FLIGHT 103 AND THE CIA: THE LOCKERBIE COVER-UP
by wakeupmag.co.uk
"If what Pan Am is saying is true, then we have the most major scandal in the history
of government in the twentieth century."
- BERT AMMERMAN, president of American Victims of Flight 103
"How do I renounce my American citizenship? The CIA killed my husband."
- The widow of one of the victims of Flight 103 to Lee Kreindler,
lead attorney for the victims' families
...
On December 5th 1988, the US Embassy in Helsinki received an anonymous telephone warning that "within the next two weeks" an attempt would be made to place a bomb aboard a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to New York. The caller had a Middle Eastern accent, and may have been an associate of al-Kassar who did not wish his protected pipeline to be sabotaged, even in the name of Islamic militancy. The State Department subsequently circulated an unclassified warning to all its embassies.
This was a time when many Americans would be going home for Christmas, and the Helsinki warning was taken particularly seriously by the US embassy in Moscow, who posted an "administrative notice to all employees" warning of the threat. Consequently, not a single Moscow embassy worker took Pan Am Flight 103 from Frankfurt on December 21st, which would normally have been a standard and popular route home for Christmas. (This was to be little consolation to the families of those who, unaware of the State Department's warning to its staff, bought standby tickets for the flight vacated by the American diplomats).
...
On December 18th, the BKA was tipped off that there would be a bomb plot against Pan Am Flight 103 in the next two or three days. This again was thought to have come from associates of Nidal and al-Kassar, who wanted to save their protected drug route. They thought that visibly increased security around the airport would put off Jibril's bombing plan. The tip was passed to the CIA unit in Frankfurt. Although anxious not to blow its undercover drugs operation, the CIA passed the warning on to the State Department.
On December 20th, twenty-four hours before Pan Am 103's take-off, an undercover Mossad agent passed on yet another warning, this time relating specifically to Flight 103 the next day, and CIA headquarters sent warnings to various embassies - but not apparently to Pan Am.
A huge entourage of South African government officials, including then foreign minister Pik Botha, were booked on Pan Am 103 but switched flights at the last minute. This appears to indicate that the apartheid regime was also tipped off about the bomb plot, most likely by British intelligence, who had close links with the South African security forces. (Botha changed to the earlier flight, Pan Am 101, which, unlike Flight 103, had special security checks at Heathrow).
...
Within 24 to 48 hours before the departure of Pan Am 103 from Frankfurt, a black Mercedes parked at the airport and the Turkish baggage-handler picked up a suitcase from the car and placed it in the employee locker area in the airport. This was his usual practice with drug shipments.
At 15.21 on December 21st, airport staff began loading passenger baggage aboard the Boeing 727 that was to fly the first leg of Flight 103 from Frankfurt to Heathrow. Khalid Nazir Jafaar boarded the plane after checking in one piece of luggage. After all the checked suitcases had passed through security, the Turkish Pan Am baggage-handler took the bomb suitcase and placed it on the luggage cart, in substitution for Jafaar's.
A BKA surveillance agent reported "suspicious behaviour" in the Pan Am baggage-loading area about an hour before the plane's departure. He noticed that the substituted suitcase, a brown Samsonite, was different in make, shape, material and colour from that used for all previous drug shipments. Like all the BKA agents on the scene, he had been especially alert due to all the bomb tips. He phoned in a report, saying something was very wrong. The BKA passed its agent's information to the local CIA unit, who reported to their Control. Control replied: "Don't worry about it. Don't stop it. Let it go."
No action was taken: the CIA unit issued no instructions to the BKA and the BKA did nothing. (The BKA covertly videotaped the baggage-loading area on that day. The videotape reportedly shows the perpetrator in the act. This tape was held by the BKA, who subsequently claimed to have "lost" it. However, a copy had been made earlier and given to the CIA, who have since refused to release it).
With 128 passengers and an estimated 135 pieces of luggage, Pan Am Flight 103 arrived at Heathrow airport on time. Forty-nine passengers, mostly American civilians, then boarded the plane for the transatlantic leg of the flight. Their bags were stowed on the port side of the forward cargo hold.
A further 210 passengers with baggage now joined the flight, but because of the US State Department's warnings to its embassy staffs, the aircraft was barely more than two-thirds full when it took off at 18.25, twenty-five minutes late.
http://www.american-buddha.com/cia.lockerbie.htm
