The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie
Encyclopedia
The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie is a documentary film about the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
.
Produced, written, and directed by Allan Francovich
and financed by Tiny Rowland
, the film was released by Hemar Enterprises in November 1994.
Though it was never widely distributed, the film stirred up a great deal of controversy – particularly in the United Kingdom. Reviews of the film in major UK publications were mostly negative, even as they said that the film revealed certain problems in the mainstream account of the Lockerbie bombing. The film came in for fierce criticism from some American family members of victims of Pan Am 103 and from the governments of Britain and the United States. Other (mainly British) family members endorsed the conclusions of the film.
The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie discusses evidence and witnesses that would eventually figure at the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial
in 2000:
The documentary disputes the conclusion reached by the official investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
, instead advancing the theory that the bomb was introduced onto the aircraft by an unwitting drug mule, Khaled Jafaar, in what the filmmaker claims is a CIA-protected suitcase.
Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, a former prime minister of Iran
, discusses the idea that Iran took revenge for the shootdown by the USS Vincennes
of Iran Air Flight 655
in July 1988.
The film quotes Tiny Rowland
as disclosing that Pik Botha
told him that he and 22 South African delegates were going to New York for the Namibian Independence Ratification Ceremony and were all booked on the Pan Am flight 103. They were given a warning from a source that could not be ignored.
Botha and 6 others managed to get on an earlier flight, but the remaining 16 stayed in London and missed the official event.
in November 1994 but was withdrawn at the last minute under threat of a libel action by Michael Hurley, a retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency operative. The London Film Festival noted at the time that “certain statements similar to those made in the film are currently the subject of legal action and, in view of this, it has been decided to withdraw the film.” After the cancellation, director Francovich claimed that “there is no way in hell they're going to stop this film. It will be shown at film festivals around the world. It will make its way back to Britain.” Some family members of victims of Flight 103 who supported the film expressed disappointment over its withdrawal. Jim Swire
, whose daughter Flora died on the flight, said he had "never felt so angry in my life" and Pamela Dix, who lost a brother, argued that "the festival should have been brave enough to show the film."
Several days after the movie was withdrawn from the film festival, Labour MP Tam Dalyell
arranged for the film to be screened in the House of Commons
on 16 November 1994 where it was viewed by diplomats, members of the press, and bereaved family members of victims of the bombing. The first public showing of The Maltese Double Cross in Britain took place at the Glasgow Film Theatre
on 17 November 1994.
Soon after, the film was screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival where it won the Best Documentary prize.
The UK's Channel 4
had planned to broadcast the film as early as 1994 but apparently backtracked when several American relatives of PA 103 victims wrote a letter to a newspaper alleging that the film was partially funded by Libya and used a number of “confidence tricksters” as sources. After the Special Broadcasting Service
of Australia agreed to screen the film in its entirety, Channel 4 re-entered negotiations with Francovich and reached a compromise to broadcast a slimmed down, 92-minute version of the film which cut material that could have caused legal problems. The shortened version of the film was ultimately shown on Channel 4 on 11 May 1995, but some American relatives of the victims again criticized the decision and accused Channel 4 of giving air-time to "Libyan propaganda." A Channel 4 spokeswoman said the decision to broadcast the film was based on the view that it needed to be shown to a wider public.
The film has never been shown on television or in cinemas in the United States
.
, Stuart Jeffries suggested that the complex argument of the film was “ill presented” and that “if future documentarists need an example of how not to make a film about complicated intrigues, they should watch The Maltese Double Cross.” In his review of the film in The Independent
, Thomas Sutcliffe noted that “Francovich wasn't exactly a dispassionate seeker after truth,” and that although the film raised “some real questions about the official account…it didn't replace it with any reliable truth of its own.” Similarly, Lynn Truss of The Times
noted that the film had an important and controversial story to tell, but that the “obfuscations of the commentary and editing were unpardonable”. In 2006, Australian journalist and filmmaker John Pilger
argued that the Francovich documentary had succeeded in destroying "the official truth that Libya was responsible for the sabotage of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie in 1988."
