Contents:
Click. Maltese journalist discovers Interpol warning. Air Malta acted on warning.
Click. PFLP-GC Chief Jibril denies Lockerbie charges.
Click. USA stands by Lockerbie case against Lybians.
07/06/00 KULLHADD (Malta) There has been a lot of discussion regarding the issue of terror threats towards airlines in late 1988. Maltese journalist Joe Mifsud from the Maltese paper KullHadd has kindly provided the readers/viewers of this website with a copy of the original Interpol warning, sent to several airlines all over the world in early November 1988. This warning described the Toshiba bomb device in detail and mentioned the PFLP-GC as possible designers of the threat and the Toshiba bomb.
Contrary to many other international airlines (among them Pan Am!), Air Malta had acknowledged the warning and acted thereupon. According to Joe Mifsud, Malta Police received the Interpol warning on the 15th November 1988 and this warning was copied to Controller of Customs, Director of Civil Aviation, Terminal Manager Luqa Airport, Armed Forces of Malta Airport Security and Security officer of Air Malta on the 22nd November 1988.
Interpol warning dated 15/11/1988 / page 1 Interpol warning dated 15/11/1988 / page 2 Maltese Immigration Security Branch warning to Air Malta, dated 22/11/1988
Joe Mifsud will reveal a series of in-depth facts about Libyan bogus defector and Crown witness AbdulMajed Razraz Jeaka in "KullHadd" next week and will hopefully share this with the readers/viewers of this website...
Background info:
Maltese journalist Joe Mifsud from the Maltese newspaper KullHadd is currently working on coverage of the Lockerbie bombing trial and has covered the criminal investigation since 1988. He can be contacted for more information and further inquiries by any other journalist through his e-mail addres .
06/06/00 Palestinian guerrilla chief Ahmed Jibril Tuesday denied charges by an alleged Iranian defector that his group was involved in the bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. Jibril, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), said the charge was ''fabricated by the United States to pressure the Palestinian opposition, especially our group which opposes the so-called Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations. ``We strongly deny this charge which is totally baseless,'' he said in a statement to Reuters.
U.S. television network CBS Sunday quoted an Iranian defector named as Ahmad Behbahani, as linking Jibril to the bombing of the U.S. airliner which killed 270 people. The defector also said Iran had trained a group of Libyans to carry out the bombing. (see detailed news on that issue below on page). Behbahani was quoted as saying the affair began when he proposed the job to Jibril. ``Jibril replied by saying he agreed with the plan and sent a list of requirements which included explosives...in order for the operation to be carried out,'' Behbahani said.
Lawyers for the Libyans have suggested they will try to prove Syrian-backed Palestinian extremists were the perpetrators in an act of revenge on behalf of Iran for the destruction of an Iranian plane by a U.S. warship six months before Lockerbie. ``This charge against the PFLP-GC is not new. Whenever they need to pressure the Palestinian opposition they revive this claim..,'' Jibril said. ``We believe that our position which refuses the capitulation and humiliation of deals with Israel and our insistence on the armed struggle to liberate our occupied lands and regain our legitimate rights is the main factor behind these baseless allegations,'' Jibril said. The PFLP-GC leader accused the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad) and the Central Intelligence Service (CIA) of being the real operators behind the Lockerbie bombing.
Background info:
05/06/00 REUTERS The United States stood by the case against two Libyans on trial for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing on Monday but said it was investigating a report that an Iranian defector had said Iran, not Libya, was behind it. ``We believe that case is very solid, and that case will proceed,'' State Department spokesman Philip Reeker told a news briefing. ``We've stated always that we will follow evidence wherever it leads. That's always been our position. Right now, we are assessing credibility of any information that may be provided,'' he said.
Reeker said Washington had made clear it would not discuss the case in detail while the case is going on. ``Concerning the reported assertion that Iran ordered the Pan Am 103 bombing, we have stated repeatedly that we will follow the evidence wherever it leads,'' he said. Asked how such a report might affect tentative U.S. overtures to Iraq's Islamic government, he said: ``We've made clear all along our concerns regarding Iran's policies in support of terrorism and their opposition to the Middle East peace process.''