REOPEN PAN AM 103 CASE? – AT 10:30 A.M. ET:  Recent comments by defecting Libyan officials about the bombing of PanAm 103 in 1988 have led to some initial actions by the U.S. Government.  From Fox:

The Obama administration may seek the prosecution of Muammar Qaddafi for the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, following claims of some ex-Libyan officials that the embattled dictator personally ordered the airline attack that killed 270 people.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Congress this week that she has asked the FBI and Justice Department to look into the matter in response to lawmakers' requests.

"I think justice must be served," she told a Senate legislative committee Wednesday.

The U.S. has considered the bombing a closed case since a former Libyan intelligence officer was convicted of the bombing and Libya had paid compensation to families of the victims.

But Clinton noted that some Libyan officials who have defected in recent weeks have said Qaddafi gave the instructions to blow up Pan Am Flight 103.

The U.K. Telegraph reported this week that a former Libyan official, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, says Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi blackmailed Qaddafi into engineering Megrahi’s release from a Scottish prison by threatening to reveal the dictator's role.

Megrahi allegedly threatened revenge on Qaddafi unless he was returned home to his family, forcing Qaddafi to spend about $80,000 a month on legal fees in a campaign to secure the terrorist's release, the Telegraph reports.
Megrahi is the only man ever to have been convicted in the bombing, which killed all on board the New York-bound Boeing 747 and 11 people in Lockerbie in December 1998.

COMMENT:  I've always believed that the PanAm 103 case was covered, right from the start, by a layer of sleaze.  The attack occurred just days before Ronald Reagan left office.  The new president, George H.W. Bush, who, unlike his son, saw the Mideast primarily as a place to get oil profits, never showed much interest in the terrorist attack.  Even relatives of the victims who'd met with Bush described him as very cold. 

There seemed to be a great sigh of relief from various political and commercial establishments when Scotland convicted one Libyan sucker for the entire operation.  But common sense tells us he didn't go out and do it as a lark, or to get extra credit in terrorism class.  Something that momentous – the downing of an American-flagged airliner – had to have Qaddafi's approval.  We and the British just looked the other way.  A barrel of oil can buy a lot of indifference.  A hundred barrels can buy a birthday party for Qaddafi.

We welcome the new attention to the case, but I doubt if we'll ever have Qaddafi in custody.  I take him at his word that he'll go down fighting. 

March 2, 2011