In January 1995, Francovich claimed that new evidence (in the form of a US intelligence document) added further weight to the argument in his film that Iran had paid to have the bombing carried out, a claim promptly dismissed by the State Department, the British Foreign Office
, and the Scottish Office
.
Her Majesty's Government dismissed the document, which it said was highly redacted and based upon second and third-hand sources, as adding no new information, while the Scottish Office argued that it was an old story. The US State Department claimed that it had investigated a possible Iranian connection over the course of three years, but had uncovered no credible evidence along those lines.
The televising by Channel 4 of The Maltese Double Cross on 11 May 1995 provoked an even stronger reaction from official US and British agencies. The Guardian
reported, for example, that the American Embassy and the Scottish Crown Office
had apparently attempted to discredit the film prior to its broadcast. The embassy had sent a letter to The Guardian – and, the newspaper assumed, to other news organizations as well – which attacked the credibility of three of the film's witnesses and argued that The Maltese Double Cross was "Libyan-financed." The film's production company, Hemar Enterprises, was part-owned by the Lonrho affiliate Metropole Hotels which, in turn, was one third-owned by a state-run Libyan investment company.
The Guardian noted that the Crown Office had made similar points in an official statement and argued that they had done so “in apparent co-ordination” with the U.S. embassy. The Crown Office refused to comment on the specific allegations in the film because of the pending trial of two Libyan men, but noted “that the criminal charges in this case were brought on the basis of corroborated evidence supporting these charges and therefore inevitably conflicting with much of what is in the film." The Crown Office did publicly accuse one key witness in the film, Oswald LeWinter
, of being a “notorious hoaxer” and another, Juval Aviv, of being a mere El Al
airline security guard – not a member of the intelligence community as he claimed. Additionally, the FBI investigated the film at the request of the Scottish police and argued that LeWinter was “a major fabricator” and that overall the film was a sham.
During the controversy in mid-1994 over whether the film would be shown on Channel 4, filmmaker Francovich said he had been told that several CIA agents had been sent to Europe for the purpose of discrediting his production. Francovich also claimed that phones in his company's London office were tapped and cars of film staff members were sabotaged. He asked, "if we are doing such a bullshit movie, why are they putting all these resources into trying to stop us?" Press reports of the time did not provide any corroboration of Francovich's claims.
In a letter to The Guardian
published after Channel 4 broadcast the film, Francovich offered a further response to the US and UK governments:
, who lost his daughter on Flight 103 was particularly outspoken against the film, calling Francovich a "Libyan dupe" and "at best a journeyman film maker." A December 1993 Financial Times
article revealed that Hemar Enterprises was owned by Metropole Hotels, controlled by Tiny Rowland
. Shortly after the indictment of Libya in the Pan Am Flight 103 incident, Rowland had sold a percentage of his interests to the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company (Lafico), controlled by the Government of Libya. This fact led the Cohens to the belief that Libya had backed the film. After the Cohens saw the film, Susan Cohen said that the film "was full of lies—I had expected that—." She added that the film "looked like an amateur production" and was "so bad, so silly, that I wonder if we had wasted our time trying to stop it."
A number of families in the United Kingdom – some of whom had seen the film screened in the House of Commons – welcomed the broadcast and maintained that they were highly skeptical of the mainstream account. Reverend John Mosey, who lost a daughter, said he had been suspicious of the mainstream line and that the film "justified, with a lot more information, what some of us have felt for three and a half years." Birthe Tager, who lost her son, said after seeing the film that "most of us think the film is the truth. I believe it is the truth."
