All language subtitles for Lockerbie.2023.S01E03.720p.WEB-DL.x264_track3_[eng]

The following programme
contains distressing scenes.

'They called me
the Lebanese Texan.

'I spoke Arabic.'

First they were surprised
that an American

would speak their language,

but I still had my Texas
accent at the time.

I wish I had known the realities
of the intelligence business,

back in 1980,

when I came on
board with the CIA.

I was blind. I didn't really
know what reality was.

I knew it wasn't Hollywood.

What I know now,
if I knew it then,

I would never have joined
the intelligence business.

If you're trying to
protect your country,

you have to play by the
rules of the neighbourhood,

and those are...
those are dirty.

The truth needs to be
known about this case.

"Pan Am Flight 103 crashed into
the Scottish village of Lockerbie."

"270 lives lost."

"It was Britain's
worst ever air crash."

"We have no knowledge of
how this accident happened.

"We're trying to find out."

It was an attack on America.

Worst crime scene in history.
200,000 pieces of evidence.

My daughter hadn't
died in an accident

but had been brutally murdered.

They killed our children. And
then be lied to for 30 years.

I think the US
Government had an agenda.

Reagan is the biggest
terrorist in the world.

If it's up to our government, we
might not ever know the truth.

Nothing is what it seems
in the Lockerbie story.

And as you guys know,
I talk a lot about...

what questions we
should be asking, right,

when we are analysing
media messages?

And I wanna focus on this image.

What if you knew someone
that was on that plane?

So, I'm gonna tell you my story.

December 21st, 1988.

So I was, uh, 17 years old,

and my father was coming home
from a business trip in London

when his plane, Pan Am 103,
exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland,

due to a bomb that had been
placed on board by terrorists.

This was a terrible tragedy
for my family to endure.

It was a life-defining moment,

an incident that would absolutely
forever change the person I was.

It really changed the way I saw
the world, the way I saw myself,

kind of the way I
understood everything.

We found out about
the plane crash

through a breaking news
story. I'm talking, like,

TV on in the kitchen,
soap opera on,

newscaster comes on, and my
mother hears the news, right?

Oh, there we go.
There's... Oh, my.

I haven't even seen these yet.

This is...

Frank.

That's quite a big fish. Yes.

- It is big.
- He loved fishing. He was very proud of that moment.

Yes, and, oh, these are old pictures
of how young we were at one time.

We met, actually, we
were born two days apart

in the same hospital
in the Bronx.

We met when we were 15.

We met at a church dance,

and we ended up
being dance partners.

And we dated for almost seven
years, and then we were married.

To me, he was perfect.

Uh, he worked at
Chase Manhattan Bank,

and he was serving in London.

He was coming home
for Christmas.

And he was supposed to come
home Wednesday morning,

and they asked him to stay.

And he actually called me.

He said, "Would you mind
if I came home that night?"

And... I never told him when he
could fly and when he couldn't fly.

I said, "Of course, as long
as you're coming home."

But he wasn't supposed to be
on that plane at the beginning.

We didn't know anything for
months and months... you know.

We knew someone put
something on the plane,

but we didn't know who, where
they came from, why they did it.

We had no information.

You know, when something like this
happens, you want to know the truth.

You want to know what happens.

You want to know who's at fault, - who's to blame.
- And why.

Somebody, literally, did this
purposely to these people.

We understood that
what we needed to do

required a total
commitment of our time.

You don't... It's
not solved in an hour

with commercial breaks,
and things like that.

I was with the case
for three years,

but assigned to Malta
for almost two years.

That's a big commitment.
It is a big commitment.

Um... I really had to make a
bargain with my, uh, with my wife.

And we all understood
why we were here.

By 1990, we were
all pretty convinced

that Libya was behind
the Pan Am 103 bombing.

Based on baggage records,

we determined that
it was here in Malta

that the suitcase containing
the bomb was first planted.

And at that point we had
two, main potential suspects.

Lamin Fhimah was the Libyan Arab
Airlines manager here on Malta,

and he owned a travel agency called
Med Tours here on the island.

His friend was
Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi

who apparently was an
intelligence officer.

Based on the artists' rendition,

Megrahi looked like the person
who had bought the clothing

found in and around the
suitcase containing the bomb.

But we needed more
evidence, you know.

There's still more
work to be done.

189 Americans, an
American airliner.

Everybody in our government
wanted to find out who did this.

