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Mass Murder!

Mass Murder

Mass Murder (massacre) is the act of Murdering a large number of people, typically at the same time, or over a relatively short period of time. Mass murder may be committed by individuals or organizations.

The term may refer to spree killers, who stage a single, horrific assault on their victims, or to serial killers, who may kill many people, but not necessarily all at the same time.

The largest mass killings in history have been attempts to exterminate entire groups or communities of people, often on the basis of ethnicity or religion. In modern times such events are sometimes described as genocide. Although some consider that "genocide" may exist where there is merely an intention or plan to exterminate a particular group, and that killing is not a necessary condition, by contrast "Mass Murder" involves the actual killing of a large number of people.

Mass Murder by individuals

Outside a political context, the term "mass Murder" refers to the killing of several people at the same time. Examples would include shooting several people in the course of a robbery, or setting a crowded nightclub on fire. This is an ambiguous term, similar to serial killing and spree killing.

The USA Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a mass Murder as "involving the Murder of four or more victims at one location, within one event."

Mass murderers may fall into any of a number of categories, including killers of family, of coworkers, of students, and of random strangers. Their motives may range from revenge to financial gain to religious fanaticism to mental illness. Many other motivations are possible.

Workers who assault fellow employees are sometimes called "disgruntled workers," but this is often a misnomer, as many perpetrators are ex-workers. They are dismissed from their jobs and subsequently turn up heavily armed and slaughter their former colleagues. In the 1980s, when two fired postal workers carried out such massacres in separate incidents in the US, the term "going postal" became synonymous with employees snapping and setting out on Murderous rampages. One of the 1980's most famous "disgruntled worker" cases involved computer programmer Richard Farley who, after being fired for stalking one of his co-workers, a woman by the name of Laura Black, returned to his former workplace and shot to death seven of his colleagues, although he failed in his attempt to kill Black herself.

In massacres by students, such as the Columbine High School Massacre and the Virginia Tech massacre, alienated youths rampage through their schools killing fellow students and teachers alike before turning the Guns on themselves.

There have also been mass killings that may have been unintended, at least in terms of formal premeditation to kill many people. In 1990, Julio González set fire to a New York City nightclub after having a fight there with his girlfriend. Eighty-seven people died in the blaze (Gonzalez's girlfriend survived).

Some financially-motivated mass-killings are either unintended, a result of a robbery going wrong, or are incidental to the primary crime of theft. One of the most bizarre cases was that of Sadamichi Hirasawa, who Poisoned twelve bank workers by cyanide during a robbery.

Unlike serial killers, there is rarely a sexual motive to individual mass-murderers, with the possible exception of Sylvestre Matuschka, an Austrian man who apparently derived sexual pleasure from blowing up trains with dynamite, ideally with people in them. His lethal sexual fetish claimed 22 lives before he was caught in 1932.

According to Loren Coleman's book Copycat Effect, publicity about multiple deaths tends to provoke more, whether workplace or school shootings or mass suicides.

Mass Murder by terrorists

In recent years, terrorists have performed acts of mass Murder to intimidate a society and draw attention to their causes. Examples of major terrorist incidents involving mass Murder include:

The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings on May 17, 1974 were a series of terrorist attacks on Dublin and Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland which left 33 people dead, and almost 300 injured, the largest number of casualties in any single day in The Troubles. The Loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), claimed responsibility in 1993. However, allegations that British forces colluded in the bombings persist.

Mass Murder Chronology

At five-thirty in the afternoon three car bombs exploded almost simultaneously in Dublin at Parnell Street, Talbot Street, and South Leinster Street. Twenty-three died in these explosions and three others died as a result of injuries over the following few days. The first of the three Dublin bombs went off at approximately 5.28pm in Parnell Street. Eleven people died as a result of this explosion. The second of the Dublin bombs went off at approximately 5.30pm in Talbot Street. Fourteen people died in this explosion. The third bomb went off at approximately 5.32pm in South Leinster Street. Two people were killed in this explosion.

Ninety minutes later one more car bomb exploded in North Road, Monaghan, County Monaghan just south of the border with Northern Ireland.. This bomb killed five people initially, with another two dying in the following weeks. Some accounts give 34 or 35 dead; 34 by including the child of Collette Doherty who was nine months pregnant, and 35 by including the later still-born child of Edward and Martha O'Neill. Edward was killed, Martha survived.

In Northern Ireland, Sammy Smyth, then press officer of both the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Workers Council (UWC) Strike Committee, said,

"I am very happy about the bombings in Dublin. There is a war with the Free State and now we are laughing at them."

According to a Dublin newspaper, the then British Ambassador to Ireland, Sir Arthur Galsworthy, noted immediately after the bombings:

"the predictable attempt by the IRA to pin the blame on the British (British agents, the SAS, etc) has made no headway at all.... It is only now that the South has experienced violence that they are reacting in the way that the North has sought for so long."

The newspaper noted that "despite these feelings of schadenfreude", Galsworthy continued,

it would be... a psychological mistake for us to rub this point in... I think the Irish have taken the point".

Mass Murder Responsibility for the bombings

The Ulster Volunteer Force claimed responsibility for the bombings in 1993, following a TV documentary on the bombings that named the UVF as the perpetrators, and which alleged that elements of British Security Forces were involved in the attack.

Mass Murder Yorkshire Television documentary

On July 7 1993 Yorkshire Television's First Tuesday programme broadcast Hidden Hand: The Forgotten Massacre, a programme on the bombings in co-operation with a number of retired officers in the Gardaí, the police force of the Republic of Ireland. The programme claimed that the bombings were the work of the Ulster Volunteer Force. It named a number of UVF members it said had taken part in the bombings, who had since been killed during the Troubles. However, 'Hidden hand' also claimed that loyalist paramilitaries were aided by British security force members. Forensic examination seemed to suggest that the Dublin bombs had been built with some sophistication. Garda officers claimed that the UVF had been assisted by elements in British intelligence. Subsequently, a number of questions were asked in the Dáil, the parliament of the Republic of Ireland, about responsibility for the massacre. The government ordered the Gardai to assess the information in the television programme.

Mass Murder UVF claim responsibility

One week later, on July 15 1993, the Ulster Volunteer Force confirmed responsibility for the bombings, but also denied that they were aided by British security forces.

The UVF claimed that:

The entire operation was from its conception to its successful conclusion, planned and carried out by our volunteers aided by no outside bodies. In contrast to the scenario painted by the programme, it would have been unnecessary and indeed undesirable to compromise our volunteers anonimity by using clandestine Security Force personnel, British or otherwise, to achieve an objective well within our capabilities... Given the backdrop of what was taking place in Northern Ireland when the UVF were bombing republican targets at will, either the researchers decided to take poetic licence to the limit or the truth was being twisted by knaves to make a trap for the fools...The minimum of scrutiny should have revealed that the structure of the bombs placed in Dublin and Monaghan were similar if not identical to those being placed in Northern Ireland on an almost daily basis.The type of explosives, timing and detonating methods all bore the hallmark of the UVF. It is incredulous that these points were lost on the Walter Mittys who conjured up this programme.To suggest that the UVF were not, or are not, capable of operating in the manner outlined in the programme is tempting fate to a dangerous degree."

Mass Murder Relatives seek public inquiry

In 1996 relatives of the victims of the bombings, Justice for the Forgotten, launched a campaign for a public inquiry. As their name implies, the group stated that they had been 'forgotten' by the Irish state.

On July 23 1997 the group lobbied the European Parliament. MEPs from many countries supported a call for the release of files related to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. However, on August 27 of that year, an Irish Court declined to order the release of the files.

In August 1999, Irish Victims Commissioner, John Wilson, reported on the demand for a public inquiry. He proposed a judicial inquiry, held in private.

In December 1999, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Bertie Ahern, appointed Mr. Justice Liam Hamilton to undertake a thorough examination of the bombings, in a private Inquiry. Justice for the Forgotten agreed to co-operate. The inquiry began work early in 2000. In October 2000 Justice Henry Barron was appointed to succeed Justice Hamilton. Relatives then campaigned for publication of Justice Barron's initial report. It was presented to the Taoiseach on October 29 2003, and published with five names redacted on December 10 2003.

The Irish government demanded that the British government hand over official documents relating to the bombings, that were denied to the Barron Inquiry. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, John Reid, delivered a 16 page letter, but refused to hand over original documentation, claiming security concerns, despite the passage of time. Barron observed, "Correspondence with the Northern Ireland Office undoubtedly produced some useful information; but its value was reduced by the reluctance to make original documents available and the refusal to supply other information on security grounds. While the Inquiry fully understands the position taken by the British Government on these matters, it must be said that the scope of this report is limited as a result." On February 16 2005 The Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights recommended that the Irish Government bring a case before the European Court of Human Rights to force the UK Government to hold a public inquiry into the bombings. In June 2005 the Irish government threatened to bring the British government to the European Court of Justice, to force the release the files on the bombings.

It is acknowledged that, after 30 years, many witnesses, initial investigators and suspects are dead.

Mass Murder The Barron Report main findings

On December 10 2003, Justice Henry Barron's Report on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings was published. It stated:

'The conclusions of the Inquiry regarding the facts, circumstances, causes and perpetrators of the bombings can be summarised as follows:'

1. The Dublin and Monaghan bombings were carried out by two groups of loyalist paramilitaries, one based in Belfast and the other in the area around Portadown/Lurgan. Most, though not all of those involved were members of the UVF.

2. It is likely that the bombings were conceived and planned in Belfast, with the mid-Ulster element providing operational assistance.

3. The bombings were a reaction to the Sunningdale Agreement in particular to the prospect of a greater role for the

Irish government in the administration of Northern Ireland. The timing of the attacks may have been inspired by a number of important events around that time including:

(i) a statement of the Taoiseach in April 1974 in which he expressed the hope that formal ratification of the Agreement would take place in May;

(ii) statements by Northern Ireland Secretary Merlyn Rees (also in April) proposing the phasing out of internment and a gradual reduction of the British Army presence in Northern Ireland;

(iii) the advent of the Ulster Workers Council strike.

4. A finding that members of the security forces in Northern Ireland could have been involved in the bombings is neither fanciful nor absurd, given the number of instances in which similar illegal activity has been proven.

However, the material assessed by the Inquiry is insufficient to suggest that senior members of the security forces in Northern Ireland were in any way involved in the bombings.

5. The loyalist groups who carried out the bombings in Dublin were capable of doing so without help from any section of the security forces in Northern Ireland, though this does not rule out the involvement of individual RUC, UDR or British Army members.

The Monaghan bombing bears all the hallmarks of a standard loyalist operation and required no assistance.

6. It is likely that the farm of James Mitchell at Glenanne played a significant part in the preparation for the attacks. It is also likely that members of the UDR and RUC either participated in, or were aware of those preparations.

7. The possibility that the involvement of such army or police officers was covered-up at a higher level cannot be ruled out; but it is unlikely that any such decision would ever have been committed to writing.

8. There is no evidence that any branch of the security forces knew in advance that the bombings were about to take place. This has been reiterated by the current Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and is accepted by the Inquiry. If they did know, it is unlikely that there would be any official records. Such knowledge would not have been written down; or if it was, would not have been in any files made available to the Secretary of State. There is evidence that the Secretary of State of the day was not fully informed on matters of which he should have been made aware. On that basis, it is equally probable that similarly sensitive information might be withheld from the present holder of that office.

9. The Inquiry believes that within a short time of the bombings taking place, the security forces in Northern Ireland had good intelligence to suggest who was responsible. An example of this could be the unknown information that led British Intelligence sources to tell their Irish Army counterparts that at least two of the bombers had been arrested on 26 May and detained. Unfortunately, the Inquiry has been unable to discover the nature of this and other intelligence available to the security forces in Northern Ireland at that time.

