Israel Matzav

Top US investigator: Gadhaffi personally approved Pan Am 103 attack

There's a cemetery in Beit Shemesh, about 25 minutes out of Jerusalem, that's mostly been bought up by groups of American Jews who want to be buried in Israel (the Talmud extols the merits of those who are buried here, but it also says that it is even better to have lived here before one dies). Unfortunately, I have been to that cemetery many times over the years, usually for the burial services of American friends' parents. Near the front of the main part of the cemetery, there is a grave that is visible from the main road that belongs to "Joseph K. Miller." I doubt most of the people who go to the cemetery know who he was. But I recognized the name immediately the first time I saw it, and if you didn't know who he was, I am going to tell you.

Joseph K. Miller was an Orthodox Jew from Long Island was was a passenger on Pan Am flight 103. He was a man who was deeply involved in the Jewish community - at the time of his death he was the Treasurer of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. I lived in New Jersey in December 1988, and there was a boy in the yeshiva in the town in which I lived whose parents were friends of the Millers who told me the story. Mr. Miller had gone to London for a daytime meeting. He left on the overnight flight from New York the night before, arriving in London early that morning. Pan Am 103 was a 4:00 pm flight, one of the last flights from London to New York that day. Mr. Miller wanted to get home to his family rather than stay overnight in London. After his meeting, he ran to the airport to board Pan Am flight 103. He never made it home to Long Island, although he did make it home to Israel. Fortunately, his body was found intact (apparently unlike many others) and he was buried in that cemetery in Beit Shemesh, where his grave looks out over the main path for all to see.

A top US investigator has told the Jerusalem Post that Mr. Miller and 269 other people died on the direct orders of Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhaffi. In a world without exceptionalism, Gadhaffi will be welcomed to the United Nations the week after next, along with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other tyrants who are regarded as 'equals' to the world's democracies. Woodmere, the town where Mr. Miller HY"D (may God avenge his blood) lived, is less than 25 miles from Manhattan, the amount of distance outside the City that Gadhaffi is permitted to venture. Hopefully, the Libyan murderer will confine his stay to Manhattan (he has dropped plans to stay in Englewood, New Jersey) and not inflict his terrorist stench on any other part of the United States.

In a telephone interview from the United States, Richard Marquise, a 31-year FBI veteran who led the US task force probing the December 1988 blast which destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, with the loss of 270 lives, said it was unthinkable in a regime such as Libya for that kind of major terrorist attack to have been authorized without Gaddafi's approval.

"If you were a senior minister, would you do this without telling the boss? I doubt it," said Marquise. "I have to think [Gaddafi] knew something was going to happen, something that the US would be pissed about, and he said OK."

Marquise has repeatedly stated his belief that Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the former Libyan intelligence officer who is the only man ever convicted in the attack, was guilty as charged. Megrahi was released from a life sentence in Scotland on compassionate grounds last month, and warmly embraced by Gaddafi on his return to Libya.

Marquise told the Post he was also convinced Megrahi was no "rogue" agent.

Read the whole thing. Joseph Miller and the other 269 people murdered in Lockerbie 21 years ago deserve better than they have gotten from the American, British and Scottish governments.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:23 AM