Original subtitles

Interviewer: I wanted to show you these pictures, dick.

These were actually taken by a colleague of yours.

Oh, uh, yeah. I know about these pictures.

Some of them.

Remember seeing the seats. Yeah.

But that shoe, we had a picture of that shoe

On our office wall in washington.

Sort of a reminder.

We weren't doing this for ourselves,

We were doing it for them.

Reporter: Pan am flight 103 crashed

Into the scottish village of lockerbie.

Two hundred and seventy people, most of them americans, dead.

It was the worst terrorist attack on an airline ever.

Reagan: We have no knowledge of how this happened.

We're trying to find out.

Man 1: It was an attack on america.

Man 2: The largest crime scene in history.

Man 3: Two-hundred-thousand pieces of evidence.

Man 4: My daughter hadn't just died in an accident,

But had been brutally murdered.

Man 5: They killed our children.

Man 6: To be lied to for 30 years.

Man 7: I think the us government had an agenda.

Reagan is the biggest terrorist in the world.

Woman 1: If it's up to our government,

We might not ever know the truth.

Man 8: Nothing is what it seems in the lockerbie story.

Before I became an fbi agent,

I was a baltimore city cop.

We had crime scenes like in a house,

In an apartment.

You know, on the street.

But not 845 square miles that we had in lockerbie.

Newsreader: The wreckage of pan am flight 103

Scattered across the scottish countryside.

Newsreader 2: Hundreds of police are involved in the searching,

Many of them volunteers from all over scotland.

Phil: I got the call immediately.

My acting supervisor told me

They'd already made arrangements

For me to be assigned

Over to new scotland yard.

I had worked murder investigations,

But not of this scale.

I mean, you're talking about

270 people murdered...

..At the same time.

Nothing can prepare you for that.

Teams of investigators from the british and us governments,

Boeing aircraft and pan am are attempting to find the clues.

It was an attack on america, 'cause it was an american plane.

And, at that time,

It was the worst terrorist act against the united states.

Bruce: A large amount of middle eastern terrorism

In the 1980s was geared towards

The united states and against us imperialism.

Because of the pervasiveness of the united states,

Oil companies in particular,

That were very active in the middle east.

And then, of course, you had the us military presence

That was seen as using its military

As an extensive of this imperialist,

Capitalist, postcolonial effort.

Nic: The iranians in particular

Thought the united states had usurped power in iran.

They took it back in 1979.

So, this animosity ran deep.

And it had been running deep for a number of years.

Phil: But also, we were suspecting the iranians,

Because in July of 1988, the vincennes,

Which is one of our military destroyers,

Accidentally shot down an iranian airliner.

Dick: There was a war going on in the middle east

Between iran and iraq.

Radio: You are approaching a us navy warship,

Bearing 090, 5 nautical miles from you.

Dick: Uss vincennes was a navy ship

That was sent into the persian gulf

To protect tankers coming out of kuwait

Bringing oil to the west.

There was an iranian commercial aircraft near the ship.

They thought, onboard the vincennes,

That this was an incoming iranian fighter aircraft.

Nic: And it wasn't until they shot it down,

They realised that it was a passengers jet.

And 290 people were killed onboard that plane.

Reporter: Sunday's missile strike

By the us warship vincennes

Killed 290 passengers on an iran air flight over the gulf.

Reagan: I won't minimize the tragedy.

We all know that it was a tragedy.

But we're talking about an incident

In which a plane on radar

Was observed coming in the direction of a ship in combat.

And so I think it was an understandable accident

To shoot, and think that they were under attack

From that plane.

We will, in due course, have our own response

To the american crimes.

Reporter: Will it be a military response?

Well, I-I-I do not disclose what kind of response

Would be from our side.

But naturally, an appropriate and measured response

To the magnitude of the crime.

Nic: So, the iranians had every reason

To want to seek retribution from the united states.

(crowd chanting) down, down, usa! Down, down, usa!

Phil: We thought there was no way

That iranians were not going to retaliate for that.

An eye for an eye.

The first suspects we had were a palestinian terrorist group.

They were suspected of planning to take out an american airliner

On behalf of the iranians.

Because of the downing of the iran air flight.

Dick: They were the popular front

For the liberation of palestine general command - pflpgc.

They had a cell that was operating in frankfurt.

Phil: We thought the bomb

Had probably come on the feeder flight from frankfurt

That connected with pan am 103 in london.