10. A number of those suspected for the bombings were reliably said to have had relationships with British Intelligence and / or RUC Special Branch officers. It is reasonable to assume that exchanges of information took place. It is therefore possible that the assistance provided to the Garda investigation team by the security forces in Northern Ireland was affected by a reluctance to compromise those relationships, in the interests of securing further information in the future. There remains a deep suspicion that the investigation into the bombings was hampered by such factors, but it cannot be put further than that.

11. As stated, there are grounds for suspecting that the bombers may have had assistance from members of the security forces. Unless further information comes to hand, such involvement must remain a suspicion. It is not proven.

The publication of the report caused a sensation in Ireland, as demonstrated by political and media reaction. It is generally agreed that the Report raised more questions than it answered and that it opened up new avenues of inquiry.

Mass Murder Oireachtas Sub-Committee on collusion

The Oireachtas Sub-Committee considering Justice Barron's report concluded:

2.20 In relation to the identity of the perpetrators, Mr. Justice Barron compiled a wealth of material, which supports his conclusion that the bombings were carried by the two groups of loyalist paramilitaries (one in Belfast and the other in Portadown/Lurgan). There is still a degree of speculation as to the definitive line- up of individuals actually involved in each stage of the preparation, planning and placing of the bombs. The Barron Report will serve as a useful starting point in assisting any further enquiry.

2.21 With regard to the issue of collusion, the Sub-Committee has a limited function namely, to review the Barron Report and cannot therefore come to a different conclusion. The Sub-Committee would like to acknowledge the difficulties faced by Mr. Justice Barron in his attempts to explore this issue fully. There is no way of knowing what might be contained in documentation which exists in Northern Ireland and the UK without gaining access to that documentation. However, even based on the material he did manage to gather, the suggestion that members of the security forces in Northern Ireland could have been involved in the bombings is in Mr Justice Barron’s own words, ‘neither fanciful nor absurd’. In addition, the Sub-Committee is concerned that a number of responsible persons and groups who made submissions have come to the conclusion that collusion played a part.

2.22 Until such time as the relevant original documentation is released by the UK Authorities and the issue addressed in the jurisdiction where the bombs were prepared and planned, namely, Northern Ireland, it may not be possible to come to definitive conclusions in this regard. The question of what any further inquiry can achieve in this regard will be considered later in this Report. The Sub-Committee acknowledges that the failure to bring closure on this particular aspect has exacerbated the pain and suffering of the victims and their relatives.

A subsequent report by Henry Barron into the Miami Showband massacre, the killing of Seamus Ludlow, and the bombing of Keys Tavern found evidence of extensive collusion with the same mainly UVF personnel, amounting to "international terrorism" on the part of British forces.

Mass Murder McEntee Inquiry

Following a recommendation from the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights, in its final report on the bombings (March 2004), the Irish Government established a further Commission of Investigation: Dublin and Monaghan Bombings 1974 in May 2005 under Patrick McEntee. The McEntee Enquiry is tasked to investigate the following:

1. Why was the Garda investigation into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings wound down in 1974?

2. Why did the Gardaí not follow-up on the following leads?

(i) Information that a white van with an English registration plate, was parked outside the Department of Posts and Telegraphs on Portland Row and was later seen parked in the deep sea area of the B&I ferry port in Dublin, and the subsequent contact made with a British Army officer on a ferry boat leaving that port.

(ii) Information relating to a man who stayed in the Four Courts Hotel between 15 and 17 May 1974, and his contacts with the UVF.

(iii) Information concerning a British Army corporal allegedly sighted.

The remit of the McEntee Commission was extended on a number of occasions. The report was handed to the Irish government on March 12, 2007. Publication was expected by the end of March 2007. On April 3 2007, the Irish government announced that the Report would be published on April 4 2007 at 5pm, after distribution to victims and to the families of those who had been killed by the bombs.

Mass Murder Barron on ballistic history

The Barron Inquiry found a chain of ballistic history linking weapons and killings under the control of a group of UVF and security force members, including RUC Special Patrol Group members John Weir and Billy McCaughey, connected to those alleged to have carried out the bombings.

These "included, in 1975, three Murders at Donnelly's bar in Silverbridge, the Murders of two men at a fake UDR checkpoint, the Murder of IRA man John Francis Green in the Republic, the Murders of members of the Miami showband and the Murder of Dorothy Trainor in Portadown. In 1976, they included the Murders of three members of the Reavey family, and the attack on the Rock Bar in Tassagh."

According to Fred Holroyd, Captain Robert Nairac, acting under SAS orders, was involved in the killing of John Francis Green in the Republic of Ireland and in the Miami Showband killings. John Weir supported the suggestion of Nairac's involvement in the Green assassination: "I was told that Nairac was with them. I was told by a UVF man, he was very close to Jackson and operated with him. Jackson told him that Nairac was with them." Surviving Miami showband members Steve Travers and Des McAlee testified in court that an Army officer with a crisp English accent oversaw the Miami Showband killings, the implication being that this was Nairac.

Susan McKay summarised Barron on the ballistic history point:

It was probable the Guns were kept at a farm at Glenanne belonging to James Mitchell, an RUC reservist... from which a group of paramilitaries and members of the security forces... carried out the massacres at Dublin and Monaghan.... The chain was unbroken because the perpetrators of these attacks weren't caught, or investigations were haphazard, or charges were dropped, or light or suspended sentences were given. The same individuals turn up again and again, but the links weren't noted. Some of the perpetrators weren't prosecuted despite evidence against them.

Robin Jackson, consistently linked with Nairac, was alleged to be involved in this illegal violence (the link was noted contemporaneously in 1975 see Colin Wallace section below).

On 28 October 1973, Robin Jackson Murdered Patrick Campbell, a 34-year-old Catholic from Banbridge. He shot him on the doorstep of his home. Campbell's wife picked Jackson out during a police identity parade. However, a Murder charge brought against him was dropped after it was claimed Mrs Campbell knew Jackson - a claim she denies. Six months later, the loyalist was one of those who bombed Dublin and Monaghan. Barron notes that in 1976, the security forces came up with evidence, including Jackson's finger print on one of the Guns in the chain above. He was released. In 1977, he was named in court as the gunman who shot William Strathearn in Ahoghill, Co Antrim. Two RUC men, Billy McCaughey and John Weir were convicted. Jackson wasn't even questioned, for "operational reasons" which have never been detailed.

Barron Inquiry treatment of evidence of collusion in bombings

Mass Murder Colin Wallace on security force collusion in bombings

Barron noted jurnalist Robert Fisk's suggestion that the bombings were carried out by militant UVF members opposed to meetings between UVF delegations and the Official and Provisional IRA, which had taken place earlier in 1974: "The Dublin bombings were apparently carried out to show other members of the UVF that, left-wing though it might have become, this did not imply any deals with republicans."

This view finds independent support in a letter from then British Army intelligence officer Colin Wallace to Tony Stoughton, Chief Information Officer of the British Army Information Service at Lisburn, on August 14 1975.

There is good evidence the Dublin bombings in May last year were a reprisal for the Irish government's role in bringing about the power sharing Executive. According to one of Craig's people Craig Smellie, the top MI6 officer in the North of Ireland at the time, some of those involved, the Youngs, the Jacksons, Mulholland, Hanna, Kerr and McConnell were working closely with Special Branch and Intelligence at that time. Craig's people believe the sectarian assassinations were designed to destroy then Northern Secretary Merlyn Rees's attempts to negotiate a ceasefire, and the targets were identified for both sides by Intelligence/Special Branch. They also believe some very senior RUC officers were involved with this group. In short, it would appear that loyalist paramilitaries and Intelligence/Special Branch members have formed some sort of pseudo gangs in an attempt to fight a war of attrition by getting paramilitaries on both sides to kill each other and, at the same time prevent any future political initiative such as Sunningdale.

In a further letter dated September 30 1975, Wallace revealed that MI5 was trying to create a split in the UVF,

Because they wanted the more politically minded ones ousted. I believe much of the violence generated during the latter part of last year was caused by some of the new Int people deliberately stirring up the conflict. As you know, we have never been allowed to target the breakaway UVF, nor the UFF, during the past year. Yet they have killed more people than the IRA!

Barron noted that Wallace's August 14 1975 letter was "strong evidence that the security forces in Northern Ireland had intelligence information which was not shared with the Garda investigation team."

Wallace also noted that:

Several of the key players in the mid-Ulster UVF were working for the Special Branch and for ourselves... giving information and liaising and so forth. If you just draw the line there and don't even go any further than liaison, and if the informers were doing their job - and if they weren't doing their job we wouldn't have been using them - an operation of that size, in terms of the logistics and planning was so big that there was something seriously wrong if the Security Forces as a whole did not know that (a) an operation was going on; and (b) had some idea about it, because of the scale of it. That would have been a prime target for the intelligence agencies to get to grips with.

Wallace then noted that investigation into the bombings was closed down with immediate effect a very short time after the bombings.

As with Fred Holroyd and John Weir, there were unsuccessful attempts to undermine Colin Wallace's credibility and evidence to the Inquiry. Between 1968 and 1975 Wallace had run the main psychological warfare, or 'psyops', department at British Army Headquarters in Lisburn, a task involving "dissemination of information and disinformation". In September 1974 Wallace refused to become involved in attempts by the security services to subvert British government policy. Wallace also discovered that at the Kincora Boys Home a member of an "extreme loyalist organisation", William McGrath, was involved with others in pedophile abuse. The home ws not closed down. Wallace suspected that " the intelligence services were using the information to blackmail the extreme loyalist into helping them". Wallace made known his opposition. Wallace later attempted to expose security force involvement in events such as the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, and attempts by MI5 to undermine "left wing organisations and individuals", including the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson.

Barron notes that Wallace was then targeted by the same security services he had served. He was forced out of government service on a charge of attempting to pass a restricted document to a journalist, Robert Fisk. In 1980 he was charged with and then then convicted of manslaughter. After his release from prison on parole in 1985, Wallace proclaimed his innocence. He later successfully overturned the conviction, which was quashed on 21 July 1996. Wallace was also paid £30,000 pounds sterling compensation (the maximum allowed) for unjust dismissal from government Service. His role within the British Army intelligence service had already been officially, though belatedly, acknowledged in 1990. Wallace was fully vindicated.

Mass Murder Fred Holroyd on security force collusion in bombings

Evidence for British security force involvement in the bombings is also supported by British Army Captain Fred Holroyd, who worked for MI6 duing the 1970s in Northern Ireland. Holroyd argued that "the bombings were part of a pattern of collusion between elements of the security forces in Northern Ireland and loyalist paramilitaries."

Barron found that members of the Gardai and of the RUC attempted to unfairly and unjustly undermine Holroyd's evidence.

Barron noted that "Some of the RUC officers interviewed by the Inquiry, in their apparent eagerness to deny Holroyd any credibility whatsoever, themselves made inaccurate and misleading statements which have unfortunately tarnished their own credibility."

Then Assistant Commissioner of the Gardai, Edmund ('Ned') Garvey was said by Fred Holroyd to have met him and an RUC Officer at Garda headquarters in 1975. Holroyd named Garvey, and another Garda (codenamed, 'the badger'), as being on the "British side". Garvey later denied that the meeting took place. However, Justice Barron found: "The visit by Holroyd to Garda Headquarters unquestionably did take place, notwithstanding former Commissioner Garvey’s inability to recall it". Barron further noted: "On the Northern side, there is conflicting evidence as to how, why and by whom the visit was arranged. Regrettably, Garda investigations have failed to uncover any documentary evidence of the visit, or to identify any of the officers involved in arranging it from the Southern side."

Edmund Garvey was dismissed by the incoming Fianna Fail Government on January 19 1978 without explanation, other than by stating that it no longer had confidence in him as Garda Commissioner.

