Evidence for Israeli Execution of the Lockerbie Bombing

11 September 2010
last edit 12 Nov

As I turn to a slim section of the Lockerbie field, it so happens to be nine years since the attacks on Washington and New York blamed in some circles on Israeli operatives. The bombing of Pan Am 103 in 1988 is itself not quite devoid of such charges. Consider a March 2010 article in Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. From Andrew Killgore, the editor of WRMEA, an article that expands awareness of the doubts about Megrahi's guilt, but then messes them up.

WRMEA is a source notorious for blaming Israel for everything. Not surprisingly, this piece starts with Israeli commandoes, framing Libya for their own bombing of the LaBelle discotheque in Germany, early 1986. Most of the article covers this side-note, from Ostrovsky's challenged and tenuous account (I have no close knowledge or opinion on it).

The remainder of the piece deals with the Lockerbie case. Mr. Killgore offers a decent list of points against Libya's guilt - Dr. Wyatt's tests suggesting the Libyan timer fragment was planted, altered labels relating to the timer fragment, and the skepticism of Jim Swire and Has Köchler. By ignoring the widespread Aviv nexus of disinformation, and by specifying a London clue (the break-in), this short and sweet rundown is better than average - either by insight, by some luck, or by Aviv's Israeli pedigree...

Not knowing who the perps were, Killgore states that their intent was to crash the plane at sea and leave no evidence. But such an intention would have had an explosion probably hours later than happened - the plane was only perhaps 20 minutes behind shecule and blew up well over land, with predictable inland winds. Why not aim for a bit shy of Newfoundland? Why 7:03 pm instead of midnight? Or even 8:15? (clue: It was Iranians, not Israelis, who had commissioned bombs that wound up detonating about 38 minutes after takeoff, like 103 did after leaving London.)

A further random Israeli is mentioned, as someone who wrote a report on airport security, in case that's a clue. And so he closes:

Thus the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 remains a mystery. If two years of investigating Iran produced no evidence, and the evidence used to convict Megrahi was fake, who was responsible for the horrific crime?

Well, Israel, clearly. (?) "No evidence" of Iranian involvement is quite inaccurate. I don't know where he got that from except investigators who said that as they were switching to the Libya track. The fake evidence was designed for Libya alone, and the real clues strongly suggest Iranian revenge via the PFLP-GC and a Khreesat bomb loaded in London. Unfortunately for Mr. Killgore and others like Patrick Haseldine, this isn't a wide open case where any villain can be inserted at will based on a few points of unfounded suspicion. Hell, at least Haseldine has a genuine anomaly (the supposed cancellations of the Botha party, but not of Carlsson) to lean on.

Update: I just noticed another theorist, the late Joe Vialls, had proposed Israeli execution of this bombing.

When Pan Am 103 exploded at Lockerbie, the media hyped up "Moslem Terrorists". First the Syrians, then the Iranians, and finally the Libyans. The most obvious suspect should have been the State of Israel, because it alone stood to gain from blackening the reputations of Arab nations. Despite an earlier known attempt to bomb one of its very own El Al airliners in 1986 for media effect, the probability that the Mossad was also responsible for bombing Pan Am Flight 103, was ruthlessly suppressed. [source]