Allan Francovich
Encyclopedia
Allan Francovich was an American film producer and director who made a series of films purporting to expose Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) covert operations.
Francovich suffered a heart attack while going through US customs at Houston airport
, Texas
on April 17, 1997, and died at the age of 56 (see obituary in British daily The Independent April 28, 1997).
. Instead, an unwitting drug mule, with links to Hezbollah and to both the Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) and the CIA, was alleged to have carried the bomb on board the aircraft.
When his British production company, Hemar Enterprises, released the film in November 1994, it was immediately threatened with legal action by lawyers acting for a US government official (believed to have been the DEA's Michael Hurley). Screenings of the film at the 1994 London Film Festival, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts
and at several universities were prevented. But Labour MP Tam Dalyell
ignored libel warnings and went ahead and showed the film at the House of Commons
on November 16, 1994.
Channel 4 television
decided to broadcast the film in Britain on May 11, 1995. A spokeswoman responded to critics of the decision by saying that "it needed to be shown to a wider public".
published a letter from Francovich headed "The Lockerbie smears":
strand, Allan Francovich interviewed key Gladio
players such as Propaganda Due
head, Licio Gelli
, Italian neofascist and terrorist
Vincenzo Vinciguerra
, Venetian judge Felice Casson
, Italian Gladio commander General Gerardo Serravale, Belgian
Senator Roger Lallemand
, Belgian gendarme
Martial Lekue and former CIA director William Colby
. Also included was "hoaxer" Oswald LeWinter
.
.
n financing of the film and by saying he was a friend of John Merritt, a journalist from The Observer
who had the respect of the American families. Daniel Cohen, the father of Pan Am 103 victim Theodora Cohen, said that in his eyes Francovich was "completely discredited" since Francovich did not mention the Libyan financing. Jim Swire
, the head of a British Pan Am 103 family group, supported Francovich. John Pilger
described Francovich's films as "extraordinary" political documentary films, with particular praise for The Maltese Double Cross - which "destroyed the official truth that Libya was responsible".
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) covert operations.
Francovich suffered a heart attack while going through US customs at Houston airport
George Bush Intercontinental Airport
George Bush Intercontinental Airport, is a Class B international airport in Houston, Texas, serving the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area, the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Located north of Downtown Houston between Interstate 45 and U.S. Highway 59...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
on April 17, 1997, and died at the age of 56 (see obituary in British daily The Independent April 28, 1997).
The Maltese Double Cross
Allan Francovich produced, wrote and directed The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie, a controversial documentary which challenged the official view that Libya was responsible for the sabotage of Pan Am Flight 103Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
. Instead, an unwitting drug mule, with links to Hezbollah and to both the Drug Enforcement Administration
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
(DEA) and the CIA, was alleged to have carried the bomb on board the aircraft.
When his British production company, Hemar Enterprises, released the film in November 1994, it was immediately threatened with legal action by lawyers acting for a US government official (believed to have been the DEA's Michael Hurley). Screenings of the film at the 1994 London Film Festival, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
and at several universities were prevented. But Labour MP Tam Dalyell
Tam Dalyell
Sir Thomas Dalyell Loch, 11th Baronet , known as Tam Dalyell, is a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005, first for West Lothian and then for Linlithgow.-Early life:...
ignored libel warnings and went ahead and showed the film at the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
on November 16, 1994.
Channel 4 television
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
decided to broadcast the film in Britain on May 11, 1995. A spokeswoman responded to critics of the decision by saying that "it needed to be shown to a wider public".
Letter to The Guardian
The day after the Channel 4 broadcast, The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
published a letter from Francovich headed "The Lockerbie smears":
- "The attacks by the UK and US authorities on my film The Maltese Double Cross (UK and US scorn Lockerbie film, May 11) are exactly what we predicted would happen. The aim is to smear people in the film in order to divert attention from the mass of evidence that supports our claims.