Mass Murder John Weir on security force collusion in bombings

The UVF claim of sole responsibility is also undermined by extensive evidence of involvement by British security forces in their paramilitary violence, in particular within UVF structures. RUC and UDR involvement with loyalist paramilitaries is established by admission of some of those involved - see Billy McCaughey. McCaughey, claimed that many local RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment personnel were working with UVF paramilitaries in the Armagh and Mid Ulster area in a way that made membership almost interchangeable - he claimed that his RUC Special Patrol Group unit was both exclusively Protestant and "orange" or unionist.

John Weir, a member of a different, though equally loyalist, RUC Special Patrol Group,

Claimed to have been part of a renegade group of loyalist paramilitaries, UDR and RUC officers who were carrying out attacks on both sides of the border between 1974 and 1978. He named people who he said were involved in a number of these attacks - including the Dublin, Monaghan and Dundalk bombings. He also named a farm which he claimed was used as a base by the group. He alleged that senior officers in the RUC knew of, and gave tacit approval to, these activities.

On Page 147 of the Barron Report, Weir detailed how "senior officers in the RUC knew of and encouraged connections between RUC officers and loyalist extremists."

Mass Murder Furthermore

Weir said he was told that UDR staff instructor William Hanna was assisted in carrying out the Dublin bombings by Robin Jackson (UVF, Lurgan) and David Payne (UDA, Belfast). He says that Stewart Young (UVF, Portadown) had been involved in carrying out the Monaghan bombing adding that he heard this from Young himself as well as from others in the group. He said that explosives for all four bombs were supplied by a named UDR officer.

In his report, Mr Justice Barron commented on John Weir's evidence "The Inquiry agrees with the view of An Garda Siochana that Weir's allegations regarding the Dublin and Monaghan bombings must be treated with the utmost seriousness."

Despite Weir's conviction for the Murder of William Strathearn in April 1977 - for which he was originally sentenced to life in prison - the inquiry found that Mr Weir's claims are 'largely credible'... Bearing in mind that Weir was an active member of the security services and that his allegations relating to the period from May to August 1976 have received considerable confirmation, the Inquiry believes that his evidence overall is credible.

The RUC furnished the Gardai with a report that attempted to undermine Weir's evidence. Barron found this RUC attempt to be highly inaccurate and to lack credibility.

Coastal Road massacre

Front end remains of the hijacked busThe Coastal Road Massacre is the name by which a Palestinian terrorist attack on an Israeli coastal-road bus is known. The attack was masterminded by Abu Jihad and undertaken by PLO faction Fatah.

On the morning of March 11, 1978, Dalal Mughrabi and her Fedayeen unit of eleven members (including one other woman) landed by Zodiac boats on a beach near Maagan Michael north of Tel Aviv from Lebanon. They killed Gail Ruban (some sources spell Rubin), an American photographer who was taking nature pictures nearby, and then hijacked a loaded bus on the Coastal Highway.

Mughrabi and her unit opened fire at the military vehicles in the vicinity. An Israeli army unit, headed by Ehud Barak (who, in the 1990s, became Chief of the General Staff and later Israeli Prime Minister) pursued the bus until it was finally stopped near Herzliya. A long shooting battle between the Palestinians and the soldiers ensued. The Palestinians started shooting the passengers that attempted to escape. Eventually, the Fatah members blew up the bus which became a large deathtrap of fire. Thirty five civilians and six Palestinian guerillas were killed. Seventy-one civilians were wounded. Other sources claim 38 civilians were killed There is lack of certainty over the fates of all the Palestinian attackers. Vast searches were undertaken in the Gush Dan area after additional attackers, but they weren't found and were probably killed. Some claim that 2 Palestinians, designated terrorists, were arrested by Israel.

Mughrabi's leadership role in the attack marked the emergence of women as full-fledged members of militant movements.

The Palestinian Authority named a Hebron girls' school in honor of Mughrabi. Her name has also been given to summer camps and both police and military courses.

The attack was the immediate trigger for the Israeli Operation Litani against PLO bases in Lebanon three days later.

Air India Flight 182

Air India Flight 182 Summary

Date June 23, 1985

Type Mid-air bomb explosion

Site Atlantic Ocean below Ireland

Fatalities 329

Injuries 0

Aircraft

Aircraft type Boeing 747-237B

Operator Air India

Passengers 307

Crew 22

Survivors 0

Air India Flight 182 was a Boeing 747 that exploded on June 23, 1985 while at an altitude of 31,000 feet (9500 m) above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland; all 329 on board were killed, of whom 82 were children and 280 were Canadian citizens.

Up until September 11, 2001, the Air India bombing was the single deadliest terrorist attack involving aircraft. It is also the largest mass Murder in Canadian history. It occurred within an hour of the Narita Airport Bombing.

The Air India B747-237B Emperor Kanishka (registered VT-EFO) flew on a Montréal-Mirabel International Airport, London Heathrow Airport Palam International Airport, Delhi Sahar International Airport, Bombay route.

The BC government's trial of those accused of the bombing, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, is known as the Air India Trial. The investigation and prosecution took almost twenty years and was the costliest in Canadian history at nearly CAD $130 million. On March 16, 2005, the accused were found not guilty by Justice Ian Josephson in British Columbia and were released. The only person convicted of involvement in the bombing was Inderjit Singh Reyat. On February 10, 2003 Reyat pled guilty to manslaughter in constructing the bomb used on Flight 182 and received a five-year sentence.

The length and cost of the trial, and subsequent verdict have been a source of great controversy in Canada.

Mass Murder Incident timeline

On June 20, 1985, at 0100 GMT, a man calling himself Mr. Singh made reservations for two flights on June 22: one for "Jaswand Singh" to fly from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Montreal on Canadian Pacific Air Lines (CP) 086, and one for "Mohinderbel Singh" to fly from Vancouver to Tokyo on CP 003, and to there connect with Air India flight 301 to Bangkok.

At 0220 GMT on the same day, another call was made, changing the reservation in the name of "Jaswand Singh" from CP 086 to CP 060 (flying from Vancouver to Toronto, Ontario). The caller also requested to be wait-listed on Air India 181 from Toronto to Montreal and AI 182 from Montreal to Delhi.

At 1910 GMT, a man paid for the two tickets with $3,005 in cash at a CP ticket office in Vancouver. The names on the reservations were changed; "Jaswand Singh" became "M. Singh" and "Mohinderbel Singh" became "L. Singh.".

On June 22, 1985, at 1330 GMT, a man calling himself Manjit Singh called to confirm his reservations on Air India flight 181/182. He was told he was still wait-listed, and was offered alternate arrangements, which he declined.

Mass Murder The Air India 182 bomb

At 15:50 GMT on June 22, "Mr. Singh" checked in at Vancouver Airport for CP Air Flight 60 to Toronto. He was assigned seat 10B. Singh requested that his suitcase, a dark brown, hard-sided Samsonite suitcase, be transferred to Flight 181 and then 182. CP Agent Jeanne Bakermans initially refused his request to inter-line the baggage, since his seat from Toronto to Montreal and Montreal to Delhi was unconfirmed, but later relented.

At 16:18 GMT, the CP Air flight to Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto departed without Mr. Singh.

At 20:22 GMT, CP Air Flight 60 arrived in Toronto twelve minutes late. Some of the passengers and baggage, including the bag Mr. Singh checked in, were transferred to the Air India flight. Other passengers and baggage from Air Canada Flight 136, which also came from Vancouver, were handled as well.

At 00:15 GMT (now June 23), Flight 181 departed Toronto for Montreal-Mirabel 1 hour and 40 minutes late. The aircraft was late as a "5th pod, a spare engine, was installed below the left wing. The defective engine was being flown to India for repairs. It arrived at Mirabel at 01:00 GMT. In Montreal, the Air India flight became Flight 182.

At 07:15 GMT, Air India Flight 182, which had departed Mirabel bound for London, disappeared. Air traffic controllers at the Shanwick Oceanic Control Center near Shannon International Airport, in Shannon, Ireland heard a crackling sound on the radio before the plane vanished. The plane was due to arrive at 08:15 GMT.

A Commemorative plaque, presented to the citizens of Bantry, Ireland by the Canadian Government for their kindness and compassion to the victims of Air India Flight 182.A bomb located in the forward cargo hold had exploded while the plane was in mid-flight at 31,000 ft. The bomb caused rapid decompression, and consequent in-flight breakup. The wreckage settled in 2,000 m deep water off the south-west Irish coast 180 miles (290 km) offshore of County Cork.

The bomb killed all 22 flight crew and 307 passengers on board the aircraft, including 82 minors and numerous Sikhs. Post-accident medical reports graphically illustrated the horror inflicted by this act on the passengers and crew. Of the 329 persons on board, only 131 bodies were recovered. 198 bodies were lost forever to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. The bodies recovered included 30 children. Eight bodies exhibited "flail pattern" injuries, indicating that those 8 victims exited the aircraft in the air prior to it hitting the water. This, in turn, was a sign that the airplane had broken up in mid-air rather than crashing into the water intact. 26 bodies showed signs of hypoxia (lack of oxygen), including 12 children. 25 bodies, mostly of victims who were seated near windows, showed signs of explosive decompression, including 7 children. 23 bodies had signs of "injuries from a vertical force". 21 passengers were found with little or no clothing.

One official quoted in the report stated, "All victims have been stated in the PM reports to have died of multiple injuries. However two of the dead, one infant and one child, are reported to have died of Asphyxia. There is no doubt about the asphyxial death of the infant. In the case of the other child (Body No. 93) there could be doubt because the findings could also be caused due to the child undergoing tumbling or spinning with the anchor point at the ankles. Three other victims undoubtedly died of drowning."

But for the one hour and forty minute delay in leaving Toronto, Air India 182 would have been at London's Heathrow airport at the time of the explosion; with an outcome similar to that of the Narita bomb which had exploded fifty five minutes earlier.

Mass Murder suspects

The main suspects in the bombing were the members of a Sikh separatist group called the Babbar Khalsa. The Babbar Khalsa was devoted to creating a Sikh state called Khalistan in the Punjab.

On November 6, 1985 the RCMP raided the homes of the suspected Sikh terrorists, Talwinder Singh Parmar, Inderjit Singh Reyat. Surjan Singh Gill, Hardial Singh Johal, and Manmohan Singh.

Talwinder Singh Parmar was a naturalized Canadian citizen living in British Columbia and was wanted for extradition to India for his role in activities in the Punjab including the Murder of two Police officers. At this time, the Indian police and Khalistan supporters were engaged in a bloody war in which many innocent people were caught by excesses on both sides. On March 5, 1985, three months before the bombing, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had obtained permission to tape Parmar’s phone on the basis that he was the leader of the Babbar Khalsa.

Inderjit Singh Reyat was living in Duncan, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and working as an auto mechanic and electrician.

Surjan Singh Gill was living in Vancouver as the self-proclaimed consul-general of Khalistan. He later fled Canada and is believed to be in hiding in London, England.

Ripudaman Singh Malik is a Vancouver businessman who helped fund a credit union and several Khalsa Schools.

Ajaib Singh Bagri was a mill worker living in Kamloops, British Columbia. Part of the evidence in the trial was a tape of Bagri giving a speech to Sikhs at Madison Square Garden on July 1984. Excerpts from the speech mentioned in the verdict include the need to Murder Hindus and makes the request to Murder the families of those in the Sikh community who would "betray us".

"They say Hindus are our brothers. Oh, I say denounce such Sikhism that calls Hindus our brothers. . . If any speaker from this stage ever mentions Hindus as our brothers he will be denounced as a traitor of the Sikh nation. . . They say Hindus are our brothers, many have said that, but I give you my most solemn assurance until we kill 50,000 Hindus, we will not rest!. . . Now I make a request: if anybody tries to betray us now, if anybody tries to get our nation annihilated, all of his family and children will be crushed in crushers and reduced to pulp."

