Gadhafi's death renews Lockerbie bombing questions
By Donna Leinwand Leger, USA TODAY
The death of Moammar Gadhafi awakened hope Thursday that Libya's new government will fully investigate the regime's role in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and answer questions that have nagged at victims' families for 23 years.
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By Jeff J. Mitchell, Getty Images
Many don't expect a new Libyan investigation.
By Jeff J. Mitchell, Getty Images
Many don't expect a new Libyan investigation.
"We need to know the truth," said Bob Monetti, whose son Rick, 20, was killed. Rick, a journalism and political science student at Syracuse University, was flying home to Cherry Hill, N.J., after studying in London. "I know the old government was responsible for it. The new government should be a lot more responsive."
Pan Am 103 exploded minutes after taking off from London's Heathrow Airport on Dec. 21, 1988. All 243 passengers and 16 crewmembers died. The plane broke into three parts and landed at Sherwood Crescent in Lockerbie, where a fireball consumed several houses and killed 11 people.
A three-year investigation by the FBI and Scottish police involved 10,000 pieces of debris and 15,000 witness statements. It led to murder charges against Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Baset Ali Megrahi, and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, Libyan Arab Airlines' station manager in Malta.
After years of negotiation, Gadhafi handed over Megrahi and Fhimah for trial in Scotland. A panel of judges convicted Megrahi on Jan. 31, 2001, and sentenced him to life in prison. The panel acquitted Fhimah. The Scottish courts released Megrahi, who is suffering for prostate cancer, on Aug. 20, 2009. Megrahi lives in Tripoli.
In remarks Thursday, President Obama acknowledged the 189 Americans who died on Pan Am 103. "We are reminded today of all those Americans that we lost at the hands of Gadhafi's terror. Their families and friends are in our thoughts and in our prayers," he said. "We recall their bright smiles, their extraordinary lives and their tragic deaths. We know that nothing can close the wound of their loss, but we stand together as one nation by their side."
Many of the families and U.S. and Scottish investigators said they believe the plot was sanctioned, planned and executed at the highest levels of the Gadhafi regime. In 2003, Libya admitted responsibility in a letter to the United Nations.
"We really need to get the other guys who were involved," Monetti said. "It would be good to know who authorized it, who made the bomb."
Earlier this month, Gadhafi's fomer justice minister Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the head of Libya's transitional government, said he had evidence of Gadhafi's involvement.
"If so, maybe we should see it and be able to assess it," said Dr. Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora MacDonald Margaret Swire, 24, a medical student from London, was killed on the flight.
Pamela Dix, whose brother Peter, 35, a management consultant, was killed, said she hopes the Scottish government will actively seek more information from Libya. "It might be the case that Gadhafi knew a great deal about what happened," Dix said. "If he did know something, he is unlikely to be the only one who did."
Gadhafi's death offers little relief to Glenn and Carole Johnson, whose daughter Beth Ann, 21, died in the bombing. Beth Ann, a student at Seton Hill University, had been studying in London.
"She's still not with us. Had he died and she could come back, OK. But it doesn't change our lives. It just deepens the pain," Carole Johnson said. "I hope that his hell is feeling the excruciating pain he has caused his victims."
She does not expect Libya's new government to reopen the investigation. "There is a dim hope that the truth, all of the truth, may come out as to why they chose that plane, but can we really trust anyone in that government?" Johnson said.
Contributing: The Herald in Glasgow, Scotland
Original Page: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2011-10-20/gadhafi-death-libya-lockerbie/50847778/1?csp=34news