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they called me the lebanese texan. i spoke arabic. first they were surprised that an american would speak their language, but i still had my texas accent at the time. i wish i had known the realities of the intelligence business, back in 1980, when i came on board with the cia. i was blind. i didn't really know what reality was. i knew it wasn't hollywood. if you're trying to protect your country, you have to play by the rules of the neighborhood. and those are dirty. what i know now, if i knew it then, i would never have joined the intelligence business.

reporter: pan am flight 103 crashed into the scottish village of lockerbie. two hundred and seventy people, most of them americans, dead. it was the worst terrorist attack on an airline ever. reagan: we have no knowledge of how this happened. we're trying to find out. man 1: it was an attack on america. man 2: the largest crime scene in history. man 3: two-hundred-thousand pieces of evidence. man 4: my daughter hadn't just died in an accident, but had been brutally murdered. man 5: they killed our children. man 6: to be lied to for 30 years. man 7: i think the us government had an agenda. reagan is the biggest terrorist in the world. woman 1: if it's up to our government, we might not ever know the truth. man 8: nothing is what it seems in the lockerbie story. woman 2: december 21st, 1988. so i was, uh, 17 years old,

and my father was coming home from a business trip in london when his plane, pan am 103, exploded over lockerbie, scotland, due to a bomb that had been placed on board by terrorists. this was a terrible tragedy for my family to endure. it was a life-defining moment, that would absolutely forever change the person i was. it really changed the way i saw the world, the way i saw myself. we found out about the plane crash through a breaking news story. i'm talking, like, tv on in the kitchen, soap opera on, newscaster comes on, and my mother hears the news, right? reporter 1: 747 down from london to new york. reporter 2: there was some type of explosion in midair and the plane broke into several parts. reporter 3:..lockerbie, scotland. -there we go. there's... -oh, my. i didn't even see these yet. this is... frank. yes.

and, oh, these are old pictures of how young we were at one time. we met at a church dance, and we ended up being dance partners. and we dated for almost seven years, and then we were married. he worked at chase manhattan bank, and he was serving in london. he was coming home for christmas. and he was supposed to come home wednesday morning, and they asked him to stay. and he actually called me. he said, "would you mind if i came home that night?" and... i never told him when he could fly and when he couldn't fly. i said, "of course, as long as you're coming home." but he wasn't supposed to be on that plane at the beginning. we didn't know anything for months and months, you know. we knew someone put something on the plane,

but we didn't know who, where they came from, why they did it. when something like this happens, you want to know the truth. you want to know what happens. you want to know who's at fault, -who's to blame, all of that. -and why. somebody, literally, did this purposely to these people. man 9: based on baggage records, we determined that it was here in malta that the suitcase containing the bomb was first planted. i was with the case for three years, but assigned to malta for almost two years. interviewer: that's a big commitment. it is a big commitment, but it's not solved in an hour, with commercial breaks and things like that.

by 1990, we were all pretty convinced that libya was behind the pan am 103 bombing. we had two, main potential suspects. lamin fhimah was the libyan arab airlines manager here on malta, and he owned a travel agency called med tours here on the island. his friend was abdelbaset al-megrahi who apparently was an intelligence officer. based on the artists' rendition, megrahi looked like the person who had bought the clothing found in and around the suitcase containing the bomb. but we needed more evidence, you know. there's still more work to be done. everybody in our government wanted to find out who did this,

and as a result of that, the cia did something, and i won't say it's never happened, but i will say it's a rarity. they offered up one of their sources to the fbi. they had a source in malta - majid giaka. they said that he was a double agent, he had worked at the airport, but he had left and gone back to libya, and they were trying to find him. the fbi codename for him was puzzle piece, because he became so critical, he was a piece of the puzzle. so, he volunteered himself. we call them "walk-ins". he walked into the embassy in malta, claimed he was affiliated with the libyan intelligence.

