Title:Pan Am 103 and the Birth of "No Double Standard".

• Author: Gilbert, Richard
• Position: Pan American Flight 103

Text:

On December 12, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest and detention of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'udKheir Al-Marimi (Mas'ud), 71, of Tunisia and Libya, the suspected maker of the bomb that destroyed Pan American Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, 34 years earlier.

In addition to being a sharp reminder of the tragic deaths of 270 innocent persons in 1988, the announcement of Mas'ud's arrest also brought home for me decades-old questions about what was "known in advance" and the birth of the U.S. government's No Double Standard policy.

The news about Mas'ud sent my mind swirling back 34 years to the discussion at our weekly section heads meeting in Moscow in mid-December 1988; I participated in these Country Team meetings as embassy Press Attache. That day, Administrative Counselor Bill Kelly reported receiving an unclassified Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) "Threat to Civil Aviation" warning, sent to several embassies. By citing Pan American specifically, the warning had special resonance for the official Moscow community. At the time, our usual route to the U.S. under required "Fly America" rules put us on Pan American's daily flight to Frankfurt or London, then onward to the U.S.

The Country Team participants unanimously agreed that the FAA warning, despite its lack of specificity, was of more than routine interest. By the following day, the embassy issued an Administrative Notice throughout the embassy. We in the press office made sure that the notice was prominently posted in the embassy cafeteria, a place where the broader American community--business reps, academic exchange program grantees, and the resident Moscow U.S. press corps--had access.

Arriving in the embassy a few days later, early on December 22, we were stunned to hear the terrible news of the overnight destruction of the Pan Am flight over Scotland. Within minutes after reaching my press office desk, the phone rang. It was ABC's Moscow bureau chief, Walter Rodgers. "Hey, Richard," Walter said, "do you still have that notice posted in the cafeteria? Do you mind if we send over a crew to take some video for 'Good Morning, America'?"

"Sure," I replied, without hesitating, "I think it's still there. No problem. I'll meet you downstairs." The crew came and went, and the hours passed routinely, until 3:00 in the afternoon--7:00 a.m. on the east coast. In New York, "Good Morning, America" led with Walter's video and "the U.S. Embassy in Moscow's...