Watch: AG Barr Announces New Charges Against 1988 Lockerbie Bomber of Pan Am Flight 103 and Confirms He Emerged from the Swamp
Video (above): Barr makes remarks on 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 | PBS NewsHour | Dec. 21, 2020Right on cue, U.S. Attorney General William Barr took the prime opportunity to hold a press conference with just enough time before stepping down to throw President Trump and his supporters under the bus.
BY LISA MICHELLE
Editor’s Note: Read about Lockerbie Bomber and charges below.
While announcing new charges against the Lockerbie bomber Abu Agila Masud at a press conference today, U.S. Attorney General William Barr predictably took time to answer questions by the press and proved, once and for all, that he emerged from the swamp. He was just better than most at hiding it.
When asked by a reporter about the recent cybersecurity breach of SolarWinds Orion, Barr was quick to squash the never-ending Russia mantra and hoax. He immediately concurred with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and pointed to Russia. This response came despite President Trump’s and DNI Director John Ratcliffe’s remarks about possible Chinese and Russian involvement.
Barr conveniently dodged Senior CBS Correspondent Catherine Herridge’s question, “Has Special Counsel John Durham concluded that the FBI 2016 Russia probe known as Crossfire Hurricane was not properly predicated?” He simply refused to answer. When she tried to inquire further and asked about Robert Mueller, he deflected: “I’m not going to try and characterize what his conclusions are.” Yet, he had no issue with characterizing President Trump’s conclusions and drawing his own.
Aside from the on-topic questions and answers about the Lockerbie bomber, the rest of the press conference mainly concerned the Biden investigation, the appointment of special counsels, election fraud issues, and pardons. In these respects, AG Barr continued to disappoint and prove to be far more of a danger to President Trump and his supporters than most of the Washington Swamp who are already known and unloved commodities. Barr, on the other hand, is a masterful fraud who had most of us fooled.
Barr on the Hunter Biden Investigation
Reporter 1 (Mike): Do you believe there should be a special counsel appointed to investigate the allegations against Hunter Biden?
Barr: I think to the extent that there’s an investigation — I think that it’s being handled responsibly and professionally currently within the department, and, to this point, I have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel, and I have no plan to do so before I leave.
In other words, no. The DOJ and FBI Director Christopher Wray have done a phenomenal job — that is, if the goal was to conceal the Hunter Biden probe from President Trump and the public and to impeach him on conjured up charges surrounding a legitimate phone conversation, which we all know by now (and so too did Barr at the time) was perfectly justified.
“Do you have any concerns or worries that the next AG that comes in with the Biden administration will try to scuttle or kill the Hunter investigation and or the Durham investigation?” a second reporter inquired.
Barr: Before the election, as you know, I designated John Durham as special counsel because I wanted to provide him and his team with assurance that they’d be able to finish their work, and they’re making good progress now. And I expect that they will be able to finish their work.
Reporter 2: As far as the Biden investigation . . . [inaudible] . . . get scuttled or pushed out?
Barr: I’m hoping that the next administration handles that matter responsibly.
Of course Barr doesn’t have worries about it. He deliberately dragged out the probe, but hope isn’t exactly the term one would expect from the U.S. Attorney General. The irony in his response isn’t lost. Trump specifically hired Bill Barr to finish the job that he started, to shield him from another attempt at a coup, and to restore public faith in an equal, one-tiered system of justice. How do you think that he did?
The real kicker came (like a kick in the gut) when Barr described the Lockerbie case as “unfinished business” in which “justice was delayed” and the “full measure of justice was denied.” Where else might that be applied?
Barr on Election/Voter Fraud and Presidential Pardons
“Does the President have the legal authority to order the seizure of voting machines around the country?” probed a third reporter. “And you’ve talked about in the past the broad views that you have of presidential powers,” he continued. “Does the president — any president — have the authority to pardon himself?” suggesting that President Trump will be implicated in a crime.
“I say, no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government — you know, the wholesale seizure of machines by the federal government,” answered Barr. It’s curious how he knows. Has he taken time to examine the forensic reports on Dominion voting machines? Maybe he took the word of Christopher Wray instead.
“And off the top of my head,” adds Barr, “I’m not going to opine on a constitutional issue as far as the pardon power goes.” Yet, Barr took every possible opportunity to shoot down, contradict, and opine about each election fraud argument introduced, purposely damaging the credibility of President Trump and millions of his supporters before stepping down. This is a spiteful, passive aggressive man who is too smart not to know what he is doing.
When asked about widespread election and voter fraud, Barr stood by his original statement and repeated the claim that there is no systemic or broad-based fraud that affected the election outcome. How he is able to reach such a conclusion is subject to question. Has he seen the video footage of Georgia’s great “Ballot Heist” yet?
