[NYTr] FBI offered me $4m to lie: Lockerbie bomb witness

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Dave Muller (southnews) - Oct 8, 2007

The Scotsman - Oct 5, 2007
http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1597732007

FBI offered me $4m: Lockerbie bomb witness

By MICHAEL HOWIE 
HOME AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT

A WITNESS in the Lockerbie case has claimed he was offered $4 million 
(#2 million) by American investigators to lie to the trial judges.

Edwin Bollier, head of the Swiss company MEBO that was said to have 
manufactured the timer used to detonate the Pan Am bomb, claims he was 
offered the money by the FBI at its Washington HQ in exchange for
making a statement that supported the main line of inquiry - that Libya
was responsible for the bombing.

He has told Dr Hans Koechler, who was a UN observer during the trial of 
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi in the Netherlands, that he was
offered a "new life" in the United States if he testified that the
timer found in the plane wreckage had been supplied to Libya.

"I rejected this and said this could not possibly be the case," he
said. He added that there was a "loud dispute" after he rejected the
offer.

The claim follows news that the Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, whose 
evidence led to Megrahi's conviction, was offered $2 million by the CIA.

                            ***

Global Research - Oct 6, 2007
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6996


Lockerbie Investigator Disputes Story

Richard Marquise led the U.S. task force that investigated the bombing

by Ludwig De Braeckeleer

"Proper judicial procedure is simply impossible if political interests 
and intelligence services -- from whichever side -- succeed in 
interfering in the actual conduct of a court  The purpose of 
intelligence services -- from whichever side -- lies in secret action 
and deception, not in the search for truth. Justice and the rule of law 
can never be achieved without transparency." --Hans Koechler, U.N. 
observer at the Zeist trial On Sept. 6, OhmyNews International
published a story related to a sensational document known as the
Lumpert affidavit. (See "Key Lockerbie Witness Admits Perjury.)

Ulrich Lumpert was a key witness (No. 550) at the Camp Zeist trial, 
where a three-Judge panel convicted a Libyan citizen of murdering 270 
persons who died in the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie.

"I confirm today on July 18, 2007, that I stole the third 
hand-manufactured MST-13 Timer PC-board consisting of 8 layers of 
fiberglass from MeBo Ltd. and gave it without permission on June 22, 
1989, to a person officially investigating in the Lockerbie case," 
Lumpert wrote.

On Sept. 7, the agent who led the Lockerbie investigation for the FBI 
wrote to me and criticized the article on several grounds, but most 
importantly, he alleged that the Lumpert affidavit was a "total 
fabrication."

Richard Marquise led the U.S. task force that investigated the
Lockerbie bombing. He has authored a book on the subject: Scotbom:
Evidence and the Lockerbie Investigation. He wrote to me:

"Lumpert's new statement is a total fabrication. He was interviewed 
several times, including at a judicial hearing in Switzerland as well
as the trial itself and he never wavered in his story. His statement
that he gave a "stolen timer" to a Scottish officer in 1989 does not
even fit the timeline since we had no idea about the origins of PT-35
at that time. We identified MeBo in the summer of 1990. With all due
respect, I must state very unambiguously that I remain convinced that
the document is authentic and that the story is not a hoax. Moreover, I
have obtained a document that strongly suggests that the timeline of
the events related to the identification of the MST-13 timer has been
fabricated."

Since the publication of the article, a well-informed source has told
me that Lumpert has signed four affidavits. The documents were
certified by notary Walter Wieland under Nr. 2069 to 2072.

I am now in possession of one of these four documents and I have 
received confirmation from the proper Swiss authority that Wieland 
indeed certified these documents on July 18 and that he is competent
for doing so.

Although I was initially very skeptical of the Lumpert affidavit, I
came to the conclusion that I have no reason to doubt its authenticity
or the truthfulness of its content.

Indeed, both the timing of Lumpert's admission of perjury, his 
motivation for doing so as stated in the affidavit, as well as the 
content of the document led me to believe that the story is not a 
fabrication.

Lumpert wrote that he wishes to clear his conscience and that he can no 
longer "be prosecuted for stealing, delivering and making false 
statements about the MST-13 Timer PC-board, on grounds of statutory 
limitation."

Moreover, as I explained at length in the Sept. 6 article, the Lumpert 
affidavit, in just seven paragraphs, elucidates all of the longstanding 
mysteries surrounding the infamous MST-13 timer, which allegedly 
triggered the bomb that exploded Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie on Dec. 21,
1988.

Conspiracy Theory?

I wish to add that I am obviously not the only one who had reached such 
a conclusion. The possibility that evidence has been fabricated in
order to secure the conviction of the Libyans has gained support among
many people who could hardly be described as conspiracy theorists.

Jim Swire, Robert Black and Hans Koechler are among the best-informed 
people about the extremely complex Zeist trial.