It's one thing to believe it.

As investigators, we need evidence.

Dick: About a month after the bombing,

The scottish police,

They hadn't brought in all the aircraft parts.

We were still trying to figure out what we had

In terms of evidence.

But fortunately, one of the police officers

Was examining a piece of the cargo container

That contained the suitcase

That we believe contained the bomb.

This particular cargo container was made out of aluminum.

Or as the scots would say, aluminium.

But as he was banging it on the ground,

This small fragment fell out.

I don't care if you have the biggest hands in the world,

That's a small fragment.

That fragment turns out to be from a toshiba rt-sf16,

Two-speaker radio cassette recorder.

Newsreader: Two months before lockerbie,

German police raided an apartment near frankfurt

Belonging to members of the pflpgc

And found an arsenal of weapons,

Including a toshiba radio cassette player

Converted into a bomb, like the one used at lockerbie.

When they were arrested,

They had these modified tape recorders

That had plastic explosive semtex in it.

So, pflpgc, suspect number one.

But the german police from day one,

Wanted to insist that the pflpgc

Had nothing to do with this bombing.

They said, "we arrested them all,

"we incarcerated them in October,

"two months before the bombing.

"this cell has been totally dismantled."

Unfortunately, by December 1988,

There were only two people still in custody.

We got intelligence information that there may have been bombs

That had been not seized when the germans did their search

Of all the premises in October of 1988.

That perhaps that total... That cell,

If they were still involved, had not been totally dismantled.

We really felt strongly now the pflpgc were responsible

For the bombing of pan am flight 103.

Dick: As I recall, some time in January,

A man walks into the us embassy and delivers a letter.

Dick: And the letter is faxed to us.

Good old modern technology of the day.

He says, "I was just in libya at this meeting",

And he mentions a bunch of names,

"and they look like a group of thugs,

"and I think they're responsible

"for conducting the pan am 103 attack." okay?

But that letter didn't give us a whole lot of leads.

We didn't know who he was.

Phil: That tip-off meant nothing at that time.

Because we were keenly interested in the pflpgc.

We managed to get copies of the german investigation.

The challenge was it was all in german and arabic.

So, I went back to washington

And supervised their translation of the german documents.

Quite honestly, the pflpgc and toshiba radio

Did not lead us to a lot of places.

But then, the hand of god...

..You could feel... Feel it on that investigation.

A tiny piece of clothing that had bomb explosive damage

Was recovered in that 845 square mile crime scene.

Dick: The forensic examiners in England

Would discover that within that fragment of clothing

Was a small fragment of circuit board.

And that became known as pt/35.

That fragment turns out to be key in this story.

Lucas: After the bombing, we were gonna visit lockerbie.

I'm gonna guess, mom, that it was probably...

..Somewhere between two and four weeks before we went over there.

Yeah.

Lucas: We were brought to the spot that he was found.

There was a crater where he landed that was...

..Three-to-four feet deep.

Three-to-four feet wide.

You could tell that he hit the ground pretty hard.

He was sitting in one of the first intact rows

That hadn't been blown up by the bomb.

The blast probably rendered him, at the very least, unconscious.

The initial injury

Was that the arteries were ripped from the heart

Because of the enormous pressure change.

And that would have been instant.

Lucas: He might have had a millisecond of knowledge

That there was something amiss.

But we've, I think, all come to agree

That he didn't suffer.

Victoria: We were desperate to get the personal possessions.

And I'd heard that there had been some sort of controversy

About are we going to get

The personal possessions back or not?

Because there was really no budget to decontaminate things.

I eventually did get john's luggage returned to me.

All of his clothes, everything, all the contents were clean

And nobody... John never came back from a business trip

With clean laundry.

Newsreader: In a warehouse on the outskirts of town,

Volunteers have begun cleaning the belongings

Of the passengers and crew

So they can finally be sent home to relatives.

Interviewer: And how did it feel each time you opened a suitcase?

Elma: It was strange. It depended who it belonged to.

Sometimes it really got to you and other times, it was just...

..Something that had to be done.

Moira: I had a little red dress.

The child was two, three.

A baby.

I would come home and cry sometimes.

Elma: Oh, yeah.

And my husband would say, "you're not going back."

But...

-We were there the next day. -..We went back.

Moira: It was something I had to do.

I just wanted a family to get back that thing

That you could take it and cuddle it.