Susan and Daniel Cohen, the family of American victim Theodora Cohen, said that Jim Swire
, whose daughter Flora died on PA 103, asked for families to "keep an open mind" about the production of the film, while other families opposed the production. After viewing the film in the House of Commons, Swire called for an independent inquiry into the bombing and argued that "the intelligence organisations of Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States were accomplices before the fact to the murder of 270 souls over Lockerbie, Scotland." In an interview with The Guardian
in December 1993, Swire said that he "had good reason to believe Coleman's drug theories" even though they were used by Pan American World Airways
lawyers to try to deflect responsibility from the company and "'We may be faced with the decision of whether we want the money or the truth." The Cohens believed that Swire had suggested that the families of survivors who had opposed the creation of The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie were solely interested in collecting settlement money in the civil suit against Pan Am.
Daniel Cohen sent a critical letter to Swire; the Cohens and Swire have not had any contact since. In addition Daniel Cohen's criticisms about Swire's statements appeared in a 1994 The Independent
article that referred to Swire's statements.
Pan 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...
.
Produced, written, and directed by Allan Francovich
Allan Francovich
Allan Francovich was an American film producer and director who made a series of films purporting to expose Central Intelligence Agency covert operations....
and financed by Tiny Rowland
Tiny Rowland
Roland "Tiny" Rowland was a British businessman and chairman of the Lonrho conglomerate from 1962 to 1994...
, the film was released by Hemar Enterprises in November 1994.
Though it was never widely distributed, the film stirred up a great deal of controversy – particularly in the United Kingdom. Reviews of the film in major UK publications were mostly negative, even as they said that the film revealed certain problems in the mainstream account of the Lockerbie bombing. The film came in for fierce criticism from some American family members of victims of Pan Am 103 and from the governments of Britain and the United States. Other (mainly British) family members endorsed the conclusions of the film.
Synopsis
Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial
The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial began on 3 May 2000, 11 years, 4 months and 13 days after the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988...
in 2000:
- The Mebo MST – 13 timer fragment, which Thomas ThurmanThomas ThurmanIn the late 1980s and for most of the 1990s, James Thomas Thurman was employed at the FBI forensics laboratory, which investigated explosives-related crimes...
of the FBI's forensic laboratory said that he identified on 15 June 1990; - Mebo's Swiss owner, Edwin BollierEdwin BollierEdwin Bollier and his partner, Erwin Meister, founded Mebo Telecommunications AG in Zürich, Switzerland in 1969.-Radio Nordsee International:...
, is interviewed at length; - forensic scientist, Dr Michael Scott, describes DERADERADERA may refer as an abbreviation or acronym to:*Defence Evaluation and Research Agency*Downtown Eastside Residents Association – in Vancouver, British Columbia*Direct Epitope Recognition Assay*Disaster preparedness and Emergency Response Association...
's 'forensic expert', Alan Feraday, as a technicianTechnicianA technician is a worker in a field of technology who is proficient in the relevant skills and techniques, with a relatively practical understanding of the theoretical principles. Experienced technicians in a specific tool domain typically have intermediate understanding of theory and expert...
without any formal qualifications as a scientist; - A solicitor Alastair Logan criticises DERADERADERA may refer as an abbreviation or acronym to:*Defence Evaluation and Research Agency*Downtown Eastside Residents Association – in Vancouver, British Columbia*Direct Epitope Recognition Assay*Disaster preparedness and Emergency Response Association...
's Dr Thomas Hayes for the forensic evidence that was used to convict the Maguire Seven; - A former CIA operative, Oswald LeWinterOswald LeWinterOswald 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,...
says the appointment of 'Libyan dirty tricks expert', Vincent CannistraroVincent CannistraroVincent Cannistraro was Director of Intelligence Programs for the United States National Security Council from 1984 to 1987; Special assistant for Intelligence in the Office of the Secretary of Defense until 1988; and Chief of Operations and Analysis at the Central Intelligence Agency's ...
, to head the CIA's team investigating Lockerbie 'would be funny, if it were not an obscenity'; - A Department of Defense whistleblower Lester ColemanLester ColemanLester Knox Coleman II is an American who was the co-author of the 1993 book Trail of the Octopus, The Untold Story of Pan Am 103, in which he claimed that a secret drug sting enabled terrorists to evade airport security in the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan American World Airways Flight 103...
linked the bomb to a terrorist cell trained by CIA operative, Edwin P. WilsonEdwin P. WilsonEdwin P. Wilson was a former CIA officer who was convicted of illegally selling weapons to Libya. It was later found that the United States Department of Justice and the CIA had covered up evidence in the case.-Early life:...
