OhmyNews Identifies Secret Lockerbie Document

Last year, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) granted the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing a second appeal on the basis that his conviction may have been unsafe. Among the grounds justifying the decision, the committee stated that the Crown had not given the defense access to a secret document which may be vital to establish the innocence of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi.The Westminster government, not the Lord Advocate, has imposed a Public Interest Immunity certificate in order to prevent the defense to see the very document which justifies the second appeal in the first place.

Very little is known about this document. We know that it was obtained from a foreign country, which is not the United States or one of its agencies. The document is rumored to obliterate the thesis of the bomb being activated by a MST-13 timer and the Thurman fragment. The government argues that the PII is needed, surprisingly not for National Security reasons, but to safeguard the good relation of the UK with the country that provided the document. Lastly, the document was passed to the UK in 1996. Yesterday, I was informed that the document was delivered on Sept. 13, 1996. The date leaves me with little doubt that the document is the testimony of Iranian defector Abolghasem Mesbahi who alleged that Tehran, not Tripoli, had ordered the bombing of Pan Am 103. Read full story

British Media Exploited by Intel Agencies

British journalists -- and British journals -- are being manipulated by the secret intelligence agencies, and I think we ought to try and put a stop to it.--David Leigh[1]Intelligence agencies can manipulate journalists and their newspapers in various ways.

Firstly, spies may recruit journalists or even impersonate them. It goes without saying that these long and broadly practiced activities are unhealthy as they put the life of every single journalist in danger, and particularly those who work as foreign correspondents.

Secondly, intelligence agencies can plant disinformation in mainstream media under false identity. In the months preceding the 1953 overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, intelligence agencies used this technique abundantly and without any difficulty, according to a copy of the CIA's secret history of the coup, which surfaced in 2000.

The third way for the spook to gain access to the media is rather subtle and particularly insidious. It consists of exploiting the vanity of journalists to impress on them to hide or lie about the real identity of their sources. Spies are said to have used this technique -- known as "I/Ops" for Information Operation -- heavily in the British press. Yet, it can rarely be documented. But once in a while, an I/Op gets out of control, giving the public a rare opportunity to take a peek inside the world of disinformation.

In November 1995, The Sunday Telegraph published a sensational story about one of our then favorite villains: Libya. Read full story