Hold it.

Because there was nothing else.

This is alexander's jacket that was found in the wreckage.

And as you can tell, the holes, the burn holes.

Of course, there's a little tiny 'a' in here somewhere.

He put this 'a' into all his clothing.

And every once in a while, when it gets chilly in here,

I actually put it on and feel good about it.

Each item, no matter how shredded or full of holes,

Or burnt it was,

It was laundered, ironed and wrapped in tissue paper.

And that was a great, great deed

That the lockerbie people did for us.

We will be forever grateful for that.

-We done it with love. -Mm-hm.

We did.

Phil: The scottish detectives

Did spend an exhaustive amount of time looking at the debris.

Eventually, the investigators found a piece of clothing

With blast damage that had yorkie clothiers on it.

We concluded from the blast damage

That it had been packed with the bomb.

We were able to trace that company in malta.

At the same time, we're discovering that there was

A baggage record from frankfurt airport.

Phil: That printout sheet had

This unattended piece of luggage.

Dick: So, this suitcase was not connected

To anybody on the flight.

That suitcase was destined to pan am 103

Through frankfurt, and it came from malta.

We thought that could be the suitcase

That contained the bomb.

Malta is a small island in the mediterranean

Between Italy and libya.

All of a sudden, we're starting to realize

That malta is key in this story.

Interviewer: What did you make of it when you arrived?

Well, you're talking about a very small island

Out in the middle of the mediterranean.

Not too many people even know about it.

But, great people, great food.

We visited the yorkie clothing manufacturer here in malta.

And they were able to tell us where they sold those clothes.

And it was tony gauci's shop.

Ok, yeah, that's where tony's shop was.

That's where a major breakthrough

In our investigation took place.

We interviewed tony gauci and we were just astonished.

He remembered this person coming into the shop,

Because he just bought clothes at random,

He didn't care what size.

He bought this tweed jacket

That he said had been sitting around in his shop

For five years.

Because in malta you don't wear wool.

Tony gauci didn't know this,

But we had already found a tweed jacket

That we believe was in the bomb suitcase.

He said if he saw him again, he could remember him.

That was critical for us.

We got one of our artists.

They drew what he believed the person looked like.

We believed at that point

That the palestinians were responsible.

But he remembered this person, who he described as a libyan.

Libya certainly was a rogue country,

Sponsoring terrorist incidents across the globe.

The then leader of libya was colonel gaddafi.

Dr. Guma: In September 1969, gaddafi waged a military coup.

He started bringing in a major change

Politically and economically.

But, very quickly, he took over as an absolute ruler of libya.

Colonel muammar gaddafi viewed the western colonialism of libya

As a gross affront.

He viewed western oil interests

As exploiting libya's most precious natural resource.

Libya's relationship with many western nations

Was not in a good place,

Because muammar gaddafi was a tyrant.

He introduced his own brand of arab socialism.

And at that time, the cold war was on

And 'socialism' was a dirty word.

Gaddafi was also sponsoring international terrorism

And terrorists of different stripes.

Libya was a dictatorship, but it had a small military,

And terrorism was really gaddafi's only way

Of getting even with the west.

Good evening.

The finger of suspicion is pointing hard tonight

At muammar gaddafi, the libyan leader,

In connection with the latest terrorist activities in europe.

In 1981, president reagan was elected to office

On a platform to get tough on terrorism.

Let terrorists be aware

Our policy will be one of swift and effective retribution.

President reagan and colonel gaddafi

Locked into this intense personal enmity.

Reagan is the biggest terrorist in the world.

This mad dog of the middle east

Has a... A goal of a world revolution.

In the united states, colonel gaddafi was seen

Not just as a rogue, but also as a lunatic.

Reporter: Relatives of americans killed in the terrorist bombing

Of pan am flight 103

Met for more than an hour with president bush.

He heard strong complaints,

Ranging from failure to notify passengers of the threat,

To state department insensitivity.

I couldn't believe that this country,

Which we all love so much,

Had allowed over 200 americans to be blown up

And then respond with utter silence.

We wanted the truth, we wanted to be change makers

And also force our government to hold those accountable

John's job was a lot of international travel.

And I said, "I'm really worried about terrorist attacks."

John, here he is saying, "oh, listen, dear, don't worry,

"because I'm always flying pan am."

And he came in with a full-page newspaper ad

That said that um... Pan am was the safest airline.

