In December 1988, Pan-Am Flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie en route from London to New York, killing all 259 people on board, including 190 Americans, as well as another 12 on the ground. The US accused Libya of the attack. Recently, the US Justice Department charged a new Libyan individual in relation to the terror attack.
John Holt, a former CIA operations officer in the Middle East, claims that “the true perpetrator” of the 1988 bombing of a Boeing 747 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie while en route from London to New York, was Iran, instead of Libya, and has called for holding the Islamic republic accountable.
Holt, a long-time handler for Abdul Majid Giaka – a key US government witness in the Lockerbie trial conducted at The Hague in 2000, said that he has been “telling the CIA and FBI since being interviewed by them in early 2000” that he, along with “many other intelligence officers do not believe” that Tripoli was responsible for the bombing, which killed everyone aboard, including 190 Americans.
The professor of political science suggests that the US government’s key witness in the Lockerbie trial, Libyan agent Abdul Majid Giaka, “knew nothing” about the Libyan government’s alleged involvement and “never provided any evidence pointing to Libya”.
A member of the public looks at the main memorial stone in memory of the victims of Pan Am flight 103 bombing in the garden of remembrance at Dryfesdale Cemetery, near Lockerbie, Scotland, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2013. Pan Am flight 103 was blown apart above the Scottish border town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988. All 269 passengers and crew on the flight and 11 people on the ground were killed in the bombing.
The US Department of Justice announced recently that two new charges had been filed against Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, who prosecutors allege built the explosive device that downed Pan Am Flight 103. Holt has argued that US intelligence “have not even” interviewed the suspect themselves. Rather, he claimed, they “entirely” rely on “an 8-year-old statement by an unnamed Libyan police officer” in the midst of a civil war in the country.
Holt added that the Tehran-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) is known for building such explosive devices.
Holt called for the US government to “reexamine” the Lockerbie case “due to the availability of evidence against Iran”.
In early December 2020, the retired intelligence agent made similar statements, claiming that “there was a concerted effort” aimed at distracting the attention of investigators in the Lockerbie bombing case from Iran, the “true culprit”. Holt suggested at the time that the US government’s main witness had a history of “making up stories”.
On 21 December 2020, outgoing US Attorney General William Barr announced new charges in the decades-old Lockerbie case, against Abu Agila Masud, for allegedly making the bomb used to destroy the aircraft. The Justice Department charged the Libyan national, who is serving a separate 10-year sentence in Tripoli, with counts of destruction of aircraft resulting in the death and destruction of a vehicle used in interstate or foreign commerce by means of an explosive, resulting in death.
In November 1991, two Libyan nationals – Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer and head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, LAA’s station manager at Luqa airport in Malta – were charged in relation to the Lockerbie bombing. In 2000 al-Megrahi and Fhimah went on trial, under Scottish law, at a special court in the Netherlands.
Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, left, and Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, right, Libyan agents wanted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, are pictured in these undated photos.
Al-Fhimah was acquitted but al-Megrahi was found guilty and given a life sentence in prison. However, in 2009, al-Megrahi was ultimately handed a compassionate release after he was diagnosed with cancer. He died three years later.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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