he worked for libyan arab airlines. we knew it was common practice for the libyan intelligence service to use libyan arab airlines as a cover office for their operations. phil: this is the old luqa airport. investigation determined that it was here that the bomb bag... was actually put on the air malta flight to frankfurt... ..and then was transferred to the pan am 103 flight out of heathrow that blew up over lockerbie. puzzle piece was working here at luqa airport in the luggage area. the cia started looking at his reporting. which was saying that, around december of 1988, he actually saw

both fhimah and megrahi coming into this airport here... ..with a suitcase. and that double agent became very, very important to us in the case.

i get a phone call telling me that cia the found the double agent, majid giaka, he's on a boat, and they're bringing him to a us ship of some kind to be interviewed. got on a helicopter, we were flown out to a ship in the mediterranean, international waters. and i'm anticipating a very aggressive interview. but i found him credible, uh, almost to a fault. he was so honest. dick: he tells us he knows megrahi. megrahi was in the libyan intelligence service. he tells us, "i saw fhimah and megrahi come to the airport with a suitcase." exactly the same as the one that carried the bomb.

he said fhimah, because of his job here as the libyan arab airlines manager, he was able to circumvent customs with that suitcase. and then he tells us that fhimah kept explosives in his desk. and, you know, why would an airport security manager keep explosives in his desk? you scratch your head. but he looks at photo spreads of various types of explosives and he picks out semtex... ..the explosive that was used to make the bomb. that was critical for us. we had the people who actually personally facilitated that bomb into the airline system that eventually blew up pan am flight 103, killing 270 people.

we got the bastards. criminal indictments against two libyan intelligence agents announced today in washington and scotland. we charge two libyan officials, acting as operatives of the libyan intelligence service. reporter: megrahi, a senior officer with libyan intelligence. fhimah, a libyan agent, and station manager of libyan arab airlines in malta. finally, something was happening, because it was very difficult to wait and see and have had everything that happened without an answer. we were looking for answers. okay, there were people that we can look at and kind of say, like, "why did you do this?" there's a relief in that, because you're trying so badly to put the pieces together. that was one of the questions, though. "why did you do it?" you know, you wanna know the who, what, where, when and why of the situation. you know, and keeping in mind

that my brother was such a non-violent guy. this is some breakdancing. that's my brother in the red, and he was 19-ish. that was only a couple of years before he died. i recall being afraid that i would forget his voice and, you know, his mannerisms. and, you know, to a certain degree, i have, you know, which is really sad. we didn't always get along so well, you know. there was an awful lot of sibling rivalry going on. and again, being that we were so close in age, and then we both went to syracuse, he was... he was not happy that i was going to syracuse. he and i had a little discussion about it.

i think he said something along the lines of, you know, "couldn't you just go anywhere else? "anywhere else?" you know, the last discussion he and i had... ..i was driving him somewhere for him to catch his flight to the uk. the last words we said to each other was something along the lines of, "you know i really fucking hate you," and, "i really hate you, too." and uh... ..those were literally the last words that we said to one another. reporter: the relatives of americans who died on flight 103 expect their government to take decisive action. it was a military strike against the american flag on pan am flight 103. and these libyan intelligence officers were used as soldiers. reporter: abdelbaset al-megrahi is accused

of being the mastermind of the pan am 103 bombing. but he vigorously denies it. reporter: fhimah, who also worked for the libyan airline, also denies any role in the bombing. dick: we knew it was a waiting game. it was going to be up to gaddafi to decide to extradite them. so, chances are, we're not going to get anybody to come and stand trial. reporter 2: colonel gaddafi took a look at pictures of the two libyan agents, and declared that the men weren't guilty. even if they were, he said, he wouldn't hand them over. there was no indication that libya had any inclination at that stage, in 1991, to give these men up. so, it seemed exceptionally unlikely that they would ever, ever face justice.