They had launched a $5 security surcharge

For each leg of the ticket.

In 1989, president bush put together

A white house commission on aviation safety and security.

And I was one of only three civilians

And three family members that was involved.

I found out that all of the tens of thousands of dollars

That they were collecting daily,

None of those funds had been sequestered for security.

Anthony: The world was very different then.

In those days, you could just basically walk on to a plane.

You know, you'd check your bag, maybe,

But after that, you just walked to the gate.

We were just beginning to deal with terrorism

And it was still relatively easy to fly.

It's kind of amazing to think about it now.

But it was events like lockerbie which changed all of that.

Victoria: I travelled with the faa red team.

I was appointed the liaison with the families.

And this red team would go in and try to breach security.

The fbi agent would take his gun

And buy one of those big gulp drinks

And he would pour out the drink, put the gun inside of that.

And we would put our carry-on on the conveyor belt

And he would take his big gulp

And put it on top of the scanner.

And then we'd walk through the metal detector,

Then he'd grab his big gulp drink and keep walking.

You know, I-I witnessed them breaching security

About 80% of the time.

Interviewer: What did you think

When jim swire took his fake bomb onto a plane?

I thought he was very brave.

His 20-year-old daughter died when a terrorist bomb blew up

Pan am flight 103 over lockerbie, scotland, in 1988.

Now, jim swire says

He has proven the tragedy could happen again.

Jim: I was going over, not very long after lockerbie,

To talk with the american relatives.

And we were booked on a ba flight from heathrow.

Newsreader: A few weeks ago,

Swire carried a replica of the pan am bomb

On a flight from london to new york.

I thought, I'll try and find out whether the security at heathrow

Really is any good,

As the government is telling everybody it really is.

So, I got onboard

And flew with that exact copy of the lockerbie bomb,

From heathrow airport to the united states of america.

Victoria: You know, all of a sudden,

They were accidental activists.

Family members who wanted to find out the truth.

You know, they wanted to make sure

That what we were going through wouldn't happen again.

Newsreader: The fake bomb was not detected by security

At london's heathrow airport.

The bomb had a dummy detonator, timer, batteries

And a pressure switch.

Marzipan was used to simulate the plastic explosive material.

Interviewer: Did you ever question yourself?

Yes.

Uh, of course it was an obsession.

But then I was pretty crazy at that time,

Because of the freshness of that bereavement.

I'd have done anything I could for flora.

Phil: I'd reached a point where, in my mind,

Based on what I understood,

The palestinians couldn't have done it.

They just didn't have that presence and connections

On the island of malta.

And then you had to think back.

Tony gauci said libyan.

He knew the difference between a palestinian and a libyan.

Years ago, I worked on libyan intelligence,

Terrorist investigations,

And we knew at that time that malta was a place

That the libyans would transit,

Coming from libya eventually to the united states.

So, they had a major presence here.

So, I went to my supervisor

And I said, "you know, I don't really think it's the pflpgc.

"our focus needs to turn to the libyans."

Relations with libya were already strained,

But the catalyst for increased escalation

Of us-libyan tension

Occurred with the bombing

Of the labelle discotheque in west berlin in April 1986.

The reagan administration was strongly suggestion

A gaddafi connection to the weekend bombing

Of a west berlin discotheque,

In which a us serviceman was killed.

Reporter: The estimate of those injured in the blast

Was revised upward, from 150 to over 200.

Reporter 2: It was just before 2am when the bomb exploded

With devastating results.

The disco is in the american sector

And a favorite nightspot

For off-duty united states servicemen.

The americans felt that this was a direct attack

On american citizens,

So they wanted to, obviously, punish gaddafi.

America's allies clearly are concerned

That this us-libya dispute could explode into war.

Reporter: One option open to president reagan

Is to send f-111 bombers against libya

From this base in britain.

Dick: You have starts and stops in any investigation,

And sometimes things pan out, sometimes they don't.

Now, pt/35.

The fragment of circuit board that was found

Blown into that clothing.

Well, the scottish police, after they spent six months

Going to 17 countries, 55 companies,

They cannot figure out what pt/35 is.

No criticism.

So, we asked, "can we take this out now

"and do something with it?" and they said yes.

They give tom thurman, who works in the fbi laboratory,

Permission to do it.

He talks to his contact.

Bingo.