Hardial Singh Johal and Manmohan Singh were both followers of Parmar and active in the Sikh temples where he preached. On November 15, 2002 Hardial Singh Johal, died of natural causes at 55. He had allegedly stored the suitcases with bombs in the basement of a Vancouver school but was never charged in the case.

Daljit Sandhu is later named by a Crown witness as the man who picked up the tickets for the bombing. During the trial the Crown played a video from January, 1989, in which Daljit Sandhu congratulated the families of Indira Gandhi’s assassins and stated that she deserved that and she invited that and that’s why she got it. Mr. Sandhu was cleared by Judge Josephson in his March 16 judgement.

Mass Murder Key Timelines

The bombing of Air India Flight 182 and the Narita airport launched several investigations, inquiries and trials. The trial of Malik and Bagri is known as the Air India Trial; Event relating to the incident are listed below in chronological order.

June 1, 1984 Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi orders storming of the Golden Temple complex, in Amritsar, Punjab, India in order to remove armed militants that had occupied the temple for months. The attack is called Operation Blue Star and is reported to have killed around 800 militants and 200 Indian government troops. The attack on the temple included damage to the complex as well as the destruction of sacred artifacts contained inside.

October 31, 1984 Two of Indira Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh assassinate the Prime Minister in the garden of her home.

November 3, 1984 Following Gandhi's Murder, Anti Sikh riots escalate through northern India over next two weeks. Indian National Congress mobs attack Sikh businesses, temples, and government buildings. The ensuing violence claims the lives of around 3,000, mostly Sikh, victims. Over 35,000 Sikhs flee to refugee camps that are set up north of Delhi. Many others are left homeless. Commissions set up after the incicident have found evidence that members of the Indian government were involved in inciting the riots.

1985 The 1984 anti-Sikh Murders cause the Sikh militant movement to gain strength in Punjab for the next ten years, resulting in the killing and displacement of thousands of Hindus.

June 23, 1985 Flight 182 explodes in mid-flight killing all 329 aboard. Explosion in Narita kills 2.

July, 1985 Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney calls Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to offer his condolences but does not call the victim's families to offer condolences. This causes an uproar among Indo-Canadians who feel that although this is the deadliest terrorist act to date, it is not taken seriously because the victims although mostly Canadian were not Caucasian.

November 8, 1985 The RCMP charge Talwinder Singh Parmar and Inderjit Singh Reyat with weapons, explosives and conspiracy offences after a raid on their homes. Reyat is convicted of the weapons offence and receives a fine of two thousand dollars. Due to lack of evidence the charges against Parmar are dropped and no link to Air India is established.

January 22, 1986 The Canadian Aviation Safety Board determines that a bomb was responsible for bringing down Air India 182.

February 4, 1986 The Indian Government's Kirpal Commission of Inquiry reaches the same conclusion as the Canadian Aviation Safety Board.

February 1988 Inderjit Singh Reyat is arrested by British police in Coventry, England.

December 8, 1989 Following a lengthy court battle the British government agrees to extradite Reyat to Canada.

May 10, 1991 Inderjit Singh Reyat receives a ten year sentence after being convicted of two counts of manslaughter and four explosives charges relating to the Narita Airport bombing.

October 15, 1992 Talwinder Singh Parmar is killed by Indian Police during a gun battle in Bombay.

October 27, 2000 Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri are arrested by the RCMP. They are charged with 329 counts of first-degree Murder in the deaths of the people on board Air India Flight 182, conspiracy to commit Murder, the attempted Murder of passengers and crew on the Canadian Pacific flight at Japan's New Tokyo International Airport (now Narita International Airport), and two counts of Murder of the baggage handlers at New Tokyo International Airport.

June 4, 2001 The British government gives Canada permission to charge Inderjit Singh Reyat in connection with the bombings.

June 6, 2001 Inderjit Singh Reyat is arrested by the RCMP facing charges of Murder, attempted Murder, and conspiracy in the Air India bombing.

February 10, 2003 Reyat pleads guilty to one count of manslaughter and a charge of aiding in the construction of a bomb. He was sentenced to five years in jail. At the time he was expected to provide testimony in the trial of Malik and Bagri but later claimed he couldn't remember.

April 2003 The trial of Malik and Bagri begins after being delayed by pre-trial motions and problems with defense counsel.

May 18, 2004 The crown rests its case in the trial of Malik and Bagri after calling 80 witnesses.

May 31, 2004 Malik and Bagri's defense begins.

October 19, 2004 Closing arguments begin.

December 4, 2004 The judge presiding over the Air India Trial, Justice Ian Josephson says the verdict will be delivered on March 16, 2005.

March 16, 2005 Justice Ian Josephson delivers the verdict for Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri: Not guilty on all counts.

I began by describing the horrific nature of these cruel acts of terrorism, acts which cry out for justice. Justice is not achieved, however, if persons are convicted on anything less than the requisite standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Despite what appear to have been the best and most earnest of efforts by the police and the Crown, the evidence has fallen markedly short of that standard.

January 6, 2006 Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only man convicted in the 1985 Air India bombing, was due to receive a parole hearing in March. Instead Mr. Reyat was charged with perjury on his testimony on the Air India Trial. He was denied parole and brought back to British Columbia to face the new charges. He has indicated he will plead not guilty.

Mass Murder Recent events

Twenty years after the downing of Air India Flight 182, families gathered in Ahakista, Ireland to grieve. Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin declared the anniversary a national day of mourning. During the anniversary observances, he said that the bombing was a Canadian problem, not a foreign problem, saying: "Make no mistake: The flight may have been Air India's, it may have taken place off the coast of Ireland, but this is a Canadian tragedy." He also ordered that every June 23, flags across Canada be flown at half-staff to mark the anniversary of the Air India bombing. Many families say they are still searching for answers and justice, and demand a public inquiry.

Former Ontario premier Bob Rae was selected to determine if a public inquiry is needed and was asked to determine whether or not the response by Canadian agencies was sufficiently co-ordinated, and if not, to find out if those problems had been fixed.

In a letter he submitted to the Attorney General of British Columbia, Ripudaman Singh Malik has demanded compensation from the Canadian government for wrongful prosecution in his arrest and trial. Malik owes the government $6.4 million and Bagri owes $9.7 million in legal fees.

In February Inderjit Singh Reyat was charged with perjury with regard to his testimony in the trial. The indictment was filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia and lists 27 instances where he allegedly misled the court during his testimony. Reyat had pleaded guilty to constructing the bomb but denied under oath that he knew anything about the conspiracy.

In the verdict Justice Ian Josephson said: "I find him to be an unmitigated liar under oath. Even the most sympathetic of listeners could only conclude, as do I, that his evidence was patently and pathetically fabricated in an attempt to minimize his involvement in his crime to an extreme degree, while refusing to reveal relevant information he clearly possesses."

Reyat has a hearing with the National Parole Board on March 3rd. If found guilty of perjury he could sentenced with up to 14 years in prison.

September 25, 2006, saw the opening of the Royal Commission into the Air India bombing and subsequent investigation, beginning with testimony from a man who lost his wife in the bombing. The opposition Liberal Party of Canada, which has been opposed to any form of enquiry into the bombing, has been putting pressure on the ruling Conservative Party to limit the extent of the enquiry. The Liberal Party is under strong pressure from Canada's fundamentalist and powerful Sikh community to pressure the ruling Conservatives to limit the Royal Commission. The Sikh community is concerned that the enquiry will put the Sikh community in a negative light and will curtail their political aspirations and will help to politically destabilize the community which generally still supports the creation of a separate Sikh state called Khalistan in India.

Mass Murder What did the Canadian government know?

The Canadian government had been warned by the Indian government about the possibility of terrorist bombs aboard Air India flights in Canada. And over two weeks before the crash CSIS reported to the RCMP that the potential threat to Air India as well as Indian missions in Canada, was high.

Mass Murder Destroyed evidence

In his verdict Justice Ian Josephson cited "unacceptable negligence" by CSIS when hundreds of wiretaps of the suspects were destroyed. Of the 210 wiretaps that were recorded during the months before and after the bombing, 156 were erased. These tapes continued to be erased even after the terrorists had become the primary suspects in the bombing.

CSIS claims the wiretaps contained no relevant information but a memo from the RCMP states that "There is a strong likelihood that had CSIS retained the tapes between March and August 1985, that a successful prosecution of at least some of principals in both bombings could have been undertaken." On June 4, 1985, CSIS agents Larry Lowe and Lynn McAdams trailed Talwinder Singh Parmar and Inderjit Singh Reyat to Vancouver Island. The agents reported to the RCMP that they had heard a noise like a "loud gunshot" in the woods. Later that month Flight 182 was bombed. After the bombing the RCMP went to the site and found remains of an electrical blasting cap.

The suspects in the bombing were apparently aware that they were under surveillance, because they used pay phones and talked in code. Translator's notes of the wiretaps records this exchange between Talwinder Parmar and a follower named Hardial Singh Johal on the same day the tickets were purchased on June 20, 1985. Parmar: Did he write the story? Johal: No he didn't. Parmar: Do that work first.

After this call a man called the CP Air and booked the tickets and left Johal's number. Shortly afterwards, Johal called Parmar and asked him if he "can come over and read the story he asked for". Parmar said he would be there shortly.

This conversation appears to be an order from Parmar to book the tickets used to bomb the planes. Because the original wiretaps were erased by CSIS they were inadmissible as evidence in court.

Mass Murder CSIS connection

During an interview with Bagri on October 28, 2000, RCMP agents describe Surjan Singh Gill as an agent for CSIS saying the reason that he resigned from the Babbar Khalsa was because his CSIS handlers told him to pull out.

After the subsequent failure of CSIS to stop the bombing of Flight 182, the head of CSIS was replaced by Reid Morden. In an interview to the CBC's news program The National, Morden claims that CSIS "dropped the ball" in its handling of the case. A Security Intelligence Review Committee cleared CSIS of any wrongdoing. However, that report remains secret to this day. The Canadian government continues to insist that there was no mole involved.

Pan Am Flight 103

Summary

Date December 21, 1988

Type Terrorist bombing

Site Lockerbie, Scotland

Fatalities 270 (including 11 on ground)

Injuries 0

Aircraft

Aircraft type Boeing 747-121

Operator Pan American World Airways

Tail number N739PA

Passengers 243

Crew 16

Survivors 0

Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London's Heathrow International Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. On December 21, 1988, the aircraft flying this route, a Boeing 747-121 registered N739PA and named Clipper Maid of the Seas, was destroyed and the remains landed in and around the town of Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland ( 55°5.7'N, 3°20.3'W).

In the subsequent investigation of the crash, forensic experts determined that 340 to 450 g (12 to 16 oz) of plastic explosive had been detonated in the airplane's forward cargo hold, triggering a sequence of events that led to the rapid destruction of the aircraft. Winds of 100 knots (190 km/h) scattered victims and debris along a 130 km (81 mile) corridor over an area of 845 square miles (2189 sq km). The death toll was 270 people from 21 countries, including 11 people in the town of Lockerbie.

Known as the Lockerbie bombing and the Lockerbie air disaster in the UK, it became the subject of Britain's largest criminal inquiry, led by its smallest police force, Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary. The bombing was widely regarded as an assault on a symbol of the United States, and with 189 of the victims being Americans, it stood as the deadliest attack on American civilians until the September 11, 2001 attacks.

After a three-year joint investigation by the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, during which 15,000 witness statements were taken, indictments for Murder were issued on November 13, 1991, against Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer and the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA), and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, the LAA station manager in Luqa Airport, Malta. United Nations sanctions against Libya and protracted negotiations with the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi secured the handover of the accused on April 5, 1999 to Scottish police at Camp Zeist, Netherlands, chosen as a neutral venue.

