-Caveat Lector- http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4068986,00.html Lockerbie witness 'lied' to CIA to secure life in US Special report: Lockerbie http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Lockerbie/ Gerard Seenan at Camp Zeist Guardian Thursday September 28, 2000 The Libyan defector who has become the key prosecution witness in the Lockerbie trial is a desperate liar who exaggerated his status as a spy and fabricated key information when a disillusioned CIA threatened to abandon him, a court heard yesterday. Under cross-examination from defence counsel, the credibility of Abdul Majid Giaka yesterday appeared to crumble. The Scottish court in the Netherlands heard Mr Giaka had consistently lied to US intelligence officers in order to achieve his dream of beginning a new life in the west. Defence counsel Richard Keen QC sought to portray Mr Giaka as little more than a garage mechanic who had over-played his position within the Libyan intelligence organisation, the JSO, and had lied about his contacts within Libya for money and to further his own ends. According to CIA intelligence documents produced in court, Mr Giaka had claimed to know senior Libyan officials. But when questioned about these men by Mr Keen, Mr Giaka admitted he had never met many of them and had only a passing knowledge of others. In a bizarre exchange, the court also heard Mr Giaka had told American intelligence officers he was a relative of King Idris of Libya and that Colonel Gadafy, the Libyan foreign minister and the president of Malta were all masons. Mr Giaka refused to reveal how he knew Colonel Gadafy was a mason for "security considerations". Earlier, the court heard that in 1988 Mr Giaka's CIA handlers decided he was not up to scratch as a double agent and threatened to drop him. Defence counsel William Taylor QC said CIA cables from the time made it clear Mr Giaka knew his salary was on the verge of being stopped. Shortly before it was due to be terminated, Mr Giaka told the CIA one of the Libyan accused had once shown him orange-coloured explosive in his desk at Malta's Luqa airport. Mr Taylor said this was a "complete fabrication", framed so that it could not be verified by the CIA. The information, however, was enough to temporarily appease the CIA and it was not until the summer of 1991 that the American intelligence organisation put renewed pressure on Mr Giaka. In a series of clandestine meetings at safe houses in Malta, the CIA told Mr Giaka it was no longer prepared to pay him $1,000 a month and urged him to meet with officials from the US justice department for a complete debriefing. The CIA, however, refused to guarantee a future for him in the US. At this time, Mr Giaka was said to be desperate. He feared for his life, his wife was pregnant and he had "burned all his bridges". Referring to CIA cables, Mr Taylor said: "In the clearest possible manner the CIA have told you what is going to happen to you unless officers from the department of justice think you are going to come up with something which makes you of use as a witness. It is clear as a pikestaff," said Mr Taylor. On July 13 1991 Mr Giaka was taken to an American warship off the coast of Malta. That day, he gave his most crucial evidence against Abdel Baset al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, the men accused of the bombing. Mr Giaka told American justice officials that in December 1988 he had watched Mr al-Megrahi and Mr Fhimah take a brown hard-shelled suitcase, flown in from Tripoli, unchecked through customs at Luqa airport. Mr Taylor said Mr Giaka had never before mentioned this to his CIA handlers. "This incident of the brown [suitcase] is an invention that comes up rather late in the day," he said. The prosecution alleges that the bomb which eventually blew up Pan Am flight 103 on December 21, 1988 was planted inside such a suitcase and was put onto a plane at Luqa airport before it was transferred to the Pan Am flight at Frankfurt. The trial continues. [As does the coverup] Guardian Unlimited C Guardian Newspapers Limited 2000 <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
