U.N. panel should question Libyan about Pan Am attack

The British and Scottish govern- ments have little credibility when it comes to getting all the facts surrounding the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103 by Libya, which is why the latest development involving a key member of dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s government demands an outsider’s appraisal.

Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa is in London talking to British officials after reportedly leaving Gadhafi’s inner circle and defecting from his country. While there is uncertainty as to Koussa’s status, prosecutors in Scotland have requested an interview with him because of his close ties to the Libyan dictator and his position as chief of the external intelligence service. He possesses inside information about the bombing of the Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that claimed the lives 259 people on the plane, many of them Americans coming home for Christmas, and 11 on the ground as debris rained down on Lockerbie.

Only one person has been convicted in terrorist attack, and he is now back home in Libya — compliments of the Scottish and British governments.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, head of the intelligence service, was convicted in February 2001 by a special jury of Scottish judges sitting in the Netherlands after a trial of 85 days and 230 witnesses. He received a life sentence, with no parole eligibility for 20 years. But in August 2009, a Scottish judge ordered his release from custody after he had served only eight years. Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said that as the prisoner was given less than three months to live by doctors, al-Megrahi was eligible for compassionate release.

The murderer received a hero’s welcome when he arrived in Libya.

But that turned out to be the least of the insults suffered by the families of the victims of the bombing. All the sympathy expressed for the dying man turned out to be wasted. Al-Megrahi is still alive and the doctor who provided the initial diagnosis now says that he could live for 10 years with the prostate cancer.

While it was the Scottish government that decided he should be returned to Libya, the British government was implicated by not objecting to the decision and launching an investigation. There is now credible information that 10 Downing Street went along with the Scots because it did not want to sour a deal British Petroleum had with the Gadhafi government over oil exploration.

Now, with Moussa Koussa supposedly seeing to break with Tripoli, the spotlight is again on the Pan Am bombing. Unfortunately, he is being treated with kid gloves because of the current military campaign being waged by NATO against the Libyan government, which is under attack by rebels seeking to oust Gadhafi.

Valuable information

There is no doubt that Koussa can provide valuable information about the intelligence service, military installations, war plans and even where the billions of dollars in gold and money stolen by the dictator and is family are stashed.

Thus, there could be a willingness to give Moussa a pass with regard to the Pan Am bombing.

That would be a mistake. The foreign minister should be required to meet with a special investigative panel under the auspices of the United Nations to delve into the Lockerbie case. The families of the victims deserve to know all the facts, but they will not be satisfied with British and Scottish officials talking to Koussa and then issuing a report.

It’s a matter of credibility.