LOCKERBIE: THE SECRET EVIDENCE

An American lawyer says he has evidence that would clear the two suspects in the Lockerbie trial and expose a massive US cover-up. But he wants $250,000 for it

JAMES M Shaughnessy, one of America's most powerful lawyers, is clear about the power of the evidence he has in his possession. It would, he claims, not only cast doubt on the prosecution case against the two Libyans awaiting trial on May 3 for the Lockerbie bombing, it would exonerate them.

The problem is that Shaughnessy, a senior partner with Manhattan firm Howard, Windels, Marx, Davies and Ives, is also quite clear about the value of his information - $250,000, and he wants that sum up front before he reveals its whereabouts and details.

The evidence is a collection of statements from American intelligence agents and others which the lawyer claims shows that Libya was not behind the planting of the bomb on PanAm flight 103. He has had it for more than 10 years, since he acted as the lawyer for the airline during the devastating civil action taken by the families of the Lockerbie dead. PanAm was ruined by the case, which found it guilty of wilful misconduct in relation to the security which allowed the bomb on to the plane.

The Scottish lawyers acting for the Libyan accused, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, are desperate to get their hands on the evidence and are now attempting to have subpoenas issued against Shaughnessy in the US courts. They fear the documents will be destroyed if a court order is not placed on them. Shaughnessy could be committing a major ethical breach by offering to sell them, as they are technically PanAm property. He could also be brought before the grievances committee of the US courts and de-barred for misconduct.

While investigating the case for PanAm, Shaughnessy took signed and sworn statements from American intelligence officers which he says point to one conclusion - that the Lockerbie disaster was caused by Palestinian terrorists, acting on behalf of Iran, who intercepted a covert drug route run by the American secret service. The drug route was supposedly established to channel funds to extremists in the Lebanon who were holding US citizens including Terry Anderson as hostages in Beirut. The money was a sweetener to speed the release of Anderson and other kidnapped Americans.

According to Shaughnessy's evidence, the security of the drug route was compromised and a bag containing heroin was swapped for a bag containing semtex. On December 21, 1988, 270 people lost their lives over Lockerbie. The motive? That America had earlier that year shot down an Iranian airbus, killing 290 civilians.

As part of Shaughnessy's defence of PanAm, he claimed the US government knew there had been threats of an impending terrorist attack on flight 103. He asked the court if he could introduce documents proving this, but his attempt was rejected by the trial judge, Thomas Platt.

Platt has since admitted he did this because unidentified "agents of the government" visited him and told him to. Once the civil case was over, the US government moved to impose a multi-million dollar fine on Shaughnessy for linking them unnecessarily to the disaster, claiming the accusations were founded only on a report prepared for PanAm by former Mossad (Israeli intelligence) agent Juval Aviv, who now runs a New York security firm, Interfor.

Shaughnessy denied that Aviv's report was his only source of information and submitted an affidavit, dated September 25, 1992, to the Long Island office of the US District Court as part of his defence against the US government's sanctions.

In that affidavit - the contents of which have been a closely guarded secret until now - Shaughnessy says he took statements from two former CIA officers, one from German intelligence and the other a then-serving senior intelligence analyst for the US Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA). He claims these agents, and other sources, corroborated Aviv's findings, but keeps his sources anonymous, claiming that to identify them "might jeopardise the careers of those involved or even jeopardise their safety".

He says that in December 1989, he was given the name of a former agent with the US military intelligence, "and perhaps the DEA", who, "provided me with information and showed me documentation concerning the involvement of the United States intelligence community in narcotics trafficking into the United States".

In 1990, Shaughnessy met with a former German intelligence agent who said the Lockerbie bomb had been transported to Frankfurt from Damascus. The prosecution currently claims the bomb was placed on board flight 103 in Malta as part of a Libyan conspiracy. Shaughnessy also met with a CIA officer who said US intelligence had been involved in "arms and narcotics trafficking".

In spring 1990, Shaughnessy met with a senior intelligence analyst from the DEA who said: "Much of what was contained in Mr Aviv's report relating to narcotics trafficking, particularly narcotics trafficking through Frankfurt airport, was true." Shaughnessy added: "I developed a sense that they all believed very strongly that the United States was engaged in a cover-up of huge proportions." It's impossible to say at this stage how reliable Shaughnessy's evidence is, certainly as long as he insists on $250,000 before he will reveal its full details. He does, however, insist it would clear the Libyans. He could be lying, but if that is the case he has also lied on an affidavit to a US court and would face charges of perjury.