On January 31, 2001, Megrahi was convicted of Murder by a panel of three Scottish judges, and sentenced to 27 years in prison. Fhimah was acquitted. Megrahi's appeal against his conviction was refused on March 14, 2002, and his application to the European Court of Human Rights was declared inadmissible in July 2003. On September 23, 2003 Megrahi applied to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) for his conviction to be reviewed, and for his case to be referred back to the High Court for a fresh appeal. He is serving his sentence in Greenock prison near Glasgow, where he continues to profess his innocence.

Mass Murder Passengers

PA103 had started as PA103A at Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt, West Germany, operated by a Boeing 727 for the leg to Heathrow Airport in London, England. Forty-seven of the 89 passengers on PA103A changed aircraft there to a Boeing 747, which continued the flight as PA103 to JFK in New York. Had the flight continued, it would have gone back to a Boeing 727 for the final leg of the flight to Detroit.

The 747 had arrived at noon from San Francisco and had been parked at stand K-14, Terminal 3, and guarded for two hours by Pan Am's security company, Alert Security, but was otherwise not watched.

There were 243 passengers and 16 crew members on board, led by the pilot Captain James MacQuarrie, First Officer Raymond Wagner, and Flight Engineer Jerry Avritt. Thirty-five students from Syracuse University and two from the State University of New York at Oswego were on board, flying home from an overseas study program in London. Ten of the victims were residents of Long Island including father and son, John and Sean Mulroy and were returning home for seasonal celebrations with families and friends, as reported by Newsday of December 27, 1988.

Five members of the Dixit-Rattan family, including 3-year-old Suruchi Rattan, were flying to Detroit from New Delhi. They were supposed to be on PA67, which had left Frankfurt earlier in the day, but one of the children had fallen ill with breathing difficulties, and the pilot had taken the unusual step of bringing the plane back to the gate to allow the family to disembark. The boy soon recovered, and the family was transferred to PA103 instead. Suruchi was wearing a bright red kurta and salwar a knee-length tunic and matching pants for her journey. She became associated with a note left with flowers outside Lockerbie town hall:

To the little girl in the red dress who lies here who made my flight from Frankfurt such fun. You didn't deserve this. God Bless, Chas.

There were at least four U.S. intelligence officers on the passenger list, with rumors, never confirmed, of a fifth. The presence of these men on the flight later gave rise to a number of conspiracy theories, in which one or more of them were said to have been the bombers' targets. Matthew Gannon, the CIA's deputy station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, was sitting in Clipper Class seat 14J. Major Chuck "Tiny" McKee, a senior army officer on secondment to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in Beirut, sat behind Gannon in the center aisle in seat 15F. Two CIA officers, believed to be acting as bodyguards to Gannon and McKee, were sitting in economy: Ronald Lariviere, a security officer from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, was in 20H, and Daniel O'Connor, a security officer from the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, sat five rows behind Lariviere in 25H, both men seated over the right wing.

The four men had flown together out of Cyprus that morning. Major McKee is believed to have been in Beirut trying to locate the American hostages held at that time by Hezbollah. After the bombing, sources close to the investigation told journalists that a map had been found in Lockerbie showing the suspected locations of the hostages, as marked by McKee, though this discovery was not confirmed in court.

Also on board, in seat 53K at the back of the plane, was 20-year-old Khalid Nazir Jaafar, who had moved from Lebanon to Detroit with his family, where his father ran a successful auto-repair business. Because of his Lebanese background, and because he was returning from having visited relatives there, Jaafar's name later figured prominently in the investigation into the bombing, as well as in a number of conspiracy theories that developed.

Paul Avron Jeffreys, former bass player with the UK group Cockney Rebel, was on the flight with his new wife Rachel, enroute to their honeymoon celebration.

Mass Murder Helsinki warning

A declassified CIA document referring to the Helsinki warningOn December 5, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a security bulletin saying that on that day a man with an Arabic accent had telephoned the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, Finland, and had told them that a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to the United States would be blown up within the next two weeks by someone associated with the Abu Nidal Organization. He said a Finnish woman would carry the bomb on board as an unwitting courier. The caller's claim was off by only two days.

The anonymous warning was taken seriously by the U.S. government. The State Department cabled the bulletin to dozens of embassies. The FAA sent it to all U.S. carriers, including Pan Am, which had charged each of the passengers a five-dollar security surcharge, promising a "program that will screen passengers, employees, airport facilities, baggage and aircraft with unrelenting thoroughness" (The Independent, March 29, 1990); the security team in Frankfurt found the warning hidden under a pile of papers on a desk the day after the bombing (Cox and Foster 1992). One of the Frankfurt security screeners, whose job it was to spot explosive devices under X-ray, told ABC News that she had first learned what Semtex was during ABC's interview with her 11 months after the bombing (Prime Time Live, November 1989).

On December 13, the warning was posted on bulletin boards in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, and eventually distributed to the entire American community there, including journalists and businessmen. As a result, a number of people allegedly booked on carriers other than Pan Am, leaving empty seats on PA103 that were later sold cheaply in "bucket shops". PA103 investigators subsequently said the telephone warning had been a hoax and a chilling coincidence.

Mass Murder Last contact

The flight was scheduled to depart at 18:00, and pushed back from the gate at 18:04, but because of a rush-hour delay, not unusual at Heathrow Airport, it took off from runway 27L at 18:25, flying northwest out of Heathrow, a so-called Daventry departure. Once clear of Heathrow, the pilot steered due north toward Scotland. At 18:56, as the aircraft approached the border, it reached its cruising altitude of 31,000 ft (9400 m), and MacQuarrie throttled the engines back to cruising power.

At 19:00, PA103 was picked up by the Scottish Area Control Centre at Prestwick, Scotland, where it needed clearance to begin its flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Alan Topp, an air traffic controller, made contact with the clipper as it entered Scottish airspace.

Captain James MacQuarrie replied: "Good evening Scottish, Clipper one zero three. We are at level three one zero." Then First Officer Wagner spoke: "Clipper 103 requesting oceanic clearance." Those were the last words heard from the aircraft.

Mass Murder Explosion

At 19:01, Topp watched Flight 103 approach the corner of the Solway Firth, and at 19:02, it crossed its northern coast. The aircraft appeared as a small green square with a cross at its centre showing its transponder code or "squawk" 0357 and flight level 310. The code gave Topp information about the time and height of the plane: the last code he saw for the Clipper told him it was flying at 31,000 ft (9400 m) on a heading of 316 degrees magnetic, and at a speed of 313 knots (580 km/h) calibrated air speed, at 19:02:46.9. Subsequent analysis of the radar returns by RSRE concluded that the aircraft was tracking 321° (grid) and travelling at a ground speed of 434 knots (804 km/h).

At that moment, the plane's code and the cross in the middle of the square disappeared. Topp tried to make contact with Captain McQuarrie, and asked a nearby KLM flight to do the same, but there was no reply. At first, Topp believed he was watching the flight enter a so-called zone of silence, dead space where objects are invisible to radar. Where there should have been one green square on his screen, there were four, and as the seconds passed, the squares began to fan out (Cox and Foster 1992). Comparison of the cockpit voice recorder with the radar returns showed that 8 seconds after the explosion, wreckage had a 1-nautical-mile (2 km) spread.

A minute later, the wing section containing 200,000 lb (91,000 kg) of fuel hit the ground at Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie. The British Geological Survey at Eskdalemuir, just outside Lockerbie, registered a seismic event measuring 1.6 on the Richter scale as all trace of two families, several houses, and the 196 ft (60 m) wing of the aircraft disappeared. A British Airways pilot, Captain Robin Chamberlain, flying the Glasgow London shuttle near Carlisle called Scottish to report that he could see a massive fire on the ground. The destruction of PA103 continued on Topp's screen, by now full of bright squares moving eastwards with the wind.

Mass Murder Aircraft break up

The explosion punched a 20-inch-wide (0.5 m) hole, almost directly under the P in Pan Am, on the left side of the fuselage. The disintegration of the aircraft was rapid. Investigators from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) of the British Department of Transport concluded that the nose of the aircraft separated from the main section within three seconds of the explosion.

The flight data recorder, a bright orange-coloured recording device in the tail section of the aircraft, was found in a field by police searchers within 24 hours of the bombing. There was no evidence of a distress call: a 180-millisecond hissing noise could be heard as the explosion destroyed the aircraft's communications centre.

After being lowered into the cockpit in Lockerbie before it was moved, and while the bodies of the flight crew were still inside it, investigators from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) concluded that no emergency procedures had been started. The pressure control and fuel switches were both set for cruise, and the crew had not used their oxygen masks, which would have descended within five seconds of a rapid depressurisation of the aircraft (Cox and Foster 1992).

The nerve centre of a 747, from which all the navigation and communication systems are controlled, sits two floors below the cockpit, separated from the forward cargo hold only by a bulkhead wall. Investigators concluded that the force of the explosion broke through this wall and shook the flight-control cables, causing the front section of the fuselage to begin to roll, pitch, and yaw.

These violent movements snapped the reinforcing belt that secured the front section to the row of windows on the left side and it began to break away. At the same time, shock waves from the blast ricocheted back from the fuselage skin in the direction of the bomb, meeting pulses still coming from the initial explosion. This produced Mach stem shock waves, calculated to be 25 percent faster than, and double the power of, the waves from the explosion itself (Cox and Foster, 1992). These shock waves rebounded from one side of the aircraft to the other, running down the length of the fuselage through the air-conditioning ducts and splitting the fuselage open. A section of the 747's roof several feet above the point of detonation peeled away. The Mach stem waves pulsing through the ductwork bounced off overhead luggage racks and other hard surfaces, jolting the passengers.

The power of the explosion was enhanced by the difference in air pressure between the inside of the aircraft, where it was kept at breathable levels, and outside, where it was about a quarter of what it is at sea level. The nose of the aircraft, containing the crew and the first class section, broke away, striking the No. 3 Pratt & Whitney engine as it snapped off.

Investigators believe that within three seconds of the explosion, the cockpit, fuselage, and No. 3 engine were falling separately. The fuselage continued moving forward and down until it reached 19,000 ft (6000 m), at which point its dive became almost vertical.

As it descended, the fuselage broke into smaller pieces, with the section attached to the wings landing first in Sherwood Crescent, where the aviation fuel inside the wings ignited, causing a fireball that destroyed several houses, and which was so intense that nothing remained of the left wing of the aircraft. Investigators were able to determine that both wings had landed in the crater only after counting the number of large steel flapjack screws that were found there (Cox and Foster 1992).

Mass Murder Victims

Mass Murder Passengers and crew

The flight crew and a number of first-class passengers were seated inside the aircraft nose section when it crashed in a field near Tundergarth village church.All 243 passengers and 16 crew members were killed. A Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiry, which opened on October 1, 1990, heard that, when the cockpit broke off, tornado-force winds would have torn through the fuselage, tearing clothes off passengers and turning objects like drink carts into lethal pieces of shrapnel. Because of the sudden change in air pressure, the gases inside the passengers' bodies would have expanded to four times their normal volume, causing their lungs to swell and then collapse. People and objects not fixed down would have been blown out of the aircraft at an air temperature of minus 50°F (-46°C), their 6-mile (9 km) fall lasting about two minutes (Cox and Foster 1992). Some passengers remained attached to the fuselage by their seat belts, landing in Lockerbie strapped to their seats.

Although the passengers would have lost consciousness through lack of oxygen, forensic examiners believe some of them might have regained consciousness as they fell toward oxygen-rich lower altitudes. Forensic pathologist Dr. William G. Eckert, director of the Milton Helpern International Center of Forensic Sciences at Wichita State University, who examined the autopsy evidence, told Scottish police he believed the flight crew, some of the flight attendants, and 147 other passengers survived the bomb blast and depressurization of the aircraft, and may have been alive on impact. None of these passengers showed signs of injury from the explosion itself, or from the decompression and disintegration of the aircraft. The inquest heard that a mother was found holding her baby, two friends were holding hands, and a number of passengers were found clutching crucifixes.