- "The film shows how Lockerbie was masterminded by IranIranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and SyriaSyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, not LibyaLibyaLibya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, and that the bomb got on the plane through a botched US intelligence operation based on Middle East drugs and hostages. Elements within western intelligence knew what was happening but failed to act. The authorities can never admit this, as to do so would make Watergate look like a vicar's tea party. - "The smears referred to have been circulating for years and have been used to attack anyone who has suggested that US government agencies have dirty hands in the affair. The latest round of attacks was begun in a letter to Tam Dalyell MPTam DalyellSir Thomas Dalyell Loch, 11th Baronet , known as Tam Dalyell, is a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005, first for West Lothian and then for Linlithgow.-Early life:...
by a Todd Leventhal, of the US Information AgencyUSISUSIS may refer to:* United States Information Service, the overseas name for the United States Information Agency* United States Immigration Service, a name sometimes used in the past, possibly both formally and informally at different times, to refer to at least one of the many U.S. federal...
, who has the OrwellianGeorge OrwellEric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
title 'Program Officer for Countering Disinformation and Misinformation'. It is disturbing that the supposedly independent Scottish Crown Office should choose to repeat Leventhal's allegations without question. - "The full Crown Office statement states that the Lord Advocate deprecates all attempts to give a version of the Lockerbie story while criminal proceedings are pending. It goes on: 'The proper place for such issues to be explored is in a criminal court.'
- "This argument was substantially undermined on November 15, 1991, only a day after the indictments were issued against the two Libyan accused. On that day the US State Department issued 'fact sheets' which detailed the evidence against the two accused. The information they contained has been repeated in numerous media reports and at least two books published in the UK since that time. One of the media reports was an item about how the Scottish and US authorities 'solved' the Lockerbie caseInvestigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103The investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 began at 19:03 on December 21, 1988 when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The perpetrators had intended the plane to crash into the sea, destroying any traceable evidence, but the late departure...
, contained in a BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
'How Do They Do That?' programme broadcast on February 15, 1994. It featured the former Chief ConstableChief ConstableChief constable is the rank used by the chief police officer of every territorial police force in the United Kingdom except for the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police, as well as the chief officers of the three 'special' national police forces, the British Transport Police, Ministry...
of Dumfries and GallowayDumfries and GallowayDumfries and Galloway is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. It was one of the nine administrative 'regions' of mainland Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government etc. Act 1973...
, John Boyd. So far as we are aware, neither the Crown Office nor the Lord AdvocateLord AdvocateHer Majesty's Advocate , known as the Lord Advocate , is the chief legal officer of the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved powers of the Scottish Parliament...
ever issued similarly critical statements against the BBC, John Boyd, or any of the other broadcasters, newspapers or book publishers which have raked over the evidence. - "The British and US authorities insist that the Lockerbie case is still open. Yet during the months my team has been investigating the subject, not one approach has been made by these authorities to see any of the new evidence we have gathered. Is it any wonder that the Libyans are reluctant to stand trial in ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
or the US?"
Not shown in America
Because of the likelihood of legal action, The Maltese Double Cross - Lockerbie has never been publicly screened in America. It can however be viewed here on the internet, by scrolling down to Allan Francovich - The Maltese Double Cross.Gladio (1992)
In three programmes shown over consecutive weeks in BBC2's TimewatchTimewatch
Timewatch is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29th September 1982 and is produced by the BBC, the Timewatch brandname is used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual...
strand, Allan Francovich interviewed key Gladio
Operation Gladio
Operation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a shift to a Communist party led government...
players such as Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to...
head, Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli is an Italian financier, chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the clandestine Masonic lodge Propaganda Due...
, Italian neofascist and terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
Vincenzo Vinciguerra
Vincenzo Vinciguerra
Vincenzo Vinciguerra is an Italian neo-fascist activist, a former member of the Avanguardia Nazionale and Ordine Nuovo . He is currently serving a life-sentence for the murder of three policemen by a car bomb in Peteano in 1972...
