Some weighty ones
The framing of al-Megrahi, London Review of Books, 24 September 2009
Long article by the solicitor Gareth Peirce is a good starting point for those seeking to understand Abdelbaset’s case (although it contains a few inaccuracies).
The fairy story of the Crown’s independence, The Scotsman, 23 July 2007.
Excellent analysis by Professor Robert Black.
Lockerbie: The flight from justice, Private Eye special report, June 2001.
A booklet rather than an article, written by the late Paul Foot. Despite a few inaccuracies, it’s a great digest of what was then known about the flaws in the official narrative. We now know a lot more.
Articles by John Ashton
All the articles carry the previous day’s date, as they were published online the evening before the print edition.
Feature article on Abdelbaset, published to coincide with the second anniversary of his return to Libya.
Reveals new evidence relating to the key forensic item in the case against Abdelbaset, the fragment of circuit board that was allegedly part of the Lockerbie bomb’s timer. There is much more new evidence in the book.
Comment piece published following the fall of Colonel Gadafy. (Owing to some dodgy sub-editing, it reads as if the terminally ill 59 year old referred to in the second sentence is Gadafy, rather than Abdelbaset.)
Some you may have read, but can safely ignore
Happily, most of these are not available online in their original form. Therefore, except where stated, the links provided are to extracts that appeared on Prof Black’s blog.
The article, by Mark MacAskill, opened with: ‘The Lockerbie bomber was implicated in the purchase and development of chemical weapons by Libya, according to documents produced by the American government.’ The documents in question were in fact a press release issued by the US State Department when Abdelbaset was first indicted. In the 20 years since then, the US Government has failed to produce a single shred of evidence to support the allegation.
Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi had secret £1.8m, The Sunday Times, 20 December 2009
Another scoop for Wide-of –the-Mark MacAskill, whose article claimed, falsely, that, at the time of his conviction, Abdelbaset had £1.8 million in a Swiss bank account. The story was followed up around the world, including by the Daily Mail, which inflated the figure to £2 million. Megrahi: You are my jury contains the true story of the bank account.
Lockerbie bomber ‘blackmailed’ Gadaffi for release, Sunday Times, 27 February 2011
The article, by Hala Jaber and Jason Allardyce, was based on an interview with the then leader of the Libyan National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, who claimed that Abdelbaset blackmailed Gadafy into securing his release. Of course, as we all know, Gadafy was a pushover who could easily be bossed around, even by a terminally ill prisoner.