Dr Eckert told Scottish police that distinctive marks on Captain MacQuarrie's thumb suggested he had been hanging onto the yoke of the plane as it descended, and may have been alive when the plane crashed. The pilot, first officer, flight engineer, a flight attendant, and a number of first-class passengers were found still strapped to their seats inside the nose section when it crashed in a field by a tiny church in the village of Tundergarth. The inquest heard that the flight attendant was alive when found by a farmer's wife, but died before her rescuer could summon help. A male passenger was also found alive, and medical authorities believe he might have survived had he been found earlier (Cox and Foster 1992).

Mass Murder Lockerbie residents

Sherwood Crescent, LockerbieOn the ground, 11 Lockerbie residents were killed when the wings, still attached by a piece of fuselage, hit 13 Sherwood Crescent at more than 500 mph and exploded, creating a crater 47 metres (155 ft) long and with a volume of 560 m³ (730 yd³), vaporising several houses and their foundations, and damaging 21 others so badly they had to be demolished. Four members of one family, Jack and Rosalind Somerville and their children Paul and Lynsey, died when their house at 15 Sherwood Crescent exploded. A fireball rose above the houses and moved toward the nearby Glasgow-Carlisle A74 main road, scorching cars in the southbound lanes, leading motorists and local residents to believe that there had been a meltdown at the nearby Chapelcross nuclear power plant. The only house left standing intact in the area belonged to Father Patrick Keegans, Lockerbie's Roman Catholic priest.

For many days, Lockerbie residents lived with the sight of bodies in their gardens and in the streets, as forensic workers photographed and tagged the location of each body to help determine the exact position and force of the onboard explosion, by coordinating information about each passenger's assigned seat, type of injury, and where they had landed.

Local resident Bunty Galloway told authors Geraldine Sheridan and Thomas Kenning (1993):

A boy was lying at the bottom of the steps on to the road. A young laddie with brown socks and blue trousers on. Later that evening my son-in-law asked for a blanket to cover him. I didn't know he was dead. I gave him a lamb's wool travelling rug thinking I'd keep him warm. Two more girls were lying dead across the road, one of them bent over garden railings. It was just as though they were sleeping. The boy lay at the bottom of my stairs for days. Every time I came back to my house for clothes he was still there. "My boy is still there," I used to tell the waiting policeman. Eventually on Saturday I couldn't take it no more. "You got to get my boy lifted," I told the policeman. That night he was moved.

Despite being advised by their governments not to travel to Lockerbie, many of the passengers' relatives, most of them from the U.S., arrived there within days to identify their loved ones. Volunteers from Lockerbie set up and manned canteens, which stayed open 24 hours a day, where relatives, soldiers, police officers and social workers could find free sandwiches, hot meals, coffee, and someone to talk to. The people of the town washed, dried, and ironed every piece of clothing that was found, once the police had determined they were of no forensic value, so that as many items as possible could be returned to the relatives. The BBC's Scottish correspondent, Andrew Cassel, reported on the tenth anniversary of the bombing that the townspeople had "opened their homes and hearts" to the relatives, bearing their own losses "stoically and with enormous dignity", and that the bonds forged then continue to this day.

Mass Murder People who missed the flight

A number of stories emerged after the bombing of people with reservations on PA103 who missed the flight. American musical quartet The Four Tops were returning to the States for Christmas, but were late getting out of a recording session. Angry at being too late to catch the flight, they were arguing about it when they heard it had exploded (ABC News Prime Time Live, November 30, 1989).

Former Sex Pistols band member John Lydon and his wife, Nora, also had a narrow escape. "Nora and I should have been dead," he told the Scottish Sunday Mirror. "We only missed the flight because Nora hadn't packed in time. The minute we realised what happened, we just looked at each other and almost collapsed."

Jaswant Basuta got drunk in the passenger lounge after checking in, and sprinted to the gate to find the aircraft's doors had just been closed. He pleaded for the doors to be re-opened, but Pan Am duty manager Christopher Price refused. Just over an hour later, two police officers arrived in the passenger lounge to tell Basuta the flight was down and that he was a suspect, because his suitcase had been on the plane but he had not a breach by the airline of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules, which insist that the checked baggage of any passenger who failed to board be removed from the aircraft's hold. While he was being questioned, his wife, Surinder, who believed he was on the flight, made a promise to the image of a Sikh prophet on the clock in the kitchen at home that she would hire priests to perform a special 48-hour prayer session if her husband survived. On a Friday morning two months later, she and her husband Jaswant went to a Sikh temple in New York, and with the priests she had invited prayed from 10:00 a.m. on Friday until 10:00 a.m. on Sunday. "On one side of the door was death," Surinder told authors Matthew Cox and Tom Foster, "on the other, life. It's like someone pulled him back" (Cox and Foster 1992).

Others known or rumoured to have cancelled reservations on PA103 include former South African foreign minister Pik Botha, who was travelling to a United Nations ceremony in New York to sign an accord granting independence to Namibia (Bernt Carlsson, the UN Commissioner for Namibia, who was travelling to the same ceremony, died on board the flight); John McCarthy, then U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon; Chris Revell, the son of Oliver "Buck" Revell, then executive assistant director of the FBI; and Steven Greene, assistant administrator in the Office of Intelligence of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The alleged cancellation of tickets by high-profile passengers later fuelled rumours that intelligence agencies had advance warning of the bombing.

Mass Murder Claims of responsibility

According to a CIA analysis dated December 22, 1988, several groups were quick to claim responsibility in telephone calls in the United States and Europe:

A male caller claimed that a group called the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution had destroyed the plane in retaliation for the U.S. shootdown of an Iranian airliner last July. A caller claiming to represent the Islamic Jihad organization told ABC News in New York that the group had planted the bomb to commemorate Christmas.

The Ulster Defense League allegedly issued a telephonic claim. Another anonymous caller claimed the plane had been downed by Mossad, the Israeli Intelligence service. After finishing this list, the author stated, "We consider the claims from the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution as the most credible one received so far". The analysis concluded, "We cannot assign responsibility for this tragedy to any terrorist group at this time. We anticipate that, as often happens, many groups will seek to claim credit".

Mass Murder Motive

On 15-16 April 1986, U.S. warplanes launched a series of military strikes called Operation El Dorado Canyon from British bases the first U.S. military strikes from Britain since World War II against Tripoli and Benghazi, Libya, in retaliation for the bombing ten days earlier of a West Berlin nightclub used by U.S. soldiers, which had killed three and injured 230. (Gaddafi had, in turn, ordered the West Berlin bombing in revenge for the sinking of two Libyan boats by the United States in the Gulf of Sirte at the end of March.) Among dozens of others, the airstrikes killed Hanna Gaddafi, a baby girl Gaddafi claimed to have adopted.

Mass Murder Investigation

Further information: Investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 The initial investigation into the crash site by Dumfries and Galloway police involved military and civilian helicopter surveys, satellite imaging, and a fingertip search of the area by police and soldiers. More than 10,000 pieces of debris were retrieved, tagged and entered into a computer tracking system.

The fuselage of the aircraft was reconstructed by air accident investigators, revealing a 20-inch hole consistent with an explosion in the forward cargo hold. Examination of the baggage containers revealed that the container nearest the hole had blackening, pitting, and severe damage indicating a "high-energy event" had taken place inside it. A series of test explosions were carried out to confirm the precise location and quantity of explosive used.

It was this photograph of Megrahi, taken in the 1980s, that Tony Gauci identified as the man who had bought the clothes.Fragments of a Samsonite suitcase believed to have contained the bomb were recovered, together with parts and pieces of circuit board identified as part of a Toshiba Bombeat radio cassette player, similar to that used to conceal a Semtex bomb seized by West German police from a Palestinian militant group two months earlier. Items of baby clothing, which were subsequently proven to have been made in Malta, were also traced to the same suitcase.

The clothes were traced to a Maltese merchant, Tony Gauci, who became a key prosecution witness, testifying that he sold the clothes to a man of Libyan appearance, whom he later identified as Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi.

A circuit board fragment, found embedded in a piece of charred material, was identified as part of an electronic timer similar to that found on a Libyan intelligence agent who had been arrested 10 months previously, carrying materials for a Semtex bomb. The timer was traced through its Swiss manufacturer, Mebo, to the Libyan military.

Investigators also discovered that an unaccompanied bag had been routed onto PA103, via the interline baggage system, from Luqa airport on Air Malta flight KM180 to Frankfurt, and then by feeder flight PA103A to Heathrow. This unaccompanied bag was shown at the trial to have been the bomb suitcase.

Mass Murder Trial and appeal

Further information: Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial On May 3, 2000 the trial of the two Libyans, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, accused of the 1988 PA103 bombing, began. Megrahi was convicted of Murder on January 31, 2001, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. His co-accused, Fhimah, was acquitted.

Megrahi's appeal against conviction was rejected on March 14, 2002. He appealed against his 27-year minimum prison sentence. His case has been under review for the past three years by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), which is expected to conclude that Megrahi's case should be referred back to the High Court for a fresh appeal against conviction.

In two reports issued in February 2001 and March 2002, Professor Hans Köchler, an international observer of the trial appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, criticized the decisions of the trial and appeal courts as a "spectacular miscarriage of justice." In a statement issued in August 2003, Köchler called for an independent international inquiry into the case.

In November 2005 legal academic, Professor Robert Black, who devised the special arrangements for the non-jury Scots law trial at Camp Zeist, Netherlands, gave his opinion:

The SCCRC will proceed with its investigation and with its likely reference of the case back for a fresh appeal against conviction, even if Megrahi is repatriated and (as part of any deal between the UK and Libyan governments) asks that any further proceedings be terminated. UK Lockerbie relatives have already made representations to this effect to the SCCRC, which is statutorily obliged to take such representations into account in reaching its decision.

On May 4, 2006, the Scottish Executive announced that a panel of five judges sitting in Edinburgh would hear Megrahi's appeal against his sentence on July 11, 2006. However, defence lawyers and others, including PA103 relatives, expressed concern about the timing of this appeal against sentence and about a possible appeal against conviction that the SCCRC might decide upon, which, they maintain, should be heard at the same time. Addressing these concerns, a court spokesman said:

There might be a referral from the commission, but there might not be.

Lawyers for Megrahi later insisted that both appeals (against sentence and conviction) ought to take place at the special Scottish court at Camp Zeist, Netherlands, where his trial and first appeal against conviction were held, rather than in Edinburgh. The Crown disputed the move on security and cost grounds, but on June 8, 2006, the Scottish Court of Criminal Appeal decided to postpone the July appeal against sentence until October 2006. On November 1, 2006 Megrahi was reported to have dropped his demand for the new appeal to be held at Camp Zeist.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has announced on 12 February 2007 that it is its intention to issue a decision in the case of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi by the end of June 2007

Mass Murder Compensation from Libya

On May 29, 2002, Libya offered up to US$2.7 billion to settle claims by the families of the 270 killed in the Lockerbie bombing, representing US$10 million per family. The Libyan offer was that:

40 percent of the money would be released when United Nations sanctions, suspended in 1999, were cancelled; another 40 percent when U.S. trade sanctions were lifted; and the final 20 percent when the U.S. State Department removed Libya from its list of states sponsoring terrorism. Jim Kreindler of New York law firm, Kreindler & Kreindler, which orchestrated the settlement, said:

These are uncharted waters. It is the first time that any of the states designated as sponsors of terrorism have offered compensation to families of terror victims.

The U.S. State Department maintained that it was not directly involved. "Some families want cash, others say it is blood money," said a State Department official.

Compensation for the families of the PA103 victims was among the steps set by the UN for lifting its sanctions against Libya. Other requirements included a formal denunciation of terrorism which Libya said it had already made-and accepting responsibility for the actions of its intelligence agents.

