Lockerbie and the Secret Doc: Why the PII Certificate?

“Policy is like a play in many acts which unfolds inevitably once the curtain is raised. To declare then that the performance will not take place is an absurdity. The play will go on, either by means of the actors . . . or by means of the spectators who mount the stage. . . . Intelligent people never consider this the essence of the problem, however. For them it lies in the decision whether the curtain is to be raised at all.”

Prince Klemens von Metternich

When we first heard of the “Secret Doc”, very little was known about it.

“A legal battle to release a secret intelligence report which could free the Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is to continue after judges ruled the foreign secretary had the right to suppress the document.”

“The ruling from the Lord Justice General, Lord Hamilton, dashes the hopes of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi that he would be quickly released.”

“It emerged last year that two secret papers had been given to the UK by a foreign government in September 1996, four years before al-Megrahi’s trial began, but had never been disclosed to his defence team even though Scottish police and prosecutors had seen them.” The Guardian 7 March 2008

We now know that the secret doc originated from Jordan and was sent to John Major in 1996.

The SCCRC concluded that if that document – which we believe  deals with the MEBO timer (PT35b) and the PFLP-GC of Ahmed Jibril – had been made available to the defence of Megrahi, the judges could not have reached some of the conclusions that were necessary to convict Megrahi.

MacAskill explains that (A) he has not seen the document and (B) that the PII was justified because it could steer troubles.

MacAskill writes (P200):

“The British Government, however,  was entirely intransigent. Later information was to show that there were more contemporary events that were driving their desire for secrecy, but at the time it was one of those situations whereby those in the loop knew but could not say and others had suspicions but did not know.”

QUESTION

Which “more contemporary events” is MacAskill possibly talking about? What legal reason (Or excuse?) did the British Government invoke to prevent the document from being used?

GOSINT (GOSSIP INTELLIGENCE)

A well-informed source — who would speak only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic — suggested the following explanation. (As Con Coughlin would say…)

In late 2007, the GID arrested a Jordanian doctor — Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al Balawi —  known for his connection to al Qaeda. Then, in the following months, they re-educated him and turned him into a GID/CIA asset. Well, at least that is what they thought. In theory, this Jordanian asset was going to lead the CIA to Ayman al-Zawahri, the Egyptian doctor who was Al Qaeda’s second in command and possibly Ben Laden himself.

On December 30 2009, al Balawi blew himself up and killed 7 CIA officers   at the C.I.A.’s Forward Operating Base Chapman in the southeastern province of Khost. He also killed Jordanian intelligence officer, Capt. Sharif Ali bin Zeid who was a cousin of the King.

King Abdullah II, Queen Rania, and Crown Prince Hussein attended GID Captain Sharif Ali bin Zeid’s funeral.

Here is an analysis from the New York Times:

The attack was also embarrassing for Jordan’s government, which did not want the depths of its cooperation with the C.I.A. revealed to its own citizens or other Arabs in the region.

The United States, and the C.I.A. in particular, are deeply unpopular in Jordan, where at least half the population is of Palestinian origin and where Washington’s support for Israel is roundly condemned.

King Abdullah II and his government, while working closely with Washington in counterterrorism operations and providing strategic support for operations in Iraq, try to keep that work secret.

In Jordan, official media reported that Zeid was killed on a “humanitarian mission” in Afghanistan. There was no mention of the CIA cooperation

And Thus…

The curtain could not be raised for the play would have unfolded inevitably and revealed an incovenient truth. Instead, a “noble lie” would do… At least, some people thougt so.

PS:

“In his last statement issued by the Al Qaeda’s media wing As-Sahab, al Balawi revealed that Jordanian intelligence was co-operating with the CIA to kill or capture senior Al-Qaeda and other militant group leaders. He further claimed that the Jordanian Intelligence Directorate assisted the CIA in killing Imad Mughniyah, a senior Hizbullah militant killed in Lebanon.” [Wikipedia] Imad Mughniyah was killed on 12 February 2008.

REFERENCES

Klemens von Metternich, Aus Metternich’s Nachgelassenen Papieren (1880), vol. 8, p. 190, as quoted by Henry Kissinger, A World Restored (1957), chapter 4, p. 41.

Judges back Lockerbie evidence suppression

LOCKERBIE SECRET DOC – What Do We Know?

The Secret doc, Jordan and the General Intelligence Directorate

Attacker in Afghanistan Was a Double Agent

L’agent double qui a berné la CIA LeMonde

Coughlin has written numerous articles about the alleged Iranian military program such as “Meanwhile, Iran Gets On With Its Bomb,” “Israeli Crisis Is a Smoke Screen for Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions,” “Iran Accused of Hiding Secret Nuclear Weapons Site,” “Iran Has Missiles to Carry Nuclear Warheads,” “UN Officials Find Evidence of Secret Uranium Enrichment Plant,” “Iran Plant Has Restarted Its Nuclear Bomb-Making Equipment,” and “Iran Could Go Nuclear Within Three Years.” Not a single one of these articles quotes a named source. See How MI6 uses the media to deceive the world