; and, - A best-selling author, David YallopDavid YallopDavid Anthony Yallop is an agnostic British author who writes chiefly about unsolved crimes. In the 1970s he also contributed scripts for a number of BBC comedy shows...
, reviews the available evidence and looks at who might have been responsible for the Lockerbie bombing.
The documentary disputes the conclusion reached by the official investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
Investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
The 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...
, instead advancing the theory that the bomb was introduced onto the aircraft by an unwitting drug mule, Khaled Jafaar, in what the filmmaker claims is a CIA-protected suitcase.
Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, a former prime minister of Iran
Iran
Iran , 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...
, discusses the idea that Iran took revenge for the shootdown by the USS Vincennes
USS Vincennes (CG-49)
The fourth USS Vincennes is a U.S. Navy Ticonderoga class Aegis guided missile cruiser. On July 3, 1988, the ship shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 civilian passengers on board, including 38 non-Iranians and 66 children.The ship was launched 14 April 1984 and...
of Iran Air Flight 655
Iran Air Flight 655
Iran Air Flight 655 was a civilian jet airliner shot down by U.S. missiles on 3 July 1988, over the Strait of Hormuz, toward the end of the Iran–Iraq War...
in July 1988.
The film quotes Tiny Rowland
Tiny Rowland
Roland "Tiny" Rowland was a British businessman and chairman of the Lonrho conglomerate from 1962 to 1994...
as disclosing that Pik Botha
Pik Botha
Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha is a former South African politician who served as the country's foreign minister in the last years of the apartheid era...
told him that he and 22 South African delegates were going to New York for the Namibian Independence Ratification Ceremony and were all booked on the Pan Am flight 103. They were given a warning from a source that could not be ignored.
Botha and 6 others managed to get on an earlier flight, but the remaining 16 stayed in London and missed the official event.
Broadcast and screenings
The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie was to have been shown at the London Film FestivalLondon Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is the UK's largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries. The festival, , currently in its 54th year, is run every year in the second half of October under the umbrella of the British Film Institute...
in November 1994 but was withdrawn at the last minute under threat of a libel action by Michael Hurley, a retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency operative. The London Film Festival noted at the time that “certain statements similar to those made in the film are currently the subject of legal action and, in view of this, it has been decided to withdraw the film.” After the cancellation, director Francovich claimed that “there is no way in hell they're going to stop this film. It will be shown at film festivals around the world. It will make its way back to Britain.” Some family members of victims of Flight 103 who supported the film expressed disappointment over its withdrawal. 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:...
, whose daughter Flora died on the flight, said he had "never felt so angry in my life" and Pamela Dix, who lost a brother, argued that "the festival should have been brave enough to show the film."
Several days after the movie was withdrawn from the film festival, 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:...
arranged for the film to be screened in 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 16 November 1994 where it was viewed by diplomats, members of the press, and bereaved family members of victims of the bombing. The first public showing of The Maltese Double Cross in Britain took place at the Glasgow Film Theatre
Glasgow Film Theatre
The Glasgow Film Theatre or GFT is an independent cinema in Rose Street, , Glasgow. GFT is a registered charity...
on 17 November 1994.
Soon after, the film was screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival where it won the Best Documentary prize.
The UK's Channel 4
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...
had planned to broadcast the film as early as 1994 but apparently backtracked when several American relatives of PA 103 victims wrote a letter to a newspaper alleging that the film was partially funded by Libya and used a number of “confidence tricksters” as sources. After the Special Broadcasting Service
Special Broadcasting Service
The Special Broadcasting Service is a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television network. The stated purpose of SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect...
of Australia agreed to screen the film in its entirety, Channel 4 re-entered negotiations with Francovich and reached a compromise to broadcast a slimmed down, 92-minute version of the film which cut material that could have caused legal problems. The shortened version of the film was ultimately shown on Channel 4 on 11 May 1995, but some American relatives of the victims again criticized the decision and accused Channel 4 of giving air-time to "Libyan propaganda." A Channel 4 spokeswoman said the decision to broadcast the film was based on the view that it needed to be shown to a wider public.
