Last year, the SCCRC granted the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing a second appeal on the basis that his conviction may have been unsafe. Among the grounds justifying the decision, the Committee stated that the Crown had not given the defense access to a secret document which may be vital to establish the innocence of Megrahi.
The Westminster Government, not the Lord Advocate, has imposed a Public Interest Immunity certificate in order to prevent the defense to see the very document which justifies the second appeal in the first place.
Very little is known about this document. We know that it was obtained from a foreign country, which is not the United States or one of its agencies. The document is rumored to obliterate the thesis of the bomb being activated by a MST-13 timer and the Thurman fragment. The Government argues that the PII is needed, surprisingly not for National Security reasons, but to safeguard the good relations of the UK with the country that provided the document. Lastly, the document was passed to the UK in 1996.
Yesterday, I was informed that the document was delivered on 13th of September, 1996. The date leaves me with little doubt that the document is the testimony of Iranian defector Mesbahi who alleged thatTehran, not Tripoli, had ordered the bombing of Pan Am 103.
Flash Back
Earlier this year – on February 28 – I wrote to Dr Swire that I thought the secret document was related to Mesbahi allegations.
"This is a very interesting suggestion. At present I recall being dissatisfied at the way Whitehall and the US 'rubbished' Mesbahi's evidence when he fled Iran. I do not recall being able to discover a reason why they did this, other than that his material contradicted what they wanted us to believe, i.e. the Libya theory, and was evidently inconvenient to Germany, the US and perhaps the UK", Dr Swire replied.
"I do not have evidence as to what is in the document. I only have the hearsay suggestions that it in some way impinges on the timer and fragment. Your suggestion does that and much much more, of course. "
Defection and debriefing
Mesbahi left Iran for Pakistan in mid-April, 1996. After making contact with former Iranian President Abdolhassan Bani Sadr, he moved to Germany where he was granted political asylum. He began briefing German authorities in September 1996.
According to Job Tilmann, a spokesman for the Frankfurt prosecutors' office, Mesbahi told the investigators that Iran had asked Libya and Abu Nidal, a Palestinian guerrilla leader, to carry out the attack on the Pan Am 103 which was destroyed in flight by a small bomb on December 21st, 1988.
On March 16 of this year, Bani Sadr confirmed to me that he knew Mesbahi and that he was indeed a high ranking official who had been involved, among other things in high level negotiations for the release of Western hostages held in Lebanon. Mesbahi participated in a series of such meetings from August to October 1988.
Bani Sadr gives Mesbahi credit for the release of a German hostage. Mesbahi acted as a back-channel for Rafsanjani, then head of the Parliament. Rudolf Cordes, a West German hostage seized in Beirut by the Shiite group Holy Strugglers for Freedom in January 1987, was released in September 1988.
Real Harm
Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who has signed the Public Interest Immunity certificate, has told the Judges that he believes releasing the secret document would cause "REAL HARM" to the national interest.
"I am also aware of the hugely strong trade links between Germany and Iran," Dr Swire wrote to me.
If this writer has properly identified the document, its release would cause unbearable harm to the US, the UK and tremendous difficulties for Germany. I therefore predict that it will never be released. It would appear that others have come to the same conclusion.
This week, Margaret Scott, QC for the defense, told the court that she accepts, in principle, the idea of a closed hearing or the appointment of a special advocate who would be the sole member of the defense team allowed to see the secret document. However, she voiced misgivings about a lack of detail.
"This seeming acceptance of the possibility of a closed hearing and special counsel strikes me as mildly surprising. But I suspect that it is simply a very reluctant fall-back position from the defense's strong primary submission that disclosure of the document should be ordered by the court to Megrahi's legal team without restrictions," wrote Pr. Black.
To summarize, I expect Megrahi to be home by Christmas. The document will never reach the public domain. The US will blame the Scots for "the incompetence of their legal system." There will be no independent inquiry of this tragedy. The truth will never be known.
PS: A note to my readers:
An important
online magazine, very close to security services responded to my last article. It would appear that Iranian security services are disturbed by the news.
In short, they dismiss the story as a conspiracy theory led by Bani Sadr and former CIA operative Bob Baer, in complicity with this writer.
Previous Posts on Lockerbie
Lockerbie: Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Spielberg to Direct Lockerbie Bombing Movie
The man who was not there
Confession of an Iranian Terror Czar
Top FBI Lockerbie investigator disputes CFP story