Black QC FRSE (Queen's Council and Fellow of the Royal Society of 
Edinburgh) has been Professor of Scots Law in the University of 
Edinburgh since January 1981, having previously been in practice at the 
Scottish Bar. He is now professor emeritus.

For various periods he served as head of the Department of Scots Law 
(later Private Law). He has been an advocate since 1972 and a QC since 
1987. From 1987 to 1996 he was general editor of The Laws of Scotland: 
Stair Memorial Encyclopedia (25 volumes). From 1981 to 1994 he served
as a temporary sheriff (judge).

He has taken a close interest in the Lockerbie affair since 1993, not 
least because he was born and brought up in the town, and has published 
a substantial number of articles on the topic in the United Kingdom and 
overseas. He is often referred to as the architect of the Lockerbie 
trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands.

Black's support for the story is obvious from the fact that he posted
my article on his Web site. In a comment posted on OMNI, Black went out
of his way to express his agreement with the 18-page analysis of the 
consequences of the Lumpert affidavit. "A masterly review of the 
weaknesses in the Lockerbie court's conviction of [Abdelbaset Al] 
Megrahi," Black wrote.

In April 2000, professor Koechler was appointed by U.N. Secretary 
General Kofi Annan as international observer at the Lockerbie bombing 
trial that was held at Camp Zeist, Netherlands.

Koechler has also posted the article on his Web site. He wrote this 
comment on OMNI:

This is a well-researched analysis which precisely reveals the serious 
mistakes and omissions by the official Scottish investigators as well
as the carelessness and lack of professionalism of the judges in the 
Lockerbie case. The Scottish judicial authorities are under the 
obligation to investigate possible criminal misconduct in the 
investigation and prosecution of the Lockerbie case. On July 4, 2007, 
Koechler wrote to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, reiterating his 
call for a "full and independent public inquiry of the Lockerbie case."

Dr. Swire, who lost his daughter in the Lockerbie bombing, is a founder 
and the spokesperson of the U.K. Families 103, which campaigns to seek 
the truth about the worst act of terror ever committed in the U.K. In a 
letter addressed to my editor, he wrote that the article was "one of
the best informed and most realistic" he had seen.

I promised Richard Marquise that I would make an effort "to see things 
from the other side." And I will. But for now, we must agree to 
disagree. I leave him with a comment posted by Iain McKie -- someone
who knows all about the consequences of forensic mistakes.

Another Lockerbie mystery is why, given this latest opportunity 
[Megrahi's second appeal] to uncover the truth about this terrorist 
outrage that claimed the lives of people from 21 countries (including 
189 Americans), and given the U.S. and British high profile "war on 
terror," is the political silence so deafening?

I find it increasingly difficult to argue with Dr. De Braeckeleer's 
conclusion: "Shame on those who committed this horrific act of terror. 
Shame on those who have ordered the cover-up. Shame on those who 
provided false testimony, and those who suppressed and fabricated the 
evidence needed to frame Libya. And shame on the media for their 
accomplice silence." The McKie's know best than most the cost of 
injustice. Shirley McKie was a successful policewoman until her life
was shattered in February 1997 when four experts from the Scottish
Criminal Records Office incorrectly identified a thumbprint from a
crime scene as hers.

Marquise has made other comments about the article that I will discuss 
at a later time. However, I wish to point out that Marquise is right to 
state that the quotes attributed to Michael Scharf, formerly of U.S. 
State Department's Office of the Legal Adviser for Law Enforcement and 
Intelligence, although correct do not represent exactly his opinion, as 
they have been printed out of context by the British media. (Scharf 
helped draft the sanctions against Libya.)

Scharf wrote to me:

"The text of the quotes is more or less accurate but is out of context, 
giving the misimpression that I thought that the two Lockerbie 
defendants were innocent and the U.S. government knew this all along.
In fact, I referred to them as "fall guys" because I felt the case
should not have focused exclusively on them, but rather should have
gone up the chain of command all the way to Khadaffi [Muammar
al-Qaddafi], and should also have focused on the possible involvement
of third countries.

It is true, as your quote indicates, that I felt the evidentiary case 
presented at Camp Zeist was not as strong as the Department of Justice 
had led the Department of State to believe it would be at the time we 
were pushing for sanctions against Libya in the U.N., but that is not
to say that I thought the defendants were actually innocent of wrong
doing, which is the impression left by the quotes. If there is one
thing we can all agree on, it is the fact that no one except the judges
is satisfied with the Lockerbie trial."

Meanwhile, new extraordinary revelations have surfaced that support my 
view that the Lockerbie trial was engineered by Western intelligence 
services to frame Libya.

