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Why Did US Switch Lockerbie Blame to Libya?

by Heenan Bhatti
S the International tussle continues over the two Libyans whose extradition the Americans and British are demanding for the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing, the families of the victims are less than convinced about where the finger of guilt should point.
The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland was one of the biggest mass mur ders of Its kind. It killed 270
After three years, the two western powers allege Abdel Baset Mohmcn All Al-Megrahi and Al-amln Khalifa Fhima took part In the planning stages and should stand trial.
Doubts arise because for most of the three years police investigation into the bombing pointed in an entirely different direction.
The Investigation, backed by a plethora of leaks from Washington, put the responsibility at the door of the Popular Front for the Libera tion of Palestine General Command (PFLP-tJC), led by Ahmed Jibril, under the umbrella of Iranian and Syrian backing
Pamela Dix. o the British-based Flight 103 Families Group, said: "Maybe there was a Libyan connection or maybe there wasn t — but ft has to be proved in a court acceptable to all parties."
The build-up to the present crisis resembles the American response to the Berlin discotheque bombing in 1986. Then American bombers based
in Britain and Turkey bombed Tripoli and Bak az I, In the belief that the Libyans were responsible for the atrocity
It later emerged that an extremist German group was responsible. The American never apologised to the Libyan people. Now In the Lockerbie case a UN sanctions trade and travel embargo is being supported by talk of a possible military strike.
The evidence uncovered by the police inquiry pointing to the PFLP-GC connection Is substantial. Its basis lies In PFLP-GC cells operating in Germany two months before the bombing, when the West German police arrested several PFLP-GC activists. Surprisingly, they were allowed to walk.free because of "lack of evidence.”
These activists had visited Malta where the bomb is believed to have been loaded and then transferred at Frankfurt airport on to Pan Am Flight 103.
The PFLP-GC link is further alluded to In a secret Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) report, which repeats the direction of the police inquiries. The planning of the bombing.
says the report, is believed to have been commissioned by radical Iranians led by All Akbar Mohteshemi as revenge for the shooting down of an Iranian passenger plane over the Gulf by an American warship in July 1988. killing 290
As in the case of the 1986 bombing of Libya. the American failed to apologise. The report believes the two Libyans were low-level technicians in the operation.
The reason given for the switch to focussing sole blame onto the two Libyan suspects stems from the American claim to have two "witnesses," who they allege will give "incontrovertable" evidence against the two men, none of which has been made public.
Critics of the American and British U-turn point to the political climate of the time. The Iraqis were becoming a powerful player in Middle Eastern politics — later seen by their Invasion of Kuwait in 1990 — and this led the US to look for support from Iran and Syria, especially in any peace negotiations with Israel.
Revelations have fuelled this theory that tn 1989 Margaret Thatcher, then British prime minister, and George Bush agreed on the telephone to a "low-key" approach to the emerging picture of Iranian and Syrian complicity.
Tam Dalyall, a British Labour member of Parliament who has taken an interest tn the Lockerbie tragedy, said: They (the Syrians and Iranians) were our allies in the Gulf War. It was inconvenient to put the blame on them.
"The two in Libya may well have been hit men. But I am pretty sure they were Involved with other countries, probably including Syria and Iran."
American and British demands for the extradition of the two Libyans to face trial In the west have met with the response that they could expect little Justice." since the issue has been pre-Judged. The British Justice system is currently under sustained attack following several highly publicised miscarriages of Justice, including the false Imprisonment of six men for the IRA bombing of a pub in Birmingham in 1974.
In America, the two Libyans have been found guilty in the mainstream media, although little substantiating evidence has been made available.
The extradition moves are looked on as being against international law, which docs not require states to hand over their own nationals for investigation or trial by another country.
The 1971 Montreal Convention, which the Libyans have evoked, puts the responsibility onto the country from which the alleged offenders originate for taking them into custody. It also says that other states should afford "one another the greatest possible assistance in connection with the criminal proceedings brought in respect of the offence."
The Libyans, who Instigated their own Judicial inquiry, say they did not receive the cooperation afforded under the convention.
Stephen Mitchell, a British lawyer retained by the Libyans, said: "1 am not sure what the British position is, but if it is that 'these people are guilty.
you must hand them over and we won t give you any evidence in support of the charges against them,' then I can understand the Libyans' reluctance to hand them over, as well as their Inability to try them for lack of evidence.'
Critics view the zest with which the Americans are attempting to extradite the two men as having implications for the whole developing world.
They point to the UN resolution just Imposed, which says the Libyans must "distance themselves" from terrorism. Many believe, since the resolution is too open-ended to interpret. it is a means to dictate American demands.
Mohammed Arif, of the British Afro-Aslan Solidarity Organisation, said: "What is happening to Libya reflects what will happen to those countries which do not fit Into the New World Order.' They will be put under pressure because they are not will Ing to accept the dictates of the USA."
This could lay the seeds for the next episode of the Lockerbie tragedy. The Arab world is being so pushed into a comer that it has to react. And the first target will undoubtedly be any peace initiative with America s most powerful Middle East ally, Israel.
HEENAN BHATTI is a reporter with The Voice news paper tn Britain, the leading paper of Britain's Afro-Caribbean community.