And as a result of that, they did
something, the CIA did something,

and I won't say
it's never happened,

but I will say it's a rarity.

They offered up one of
their sources to the FBI.

We were told by the CIA that
they had a source in Malta -

Majid Giaka.

They said that he
was a double agent,

he had worked at the airport,

but he had left and
gone back to Libya,

and they were
trying to find him.

The FBI codename for him was Puzzle
Piece because he became so critical,

he was a piece of the puzzle.

Giaka volunteered himself.

He walked... We call them "walk-ins."
He walked into the Embassy

in Malta, claiming he was affiliated
with the Libyan intelligence.

That is the biggest recruitment
you can make in our business,

is an intelligence officer
from another hostile service.

Most of them end up to be

either kooks or they're directed
by the local security service;

they send in walk-ins
to our to our offices

to just see what we're up
to, what we're interested in.

And then every once in a while
you get a gem who is legitimate.

He worked for Libyan
Arab Airlines.

We knew it was common practice for
the Libyan intelligence service

to use Libyan Arab Airlines as a
cover office for their operations.

This is the old Luqa Airport.

Investigation determined
that it was here

that the bomb bag...

was actually put on the Air
Malta flight to Frankfurt...

and then was transferred to the
Pan Am 103 flight out of Heathrow

that blew up over Lockerbie.

Puzzle Piece was working here at
Luqa Airport in the luggage area.

The agency had him doubled here

because they wanted him to report
who's coming and going from Libya.

The CIA started looking
at his reporting.

His reporting was saying that,

around December of 1988...

he actually saw

both Fhimah and Megrahi coming
into this airport here...

with a suitcase.

My next question to them was,
"Well, where the hell is he?"

Because I'd like to talk to him.

I get a phone call telling me

that CIA the found
Majid, he's on a boat,

and they're bringing him to a US
ship of some kind to be interviewed.

I get the call and they said,
"We got a hold of Puzzle Piece.

"Pack up and head
to Naples, Italy."

Got on the helicopter
and we were flown out

to a ship in the Mediterranean
International Waters.

And I'm anticipating a
very aggressive interview

because they'd been intelligence,
you know, obviously a double agent,

but I found him credible,

uh, almost to a fault.

He was so honest.

He tells us he knows Megrahi.

Megrahi was in the Libyan
Intelligence Service.

He tells us, "I saw
Fhimah and Megrahi

come to the airport
with a suitcase."

And we show him a photo
spread of suitcases,

including the Samsonite
Silhouette 4000, antique copper.

He picks that out
as the suitcase.

Exactly the same as the
one that carried the bomb.

He said Fhimah,
because of his job

here as the Libyan
Arab Airlines manager,

he was able to circumvent
customs with that suitcase.

And then he tells us that Fhimah
kept explosives in his desk.

And, you know, why would
an airport security manager

keep explosives in his desk?

You scratch your head, but
he looks at photo spreads

of various types of explosives
and he picks out Semtex...

the explosive that was
used to make the bomb.

What we felt was
that, at that moment,

we had the people who
actually facilitated,

personally facilitated,

that bomb into
the airline system

that eventually blew
up Pan Am Flight 103,

killing 270 people.

We got the bastards.

Our daughter Helga, she was 19.

She got a place to study
music at Lancaster University.

She sang with the
National Youth Choir,

and the university professor
said he had little doubt

she would have made her
mark on the music world.

She wanted to sing
professionally.

She took a year out,
went to the States

and was working as a nanny.

And came home for that
week just before Christmas.

She was going back.

We'd had a lovely week with her.

I was the taxi driver; "Dad,
will you drop me off at Emma's?"

And this, that and the other.

I drove her down to
Heathrow from Birmingham,

kissed her goodbye.

I remember her walking
towards the exit

to go to the plane
and she turned round,

put her little bag down
and ran back and hugged me.

I wish I could remember what
she said, but I... I can't.

But I'd been a rather
stern father at times.

I can remember saying to
her, "Helga, I do love you."

"It doesn't always look
like it, but I do."

And er...

And off she went.

All these fields of bodies.

She was found. You see the...

You see the hedge that's
running down the hillside there?

Well, she was just
this side of that.

Just this side.

Yep.

"Britain and America accuse two
Libyan intelligence officers

"of destroying Pan Am
Flight 103 over Lockerbie.

