts the task force's findings."The Sunday Herald in 2005 reported on documents provided by Iraq to the UN naming companies that had provided assistance to Iraq's weapons program. Although the US government attempted to censor the contents, Terex is listed in a table of "UK firms that sold arms to Iraq", arms that involved "rocket" material.[11]

Moreover statements like "He claimed that between 1990 and 1995, 10 to 15 senior Syrian officials" are just highly implausible. First if they were substantive conversations you wouldn't ballpark the number. Second that many 'senior' Syrian officials would include a high percentage of all of the 'Senior' Syrian Military officials in power at the time. Third if there were that many (doubtful) who were talking about it then there should be many others who heard similar things.

[intaglio]

20. Ok ...

First what was the Syrian's relationship with Libya at that time AFAIK they were pretty close.
Second, what was the attitude of Syria to the PFLP at that time.

Personally I think it was a stitch up of al Megrahi probably because the USA needed a scapegoat and Libya wanted aid.

Do I think the true bomber(s) will ever be uncovered, no there is just so much that cannot be proven.

I also think it will be TV special investigation fodder for years.

[dipsydoodle]

22. Wiki gets updated pronto on many news items for subjects they have listed.

.

[dipsydoodle]

24. The news was @7pm GMT

and the feature @ c.7.45pm GMT. If I go into wiki it says the update was @ 21.48 GMT

Does what you see differ for timing ?

[1000words]

27. If a CIA spook says so, it's good enough for me.

[JDPriestly]

29. This article is an example of the reason that Americans love so-called "conspiracy theories"

so much. We are assured by our government that we have privacy in our communications when abacadabra, a whistleblower comes forward with documentary evidence that we are under nearly constant surveillance.

So much for trusting official stories. Now this story that purports to debunk the government's previous assertions about the responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing. Who knows? We can't trust our government to find out the truth (sometimes it is difficult to discover and not the government's fault if it can't determine it) or to tell us the truth when it finds it, so why should we trust official reports or pronouncements from our government?

Being disillusioned and suspicious of "official" explanations may just be a sign of intelligence. Nevertheless the "conspiracy theorists" are ridiculed even here on DU.

[Indi Guy]

31. Once again...

...does this story pass the smell test?