Over 18 months later, on December 5, 2003, Jim Kreindler revealed that his Park Avenue law firm would receive an initial contingency fee of around US$1 million from each of the 128 American families Kreindler represents. The firm's fees could exceed US$300 million eventually. But Kreindler argued:

Over the past seven years we have had a dedicated team working tirelessly on this and we deserve the contingency fee we have worked so hard for, and I think we have provided the relatives with value for money.

Another top legal firm in the U.S., Speiser Krause, which represented 60 relatives, of whom half were UK families, was understood to have concluded contingency deals securing them fees of between 28 and 35 percent of individual settlements. Frank Greneda of Speiser Krause commented:

Sure the rewards in the U.S. are more substantial than anywhere else in the world but nobody has questioned the fee whilst the work has been going on, it is only now as we approach a resolution when the criticism comes your way.

On August 15, 2003 Libya's UN ambassador, Ahmed Own, submitted a letter to the UN Security Council formally accepting "responsibility for the actions of its officials" in relation to the Lockerbie bombing. The Libyan government then proceeded to pay compensation to each family of US$8 million (from which legal fees of about US$2.5 million were deducted) and, as a result, the UN cancelled the sanctions that had been suspended four years earlier, and U.S. trade sanctions were lifted. A further US$2 million would have gone to each family had the U.S. State Department removed Libya from its list of states regarded as supporting international terrorism, but as this did not happen by the deadline set by Libya, the Libyan Central Bank withdrew the remaining US$540 million in April 2005 from the escrow account in Switzerland through which the earlier US$2.16 billion compensation for the victims' families had been paid. The United States announced resumption of full diplomatic relations with Libya after deciding to remove it from its list of countries that support terrorism on May 15, 2006.

Some observers believe that Libya's acceptance of responsibility amounted to a business deal aimed at having the sanctions overturned, rather than an admission of guilt. On February 24, 2004, Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem stated in a BBC Radio 4 interview that his country had paid the compensation as the "price for peace" and to secure the lifting of sanctions. Asked if Libya did not accept guilt, he said, "I agree with that." He also said there was no evidence to link Libya with the April 1984 shooting of police officer Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan Embassy in London. Gaddafi later retracted Ghanem's comments, under pressure from Washington and London.

A civil action against Libya continues on behalf of Pan Am, which went bankrupt partly as a result of the attack. The airline is seeking $4.5 billion for the loss of the aircraft and the effect on the airline's business.

In October 2005, it was reported that the British, American and Libyan governments were negotiating the transfer of Megrahi to a prison in his home country on condition that he drops any further appeal against his conviction. It was a proviso of his conviction that he should serve his full jail term in Scotland. That such a deal could even be contemplated strongly suggests the British and American governments would prefer the case not to be reopened, since a successful appeal could easily sour their new détente with Libya.

Mass Murder Casualties of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict

Ayse Konakçi Primary School in Tavas, Denizli: A notable form of remembrance for the memory of the teachers killed by the PKK has been to give the names of each to an educational establishment Kurds on March 30, 2006 carry the coffin one of the people who died during clashes (Turkey)More than 37.000 people have been killed in the Turkish-PKK conflict since 1984. Below is a list of attacks with casualties. More than 210 attacks listed are either attacks by PKK that involved civilian casualties or clashes between PKK and Turkish military and paramilitary forces. Also 124 teachers were killed by PKK. 7 attacks of TAK are listed; it is believed that they split off from PKK when they became dissatisfied with the group's tactics. 8 attacks are listed which involve Turkish security forces and civilian casualties.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization internationally by a number of states and organizations, including the USA, NATO and the EU. Eric Rouleau in the November/December 2000 edition of 'Foreign Affairs' states: "According to the Turkish Ministry of Justice, in addition to the 35,000 people killed in military campaigns, 17,500 were assassinated between 1984, when the conflict began, and 1998. An additional 1,000 people were reportedly assassinated in the first nine months of 1999. According to the Turkish press, the authors of these crimes, none of whom have been arrested, belong to groups of mercenaries working either directly or indirectly for the security agencies".

Mass Murder Human Rights Watch has stated that

"Consequently, all economic, political, military, social and cultural organizations, institutions, formations -- and those who serve in them -- have become targets. The entire country has become a battlefield." "The PKK also promised to "liquidate" or "eliminate" political parties, "imperialist" cultural and educational institutions, legislative and representative bodies, and "all local collaborators and agents working for the Republic of Turkey in Kurdistan."

It also notes that "As Human Rights Watch has often reported and condemned, Turkish government forces have, in the course of the conflict with the PKK, also committed serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including torture, extrajudicial killings, and indiscriminate fire. We continue to demand that the Turkish government investigate and hold accountable those members of its security forces responsible for these violations. Nonetheless, under international law, the government abuses cannot under any circumstances be seen to justify or excuse those committed by Ocalan's PKK.", and remarks that, "Many who died were unarmed civilians, caught in the middle between the PKK and security forces, targeted for attacks by both sides".

According to Amnesty International, the PKK killed and allegedly tortured Kurdish peasants and its own members in the 1980s. A number of Kurds have been abducted and killed because they were suspected of being "collaborators" or "informers" and and it was a common practice for the PKK to kill their whole families. According to an article printed in the November 2002 issue of the International Socialist, monthly paper of the International Socialists, during the conflict (and still as of 2002), the Turkish army tortured, killed and disappeared civilians. In 1997, Amnesty International (AI) reported that, "'Disappearances' and extrajudicial executions have emerged as new and disturbing patterns of human rights violations ..." by the Turkish state. According to an earlier (1996) report of AI, "in January 1996 the Turkish government announced that the PKK had massacred 11 men near the remote village of Guclukonak. Seven of the victims were members of the local village guard force. Independent investigations suggested that the massacre was the work of the security forces". (see false flag).

Mass Murder Summary

a) 18 clashes between PKK and Turkish security forces' (military/police/paramilitary(village guards)

b) 35 attacks by PKK resulting in Turkish (many of Kurdish descent) civilian casualties; 17 of them resulted in section:children casualties. We also have 124 section:teachers killed by PKK.

c) 8 Turkish security forces' attacks against civilians; two of them involving section:children.

d) 9 more attacks, 7 of them by TAK. Two attacks by PKK against section:non-Turks. One attack by TAK (which resulted in section:children casualties) is also claimed by TIT. TIT has no known official connection to any Turkish party or security forces.

Mass Murder Teachers

PKK has targeted primary school teachers working in the village schools. PKK's efforts against these teachers started in the early nineties and continued on a recurrent basis. After armed PKK members abducted and killed 19 teachers in the autumn of 1994, Amnesty International's 1995 report on Turkey mentioned that "It appears that the Kurdish Workers' Party, PKK, is resuming its repugnant policy of Murdering teachers in southeast Turkey". The number of teachers killed by PKK is at variance but according to Turkish government sources 124 teachers were killed by members of the PKK.

Mass Murder HPG reports

We also have the following HPG reports. The HPG, which stands for Hêrzên Parastina Gel or People’s Defense Forces is the armed wing of PKK. The attacks are listed below these reports.

November 2006: The HPG, armed wing of the PKK reports the following "war balance". Clashes with Turkish military: 25, Turkish soldiers killed: 23 (officers: 5, soldiers: 18). HPG militants killed: 9 October 2006: The HPG, armed wing of the PKK reports the following "war balance". Turkish military operations: 42, clashes during these operations: 23. Turkish soldiers killed: 12. HPG militants killed: 8. September 2006: The HPG, armed wing of the PKK reports the following "war balance". Turkish military operations: 66, clashes during these operations: 41. Turkish soldiers killed: 64, of them 8 officers and 2 village guards. HPG militants killed: 13. One soldier (Kurdish origin) was killed by the Turkish army.

Mass Murder 2006

August 30, 2006: In Mersin a bomb was planted in a rubbish container on Inonu street, one person was injured. The bombing is believed to be linked to the recent attacks by the TAK, however they have not claimed responsibility. August 28, 2006: Less than 24 hours after separate bombs in Marmaris wounded 21 people, including 10 Britons and 11 Turks,(non-English) a bomb blast killed three people (one of them born in Sirnak), wounding 87 (among them 14 tourists; 4 Jordanians, 3 Russians, 3 Germans, 2 Dutch, 1 Israeli and 1 Iranian) in the coastal city Antalya. A bomb explosion in the evening in front of the Governor's offices outside in Istanbul's Bagcilar quarter caused 6 people to be injured in. The attack was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (abbreviated TAK) a group which split off from the PKK. The PKK condemned the bombings..

August 06, 2006: In Gümüshane, a noncomissioned officer and two soldiers were killed, five wounded in a PKK ambush to a military vehicle.

July 27, 2006: In Bingöl, one Turkish military officer was killed by PKK anti-personal mine. One Turkish military officer and one soldier was wounded.

July 21, 2006: In Hakkari Semdinli, one Turkish soldier was killed by PKK members using long-range rifle, in a helicopter during his last day of military service.

July 17, 2006: In Batman, two Turkish police officers were killed in a PKK ambush.

July 15, 2006: In Siirt, seven Turkish soldiers and one village guard were killed by PKK members.

July 13, 2006: In Bitlis, five Turkish soldiers were killed and four others wounded by PKK members using a remote detonated road mine.

July 06, 2006: In Diyarbakir, one civilian driver was killed and three soldiers were wounded when PKK members detonated a bomb implanted in a car carrying bread to a military precinct.

June 30, 2006: In Tunceli, one Turkish soldier was killed by PKK members using a long-range Dragunov Sniper Rifle (Kanas).

June 30, 2006: In Bingöl, one officer and one soldier from Turkish Gendarmerie died when a PKK-planted road mine was detonated by remote control. Six other Turkish soldiers were injured.

June 28, 2006: One Turkish soldier died in clashes with PKK in Hakkari. The PKK members then escaped to Iraq after the clash.

June 23, 2006: Four Turkish soldiers were killed and three others were wounded during operations against PKK-affiliated People's Defense Forces (HPG) guerrillas in Özalp district of Van Province.

June 11, 2006: In Tunceli, PKK attacked a Turkish military convoy using long-range rifles and RPGs. Two Turkish soldiers died in the attack. Five soldiers and two civilians were also injured.

June 6, 2006: Two Turkish soldiers were killed by PKK in Hakkari. Two others were injured.

April 5, 2006: An attack on a district office of the Justice and Development Party in Istanbul results in two people injured. It is believed the TAK carried out the attack.

June 4, 2006: 2 Kurd Rebels Killed in Turkish Clashes

April 2, 2006: Three civilian women died because of a bus that went out of control, which was burned and rampaged by PKK sympathisers during an illegal street meeting, in Esenler, Istanbul.

March 31, 2006: One person was killed and thirteen injured when the TAK detonated a bomb near a bus station in the Kocamustafapasa district of Istanbul.

March 25, 2006: According to by Fatih Tas writing in ZMag, Turkish forces killed 14 HPG guerillas using chemical weapons.

Mass Murder 2005

November 26, 2005 - Four Turkish soliders were killed and three injured in an ambush by HPG guerillas on a Turkish military vehicle in the Sirnak province.

November 21, 2005 - One Turkish soldier was killed and another wounded in an ambush by HPG guerillas on an active Turkish military unit in the Mardin province.

November 19, 2005 - A female HPG guerilla was killed by Turkish soldiers in a clash in the Besta district of the Sirnak province.

November 16, 2005 - One Turkish soldier was killed and another wounded in a clash between Turkish troops and HPG guerrillas.

November 15, 2005: Turkish security forces killed three Kurdish civilians in a clash in the city of Yüksekova.

September 6, 2005: Further violence between police and demonstrators left at least one Kurd dead in the south-eastern province of Siirt. The Economist reported that a nationalist mob killed a Kurdish worker the same day in a in Düzce.