We match pt/35 to a circuit board that goes to a timer

Manufactured by a company called mebo

In zurich, switzerland.

But then edwin bollier says,

"gee, I didn't think you found me

"because of this timer that I built.

"I thought you found me because of that letter I dropped off

"at the embassy". And we all went, "what?"

He's telling us, in 1989,

"I don't think the palestinians did this.

"I think the libyans did this."

Now, why he would want to point the finger

At one of his benefactors?

Somebody that had given him

Millions of dollars of business over the years.

I don't know the answer to that.

And it may well be a moment of conscience.

Interviewer: Do you ever think about what happens

With your electronic equipment?

Here now, speaking from the white house

Is the president of the united states.

My fellow americans,

The evidence is now conclusive

That the terrorist bombing of la belle discotheque

Was planned and executed

Under the direct orders of the libyan regime.

At seven o'clock this evening, eastern time,

Air and naval forces of the united states

Launched a series of strikes against the headquarters,

Terrorist facilities and military assets

That support muammar gaddafi's subversive activities.

Reporter: Within sight of our seafront hotel,

'a series of flashes and a low rumbling

Indicated that the intended targets

Were well within the city.

Reporter 2: The command and living center

Of colonel muammar gaddafi

Was a primary target of the american raid.

The bombs came right to the front door.

At the central hospital, the senior doctor estimated

That between 60 and 100 casualties had been brought in.

Two other hospitals have also been taking in casualties.

Nic: Members of his family had been targeted.

And that was personal.

That was an animosity her bore against reagan.

Anthony: I had been to libya in the year before lockerbie

To cover a speech by gaddafi,

And walked into a shop and found this set of stamps.

Commemorative stamps of the attack on tripoli.

It's a really gruesome illustration

Of american warplanes

And libyans literally bleeding and in hospital beds.

You don't have to look too long

To realize they think americans are terrorists.

Dr. Guma: I don't think it achieved any purpose.

It was not the right way to deal with gaddafi.

Gaddafi was humiliated by that.

His nose was bloodied.

So, I think he had enough motive to have revenge against america.

Phil: I believed that the libyans were responsible

For the bombing of pan am flight 103.

I sat in my office in the embassy.

I thought I needed to get a full understanding

Of the libyan presence on the island.

And so I did something

That might have been unprecedented at the time.

I knocked on the door of the cia,

And said, "I need your help."

Back in those days,

The relationship between the fbi and cia wasn't that good.

I was told, "hey, don't be working with the cia."

Well, like I said, I felt compelled.

They could do things that we couldn't do,

The fbi couldn't do.

They could come up with informants, double agents.

Who they were,

What role they played for the libyan government.

And they came up with the name of lamin fhimah.

He turns out to be the libyan airlines manager

Who was working at the airport here on malta.

The cia found out

That his friend was abdelbaset al-megrahi,

Who they said was an intelligence officer.

And then we looked more into his background

And found out that he also was connected

With the airlines back in tripoli.

He was libyan airlines' head of security.

Bingo.

Because we were looking at how a piece of luggage

Could have got into the airline system

With an explosive in it.

It had to be somebody

That was probably connected to the airport.

Then we realised that lamin fhimah owned a travel agency,

Called med tours, here on the island.

We were able to go into that office.

And as we were looking around,

I saw this diary sitting on this desk,

And it turned out to be fhimah's desk.

It was in arabic, but there was one word that was in english

That said, "taggs",

T-a-g-g-s, as I recall.

We talking luggage tags?

So, we had it translated.

"take tags from air malta."

And on another page... It said,

"take tags from the airport for abdel basset."

That's megrahi.

And this was like another "ah-ha" moment.

So, we needed to find al-megrahi.

But a problem is, we didn't have a picture.

I asked my cia partners

If they could find a photo somewhere in the world

And I mean the world, of megrahi.

I got a call.

Dick: Czechoslovakia security service gave us

A passport picture of megrahi.

We were doing high fives and low fives and hugs

And stuff like that.

Then we find out that abdelbaset al-megrahi

Has another office in zurich, switzerland,

Down the hall from mebo office.

It's like, "ok, we're on the right track."

Here, this office is, well, it's mebo.

And then on this side was the office from abdelbaset.

Interviewer: Megrahi had an office

Across the hall from edwin bollier!

It just seems so extraordinary to be a mere coincidence.

It's not, it's absolutely not a coincidence.