From the day a terrorist bomb brought down Pan Am 103 in December, 1988, investigators said Iran was behind the plot They claimed to have evidence that Iran paid Ahmed Jibril, the head of a Syrian based terrorist group $10 million to bomb the plane. The American jetliner was destroyed in revenge for the mistaken shoot down of an Iranian airbus by the U.S. Navy warship, Vincennes, six months earlier, the FBI concluded.
By August, 1991 Iran and Jibril were totally out of the picture. The FBI and CIA suddenly turned the focus of their investigation towards Libya. In November the indictment of two Libyans was announced by the U.S. Attorney General in a Washington, DC news conference.
But, government documents obtained by attorneys representing former intelligence agent, Lester Coleman reveal that the government shifted the blame for the bombing to Libya's doorstep to protect a high level spy inside the Iranian government. The documents detail a pattern and time frame that confirms the government's cover-up.
One document, from the CIA's obscure Directorate of Science and Technology, dated June 23, 1989 is a very detailed account of a series of meetings between high level Iranian officials and Jibril beginning on July 8, 1988. The seven page report is so detailed that only someone who had first hand knowledge could have prepared it. It even confirms the $10 million payoff.
The report did not surface in the Pan Am lawsuit in New York until April 8, 1991. Within weeks the U.S. government started pointing the finger at Libya.
The high level CIA asset inside the Iranian government reported to his CIA handlers during frequent visits to Damascus, where his American contact was operating a medical research company. His information was subsequently passed to agents who ran a medical supply business in Beirut. It was then passed on to Cyprus where it was transmitted to Washington.
The Iranian mole not only was in a position to have first hand knowledge of meetings with Jibril, and the plot to blow up American aircraft, he also had access to intelligence about nuclear weapons and uranium processing in neighboring Pakistan. This included quality and quantity of processed Uranium, and technical support from China.. China is also a major military supplier to Iran.
The mole had access to M.11 missile deployment, Uranium processing, and names of personnel and their travel schedules to China and Europe. This is documented in a hand-written note the Iranian passed to his handler in Damascus in 1986. The original is now in the hands of Coleman's lawyers.
The CIA handler, who has left the agency and is now living in Virginia, was in and out of Syria from 1982 - 1989. A subpoena will be issued for his testimony.
Was the Iranian mole so important that he was to be protected at all costs, including shifting the blame for the murder of 270 people ? Coleman's lawyers believe that is exactly what happened. Coleman was the Cyprus link in the intelligence chain.
The government moved to silence him after he blew the whistle on a U.S. drug sting operation employing Lebanese from the Jibril group. Two Jibril members linked to the DEA informant network are Ali Hamadi and Imad al-Meghniyyeh.
Coleman claims Jibril placed the bomb aboard Pan Am 103 by compromising a "controlled" drug route set up by the DEA to entrap drug dealers in the States. DEA had over 130 informants in Lebanon, supervised by two agents based in Cyprus, 125 miles off the coast. Coleman wrote in his book, published in 1993, "the DEA's controlled delivery operation was out of control."