"They demand Colonel Gaddafi
hands over the wanted men.

President Bush says,

"An international response
is being considered."

"The men have been named as
Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi

"and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah.

"The Americans say they
travelled from Libya to Malta."

We were elated that finally
two individuals were indicted,

and hopefully were going
to be brought to justice.

I don't know, I guess...

I guess I was... I guess,
in a way, I was happy

that they found someone
that did it to them.

But I really... I can't
explain it to you,

I just... It didn't
change anything for me.

I didn't... I didn't get
a satisfaction out of...

OK, you know, so now
bring Frank back.

"Some of the relatives of
Americans who've died on Flight 103

"have made it clear they expect their
government to take decisive action."

It was a military strike against the
American flag on Pan Am Flight 103.

And these Libyan intelligence
officers were used as soldiers.

"Abdelbaset
Al-Megrahi is accused

"of being the mastermind
of the Pan Am 103 bombing.

"But he vigorously denies it."

"Fhimah, who also worked
for the Libyan airline,

"also denies any
role in the bombing."

"Warrants are out for the pair,

"but no one expects Libya's
Gaddafi to give them up."

It is considered unlikely

that they will be arrested
in the ordinary, normal way.

'We knew it was a waiting game.'

It was going to be up to Gaddafi
to decide to extradite them.

Chances are, we're not
going to get anybody

to come and stand trial.

There was nothing else
we could do in Malta.

Nothing else we could
do in the United States,

or in Scotland. We're done.

"Colonel Gaddafi took a look at
pictures of the two Libyan agents,

"Britain and the United States
say carried out the attack

"and declared that the
men weren't guilty."

"Even if they were," he said,
"he wouldn't hand them over."

"I'm joined now by Dr Jim Swire

"in Birmingham, the spokesman
of the UK Families Flight 103.

"Dr Swire, what's been your
reaction to today's events?"

"My reaction to
hearing these two names

"and seeing them written down
today is similar to how I felt

"when someone told me my
daughter hadn't just died

"in an accident, but
been brutally murdered.

"It gives you a shiver
down the spine to know

"that human beings could
sink to this level,

"and, obviously, the
next step is the question

"of how to bring these
two men to justice."

Following the naming
of the two suspects,

essentially, in the West,
it was confidently said,

"Of course, Gaddafi will
never hand them over."

And that was where the
idea dawned in my mind

that perhaps I could help

to go and see him and see
if I could persuade him

to allow these two to be
handed over for trial.

As powerful as the grief,

was the determination to see
that the manner of her death

was dealt with justly and
properly and truthfully.

I still, of course,
felt extremely nervous

about going to see Gaddafi,

who I thought might
either take me prisoner,

or have me shot, or
something like that.

Gaddafi hadn't got an extremely good
reputation for being a good man,

and so we were worried whether
he would come back in one piece.

You didn't ever say to him,

"I don't think you
should be going?" Or...

I didn't think it would make any
difference if I said that, no.

I think she thought I was absolutely
crazy to go anywhere near him,

as indeed, perhaps I was, but then,
I was pretty crazy at that time

because of the freshness
of the bereavement.

I'd have done anything I could.

Gaddafi definitely suffered
from grandiose delusions.

He believed that he was...
he was not an ordinary man.

He was, if you like,
a political messiah.

He started to crack down
on all types of dissent.

Libya was a country
ruled by fear

where people could not criticise
or dare to be against him.

That was an interesting journey.

I told nobody but
Jane what I was up to

because I thought

our intelligence people would
stop me going if they knew.

To start with it all
seemed quite normal.

Then we go straight
along this road.

Dead end.

Wall about 12, 15 feet high.

No apparent way through.

Car stops and the centre section of
the wall moved vertically upwards.

And what do we see?
Under the lower end,

there were steel teeth,
which were about erm...

three or four feet long,
pointing downwards.

So that if they
changed their mind

when your car was
halfway through the gap,

chonk, it would have come down
and impaled the car on the teeth.

I was so determined
that I wasn't scared.

Nervous, yes, but not scared.

So, I went in, getting
nearer Gaddafi now,

and we were parked in a
waiting area in the desert.

And then a message came over
this radio saying, "OK, now."

So, we started off up these
flagstones through the desert.

Pitch black.

And I said, "Colonel, I'm
very pleased to see you

"because I'm very
keen to talk to you."

And I had a briefcase.

