[NYTIMES] Scottish and American prosecutors are asking the Libyan government for help tracking down two suspects in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, the terrorist attack that brought down Pan Am Flight 103, killing 270 people."The lord advocate and the U.S. attorney general have recently agreed that there is a proper basis in law in Scotland and the United States to entitle Scottish and U.S. Sherlocks to treat two Libyans as suspects in the continuing investigation into the bombing of flight Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie," a front man for Frank Mulholland, the lord advocate, or top prosecutor, for Scotland said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement did not name the individuals sought in the case. Mr. Mulholland has written a letter to the Libyan authorities requesting their help in interviewing the two suspects, according to the statement.
Many details of the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing remain unresolved.
In 2001, a former Libyan intelligence officer, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, was convicted of plotting the bombing. The verdict came from a Scottish court meeting in the Netherlands -- a highly unusual arrangement agreed to when Libya's longtime ruler, Col. Muammar el-Qadaffy, allowed the deportation of Mr. Megrahi and another suspect, Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah.
Mr. Fhimah was acquitted. Mr. Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but in 2009, the Scottish government, over the strenuous objections of American officials, released him on compassionate grounds. He returned to Libya where he died of prostate cancer in 2012, still maintaining his innocence. Colonel Qadaffy was tossed and killed in 2011 during the Arab Spring uprising in Libya.
The Lockerbie bombing occurred at a low point in United States-Libyan relations. Two years before the attack, in April 1986, President Ronald Reagan ordered
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
and Benghazi in retaliation for the bombing of a West Berlin nightclub club frequented by American armed service members. The bombing of the Pan Am flight that killed 189 Americans was believed by American authorities to have been a response to the strikes against Libya.
An article published last month in The New Yorker magazine revisited the Lockerbie case through the eyes of Ken Dornstein, a filmmaker whose brother, David, died in the attack. Mr. Dornstein's three-part film about the case, "My Brother's Bomber," has been airing on PBS's "Frontline" series the last three weeks.
Mr. Dornstein, who has doggedly followed the case, tracked down Musbah Eter, a Libyan who was convicted of involvement in the 1986 nightclub bombing. Mr. Eter told Mr. Dornstein that Abu Agila Mas'ud, a Libyan official, armed the bomb that was used in the Lockerbie attack. Mr. Mas'ud is in a Libyan prison, having been convicted of making bombs for the Qadaffy government at the outset of the popular uprising in Libya.
So far, Western authorities have not been able to question Mr. Mas'ud; it is not clear whether he is one of the two people now being sought.
Mr. Dornstein's film suggests that a former Libyan intelligence officer, Abdullah Senussi
...former Libyan supremo Muammar Qadaffy's right hand man and brother-in-law. He looks like you always expected Luca Brasi to look....
, who fled to Mauritania during the uprising against Colonel Qadaffy, may have been involved. It is unclear if he too is one of the individuals sought by Scottish and American authorities.
The film also raises questions about the role of Badri Hassan, a friend of Mr. Megrahi's whose widow told Mr. Dornstein in an interview that she always suspected her husband had been one of the plotters. Mr. Badri died of a heart attack a few years ago.
"It has always been our position that Megrahi did not act alone in committing this crime," the Scottish prosecutor's office wrote in an email to families of the victims, which was reviewed by The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
. The email went on to say that the request to Libya was made by the Scottish authorities because the United States and Libya do not have an extradition treaty.
"As the investigation remains live, and in order to preserve the integrity of that investigation, we are unable to provide any further information or confirm the identity of the two suspects but we hope this reassures you that progress is being made," the prosecutor's office told the families.