September 4, 2005: Clashes erupted after demonstrators waving PKK banners and posters of the jailed PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan, shouted slogans as they drove through the town of Bozüyük. Turkish nationalists stopped their convoy, smashed bus windows with stones, set their tyres ablaze and attacked the Kurds.

Kusadasi minibus bomb attack on 16 July 2005 made five victims, including Tara WhelanJuly 16, 2005: Five people were killed, including the 23-year old British woman Helen Bennett and the 17-year old Irish schoolgirl Tara Whelan by a bomb left by a man in a minibus in Kusadasi. Dolores McNamara, the record-breaking winner of EuroMillions, was only a few yards away from the minibus and escaped with minor wounds. The bomber has been arrested in Istanbul on 8 April 2006 and is currently being tried in Izmir. He reported that he had he had mixed with militant circles after having started to live in Germany as an asylum-seeker and had been trained in camps based in Germany and the Netherlands. July 10, 2005: Explosion of a bomb in Çesme wounded more than 20 people, at least two of them foreign tourists. It was claimed by TAK.

April 30, 2005: A bomb left in a Kusadasi public square killed one policeman while he was trying to defuse it. It was claimed by TAK.

April 16, 2005: Four members of the Turkish security forces and 21 Kurdish rebels were killed in a clash during a security operation in the southeast of the country.

Mass Murder 2004

November 21, 2004: Turkish security forces shot dead Ahmet Kaymaz, a villager displaced from Köprülü village in Mardin Province, and his twelve-year-old son Ugur Kaymaz in the nearby town of Kiziltepe. Neighbors told the Human Rights Association of Turkey (HRA) that Kaymaz and his son had been preparing their commercial vehicle for a forthcoming journey and were unarmed at the time. Afterwards, the provincial governor stated that two terrorists have been captured dead following a clash.

Mass Murder 2002

March 21, 2002: "Three people have died in the southern Turkish city of Mersin, in clashes between thousands of Kurdish youths and Turkish riot police over a government ban preventing Kurds from celebrating their new year."

Mass Murder 2001

June 23, 2001: One guerilla and four Turkish soldiers were killed, three Turkish soldiers injured in a clash between the HPG and Turkish security forces in the Ozalp District of Van.

Mass Murder 1995

September 23, 1995: PKK militants killed five people when they stopped two cars on Sivas-Erzincan intercity road and killed the occupants. September 05, 1995: In an attack against a mine in Hatay Province, PKK forces killed eight workers. April 05, 1995: In a raid in a cattle pasture in Hatay Province, PKK militants killed seven individuals.

Mass Murder 1994

July 20, 1994: PKK militants Murdered eleven individuals after stopping vehicles on Erzurum-Bingöl intercity road. June 19, 1994: In an attack against the family of a former PKK member, PKK militants killed the former member's mother as well as his five brothers and sisters, ranging in age from four to thirteen. January 01, 1994: PKK militants stopped a minibus on Diyarbakir-Elazig intercity road and Murdered eight individuals.

Mass Murder 1993

September 17, 1993: In a raid against the teachers' club in the Egin district of Diyarbakir Province, PKK militants executed six civil servants.

August 04, 1993: In the Mutki district of Bitlis Province, PKK militants stopped six minibuses and executed nineteen individuals and wounded an additional thirteen.

July 05, 1993: In a raid against the Basbaglar village of Erzincan Province, PKK militants executed thirty persons and burned fifty-seven houses.

May 24, 1993: PKK militants stopped a bus carrying unarmed army recruits and machine gunned them all, Murdering thirty-six individuals.

Mass Murder 1992

October 20, 1992: Near the Hazarsah village of Bingöl Province, PKK militants stopped a minibus and machine gunned its occupants, killing nineteen and wounding six.

June 29, 1992: Near the Yolbasti village of Bitlis Province, PKK militants stopped a minibus and executed 10 individuals.

Mass Murder Bombings

16 April 2006: A bomb planted in Bakirköy district of Istanbul by PKK militants injured 31 civilians. 9 March 2006: A suicide bomber, reportedly a Syrian national, mistook a municipality van for a police car and blew himself after having jumped into the vehicle, killing one municipality staff member and a passer-by in Van. 25 January 1992: Bombs planted in Galeria and The Grand Bazaar by PKK militants killed one civilian and injured 18.

Mass Murder Children

September 12, 2006: In Diyarbakir, ten civilians were killed (7 of them children) and 17 wounded by a bomb placed next to an elementary school. TAK claimed responsibility.

3 May 2006: 11 children, 12 adult civilians and 5 soldiers were injured as a result of a PKK attack on a schoolbus carrying siblings of the military personel by using a remote controlled bomb in Hakkari. The HPG, armed wing of the PKK denies responsibility for the blast.

March 29, 2006: Abdullah Duran, a 9 year old boy, was shot dead by security forces during the clashes in Diyarbakir.

March 30, 2006: According to the EU-Turkey Civic Commission Submission on Recent Violence, Enez Atak, a 6 year old boy, was injured by a plastic bullet and later died in hospital, Diyarbakir. Fatih Tekin, a 3 year old boy, was shot and killed by Turkish Security forces during a police raid on a civilian house in Batman during a series of violent clashes in the Kurdish regions of Turkey.

August 04, 1995: In a raid against the Gazelusagi village of Hatay Province, PKK militants killed eight individuals, including four children. Another four individuals, including two children, were wounded.

July 23, 1995: In a raid against the Akdogu village of Van Province, PKK militants killed twelve individuals, including two children and six women.

January 12, 1995: In a raid against the Narlica village of Diyarbakir Province, PKK militants killed eight individuals, including two children and one woman.

January 01, 1995: In a raid against the Hamzali village of Diyarbakir Province, PKK militants killed nineteen individuals, including seven children and eight women.

August 10, 1994: PKK members opened fire on a passing bus on the Van-Bahçesaray road, killing eleven, including three children, and wounding eight.

May 15, 1994: PKK forces raided the Edebük village of Erzincan Province and Murdered nine individuals, including a three-year-old child.

January 25, 1994: A six-year-old girl, Gülistan Çelik, was killed by a bomb planted in the Diyarbakir governor's office.

January 22, 1994: In a raid against Akyürek and Ormancik villages of Mardin Province, PKK militants killed twenty individuals, including six children and nine women.

December 12, 1993: In a raid against the Agaçkonak village of Adiyaman Province, PKK militants killed 13 people, including four women and four children.

October 25, 1993: PKK militants Murdered thirty-eight individuals, including three children, in the Yavi township of Çat district in Erzurum Province.

October 12, 1993: PKK militants Murdered twenty-two individuals, fourteen of whom were children and eight women, in a raid on the Derince village of Siirt Province.

August 04, 1993: In a raid against the Konakbasi settlement of Bingol Province, PKK militants killed eleven individuals, including eight children between the ages of two and twelve and a seventy-year old man.

June 24, 1993: PKK bombed the house of Mehmet Yalçin, a member of the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP), in Suruç, near Sanliurfa. Mehmet Yalçin's mother and his 10-year-old daughter Devran Yalçin were killed in the attack.

June 16, 1993: In the Yaylacik village of Mardin Province, PKK militants killed six individuals, including four children. October 11, 1992: In the Uludere district of Sirnak Province, PKK militants killed eleven individuals in a rocket attack against the homes of village guards. Among those killed were six children and a ninety year old woman.

June 22, 1992: In the Seki village of Batman Province, PKK militants killed ten civilians, including seven children and a seventy-year old woman.

Mass Murder Oklahoma City bombing

Damage to the Murrah building before cleanup began.

Location Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

Target(s) Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building

Date 19 April 1995

9:02am (UTC-5)

Attack type Truck bomb

Fatalities 168

Injuries 800+

Perpetrator(s) Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and Michael Fortier

Motive To avenge the Waco Siege and Ruby Ridge

The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist attack on April 19, 1995 aimed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, a U.S. government office complex in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The attack claimed 168 lives and left over 800 injured. Until September 11, 2001, it was the deadliest act of terrorism within U.S. borders.

Within days after the bombing, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were arrested for their role in the bombing. Investigators determined that McVeigh and Nichols were sympathizers of an anti-government militia movement and that that their motive was to avenge the government's handling of the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001; Nichols was sentenced to life in prison. A third conspirator, Michael Fortier, who testified against the two conspirators, was imprisoned for failing to warn the U.S. government. As with other large-scale terrorist attacks, conspiracy theories dispute the official claims and point to additional perpetrators involved.

The attacks led to the U.S. government passing legislation designed to increase protection around federal buildings and to thwart future terrorist attacks. Under these measures, law enforcement has since foiled over fifty domestic terrorism plots. On April 19, 2000 the Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated on the site of the Murrah Federal Building to commemorate the victims of the bombing.

Mass Murder Terror

Mass Murder Prelude

Except where noted, all statements in this section are sourced from the book American Terrorist.

On April 15, 1995 Timothy McVeigh rented a Ryder truck in Junction City, Kansas under the alias Robert D. Kling. On April 16, he drove to Oklahoma City with fellow conspirator Terry Nichols where he parked a getaway vehicle several blocks away from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. After removing the license plate from the car, the two men returned to Kansas. On April 17 and 18, the men moved 108 fifty-pound bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, three fifty-five gallon drums of liquid nitromethane, several crates of explosive Tovex sausage, seventeen bags of ANFO, and spools of shock tube and cannon fuse. The two then drove to Geary Lake where they mixed the chemicals together using plastic buckets and a bathroom scale. Once it was completed, McVeigh added a dual-fuse ignition system which he could access through the truck's front cab. McVeigh also included more explosives on the driver's side of the cargo bay, which he could ignite with his Glock pistol if the primary fuses failed. After finishing the configuration of the truck-bomb, the two men separated, Nichols returning to Herington and McVeigh driving the truck to Oklahoma City.

At dawn on April 19, as he drove toward the Murrah Federal building, McVeigh carried with him an envelope whose contents included pages from The Turner Diaries, a fictional account of modern-day "patriots" who rise up against the government. He also wore a printed T-shirt which included phrases such as "SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS" ("Thus ever to tyrants", the phrase shouted by John Wilkes Booth as he assassinated Abraham Lincoln) and "The tree of liberty must be refreshed time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants" (from revolutionary Thomas Jefferson). As the truck approached the building, at 8:57 a.m. CST, McVeigh lit the five-minute fuse. Three minutes later, still a block away, he lit the two-minute fuse. He parked the Ryder truck in a drop-off zone (incidentally situated under the building's day-care center), locked the vehicle, and headed to his getaway vehicle.

Mass Murder Bombing

At 9:02 a.m. CST, the Ryder truck, which contained about 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of fertilizer and fuel oil mixture packed into the back, detonated in front of the north side of the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The blast destroyed a third of the building and created a thirty-foot-wide, eight-foot-deep crater on NW 5th Street next to the building. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings in a sixteen-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars around the site, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings (the broken glass alone accounted for 5% of the death total and 69% of the injuries outside the Murrah Federal building). The destruction of the building left several hundred people homeless and shut down multiple offices in downtown Oklahoma City.

An aerial view of the destructionThe effects of the blast were equivalent to 4,000 pounds of TNT and could be heard and felt up to fifty-five miles away. Seismometers at the Omniplex Museum in Oklahoma City (7 kilometers away) and in Norman, Oklahoma (26 kilometers away) recorded the blast as measuring approximately 3.0 on the Richter scale.

Mass Murder Arrests

Within 90 minutes of the explosion, McVeigh was arrested. He was traveling north out of Oklahoma City on Interstate 35 near Perry in Noble County, when an Oklahoma State Trooper stopped him for driving his yellow 1977 Mercury Marquis without a license plate. The arrest was for having a concealed weapon. Later that day, McVeigh was linked to the bombing via the VIN number of an axle from the destroyed Ryder