Lockerbie+Cover+Up,+Part+1,+Iran+Strikes+Back,+Sanders+Research

Sanders Research, England, Feb/12/2007
=The Lockerbie Cover Up (Part I - Iran Strikes Back)=


 * By Carlton Meyer**

Libya played no role in the bombing over Lockerbie. Iran funded the downing of Pan Am flight 103 in retaliation for the shoot down of an Iranian Airbus commercial flight by the U.S. Navy cruiser USS Vincennes few months previously. The Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC) was suspected by British and American investigators in the early years of the Lockerbie probe. All the evidence pointed that way, until the administration of President George H.W. Bush decided to blame Libya.

Last May, the Bush administration restored full diplomatic ties with Libya and took it off its list of state sponsors of terrorism. This shocked many observers because Libya had been found responsible for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people. Libya is still run by dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi, who has long been tied to terror acts. Nevertheless, Libya was never included in President Bush's "axis of evil," even though "taking out" Gaddafi is far easier than the other three evil doers. Did President Bush suddenly decide to forgive and forget, or is something else a factor?

Blaming Iran was a bad idea since it had an eye-for-an-eye justification that would demonstrate a minor power can hit back at a superpower. It would also draw attention to the odd events that led to the "accidental" shoot down of the Iranian civilian airline flying a regularly scheduled route to Dubai. Although the USA paid reparations to the Iranian families of the shoot-down victims, no disciplinary action was taken against the skipper of the U.S. Navy ship.

As part of a massive cover up, the USA claimed the Vincennes was under attack while in international waters. Members of the crew were awarded medals for the action. In 1990, the captain of that cruiser, Will Rogers, was awarded the Legion of Merit "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service as commanding officer ... from April 1987 to May 1989."

In 1992, a //Newsweek// cover story “Sea of Lies” shredded this cover up with a factual account, which included video tape of the incident.[|[1]] The Vincennes was never under attack. Captain Rogers fabricated a lie and stormed into Iranian waters shooting at anything moving. The decision to shoot down a large unidentified ascending aircraft some 30 miles away was inexcusable. A later Navy inquiry was critical of Captain Rogers, but found no “criminal” wrongdoing, and Rogers retired. Since Rogers' previous assignment was in office of the Chief of Naval Operations, one might assume that he was given command of the Vincennes with secret high-level encouragement to provoke Iran.

A 1993 book //Trail of the Octopus// offers details on how Iran downed Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie.[|[2]] Iranian leaders were furious at the "accident" in which their Airbus was destroyed. Blowing up an American 747 would be ideal revenge. Through their contacts with the PFLP-GC group, they were told a bomb could be placed on an American 747 if the price was right.

Beirut is a traditional transit point for illegal narcotics, and a major station for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The PFLP-GC was also in the drug business. The DEA had arrested one of its drug couriers as he arrived in New York by air. He cut a deal for a lesser sentence and continued to smuggle heroin to New York City so the DEA could track its distribution and destroy this network. To ensure their drug mule got to New York safely, agents of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) carried his checked baggage past security in Cyprus. The DIA is a little known U.S. intelligence agency that has almost no Congressional oversight or restrictions because it is part of the Defense Department.

The PFLP-GC learned of this betrayal about the same time the Iranians were shopping for a way to down a 747. The solution was simple. Place a time delayed/altitude triggered bomb in the bag of the drug courier. This would explode on its final leg to New York when it was mostly full of Americans, killing the snitch as well. The plan worked perfectly, killing nearly the same number of innocents that the USS Vincennes claimed. As an added bonus, they selected a flight with four U.S. intelligence officers on the passenger list: Matthew Gannon, the CIA's deputy station chief in Beirut, Major Chuck "Tiny" McKee, a U.S. Army officer assigned to the DIA in Beruit, and two other CIA officers.[|[3]] It seems reasonable that Major McKee was onboard to ensure the courier didn't slip away.

Needless to say, the DIA was in a panic after Pan Am 103 blew up. They had never bothered to search the suitcase to ensure it only had heroin as they smuggled the bomb through security and onto the Pan Am flight. This blunder was not good for careers, America's image, or foreign policy. In addition, the U.S. Government would be humiliated if Iran were credited for revenge with the aid of duped American agents. It would also threaten to expose the truth behind the USS Vincennes shoot down, which //Newsweek// exposed four years later. Finally, the U.S. Government would find it difficult to explain why Captain Will Rogers, the man responsible for the deaths of 259 Iranian pilgrims on the Airbus flight to Mecca, and thus indirectly responsible for the retalitory bombing over Lockerbie, was not in prison, but had been awarded a medal and a hefty U.S. Navy pension.

This is why Libya was blamed for Lockerbie. The U.S. Government hated Libyan leader Gaddafi. This Sandhurst trained "madman," had overthrown Libya's Anglo-American puppet king, kicked the USA out of Wheeler Air Force Base, its premier Mediterranean air training base, and began buying Soviet equipment rather than American weapons. Worst of all, he wasted his nations oil wealth improving the lives of Libyans rather than investing profits in Western corporations.

The CIA was tasked to help the DIA pin the blame on Libya. The CIA announced they had found an unusal microcircuit embedded in a head scarf recovered from the aircraft wreckage in Scotland that could be used to detonate a bomb. This circuit was traced to a Swiss firm that had sold dozens to Libya. Next, they traced the scarf to a shop in Malta, where the shopkeeper remembered selling it to two Libyan men. This shopkeeper's memory was so impressive that he was able to identify photos of the two men, and they were Libyan intelligence agents.

This case was weak until the CIA found a defector fleeing Libya who had learned of a big reward for information about the case. He was willing to testify that Libya was involved in exchange for asylum and the reward. Libya knew the case was bogus and refused to surrender the two innocent Libyans to a kangaroo court. The U.S. and Britain pressured the UN to impose sanctions, which held Libya hostage for years. The cover up was complete and the reputation of the U.S. government secure, at least for a few years.

(Part II - “The Lie Unravels.” will appear February 19 ) _ [|[1]] “[|Sea of Lies] ”; Newsweek; July 13, 199. [|[2]] Federal courts blocked publication of this book in the USA. Details will appear in Part II. [|[3]] "[|Pan Am Flight 103] "; Wikipedia.org 2007.

From: [|**http://www.sandersresearch.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1120&Itemid=62**] (free subscription)

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