Round the edge of this space

was a ring of female soldiers,

and each of them had an AK-47.

And as I opened the case,

you could hear click,
click, click...

as the safety catches came off.

They weren't
trusting me one inch.

But Gaddafi had decided
he was going to trust me.

Suppose he was
brave, he would say,

because a lot of people tried to
kill him at one time or another.

And in the briefcase was a file

full of pictures of
Flora at various ages.

He then asked me why I'd come,
and I said to him, "Well, look,

"two of your men have been
accused of the Lockerbie disaster,

"and I think the only way to
find out if that's true or not

"is to have them tried in
a proper court of law."

"Is there anything you could
do to ease the situation?"

After about 40 minutes I
felt it was time to go...

and I took one more thing
out of my briefcase,

and that was a little badge,

and it said on it: "Lockerbie.
The truth must be known."

I went up to him,

and I pinned that
badge on his lapel.

And again, you could hear
a click, click, click.

And when I left his
presence that time,

he was wearing that
badge on his lapel.

I thought it's a good for him to
acknowledge the truth must be known.

"Libya has again denied any
involvement in the bombing

"of the Pan Am jet over
Lockerbie three years ago."

"US and British authorities
have charged the two men.

"The UN has imposed
sanctions on Tripoli

"for refusing to
hand them over."

Well, a number of years went
past before it became clear

that Libya was not
going to surrender them.

The Iran and Libya Sanctions Bill
I signed today will help to deny

those countries the money they need
to finance international terrorism.

American companies and many
European companies were not allowed

to export anything to Libya

including medicines and
vital things for human life.

So, those sanctions hurt
the Libyan population.

We urge Libya to end its
ten years of evasion now.

The suspects should be
surrendered for trial promptly.

"At a service in Lockerbie...

"and a ceremony in London,

"bereaved relatives and local
people offered their own respects.

"On the memorial,

"which names all who died,
families touched their loved one."

Our thoughts and prayers today
are with the families and friends

of those 270 people
from so many countries

whose lives were tragically taken in
the Lockerbie bombing ten years ago.

'Turn back the clock.'

Let it be seven o'clock on the
evening of December 21st, 1988.

The pressures of personal
grief have been compounded,

for many, by the frustrations
of the fight for answers.

Why is it taking so
long... to find answers?

"So, the years of diplomatic
efforts have finally paid off,

"with a handover of the
two Libyan suspects."

Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi

and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah
have been arrested by officers

from Dumfries and
Galloway Constabulary.

This unique trial is
expected to be the longest

and costliest one in
British legal history.

"Two alleged Libyan intelligence
agents facing charges of murder,

"conspiracy and intentionally
destroying a plane,

"handed over for trial by
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi

"after years of harsh
economic sanctions."

Gaddafi felt that the Libyan
population was suffering

and they might
rebel against him.

So, he had a motive. He
handed over the two suspects

to lift those sanctions
for his own survival

and his own regime stability.

There had been a lot of
backdoor discussions.

Gaddafi, I'm sure, was led to
believe there was no real case.

At stake here is charge one,
really, on the indictment.

At stake is the
conspiracy-to-murder charge.

And that's the question, the
main question, before the court.

When the agreement was
finally reached that Fhimah

and Megrahi would be
surrendered for trial,

the agreement was that
the trial would be before

a judge-only court

and in a neutral territory.

In terms of jurisdiction,

because the bomb
exploded above Scotland,

Scottish judges were
trying the case.

And so Camp Zeist had to be
declared as part of Scotland.

The Lockerbie Trial Briefing
Unit was established

to assist the international
press and news agencies

in understanding the trial

and the peculiarities of
the Scottish legal system.

"11 years they have
fought for justice.

"For the relatives of those who
died in the Lockerbie bombing,

"this was a day they had prayed
for and yet were dreading."

I am not looking
forward to today.

I am very, very, uh...

frightened, and very anxious.

This is why we're here. This is
my daughter, this is Theo Cohen.

She was 20 years old when she was
blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland,

over 11 years ago.

We'll be sitting through. We've
been at this 11 and a half years.

They killed our children.
We're not going away.

I think most of the Americans
were stunned that...

it was agreed that they
were going to be turned over

to a neutral place to stand
trial under Scottish law.

And there's quite a
bit of a difference

between Scottish law
and American law.

Under Scottish law, there
is no death penalty,

there's no life
imprisonment without parole.

