The Truth about Lockerbie - MartinFrost.ws

A tale of three atrocities
revenge attack. The Lockerbie bombing happened during a dead period in US politics – timed perfectly
to do the least damage to Bush's presidency. The Lockerbie tragedy on 21 st December fell almost
halfway between the presidential election (8 th November 1988) and George H.W. Bush's inauguration
(20 th January 1989).
Choosing a location was the next step. The CIA's Iran office was in Frankfurt 17 , but mounting the
operation there would have meant the aircraft crashed near Heerenveen in the Netherlands. The
special relationship between the UK and the US meant London was a better place for the CIA and
Iranians to mount an operation.
By exploding the bomb over Scotland, the CIA could be confident of concealing their crime. The
Scottish police would be responsible for investigating the case with the assistance of an anti-terrorist
team provided by the Metropolitan police. They had the fractious relationship with the Met typical of a
provincial police force, which gave the CIA free rein to concoct evidence or interfere undetected with
the case. According to a Scottish police investigator:
“...ask a cop in any force up and down the country who they consider the most arrogant, the most
useless and least likely to do anything for anyone beyond their 'patch' and they will undoubtedly tell
you – the Met...But the reputation of the Met precedes it and it does not enjoy the high standing it
thinks it does in what it disparagingly calls the 'provincial' forces.” 18
The Lockerbie disaster was a radically different type of terrorism than 9/11 and other, similar modern
attacks. It was cold and sophisticated, organised by experienced terrorists to make a point. In contrast,
the 9/11 and 7/7 bombings were designed to cause chaos and mayhem, and involved terrorists
prepared to lose their lives. Since the Lockerbie bombing was so carefully planned, I believe Flight 103
was deliberately destroyed over land to create an evidence trail that left no doubt the disaster was a
terrorist attack. The CIA had to be sure the Iranians felt they had revenge, even though neither group
could admit to the bombing.
How Iran and the CIA caused Lockerbie
The Helsinki Warning
Having agreed the Iranians could blow up a US plane, CIA officials faced a conundrum. How could they
get US government personnel off a doomed flight without alarming the wider public? Once I thought
about the outcome of the Helsinki warning, it was obvious that this was their solution.
On 5 th December 1988, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a security bulletin. It said
a man with an Arabic accent had telephoned the US Embassy in Helsinki, Finland, to threaten that a
Pan Am flight from Frankfurt, West Germany, to the US would be blown up within the next fortnight by
someone associated with Abu Nidal, a militant Palestinian group. He said a Finnish woman would
unknowingly carry the bomb on board.
On 13 th December, this 'Helsinki Warning' was distributed among US State Department staff. Some
people are thought to have booked onto other airlines, leaving empty seats on the Pan Am flight that
were sold cheaply to students and others. They became cheap and disposable bodies – I find it utterly
17 Perry, M. (1992) Eclipse: The last days of the CIA. Morrow & Co. New York.
18 Crawford, J, The Lockerbie Incident, 2002,Trafford Publishing, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, ISBN
1-55369-806-1, p70-71
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