For future reference, you can tell if someone is from the Washington Swamp when the press is polite and respectful:
Reporter 4: Would you answer a question about whether you believe there’s enough there, even with what you’ve already said? Do you believe there’s enough evidence to warrant a special counsel to investigate that — perhaps Sidney Powell or someone else?
Barr: If I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, I would name one, but I haven’t, and I’m not going to.
After hitting just about every critical talking point detrimental to Trump and his legal team, Barr concluded by expressing his lack of regrets but not without first revealing his true objective:
. . . As you know,” he concludes, “I was not intending to come back into government, but I knew I was signing up for a difficult assignment at this department. As I’ve said, there were rough times, and I came in because I felt that I could help lead the DOJ during this particular period, and I don’t regret that at all. I don’t regret coming in, because I think it’s always an honor to serve the nation and the American people.”
Barr signed up for the job to help lead the DOJ and maintain its status quo, but how he presumes this served the American people is still up for grabs.
Perhaps Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis put it best when she tweeted today, “Maybe you should sit down, now, Bill. You certainly did enough sitting down on the job.”
Maybe you should sit down now, Bill. You certainly did enough sitting down on the job. https://t.co/TcwdFNw97j
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) December 21, 2020
And he certainly did enough damage.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
BREAKING: Bill Barr announces new charges against suspected Lockerbie bomb maker on 32nd anniversary of attack on Pan Am flight 103 that killed 270 people
- Attorney General Barr announced charges against Abu Agila Masud on Monday
- The former Libyan intelligence officer is accused of assembling a bomb that blew up a Pan Am flight 103 en route from London to New York in 1988
- The plane exploded over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people
- The charges unsealed by Barr on Monday came on the 32nd anniversary of the terror attack and marked the first US trial related to the case
By MEGAN SHEETS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and JACK NEWMAN FOR MAILONLINE | DAILY MAIL | UPDATED: 11:32 EST, 21 Dec. 2020
US Attorney General Bill Barr has announced new criminal charges against an alleged bombmaker involved in the 1988 Lockerbie airline bombing which killed 270 people.
Abu Agila Masud, a former Libyan intelligence officer, is accused of assembling a bomb that blew up Pan Am flight 103 as it passed over the small town of Lockerbie, Scotland, en route from London to New York.
The charges unsealed by Barr on Monday came on the 32nd anniversary of the terror attack and marked the first US trial related to the case.
Masud is the third person to face charges in the attack, after Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and airline employee Lamin Khalifa Fhimah were charged in Scotland. Al-Megrahi was convicted while Fhimah was found not guilty in 2001.
It was Barr who announced the charges against the first two suspects in 1991, saying at the time: ‘This investigation is by no means over.’
On Monday Barr finally got to cap off one of the most extensive terror probes of his career with the indictment against Masud.
‘As to all the victims and the families, we cannot take away your pain from your loss, but we can seek justice for you,’ he said in a statement.
‘Our message to other terrorists around the world is this – you will not succeed – if you attack Americans, no matter where you are, no matter how long it takes, you will be pursued to the ends of the earth until justice is done.’
Masud, an alleged bombmaker for late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, is currently being held by Libyan authorities and faces extradition to the United States to face charges over the atrocity in federal court.
He was first arrested in Libya after the collapse of the Gaddafi regime in 2012 and has since been serving a separate 10-year sentence for bombmaking.
Barr said the US charges are based in part on an interview Libyan authorities conducted with Masud after his arrest and provided to the Department of Justice.
The attorney general, who is set to leave office on Wednesday, said the US will ‘work closely with our Scottish counterparts’ to ensure that Masud answers for his role in the bombing.
‘It is my hope that the Libyan authorities will allow Masud to be tried for this crime and will provide the support and witnesses necessary to bring him to justice,’ he said.
The majority of the victims in the Lockerbie bombing were from the US and Colonel Gaddafi accepted Libya’s responsibility, although he maintained he did not give orders to carry it out.
Barr told President Trump of his resignation last week but asked to delay his departure by a week to announce the new Lockerbie charges, sources told CNN.
When Barr served under George H. W. Bush in the Justice Department, he announced charges against Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah.
The two men linked to Libyan intelligence were accused of placing the explosives in a portable radio and cassette player inside a suitcase on the plane.
After protracted negotiations, the pair were tried by a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands.
Megrahi was jailed for life in 2001 but was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after he was diagnosed with cancer, before he died in 2012.
Fhimah was found not guilty but investigators have long believed that Megrahi did not act alone.
Masud is currently in jail in Libya, serving a 10-year sentenced handed down by the US-backed government for being a bomb-maker who made devices used to target those who opposed Gaddafi before his death at the hands of rebels.
US officials say conversations are underway with Libya to take custody of Masud and Scottish authorities, with negotiations going more smoothly in this round of charges.
Barr has long been determined to seek justice for the Lockerbie attack and the US response.
