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It was the worst terrorist attack in Britain's history, the deadliest assault on U.S. civilians until 9/11 and a political powder keg that roiled governments around the world. On Dec. 21, 1988, a bomb exploded in the forward cargo hold of Pan Am Flight 103, a jetliner flying from London to New York. Within less than a minute, the Boeing 747 splintered into thousands of pieces and fell 31,000 feet, smashing down in the village of Lockerbie, Scotland. The impact killed 11 villagers and destroyed 21 homes. None of the 259 people on board the aircraft survived. On August 21,...

September 09, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Lockerbie Families Deserve AnswersWhat did U.S. officials know, and when did they know it? By Robert P. George The cat is out of the bag. British justice secretary Jack Straw has admitted that commercial issues “played a very big part” in the decision of British authorities to release ailing Lockerbie mass murderer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi. Straw’s admission falsifies claims by Prime Minister Gordon Brown that neither oil deals nor other commercial considerations were factors in the decision. The Brown government will soon answer to British voters for releasing Megrahi and for misrepresenting its...

In the midst of public outcry over the decision by Scottish authorities to free Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, convicted in 1991 for his involvement in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, the anniversary of an older case of state-sponsored terrorism, the shooting down by KAL 007 by Soviet jet fighters in 1983, is almost forgotten by the media and public. When a bomb planted by Libyan terrorists tore Pan Am flight 103 from the sky on December 21, 1988, 270 people — 259 of them on the plane and 11 more on the ground — were killed....

A story in the Independent on Sunday suggests that while the Obama administration was opposed to the release of the convicted mass murderer, it made clear that it was open to compromise - such as house arrest in Scotland - rather than implacably opposed, period. "US officials had “very reluctantly” backed a proposal to move Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi from Greenock Prison into some kind of high-security accommodation elsewhere in Scotland, senior government sources on both sides of the Atlantic confirmed."

The 270 victims who died in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 more than two decades ago included 189 Americans, among them dozens of college students and military personnel heading home for the holidays. Former Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was convicted of the terrorist act in 2001 and sentenced to 27 years in a Scottish prison. That's where this monster should have ended his days.

It is something I love dearly, but I am so outraged by the actions of the Scottish judge and government that I hereby pledge not to buy another bottle of Scotch whisky, blended or single malt, until an official apology is made for this despicable act. The rationale can be found in the main thread: Pan Am 103 Bomber To Be Freed

Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi has lashed out at the United States by likening the 1986 U.S. Strikes on Libya to Osama bin Laden's terror attacks on the United States in 2001. He was speaking Thursday in Rome, where he is on a three-day official visit. In a speech to Italian lawmakers, Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi urged the world to understand the reasons that motivate terrorists. He called for dialogue with terrorists, saying, "One must talk to the devil, if it brings about a solution." While condemning al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, he implied there was little difference between bin Laden's...

'The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing will remain in jail while his appeal continues, a court has ruled. Lawyers for Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who has advanced prostate cancer, had asked the Appeal Court in Edinburgh to grant him interim liberation. The Libyan is appealing against his conviction for the murder of 270 people when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in 1988. A full hearing is likely to take place in the middle of next year. The judgement on the bail application was delivered on Friday by the Lord Justice General Lord Hamilton, along with Lord Kingarth and...

Lockerbie bombing remembered two decades on - Telegraph 21 Dec 2008 ... Relatives and friends of the 270 victims of the Lockerbie ... killed in the worst terrorist atrocity and the biggest mass murder in British legal history

Despite 189 American lives lost in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, the U.S. settled all lawsuits against Libya for terrorist killings and restored diplomatic relations with the country today – with reparations to be paid to Libya. President Ronald Reagan ordered air strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi on April 15, 1986, after Libyan terrorists planted 6 pounds of plastic explosives packed with shrapnel on the dance floor of La Belle discotheque in Berlin, killing three people – including two U.S. soldiers – and maiming 200 others. Libyan President Col. Moammar Gadhafi (Courtesy: Sky News) Two years later, Pan Am...