'Secret' Lockerbie Report Claim

Crucial information in the possession of the CIA that is related to the 
timer issue was withheld from the defense. The Heraldof Glasgow
revealed on Oct. 2 that "a top secret [CIA] document vital to
unearthing the truth about the Lockerbie bombing was obtained by the
Crown Office but never shown to the defense team."

"The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) has uncovered 
there is a document which was in the possession of the crown and was
not disclosed to the defense, which concerns the supply of MST-13
timers. Moreover, the commission has determined the decision to keep
the document from the defense may have constituted a miscarriage of 
justice," the paper reported a source as saying.

The prosecutors have refused to make public the ultra secret document
on the basis of national security. Many have been wondering what
national security has to do with the Lockerbie bombing. "It is shocking
to me that after 19 years of trying to get to the truth about who
murdered my daughter national security is being used as an excuse,"
said Swire.

After having seen the CIA document, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review 
Commission team that investigated the conviction of Abdelbaset Al 
Megrahi decided to grant him a second appeal. The document has not yet 
been seen by the defense. The document is thought to dispute the
pivotal fact that the bomb was triggered by the MST-13 timer that
linked the case to Libya.

The non-disclosure agreement was signed by Norman McFadyen, then one of 
the leading members of the prosecution, on June 1, 2000.

In an exclusive interview earlier this week, Koechler told Gordon
Brewer of the BCC's "Newsnight Scotland,"

The withholding of evidence by the investigators and the prosecution 
from the defense at the Lockerbie court is a serious breach of the 
fundamental norms of a fair trial. If such action occurs on the basis
of a written commitment given to a foreign intelligence service, as has
now been revealed concerning crucial evidence related to the timer that 
allegedly triggered the explosion of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, the 
judicial nature of the entire proceedings is to be put into question.

If a foreign intelligence service is allowed to determine what evidence 
may be disclosed in court and what not, judicial proceedings before a 
court of law are perverted into a kind of intelligence operation the 
purpose of which is not the search for the truth, but the obfuscation
of reality. Black has said,

If a foreign intelligence agency says they would be prepared to give
the crown access only if they promise to keep the information secret,
then it is the responsibility of the crown to say we cannot do that.
They have an ethical responsibility not to sign such agreements.

This tends to indicate that the crown has not changed its fundamental 
stance that says they will decide what the public interest is and what 
information should or should not be disclosed. That is fundamentally 
wrong. The source in the Herald's report agrees: "The commission was 
unable to obtain authority for its disclosure. Without access to this 
document, the defense is disabled from putting before the court full
and comprehensive grounds of appeal as to why the conviction should be
quashed."

CIA Offered $2m to Lockerbie Witnesses

It now appears that huge amounts of money were offered by U.S.
officials to at least three key witnesses. The defense was never told
that the CIA had offered millions of dollars to their star witnesses.

"We understand the commission found new documents which refer to 
discussions between the U.S. intelligence agency and the Gaucis [Tony 
and his brother Paul] and that the sum involved was as much as $2m," a 
source close to the case told The Herald, according to an Oct. 3
report. "Even if they did not receive the money, the fact these
discussions took place should have been divulged to the defense." Tony
Gauci was an instrumental witness in the case.

On Oct. 5, Edwin Bollier, head of the Zurich-based company MeBo, told 
Koechler that during a visit to the headquarters of the FBI in 
Washington, D.C., at the beginning of 1991, he was offered an amount of 
up to $4 million plus a new identity in the U.S. if he would testify in 
court that the timer fragment that was allegedly found on the crash
site around Lockerbie stemmed from a MST-13 timer that his company had 
delivered to Libya.

Media Silence

Will the media finally cover this extraordinary affair? Perhaps. In 
France, Le Figaro has published a couple of stories, one of which was 
entitled: "And if Libya Was Innocent " Television channel France 3 
reported the story of the Lumpert affidavit.

In the U.K., The Herald has picked up the latest developments in the 
story. The BBC has published a few lines about it. The London journal 
Private Eye is rumored to be running the story in its next edition.
U.S. media remain amazingly silent.

Quo Vadis?

"In view of all these revelations and serious allegations, Koechler 
renewed his call for an independent international investigation of the 
handling of the Lockerbie case by the Scottish and British
authorities," wrote Gordon Brewer of the BCC's "Newsnight Scotland."

"It remains to be seen whether the Scottish judicial and political 
system will live up to the challenge and whether the authorities will 
allow a full and objective inquiry," Brewer said. I have very little 
hope that the Scottish judicial and political system will allow an 
independent international investigation.

For now, I encourage my readers to reflect upon a Persian saying.
"Shame on those who committed the deed. Shame on those who allowed the
deed to be committed."

Ludwig De Braeckeleer has a Ph.D. in nuclear sciences. He teaches 
physics and international humanitarian law. He blogs on "The GaiaPost."


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