Libyan accused in Lockerbie bombing now in American custody

[EvilEyeFleegle]

Our turn..this guy has been in Libya and it was hard to get him arrested and extradited--so it appears that maybe we..err...short-circuited the process. If so, good job~

Libyan accused in Lockerbie bombing now in American custody

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Libyan intelligence official accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 in an international act of terrorism has been taken into U.S. custody and will face federal charges in Washington, the Justice Department said Sunday.
The arrest of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi is a milestone in the decades-old investigation into the attack that killed 259 people in the air and 11 on the ground. American authorities in December 2020 announced charges against Mas'ud, who was in Libyan custody at the time. Though he is the third Libyan intelligence official charged in the U.S. in connection with the attack, he would be the first to appear in an American courtroom for prosecution.

U.S. officials did not say how Mas'ud came to be taken into U.S. custody, but late last month, local Libyan media reported that Mas'ud had been kidnapped by armed men on Nov. 16 from his residence in Tripoli, the capital. That reporting cited a family statement that accused Tripoli authorities of being silent on the abduction

 

[pknopp]

In a U.S. courtroom? I thought we couldn't bring charges against terrorists in US courtrooms. That it wasn't safe. That we just had to lock them up in Gitmo and forget about them.

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

In a U.S. courtroom? I thought we couldn't bring charges against terrorists in US courtrooms. That it wasn't safe. That we just had to lock them up in Gitmo and forget about them.

Safety was never really a concern. More of an issue is that US jurisprudence frowns on evidence obtained through torture or suspects obtained through 'rendition'.
Which is to say..the US govt. was never going to take the risk that a jury or a judge might toss a case..or that methods and means would be outed and questioned for all the world to see.
This was an employee of the State of Libya, who gave a full statement detailing his involvement. He was under the direct orders of Qaddafi:

From the OP link:

A breakthrough in the investigation came when U.S. officials in 2017 received a copy of an interview that Mas'ud, a longtime explosives expert for Libya’s intelligence service, had given to Libyan law enforcement in 2012 after being taken into custody following the collapse of the government of the country’s leader, Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
In that interview, U.S. officials said, Mas'ud admitted building the bomb in the Pan Am attack and working with two other conspirators to carry it out. He also said the operation was ordered by Libyan intelligence and that Gadhafi thanked him and other members of the team after the attack, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.

 

[pknopp]

Safety was never really a concern. More of an issue is that US jurisprudence frowns on evidence obtained through torture or suspects obtained through 'rendition'.
Which is to say..the US govt. was never going to take the risk that a jury or a judge might toss a case..or that methods and means would be outed and questioned for all the world to see.
This was an employee of the State of Libya, who gave a full statement detailing his involvement. He was under the direct orders of Qaddafi:

From the OP link:

A breakthrough in the investigation came when U.S. officials in 2017 received a copy of an interview that Mas'ud, a longtime explosives expert for Libya’s intelligence service, had given to Libyan law enforcement in 2012 after being taken into custody following the collapse of the government of the country’s leader, Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
In that interview, U.S. officials said, Mas'ud admitted building the bomb in the Pan Am attack and working with two other conspirators to carry it out. He also said the operation was ordered by Libyan intelligence and that Gadhafi thanked him and other members of the team after the attack, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.

Right, the government lied and created excuse after excuse for doing something worse than they were accusing many of those they were holding.

 

[José]

How old is that guy?

150?

 

[Muhammed]

On July, 3rd 1988 Iran Air Flight 655 , an Airbus A300 wide-body airliner was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz, killing all 290 people on board.

It was shot down by the USS Vincennes, a U.S. Navy Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser operating in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will.

Iran publicly vowed to get revenge.

First Iran tried to assassinate Sharon Rogers, the wife of the USS Vincennes' Captain William Rogers III, on March 10, 1989 with a pipe bomb on her minivan in San Diego. She luckily survived the attack.

Then Iran bombed Pan Am Flight 103 less than a year later.

I don't think it had anything to do with Libya.

I think Iran did it.

Go to 13:40 in this episode of Unsolved Mysteries.