At a memorial in 2019, he said ‘nothing was more important to me’ than investigating the bombing during his first term as attorney general.
He said at the Arlington Ceremony last year: ‘I must say that, to this day, I am not satisfied with our country’s overall response to the attack.
‘I never thought that putting two Libyan intelligence officers on trial should be the sum and substance of our response.’
The attack sparked global investigations and sanctions against Libya, which ultimately surrendered intelligence officials wanted in the attacks for prosecution in Europe.
Masud faces charges of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death and destruction of a vehicle of interstate commerce resulting in death.
Authorities in the US claim he travelled to Malta ahead of the bombing, where he constructed the bomb and filled a suitcase with clothing before it was placed on the flight.
The new case is said to be based on a confession made by Masud to Libyan authorities in 2012.
It comes after a third appeal against the conviction of Megrahi brought by the convicted murderer’s son was launched at the High Court in Edinburgh last month.
The appeal was lodged after the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) referred the case to the High Court in March, ruling a possible miscarriage of justice may have occurred.
Three decades of doubt: 30 years later there are still unanswered questions over Lockerbie
December 21, 1988
Pan Am Flight 103 from Frankfurt to Detroit, via London and New York, blows up over Lockerbie in Scotland. A total of 270 people died
November 1991
Britain and the US accuse Libyans Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khailifa Fhimah of the bombing. However, Libyan authorities deny involvement
January 1995
MPs demand an inquiry after US intelligence suggests Iran was behind the bombing, instead of Libya
January 2001
Megrahi was convicted of mass murder while Fhimah is found not guilty
August 2003
The UN lifts sanctions on Libya. Blame was accepted in Tripoli and the government compensates families of the victims
August 2009
Megrahi is freed after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. He did not die until 2012
May 2018
A review of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi’s conviction for the bombing is to be carried out by the Scottish Criminal Cases Commission
November 2018
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission says there was no criminality in the Megrahi case
Judges then granted his son, Ali al-Megrahi, permission to proceed with the appeal in relation to the argument that ‘no reasonable jury’ could have returned the verdict the court did, and on the grounds of non-disclosure of documents by the Crown.
Judges then granted his son, Ali al-Megrahi, permission to proceed with the appeal in relation to the argument that ‘no reasonable jury’ could have returned the verdict the court did, and on the grounds of non-disclosure of documents by the Crown.
‘It is in the interests of justice that these doubts can be addressed; however, he was convicted in a Scottish court of law and that is the only appropriate place for his guilt or innocence to be determined.’
Megrahi’s first appeal against his conviction was refused by the High Court in 2002 and was referred back five years later following an SCCRC review.
He abandoned this second appeal in 2009, shortly before his release from prison on compassionate grounds while terminally ill with cancer.
Earlier this year lawyers for al-Megrahi demanded access to secret Government papers as they appeal against his conviction over the 1988 terror attack which left 270 dead.
His family said it is ‘in the interest of justice’ that the defence get to see the two documents, which are covered by a public interest immunity certificate.
Who was Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi?
Former Libyian intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is the only person to have been convicted of involvement in the Lockerbie bombing which claimed 270 lives.
Was jailed in 2001 for his role in the attack which brought down Pan Am flight 103 on December 21, 1988, in what became the worst terrorist attack on British soil.
The Boeing 747 jet took off from London Heathrow airport around 30 minutes before it exploded as it cruised at 31,000 feet above the Scottish borders.
Al-Megrahi was convicted on the basis of evidence from Maltese shop owner Tony Gauci, who died in 2016 aged 75.
Mr Gauci ran a clothes shop in Swieqi, Malta, at the time of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 and claimed that Megrahi bought a piece of clothing found among the debris of the aircraft.
His evidence helped to secure the 2001 conviction of the former Libyan intelligence officer for the atrocity in which 270 people died, including 11 people on the ground. But some doubts were subsequently raised about Mr Gauci’s reliability.
Megrahi was the only person to have been convicted of the bombing over the south of Scotland on December 21 1988.
He was jailed for life but an investigation by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) led to a finding in 2007 of six grounds where it is believed a miscarriage of justice may have occurred, paving the way for a second appeal.
The Libyan dropped that appeal in 2009 before being released from jail on compassionate grounds due to his terminal prostate cancer. He died protesting his innocence in Libya in 2012.
The trial judgment detailed how the three judges were satisfied Megrahi had walked into Mr Gauci’s shop and bought items of clothing which ended up packed around the bomb that exploded in a suitcase on board the flight.
Photo (above): Former Libyian intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is the only person to have been convicted of involvement in the Lockerbie bombing which claimed 270 lives
With the rise of anti-Americanism, antisemitism and anti-Israel/Zionist propaganda both on and offline, Lisa Michelle has also been an active advocate for America, Israel, and the Jewish community, managing various pro-Israel social networking forums and projects. Continue reading about Lisa Michelle here.
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