The film has never been shown on television or in cinemas in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Reaction
Though it was never released commercially, the film garnered a great deal of attention in the British press, from the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom, and from family members whose loved ones died in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.Reviews
After The Maltese Double Cross was broadcast on television, it received several reviews in mainstream British newspapers which were generally negative. Writing in The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Stuart Jeffries suggested that the complex argument of the film was “ill presented” and that “if future documentarists need an example of how not to make a film about complicated intrigues, they should watch The Maltese Double Cross.” In his review of the film in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, Thomas Sutcliffe noted that “Francovich wasn't exactly a dispassionate seeker after truth,” and that although the film raised “some real questions about the official account…it didn't replace it with any reliable truth of its own.” Similarly, Lynn Truss of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
noted that the film had an important and controversial story to tell, but that the “obfuscations of the commentary and editing were unpardonable”. In 2006, Australian journalist and filmmaker 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....
argued that the Francovich documentary had succeeded in destroying "the official truth that Libya was responsible for the sabotage of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie in 1988."
Governmental criticism
The governments of the United States and the United Kingdom and their respective agencies strongly contested the conclusions of the film as well as the character and honesty of some of the film's participants.In January 1995, Francovich claimed that new evidence (in the form of a US intelligence document) added further weight to the argument in his film that Iran had paid to have the bombing carried out, a claim promptly dismissed by the State Department, the British Foreign Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
, and the Scottish Office
Scottish Office
The Scottish Office was a department of the United Kingdom Government from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland...
.
Her Majesty's Government dismissed the document, which it said was highly redacted and based upon second and third-hand sources, as adding no new information, while the Scottish Office argued that it was an old story. The US State Department claimed that it had investigated a possible Iranian connection over the course of three years, but had uncovered no credible evidence along those lines.
The televising by Channel 4 of The Maltese Double Cross on 11 May 1995 provoked an even stronger reaction from official US and British agencies. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
reported, for example, that the American Embassy and the Scottish Crown Office
Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service provides the independent public prosecution service for Scotland, and is a Ministerial Department of the Scottish Government. The department is headed by Her Majesty's Lord Advocate, who under the Scottish legal system is responsible for prosecution,...
had apparently attempted to discredit the film prior to its broadcast. The embassy had sent a letter to The Guardian – and, the newspaper assumed, to other news organizations as well – which attacked the credibility of three of the film's witnesses and argued that The Maltese Double Cross was "Libyan-financed." The film's production company, Hemar Enterprises, was part-owned by the Lonrho affiliate Metropole Hotels which, in turn, was one third-owned by a state-run Libyan investment company.
The Guardian noted that the Crown Office had made similar points in an official statement and argued that they had done so “in apparent co-ordination” with the U.S. embassy. The Crown Office refused to comment on the specific allegations in the film because of the pending trial of two Libyan men, but noted “that the criminal charges in this case were brought on the basis of corroborated evidence supporting these charges and therefore inevitably conflicting with much of what is in the film." The Crown Office did publicly accuse one key witness in the film, 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,...
, of being a “notorious hoaxer” and another, Juval Aviv, of being a mere El Al
El Al
El Al Israel Airlines Ltd , trading as El Al , is the flag carrier of Israel. It operates scheduled domestic and international services and cargo flights to Europe, North America, Africa and the Far East from its main base in Ben Gurion International Airport...
airline security guard – not a member of the intelligence community as he claimed. Additionally, the FBI investigated the film at the request of the Scottish police and argued that LeWinter was “a major fabricator” and that overall the film was a sham.