So, we were horrified that
this was supposed to be,

you know, the trial
of the century

that was going to bring
justice to our loved ones.

Call me obsessed,
or what you like,

I was determined to extract all the
information I could from the trial.

We arranged to live in Holland,

and we set up a flat there.

It's always wise to look
for some good things,

even in the darkest events.

You can't change it, you
can't turn the clock back

and make it un-happen.

We've become very, very good
friends with Jim and Jane.

I took an apartment in
Holland with Dr Swire.

We went together and we stayed
for the whole of the trial.

We feel very relieved that today
we actually see this court,

which has been the target of
so much effort on our part,

about to commence sitting.

"The two accused were taken
from their prison to court

"in a bulletproof vehicle.

"Their relatives had flown in
from Libya, arriving at court

"under the watchful eye of
a massive media presence."

I want them to see my
daughter's picture.

I'm gonna say, "This
is what you did."

I lost four on that plane,
my daughter was pregnant.

I'd like to see
them get executed.

I'm sorry, that's
how I feel about it.

I had been exposed,
as all of us had been,

to the publicity, the negative
publicity about Libya,

about Gaddafi,

supplying the IRA, supporting
terrorism allegedly,

the Mad Dog of Africa.

There was an assumption
abroad, generally,

that these two Libyans
were clearly guilty,

and they were just two intelligence
agents that had been caught.

And there must be a lot
of evidence against them.

So, you're human,
and may be a lawyer.

And I went there,
I admit, thinking,

"What on earth am I
going to confront?

"Am I going to confront two
evil murderers, mass murderers?"

But very soon I became much
more, er, happy with my role

and my belief in my client.

"The prosecution will seek
to prove that the two Libyans

"hatched their
bombing plot in Malta,

"that they put together
a Semtex device

"inside a Toshiba
cassette recorder,

"wrapped it in clothes bought
from this shop in Malta,

"then hid it inside
a Samsonite suitcase.

"It's alleged that, then
using stolen airline tags,

"they put the suitcase
unaccompanied on an Air Malta flight

"that was routed through
Frankfurt and on to Heathrow,

"where it was placed
on Pan Am Flight 103.

"It's a case which
has to be proved

"beyond reasonable doubts."

Edwin Bollier...

I remember his physical
appearance being quite...

striking, he looked
quite unusual.

Mr Bollier owned a company called
Mebo Ltd, which was in Zurich...

who, the court concluded,
had manufactured

the timing device that
detonated the bomb.

And a fragment of the timing
device was found in Lockerbie.

And Mr Bollier had provided
a number of statements

wherein he said that he was
the producer of MST-13 timers,

and that the majority of those
had been supplied to Libya.

Mr Megrahi had very close
connections with Edwin Bollier

and the Libyan authorities had
close connections with Mebo limited.

We just assume he's a Westerner,

he is not connected to
the Libyan government,

other than through business,

and we assumed that he
would get on the stand

and tell the same story

that he told us in 1991.

I was kind of amazed
at what he said.

All of a sudden, he
wasn't quite as certain

that his timer
blew up Pan Am 103.

In 1990,

he was pretty clear about,

"Yeah, I made that," and ten years
later he wasn't quite so sure.

"Maybe it wasn't my
fragment that did that."

One reading of the
information that was available

was that he realised, after
giving initial statements,

that he'd spoken against
the interests of Libya

and there was an element of
backtracking perhaps going on.

But when the police
first came here in 1990,

did you not confirm

that the fragment WAS
from one of the timers

you sold to the Libyans?

I should make it clear that
I consider the evidence

about PT/35B produced
to the court,

to be a falsehood
from beginning to end.

From the very beginning, it
seemed to me quite remarkable...

that a very telling
tiny, tiny fragment

should miraculously be found

in the wilds outside Lockerbie.

And there was a lot of
doubt, first of all,

about where this was found...

by whom it was found,

how it was labelled
by the police.

It was not examined, that
was the evidence in court,

for any explosive residue.

Now, any forensic
scientist you ever speak to

would regard it as absolutely the
first thing that you would do.

Because this was the
fragment, let's remember,

that was used to link Libya
to the timer and to the bomb.

So, do you think that
the Scottish police

tampered with the evidence?

If somebody was going
to manufacture evidence,

I just... I don't believe that.