, Venetian judge Felice Casson
Felice Casson
Felice Casson is an Italian magistrate and politician, who discovered the existence of Operation Gladio, a "stay-behind" NATO anti-communist army during the Cold War, while investigating an attack on three Carabinieri in 1972, for which two neo-fascists were convicted; the explosives used in the...
, Italian Gladio commander General Gerardo Serravale, Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
Senator Roger Lallemand
Roger Lallemand
Roger Lallemand is a Walloon-Belgian lawyer and socialist politician.-Education:He graduated as a licentiate in Romance philology and obtained a doctorate in law at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.-Career:...
, Belgian gendarme
Gendarmerie
A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military force charged with police duties among civilian populations. Members of such a force are typically called "gendarmes". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes a gendarme as "a soldier who is employed on police duties" and a "gendarmery, -erie" as...
Martial Lekue and former CIA director William Colby
William Colby
William Egan Colby spent a career in intelligence for the United States, culminating in holding the post of Director of Central Intelligence from September 1973, to January 1976....
. Also included was "hoaxer" Oswald LeWinter
Oswald LeWinter
Oswald LeWinter is an Austrian-born American author, poet, self claimed former CIA agent and a conspiracy theorist. He is also an alleged hoaxer, most notably he tried to sell forgeries to Mohamed Fayed in 1998, suggesting that the British intelligence service was involved in the death of Diana,...
.
On Company Business (1980)
Documentary about the CIA, with exclusive use of interviews with current and former CIA employees. Won the International Critics Award for Best Documentary at the Berlin International Film FestivalBerlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
.
Others
- Secret HistorySecret History (TV documentary series)Secret History was a long-running British television documentary series. Shown on Channel 4, the Secret History brandname was used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual documentaries can still be found on US cable channels without the branding...
: Murder in Mississippi (12 Dec, 1991) - Dark Passage (1990)
- The Houses Are Full of Smoke (1987)
- Inside the CIA (1987)
- San Francisco Good Times (1977)
- Chile in the Heart (1975)
- The Lobster Pot (1973)
Reception
Lee Kreindler, the head of a legal team for American families of Pan Am 103 victims, said that Francovich approached the American families and misrepresented himself by not mentioning the LibyaLibya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
n financing of the film and by saying he was a friend of John Merritt, a journalist from The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
who had the respect of the American families. Daniel Cohen, the father of Pan Am 103 victim Theodora Cohen, said that in his eyes Francovich was "completely discredited" since Francovich did not mention the Libyan financing. Jim Swire
Jim Swire
James Swire is an English doctor best known for his involvement in the aftermath of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, in which his daughter Flora was killed.-Early life and career:...
, the head of a British Pan Am 103 family group, supported Francovich. John Pilger
John Pilger
John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US....
described Francovich's films as "extraordinary" political documentary films, with particular praise for The Maltese Double Cross - which "destroyed the official truth that Libya was responsible".
External links
Video
- Operation Gladio (1992) - Watch the complete documentary online at archive.org
- Alternative Views #074: THE CIA: ON COMPANY BUSINESS (1980) - Allan Francovich talks with ex-CIA agent John StockwellJohn StockwellJohn R. Stockwell is a former CIA officer who became a critic of United States government policies after serving in the Agency for thirteen years serving seven tours of duty. After managing U.S...
about On Company Business on Alternative ViewsAlternative ViewsAlternative Views was one of the longest running Public-access television cable TV programs in the United States. Produced in Austin, Texas in 1978, it produced 563 hour-long programs featuring news, interviews and opinion pieces from a progressive political perspective... - Alternative Views #167: MAKING A MOVIE ABOUT THE CIA (1982) - Allan Francovich talks about On Company Business on Alternative ViewsAlternative ViewsAlternative Views was one of the longest running Public-access television cable TV programs in the United States. Produced in Austin, Texas in 1978, it produced 563 hour-long programs featuring news, interviews and opinion pieces from a progressive political perspective...