During the controversy in mid-1994 over whether the film would be shown on Channel 4, filmmaker Francovich said he had been told that several CIA agents had been sent to Europe for the purpose of discrediting his production. Francovich also claimed that phones in his company's London office were tapped and cars of film staff members were sabotaged. He asked, "if we are doing such a bullshit movie, why are they putting all these resources into trying to stop us?" Press reports of the time did not provide any corroboration of Francovich's claims.
In a letter to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
published after Channel 4 broadcast the film, Francovich offered a further response to the US and UK governments:
- "The attacks by the UK and US authorities on my film The Maltese Double Cross ("UK and US scorn Lockerbie film", The Guardian, 11 May) 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 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?"
Victims' families
Reaction to the film from families of the 270 victims of the bombing was mixed. Some American relatives spoke out against plans to televise the film in Britain, accusing Channel 4 of exploiting the victims and of airing "Libyan propaganda", a reference to the allegation that the film was partly funded with Libyan money. One American man, Daniel CohenDaniel Cohen (children's writer)
Daniel Edward Cohen is an American non-fiction writer who has produced over one-hundred books, mainly for young audiences.-Biography:...
, who lost his daughter on Flight 103 was particularly outspoken against the film, calling Francovich a "Libyan dupe" and "at best a journeyman film maker." A December 1993 Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
article revealed that Hemar Enterprises was owned by Metropole Hotels, controlled by Tiny Rowland
Tiny Rowland
Roland "Tiny" Rowland was a British businessman and chairman of the Lonrho conglomerate from 1962 to 1994...
. Shortly after the indictment of Libya in the Pan Am Flight 103 incident, Rowland had sold a percentage of his interests to the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company (Lafico), controlled by the Government of Libya. This fact led the Cohens to the belief that Libya had backed the film. After the Cohens saw the film, Susan Cohen said that the film "was full of lies—I had expected that—." She added that the film "looked like an amateur production" and was "so bad, so silly, that I wonder if we had wasted our time trying to stop it."
A number of families in the United Kingdom – some of whom had seen the film screened in the House of Commons – welcomed the broadcast and maintained that they were highly skeptical of the mainstream account. Reverend John Mosey, who lost a daughter, said he had been suspicious of the mainstream line and that the film "justified, with a lot more information, what some of us have felt for three and a half years." Birthe Tager, who lost her son, said after seeing the film that "most of us think the film is the truth. I believe it is the truth."
Susan and Daniel Cohen, the family of American victim Theodora Cohen, said that 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:...
, whose daughter Flora died on PA 103, asked for families to "keep an open mind" about the production of the film, while other families opposed the production. After viewing the film in the House of Commons, Swire called for an independent inquiry into the bombing and argued that "the intelligence organisations of Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States were accomplices before the fact to the murder of 270 souls over Lockerbie, Scotland." In an interview with The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
in December 1993, Swire said that he "had good reason to believe Coleman's drug theories" even though they were used by Pan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991...
lawyers to try to deflect responsibility from the company and "'We may be faced with the decision of whether we want the money or the truth." The Cohens believed that Swire had suggested that the families of survivors who had opposed the creation of The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie were solely interested in collecting settlement money in the civil suit against Pan Am.
Daniel Cohen sent a critical letter to Swire; the Cohens and Swire have not had any contact since. In addition Daniel Cohen's criticisms about Swire's statements appeared in a 1994 The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
article that referred to Swire's statements.
External links
See also
- Alternative theories of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
- Lester ColemanLester ColemanLester Knox Coleman II is an American who was the co-author of the 1993 book Trail of the Octopus, The Untold Story of Pan Am 103, in which he claimed that a secret drug sting enabled terrorists to evade airport security in the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan American World Airways Flight 103...
- Hans Köchler's Lockerbie trial observer missionHans Köchler's Lockerbie trial observer missionHans Köchler's Lockerbie trial observer mission stemmed from the dispute between the United Kingdom, the United States, and Libya concerning arrangements for the trial of two Libyans accused of causing the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988.The dispute was resolved on...