I just... It's beyond
my comprehension

because it's one thing if
the fragment just shows up:

"Oh, look what I found
on the street corner."

But I know the origins
of where it came from

and how the Scottish
cops got it.

Nobody was going to
get into that place

and put it in the
evidence chain.

It couldn't happen.

"Now the Lockerbie trial
has heard crucial evidence

"linking the two Libyan
accused to the place

"where it's claimed the
bomb was originally planted.

"The court at Camp Zeist
in the Netherlands was told

"that items bought by
one of the men in Malta

"were in the same
suitcase as the device

"which blew up
flight Pan Am 103."

"Giving evidence, the shop
owner, Tony Gauci, said

"a Libyan man resembling
Megrahi had been in his shop

"about a fortnight
before Christmas, 1988."

Tony Gauci was built up that
he was this smoking gun.

The clothing fragments from the
case that contained the bomb

were traced through their
labels back to the shop

that was owned by Tony Gauci,

and Tony Gauci gave evidence,

though equivocal evidence,

that the man he'd sold the
clothing to was Mr Megrahi.

Now, out of all of that,
the most controversial,

even at the time of the trial,
was Mr Gauci's identification.

In advance of the trial starting,
an identity parade takes place.

A couple of days before
Tony Gauci is flying over

to do the identification,

he is in possession of a magazine
with a picture of Megrahi in it.

He's also told that Megrahi's
going to be in the line-up.

Where would you like to stand?

Apparently, they couldn't
find any other Libyans.

Megrahi's the only Libyan - in that line-up.
- Well, it's, yeah...

It's that kind of, you
know, that ridiculous.

And the idea is you get people
that look like the person

that the witness has described.

Even with all of that, he
doesn't say it's definitely him.

Tony Gauci, the
impression I got,

was that he and his brother
were under some pressure

to er... accommodate
the police inquiry.

It was quite
difficult to establish

just how many statements
this man had given.

But what is clear is
that his recollection

of critical matters
varied hugely.

Tony Gauci was a simple,
decent businessman,

eking out a living in this shop.

I think he had a couple of shops
with his brother and his father.

The police show up
in the biggest case

in the history of Malta and
started asking him questions.

I honestly think
he was just a man

that was trying to be honest

and tell the truth to the
best of his recollection.

What the judges say
about Tony Gauci is,

"We thought he was credible."

His uncertainty

almost added to his credibility

because it was 12
years after the event.

But, of course, we found out
subsequently a lot of things

that weren't known at
the time of the trial,

and if they were, would
have completely demolished

any credibility that he had.

Such as him being
paid a lot of money

after the trial.

And not only was Tony
Gauci paid money,

but his brother, Paul
Gauci, was also paid money.

We didn't know what the
threat to Tony Gauci was,

and I believe that
an FBI agent said,

"We can get some money
to help re-locate him

"for his safety and protection."

How much money are
we talking here?

They got millions.

I think a million dollars.

Two million dollars, I think, for
Tony Gauci, a million for Paul.

He was never called
as a witness,

so what was he getting
one million dollars for?

He didn't say
anything at the trial.

You can't have
people being paid.

It is totally contrary to
the interests of justice.

The trial period was a
very difficult one for me

because at the beginning
of it, I still believed

that our government had been telling
us the truth as best they knew it.

But it seemed the intelligence
services of Britain and America

had other things in mind
than truth and justice.

"In one of these cars, we
haven't been told which,

"is a witness from Libya
who could decide the outcome

"of Britain's
biggest murder trial.

"Abdul Majid was once
a Libyan secret agent

"and now fears that his former
Libyan colleagues want to kill him."

"Before daybreak, the
high security transfer

"of the prosecution's
precious cargo.

"Abdul Majid Giaka
is the super-grass

"billed as the
Lockerbie-trial star witness.

"On the day he
finally came to court,

"he told how, as a Libyan
intelligence agent,

"he worked with the two
Lockerbie suspects."

"From behind a screen, with his
voice disguised electronically,

"Abdul Majid told the court

"how Libyan intelligence
planned the bombing.

"He claimed that the two
accused were fully involved.

"It was at Malta airport, Abdul
Majid said, that he was shown

"high explosives stored in
the Libyan Airlines office,

"and how he saw the two accused
handling a brown suitcase

"like the one placed
on board Pan Am 103.

"Abdul Majid claimed
that before the bombing

"he passed all this on
to his CIA handlers."

