Iranian ex-spy: Khomeni ordered Pan Am 103 attack as revenge
A former Iranian spy who has defected to Germany claims that Ayatollah Khomeni ordered the 1988 bombing attack on Pan Am Flight 103, which blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, as revenge for the (accidental) downing of an Iranian airliner by the United States.
Let's go to the videotape.
The Lockerbie bombing was ordered by Iran and carried out by a Syrian-based terrorist group, a former Iranian intelligence officer has admitted.
Abolghassem Mesbahi, a defector to Germany, said Pan Am flight 103 was downed in 1988 in retaliation for a US Navy strike on an Iranian commercial jet six months earlier, in which 290 people died.
He claims the Ayatollah Khomeini, who was Iran’s Supreme Leader, ordered the bombing “to copy exactly what happened to the Iranian Airbus”.
Previously unseen evidence gathered for the aborted appeal hearing of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the former Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the bombing, supports Mr Mesbahi’s claim and suggests that the bombers belonged to the extremist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC).
Documents obtained by Al Jazeera television for a documentary called Lockerbie: What Really Happened? name key individuals said to be involved in the bombing, including the alleged bomb-maker, the alleged mastermind and the man who may have put the bomb on the doomed Boeing 747.
Citing Western security sources, ZDF said that Iran Air and Yas Air have repeatedly used aircraft designated as passenger planes to transport weapons to the Assad regime and Hizbullah.
The mastermind behind the operation is Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which supports the regime of President Bashar Assad and the Lebanese party, the sources told ZDF.
According to the broadcaster, Turkish security officials found weapons and explosives on board a Yas Air passenger jet in March last year.
The freight was allegedly being shipped to Damascus.
Here's video from the site of the Iranian plane crash on which I reported earlier this evening.
According to latest news declared by deputy governor of province of Azarbayjan at 01:00 Am Tehran time , 33 persons including 2 crew member were rescued and 71 othere died in Iraniar Boeing 727 plane crash in Oroumyeh on Sunday evening January 9.
Let's go to the videotape. Sorry, Persian only.
It's kind of tough to fly 45-year old planes, isn't it? I discussed some of the maintenance issues for Iran's old planes here.
There are photos from tonight's crash site here. It looks awfully cold and snowy.
Breaking: Iran Air crash with 95 passengers and 10 crew on board
An Iran Air Boeing 727 has crashed in Azerbaijan. The Iranians are claiming that at least 50 of the 105 people on board have survived.
"So far no reports of death have been reported to me," emergency services head Gholam Reza Masoumi told Fars news agency. "But 50 injured people out of the 105 on board have come out of the plane alive."
The Iran Air plane crashed near the northwestern city of Orumiyeh at around 7:45 pm (1615 GMT), an official in West Azerbaijan province said, quoted on state television's website.
"The airplane took off an hour later than scheduled time from Tehran towards Orumiyeh and because of bad weather conditions came down in a village area near Orumiyeh," the unidentified official said.
Fars said 105 people were believed to be on board, while the aircraft was a US-built Boeing 727, according to ISNA. A third news agency, ILNA, gave a breakdown of 95 passengers and 10 crew members.
Masoumi said the rescue operation was being hampered by bad weather.
"The problem at the moment for rescue work is the heavy snow, which is around 70 centimetres (more than two feet) deep around the crash site," Fars quoted Masoumi as saying.
State news agency IRNA reported that bad weather around Orumiyeh had earlier led to the cancellation of two flights from Tehran on Sunday.
My first reaction to this is to blame the sanctions. When was the last time you flew in a 727? It's probably been 20 years for me. And in fact, I may be right.
As of August 2010[update], 398 Boeing 727 aircraft (all variants) were in commercial airline service.[18] Most airlines have small numbers but the following operated ten or more aircraft:[18]
* FedEx Express (75) * Astar Air Cargo (26) * Capital Cargo International Airlines (14) * Kelowna Flightcraft Air Charter (13) * Cargojet Airways (12) * AeroSur (10)
The last 727 involved in a crash was a Congolese one a year ago last week. The previous one was in 2003. Here's the most famous 727 flight:
In 1971, Northwest Airlines Flight 305 was hijacked by passenger D. B. Cooper while en route from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. After receiving a payment of $200,000 and four parachutes when he was in Seattle, he told the pilots to fly to Mexico, and jumped out of the aircraft from the aft airstairs over Washington or Oregon. Cooper's fate is unknown.
In any event, it's clear to me that were it not for sanctions on Iran, Iran Air would not be flying Boeing 727's as passenger jets, and were it not for sanctions they would at least have spare parts to service them properly.
Iran claims to have foiled an attempt to hijack an Iran Air flight going from Tehran to Damascus on Saturday with several Iranian legislators on board. I sure hope they were able to foil it: the 'hijacker' was unarmed.
A man attempting to hijack a Syria-bound flight carrying a number of Iranian lawmakers was arrested on board, Iran's state radio reported Saturday.
Security guards on the Teheran-Damascus flight thwarted the attempt and arrested the suspect, the report said. No one was hurt.
The radio report said an unspecified number of Iranian lawmakers were on the plane en route to a parliamentary conference in Damascus. It did not provide further details.
The semi-official Fars news agency said the incident happened minutes before the Iran Air flight landed in the Syrian capital.
Fars quoted Iran Air spokesman Shahrokh Nushabadi as saying the suspect, who appeared to be mentally unstable, said he was intending to hijack the Airbus plane but that security guards arrested the unarmed man.
Iran's most powerful military force, the Revolutionary Guard, which is also responsible for air security, claimed in a statement late Saturday that the suspect was affiliated with an unspecified Iranian opposition group. It did not provide further details.
With what did he intend to hijack the plane? His teeth?
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
