Libyan Man Suspected in Lockerbie Bombing in US Custody

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Facts

  • Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said in a statement on Sunday that Abu Agela Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a Libyan man suspected of making the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988, is in US custody.
  • The US Dept. of Justice validated this statement, adding that “he is expected to make his initial appearance in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.”
  • Pan Am flight 103, traveling from London to New York, exploded over Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988, killing all 259 people onboard and 11 on the ground. It remains the deadliest terror attack in UK history.
  • Mas'ud was a Libyan intelligence operative who allegedly executed the attack at the directive of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. In 2003, Gaddafi agreed to a $2.7B settlement that provided $10M to each of the victims’ families so that Libya would be taken off the US's list of state sponsors of terrorism.
  • Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is the only person to have been convicted of involvement in the Lockerbie bombing. Al-Megrahi, who was imprisoned in 2001, was released by Scottish authorities in 2009 following a terminal cancer diagnosis.
  • Al-Megrahi’s Scottish lawyer, Aamer Anwar, said Mas’ud had been in the custody of a warlord “widely condemned for human rights abuses” and that manner in which the confession was obtained would be “strongly opposed” in any US or Scottish court. Allegedly, while jailed in Libya, Mas’ud confessed to being involved in the conspiracy with Megrahi to conduct the attack.

Sources: Al Jazeera, Independent, Newsweek, Daily Wire, Daily Mail, and BBC News.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by CBS. Justice is finally here for those killed in the Lockerbie bombing. Gaddafi, who at the time was opposed to the West, was guilty of many things, including ordering this terror attack. Hopefully, the victims' families will have closure now that another perpetrator will also be held accountable.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Times of Israel. Though the mainstream media have always blamed Libya and Gaddafi for the Lockerbie bombing, the truth is far murkier. Much of the "evidence" against al-Megrahi and the Libyan state was fabricated or otherwise manipulated, and it's quite possible that Iran was behind the Lockerbie bombing in retaliation for the US downing of an Iranian civilian airliner. The US should follow the evidence instead of embellishing the facts to fit a pre-determined outcome.