Originally Posted by
Guybrush Threepwood
This is from memory, so Rolfe may have better info, but the CT isn't that the CIA did the whole thing as a false flag operation, but that the perpetrators were not Libyan but Syrian/Palestinian/Iranian, and that there were CIA agents on the plane, and on the ground soon after the crash and that the US government did not wish this to be known.
Something like that. The Official Theory is that Lockerbie was Libyan revenge for the US bombings of Tripoli and Benghasi in 1986 in which Gadaffi's step-daughter was killed (and which are believed to have been an attempt to assassinate Gadaffi himself). One argument against this is that Margaret Thatcher apparently didn't believe that Libya was responsible for Lockerbie, stating in her memoires that these bombings were so successful that Libya was never able to retaliate.
The CT version is that Lockerbie was actually Iranian revenge for the shooting down of the Iranian Airbus over the Persian Gulf on 3rd July 1988, which killed 248 Iranians on their way to Mecca on a pilgrimage. That incident was due to a US naval captain mistaking the scheduled passenger flight for an attacking military aircraft. Subsequently the US tried to blame Iran for what happened, and the US captain was later awarded the Legion of Merit Medal.
Iran was reportedly livid about this, and publicly vowing revenge. However, the CT goes on to claim that Iran then contracted-out the actual carrying-out of the revenge, by some accounts offering a reward for doing the deed. Palestinian terrorists are the most popular choice for this role, however Syria has also been fingered. Some versions even turn back towards Libya, suggesting that Libya might have been only too happy to do Iran's dirty work for it.
The CT tends to suggest there has been a deliberate misdirection effort on the part of the USA (the CIA) to turn attention away from all this and towards Libya alone. The motive generally being that the CIA were up to something else they don't want revealed (that alleged drug-running operation?), however the other possibility is that the USA wanted Iran onside at the time of the First Gulf War in the early 1990s, so they really, really didn't want to have to deal with the revelation that Iran was behind Lockerbie.
Having said that, the official line is that they simply didn't find the evidence they needed to incriminate the Palestinians. They did, however, find enough to make them go after Megrahi and Fhimah.
As I said, a lot of the CT stuff is barnacle, but the bare bones of the thing are certainly given credence by many people not normally dosposed to CT promotion. The SCCRC report certainly dismisses some aspects, but even there, it's impossible to say whether this is because they've definitely been discounted, or simply that they didn't find sufficient evidence.
And yes, Sophia is right. The only CIA agents present immediately after the flight crashed were the dead ones who were on the plane.
Rolfe.