You were Giaka's handler?
Yes, I became his handler.

What did make of him, you know,
in your first few meetings?

Did you think, you know, - this guy could be the real deal?
- No.

No, I think he was a
manipulator and a shyster.

He was looking for a
pay-out for himself.

I had spent most of my
life in the Middle East.

I started out in the
Navy in the mid-'70s.

I had gone to the University of
Texas for my graduate degree,

which is where the
CIA had recruited me.

I had already worked the Libyan
Op, specifically for over a year,

so I had handled a lot of true
Libyan intelligence officers.

It was very clear from the
beginning in my meetings with him

that he wasn't in the
Libyan intelligence service.

He did provide services to them,

but he was not a
Libyan case officer.

He would tell us comings and
goings, who was coming and going.

He talked about Fhimah and Megrahi
coming in and out of Malta,

that was routine for them.

But at the time of the bombing,

he never mentioned to us anything
about any knowledge at all

about the Pan Am bombing.

He was asked that question.

Now, at that time, we were
focused on Iran, not Libya.

But, of course, Libya
could have been a suspect.

We had to eliminate that possibility.
But he knew nothing about it.

He would have told us if he
knew anything was happening.

It doesn't make logical sense
that he would hide it then,

but all of sudden
later know everything.

He was looking for more money, he was
looking for a possible resettlement.

He's a smart enough guy, he's
a cagey enough guy to know:

"Well, this is my end. Yes, I know
everything. I know everything.

"I was there. I saw...
I saw them do it."

And so, of course,
the FBI was brought in

to take over the
handling of him.

And were you surprised at
how seriously the took him?

No.

The FBI are primarily cops.

They're cops.

They look at it from
a cop's perspective,

and they're put in charge of
the Lockerbie investigation,

and they're going after Libya,
they've made the decision.

So, you get this guy walking
in, a former CIA agent,

who has initially claimed to be a
true Libyan intelligence officer.

They grabbed him immediately.

This can make their case. This
will make the FBI look good.

We did speak to one former CIA
who handled Giaka for a while,

and he questions Giaka's
credibility as a source.

I know who that is,
and I've never met him.

And I have my own
private thoughts,

and I'm just going
to leave it at that.

"Two Libyans are on trial at a
court set up in the Netherlands.

"They've always insisted
they are innocent.

"The prosecution has
hung much of its case

"on the man who was
on the stand today."

"The former double
agent is now facing

"cross-examination by a defence
seeking to undermine the credibility

"of a man who stands to
collect a $4 million reward

"if the two suspects
are convicted."

He was such a dreadful witness.

He actually did a lot
more good for the defence

than you could ever imagine.

I mean, for a start, the
judge has made it clear

they didn't believe really anything
he said, except for one thing.

They chose to believe
what he said about Megrahi

and his links to the
intelligence service in Libya.

Rightly or wrongly,
they accepted that bit.

But the rest of his evidence,

they totally discounted,
totally discounted.

None of my testimony was
ever provided to the court.

Giaka's testimony, I
thought, "This is...

"This is BS. This is...

"the government, you know,
manipulating the evidence

"to get whatever outcome
that they wanted."

It was confusing to
understand what was going on,

even to understand the
admissibility, or inadmissibility,

and everything else, and
who was being put on.

And this person is being
put on as an expert witness.

I mean...

to us it was... it
was quite a sham.

I certainly have never had any
reason to question his honesty.

Everything that he said we
were able to substantiate.

We proved a lot of the
things that he told the CIA.

I never believed
that Libya did it.

Our government and US
Presidents have hated Gaddafi

since he took over in 1969.

He kicked all of the American
oil companies out of Libya,

he confiscated our biggest air
base anywhere in the world.

I think the US
government had an agenda.

"The court that
has heard 84 days

"and three million
words of evidence,

"is ready for the final day

"of Britain's biggest
mass murder trial."

It wasn't until near
the end of the trial

that I realised I
could not continue

to believe that there was
a cogent body of evidence

that justified the finding of
either of these two men guilty.

There was another flight,
er, nine months after.

Same perpetrators, same state,

same method. These two flights
are completely connected.

We developed quite a love for
our boy, as we called him.

We desperately wanted
to know who he was.

And, if it's possible,
to contact the family.

Some people call you
a conspiracy theorist.

How does that make you feel? The
evidence that was used in court

was, in fact, false.

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