Also within the affidavit are details of a number of reports in the months before the bombing from US intelligence agencies on the activities of a Palestinian terrorist cell operating in Germany. Shaughnessy's affidavit says the documents related to "both how and where the bomb got on flight 103 and to warnings received by the government". This was never revealed to the court hearing the PanAm civil case. One report, dated December 2, 1988, says a "group of Palestinian terrorists [is] active in the Federal Republic of Germany and the targets [are] PanAm and US military bases".

These warnings were serious enough for the US State Department to post briefings in its European embassies. The Federal Aviation Authority also sent out a warning that it had been told on December 5 that, "sometime within the next two weeks there would be a bombing attempt against a PanAmerican aircraft from Frankfurt to the United States".

Also within the Shaughnessy affidavit are details of polygraph - lie detector - evidence which throws the entire prosecution theory into chaos. The argument is that two baggage handlers at Frankfurt airport placed the bomb on flight 103. But both underwent lie detector tests carried out by James Keefe, a polygrapher for the US army with more than 30 years experience, in Germany in 1990. The tests showed both men were lying when they said they were unaware a bag was switched at Frankfurt airport, that they had no part in switching the bag and they did not know the bag contained a bomb.

James Berwick, a former London-based manager of PanAm corporate security, told the Sunday Herald he was aware of a US government drug operation on the airline through Frankfurt. He was told at a security meeting a few months before the bombing that PanAm "was being used as a conduit or a route on which drug shipments were being allowed from Europe to the US".

So if the Libyans didn't do it, who did? The claims by the intelligence officers interviewed by Shaughnessy point towards the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command - the PFLP-GC - as most likely suspect. The CIA did think at one time that the group carried out the bombing in return for $10 million (#6.2m) in blood money from Iran as revenge for the shooting down of the Iranian airbus. After the airbus was downed, Islamic fundamentalists said the skies would "rain with American blood".

Documents from the National Security Agency show the Iranians were planning a revenge attack. The PFLP-GC was already running a terrorist cell in Germany, although it was under surveillance by German intelligence. When the ring-leaders were arrested, investigators found a Toshiba Bombeat cassette player packed with semtex and a barometric timer - a replica of the Lockerbie bomb. The group's bomb-maker, Marwan Khreesat, admitted to making five identical devices, but only four were ever found. Was the fifth on flight 103?

The DEA and the US Department of Justice deny any link to the bombing or drugs and claim Aviv is a liar, as is anyone else supporting Shaughnessy's theory. But the US government has hounded and persecuted those who break rank on Lockerbie. Aviv was prosecuted by the FBI for an alleged fraud involving one of his clients, GE Capital, even though the company said it was entirely satisfied with Aviv's work and filed no complaint against him. A jury returned a not guilty verdict against Aviv and the judge speculated that the reason for the prosecution could have been his Lockerbie report.

Lester Coleman, another Lockerbie whistle-blower and a former agent of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the DEA, is currently in jail in Kentucky. Asked to scan pictures of the Lockerbie dead, he identified Khaled Jaafar, a young Lebanese- American now thought by many intelligence agents to have been the unwitting courier for the bomb, and named him as a drug mule operating for the DEA. Coleman is awaiting sentencing over fraud charges on Monday. William Casey, a former Washington lobbyist who published a book sceptical of the official theory, had his bank accounts frozen by the government over alleged financial irregularities and his business was ruined. Two FBI officers continually crop up in these investigations - David Edwards and Chris Murray. They are known as the FBI's 'clean-up squad'.

Tellingly, after Shaughnessy defended himself against the government, Judge Platt, the very judge who refused to allow him to submit evidence incriminating America in the bombing, dismissed the government's action. In Platt's eyes, the lawyer's claims must have been credible. In three weeks' time, Shaughnessy may finally have his evidence heard in court - if, that is, someone can find the $250,000 he thinks justice is worth.

PanAm flight 103 was blown up by terrorists over Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, killing all 259 passengers and crew and 11 people on the ground.

Two Libyans, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, have been accused of planting the bomb. After initially claiming the two men would not be given a fair trial, Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi agreed to allow them to appear before a Scots judge in the Netherlands. The trial begins next month

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