The tragic 36th anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing has been marked by yet more controversy over one of Colonel Gadhafi’s most despicable acts of terrorism.
The Leader of the Scottish Alba party, who infamously released the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, from jail in 2009, claimed on radio yesterday that he believed Abu Agila Masud is the real bomber. Whether this is to deflect from his role in granting freedom to Megrahi, or merely to raise the stakes in the forthcoming trial of Abu Agila Masud in Washingron, is not known. However, it does re-open the wounds of the families at a moment when we should be respecting their dignified commemoration.
The BBC is rekindling the controversial theories about those responsible because a new drama “Lockerbie: A Search For Truth”, is due to air on 2 January 2025, starring Colin Firth. This will focus on the role of a Palestinian terrorist organisation, which allegedly acted in response to the shooting down of an Iranian aircraft by the USA. However, it is more likely that Gadhafi was acting in revenge for his defeat by the French and US backed Chadian army in the Aouzou Strip. The Libyan Army lost 7,000 men killed in what was known at the time as the Toyota War, but more importantly for Gadhafi, he lost access to Uranium deposits for his Nuclear Programme.
Pan Am Flight 103 was not his only revengeful target because he also sponsored the destruction of a French DC-10 flying from Brasseville to Paris. The 170 passengers and crew from 18 countries in Union de Transports Flight 772 were all killed in a very similar suitcase bomb attack, which is hardly ever mentioned in the context of Lockerbie, but is key to understanding the true cause of the bombing. Further details are in Chapter 15, Line of Death, of my book, Liberating Libya.
Gadhafi’s Nuclear Programme
Rupert Wieloch 