New suspect in 1988 Lockerbie Pan Am terror bombing to be charged

New York Post ^ | December 16, 2020 | Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

[piasa]

FLASHBACK 2010: White House backed release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi
6/1/2014, 4:23:14 PM · by Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears · 6 replies
The Australian ^ | JULY 26, 2010 | JASON ALLARDYCE AND TONY ALLEN-MILLS
THE US government secretly advised Scottish ministers it would be “far preferable” to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya. Correspondence obtained by The Sunday Times reveals the Obama administration considered compassionate release more palatable than locking up Abdel Baset al-Megrahi in a Libyan prison. The intervention, which has angered US relatives of those who died in the attack, was made by Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London, a week before Megrahi was freed in August last year on grounds that he had terminal cancer. The document, acquired by a well-placed US source, threatens...

[nickcarraway]

Where is he now? Didn’t his health improve after that?

[elpadre]

How is it the US has jurisdiction in the Lockerbie case?? - just curious!

[piasa]

This could be interesting since at the time of the Lockerbie attack, German police in Frankfurt broke up a bombmaking cell that produced the same type of bomb... and that cell was made up of PFLP-GC terrorists.

[piasa]

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/afp/2020/12/us-libya-lockerbie-justice.html

[piasa]

A bunch of US citizens were on board

[piasa]

Peculiar tweet by an Iranian leader referencing Lockerbie bombing ... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7857793/Never-threaten-Iranian-nation-Rouhani-tells-Trump.html

[al baby]

The bonehead doesn’t even know who Barbara Olsen is or was

[piasa]

Yep...could be interesting...

Libya has always been blamed for the Lockerbie bombing, and one of their intelligence agents was jailed in Scotland for the terror attack. But Western spies believe Tehran played a role in the attack and executed it in revenge for the downing of the Iranian passenger jet - now Rouhani’s sinister return to the episode and threatening of consequences has fuelled those suspicions.

Rouhani was responding to a tweet from Donald Trump in which the president threatened to strike 52 sites in Iran if Tehran retaliated against Washington following the assassination of Major-General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike near Baghdad airport on Friday.
.... ——https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7857793/Never-threaten-Iranian-nation-Rouhani-tells-Trump.html

[piasa]

The majority of the victimes were Americans:

Monday is the 32nd anniversary of the bombing which killed a total of 270 people, including 190 Americans and 11 people on the ground.

Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/afp/2020/12/us-libya-lockerbie-justice.html#ixzz6gpWdYJ86

[elpadre]

“A bunch of US citizens were on board”

I know, but the crime occurred in Scotland.

[ScaniaBoy]

A pretty good summary of possible culprits. Note that before 1991 almost all US intelligence organizations had Iran and Syria as the main organizers with a Palestinian terror organization with HQ in Syria who actually planted the bomb onboard PAN AM 103.

So what happened around 1990/91? You had the first Gulf war, and given that Iraq was a sworn enemy of Iran, suddenly the Iran track went cold. Also, in 1991 Bush Sr and James Baker organized a “peace” conference in Madrid - Syria was part of the Arab delegation, and it would have been very bad for the negotiators if one of the leading Arab nations had been tied to the Lockerbie atrocity. The Madrid Conference ended 1 November 1991, and the Libyans were indicted 13 November 1991. From then on the Syrian track was demoted to the conspiracy pages.

Libya may well have been guilty, but when political imperatives and results of criminal investigations suddenly run in parallel there are always reason to be suspicious.

https://observer.com/2018/12/bomb-pan-am-103-lockerbie-iran-remains-a-30-year-mystery/

[Fedora]

Yes, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi—looks like mass55th beat me to it.

[ScaniaBoy]

I should have known that you would beat me to it! :-)
Though, no link. See my post #32.

[SJackson]

This article from 2015 said 64, then. Others I've read said early 40s in the late 80s, which would mean he's pushing or above 80. If he is just approaching 70 that would mean he'd have been in his late 30s in 88, typical skilled terrorist age.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

Someone for Joe to pardon.

[mass55th]

He's dead now. He was convicted in 2001, and released in 2009 due to prostate cancer. He lived for almost three years after his release, and was applauded as a hero, and welcomed by Gaddafi at the airport upon his return:

Gaddafi embraces Lockerbie bomber and thanks his 'courageous friend' Gordon Brown for releasing him

[nickcarraway]

How do you know he’s dead?

Gaddafi? Qaddafi was our ally then?

[nickcarraway]

Geographically it wasn’t in their jurisdiction. But many of the victims were United States citizens.

[mass55th]

"How do you know he’s dead?"

I don't, and the lying media will never tell the truth.