ALISON PRINCE
What really happened?
In all the brouhaha about whether or not a dying man should have been released from jail, there is one aspect of the Lockerbie case that causes a quick closing of the eyes in almost every quarter. It concerns the nature of the explosion itself.
There are serious concerns that the destruction of the aircraft was not the deliberate detonation of a planted bomb but the accidental ignition of weaponry being carried in the hold. Blanket silence has of course covered this hypothesis, because the implications for the government, should it prove to be true, will constitute an unprecedented global scandal, but this should not deter investigation.
There has long been international disquiet over the version of the disaster released for public consumption, and not merely among cynical members of the public. Look at the website of the International Progress Organisation for the comments of Dr Hans Koechler, who, along with Professor Robert Black QC, holds that the evidence still locked in the wreckage of the plane has never been properly investigated and did not get proper consideration in the legal proceedings. Koechler and Black contend that the remains of the plane should be under forensic quarantine until an international enquiry can be held.
Koechler’s words on the IPO website claim that the ‘dramatic shortcomings and errors in the conduct of the trial’ that have been brought to the attention of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) confirm his earlier assessment that the Lockerbie trial resulted in a ‘spectacular miscarriage of justice’. Click ‘Lockerbie’ on the site, and a wealth of detail under separate headings will be at your fingertips.
Conspiracy theories have dominated this case. A scapegoat had to be found, and found quickly, because any alternative truth was too appalling to be released to the world’s public. The culprit needed to be someone from Libya. Failing that, Iran. Megrahi seemed to fit. However, gaping holes in the available data abound, still prompting questions. Why was US ‘diplomatic freight’ weighing six tonnes stowed in the plane’s hold? What did this consist of? Where is the record of the pilot’s conversation with Prestwick on 123.95 MHz, a frequency associated with a previous flight disaster? Why is the wreckage of the plane still hidden away in Farnborough, plus a few bits in other places, unavailable for inspection? Why are we assured that Semtex caused the cabin explosion, when Semtex in the alleged concentration would have caused a vaporising heat of 5,000 degrees? No bodies or fabric would survive such an inferno. There would have been no baggage, no clothes, no shoes, no babies’ nappies – the cabin would have been totally burnt out. There are, too, serious misgivings about the nature of the injuries to some of the casualties, as these are inconsistent with the declared cause of the explosion. But there is silence on these matters.
Political manoeuvring seems to have been the main concern throughout the handling of the Lockerbie case. Megrahi consistently declared his innocence, and it is tempting to wonder if his failure to reiterate it on his departure from Scotland was part of a hard-argued deal. Speculation is of course useless and must not be taken in any way as evidence, but the unanswered questions are stark.
If any hint of these questions had reached Kenny MacAskill, his decision to free Megrahi is doubly justified and courageous, and so, perhaps, may be the resulting freedom of thought. Once the fall-guy has left the picture, we should be able to shed the hysterical need for a blame-object and start to look with purposeful objectivity at what really happened on the Lockerbie flight.
Alison Prince is a journalist
26.08.09
Issue no 130
THE
CHANGING
MOOD
Kenneth Roy
assesses the shift in Scottish opinion since Megrahi’s release
[click here]
FACES
OF
SCOTLAND
I.
A painting by Frank McNab symbolic of Scottish thought
[click here]
II.
A photo-essay by Islay McLeod symbolic of Scottish emotion
[click here]
THE
MEGRAHI
FORUM
A collection of pieces on the ethics and politics
of Megrahi’s release
Click below for:
Walter Humes
Tessa Ransford
Rose Galt
Andrew Hook
Jill Stephenson
R D Kernohan
Bruce Gardner
Sheila Hetherington
Catherine Czerkawska
Alison Prince