Nineteen years ago, a Pan Am flight took off from London to bring 259 people to New York, 179 of them Americans. It never made it past Scotland, where the plane exploded, killing all aboard. A trial in Scotland placed blame on Libya, and found a man guilty, despite mounting evidence that the trial had at least gotten the conspiracy wrong -- and did so under pressure from the American government. Jeff Stein at CQ Politics lays out the fascinating story: Back in 1988, Iran was immediately suspected of authoring the mass murder, in retaliation for the accidental downing of...

Several prominent lobbyists, including Tommy Boggs, turned down overtures to work for Libya on the case, despite offers of a reported $1.5 million retainer. Vicki Reggie Kennedy, wife of Ted, actually resigned a partnership in her law firm over its decision to represent Libya, even though—as far as I can tell—she was never asked to do any work on the case. But not good ol' Fred. . . . In a political era in which the cost of a man's haircut can be treated as though it were a window into his soul, you'd think people would be a little...

A Scottish judicial commission said on Thursday that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred when a former Libyan intelligence agent was convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland in 1988, and that an appeal should be granted to consider newly discovered evidence...

Just when I thought I had seen everything, I stumble across what might be the most grotesque example of intellectual insanity in the history of the universe. It figures I would find such a shining example of imbecilic lunacy in the halls of our own congress. This special kind of idiocy takes the form of House Resolution 288, conceived and sponsored by none other than Mr. “can’t we all just get along without religion” John Conyers, Jr. [(D) of course…] our esteemed Representative from Michigan. The pending bill is Mr. Conyers answer to the bogus Newsweek report which wrongly accused...

Eager to tout improved relations with Libya for abandoning its weapons programs, the White House omitted the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing from the list of terrorist attacks cited today by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, angering victims' families. After the backlash, the White House scrambled to minimise the damage, issuing a letter of apology by Rice to the Lockerbie families, some of whom said they had been sickened by the administration's stance. "We did not include attacks that were the work of a government, such as the Libyan government's bombing of Pan Am 103. This was a mistake, for which...

Alleged spy for Iraq gave Lockerbie depositionFormer Democrat congressional aide was at center of CIA controversy Posted: March 12, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern By Sherrie Gossett© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Former journalist and congressional press secretary Susan Lindauer, who was arrested yesterday on charges she acted as an Iraqi spy before and after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, came to the forefront of politics in 1994 over a controversial meeting she had with an alleged CIA operative based in Syria. That meeting resulted in her giving a deposition in the Lockerbie bombing trial that suggested Libya was innocent of the bombing. The 1994 deposition received...

On Meet the Press Vice President Cheney ticked off a list of attacks on Americans that have largely gone unanswered: the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the destruction of the Khobar Towers military complex in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the east Africa embassy bombings in 1998, and the attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Cheney said that "each time there was almost no credible response from the United States to those attacks." He left one out – the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 by Libya over Lockerbie,...

LONDON (Reuters) - Libya reached agreement with the United States and Britain on Tuesday to accept civil responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and compensate victims' relatives, a source close to the talks said. The deal would end a lingering dispute between the West and an Arab state shortly before a likely U.S.-led war against Iraq. "History is in the making. A deal could be announced at any moment," the source said after U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns met Libyan and British officials in London. Under the arrangement, Libya would compensate families of the 259 mostly American passengers...

<p>Ronald Reagan's (Unilateralist Cowboy) first term was bloodied by hijackings and massacres around the world, many of them traceable to Libya's Moammar Gadhafi (Chairman of the UN Human Rights Committee). The the Unilateralist U.S. responded with fleet maneuvers off the pristine and peaceful Libyan coast, covert operations and finally a military strike called El Dorado Canyon. (Nor was that the only odd name: Fleet challenges in the Gulf of Sidra were known as Attain Document; and a proxy war in Chad, with the U.S. and sophisticated France backing the government against forces sent by Libya, was called Arid Farmer.) The raid is almost forgotten today, but it was the first display of a style of warfare that has become the hallmark of American arms.</p>

Libya has said it is willing in principle to pay compensation for the Lockerbie bombing, which killed 270 people in 1988. Speaking after talks between Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi and UK Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien, Libya's foreign minister said the government also wanted to formalise relations with the United States. Libyan Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi is serving life in a Scottish prison after being convicted in 2001 of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. UK officials said the comments represented the clearest public declaration so far that Libya was prepared to meet conditions for the lifting of sanctions...