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i felt i had a right to know the truth about how my daughter, flora, was killed. so, following the naming of the two suspects,

essentially, in the west, it was confidently said, "of course gaddafi will never hand them over." and that was where the idea dawned in my mind that perhaps i could help, go and see him and see if i could persuade him to allow these two to be handed over for trial. gaddafi hadn't got an extremely good reputation for being a good man, and so we were worried whether he would come back in one piece. (crowd chants) nic: back then, libya was a dictatorship, where westerners weren't really free to roam around. i mean, it wasn't deemed to be a safe place to go. so, jim swire going there, to talk to the man who was accused of orchestrating

the lockerbie bombing was a big deal. gaddafi definitely suffered from grandiose delusions. he believed that he was... he was not an ordinary man. he was, if you like, a political messiah. libya was a country ruled by fear, where people could not criticize or dare to be against him. supported by an arabic journalist who was from sudan, i agreed to accept his help to go to see gaddafi. interviewer: how the hell do you go about getting to see colonel gaddafi, the leader of a rogue state? well, credit where credit's due. he arranged the libyan end and helped to get libyan visas to get into libya. a man whose daughter was killed in the bombing of pan am flight 103

is to travel to libya this week, to try to persuade muammar gaddafi to hand over two libyan agents who had been accused in the bombing. i still, of course, felt extremely nervous about going to see gaddafi, who i thought might either take me prisoner, or have me shot, or something like that. when i got there, we were parked in a waiting area in the desert. and then a message came over his radio saying, "ok, now." interviewer: so, you're effectively -walking in to gaddafi's tent. -yes. so, i went in and i said, "colonel, i'm very pleased to see you because i'm very keen to talk to you." and i had a briefcase.

round the edge of this space was a ring of female soldiers, and each of them had an ak-47. and as i opened the case, you could hear click, click, click... (guns' safety catches click) ..as the safety catches came off. they weren't trusting me one inch. but gaddafi had decided he was going to trust me. suppose he was brave, you would say, because a lot of people tried to kill him at one time or another. in the briefcase was a file full of pictures of flora at various ages. he then asked me why i'd come, and i said to him, "well, look, "two of your men have been accused of the lockerbie disaster, and i think the only way to find out if that's true or not is to have them tried in a proper court of law. is there anything you could do to ease the situation?"

after about 40 minutes i felt it was time to go. and i took one more thing out of my briefcase, a little badge, and it said on it, "lockerbie. the truth must be known." and i pinned that badge on his lapel. and again, you could hear a click, click, click. (chuckles) and when i left his presence that time, he was wearing that badge on the lapel. i thought it's a good for him to acknowledge the truth must be known. reporter: colonel gaddafi insists that his government has been unfairly accused. reporter 2: us and british authorities claim they have a lot of evidence, including eyewitness identification that implicates the two men. well, a number of years went past before it became clear that the libyans were not going to surrender them. nic: libya resisted and resisted handing them over for trial. and the pressure that was applied to libya to make this happen were sanctions

the iran and libya sanctions bill i sign today will help to deny those countries the money they need to finance international terrorism. those sanctions hurt the libyan population. american companies and many european companies were not allowed to export anything to libya, including medicines and vital things for human life. we urge libya to end its ten years of evasion now. the suspects should be surrendered for trial promptly. reporter: tonight does mark the tenth anniversary of the disaster that was pan am flight 103. reporter 2: simultaneous memorials today on both sides of the atlantic. at a parish church in lockerbie, scotland, in london's westminster abbey, at syracuse university, the campus that lost 35 students to the terrorists.

our thoughts and prayers today are with the families and friends of those 270 people from so many countries whose lives were tragically taken in the lockerbie bombing ten years ago. man 10: turn back the clock. let it be seven o'clock on the evening of december 21st, 1988. the pressures of personal grief have been compounded, for many, by the frustrations of the fight for answers. i remember thinking that libya would never turn them over. we find no answer to the soul-searing question... why? suse: we were not interested in blaming anyone. we wanted to find the real deal.

and so, if it took time, it took time.

reporter: the years of diplomatic efforts have finally paid off, with a handover of the two libyan suspects. it's clear that the sanctions worked, because the minute the pair were turned over to custody, the sanctions were suspended. reporter: abdelbaset al-megrahi and al-amin khalifa fhimah

are charged with conspiracy and murder. that was very surprising that they were turned over for trial. and we were very hopeful at that point that the truth would come out. two libyan suspects to be tried in a special court in the netherlands, but under the laws of the nation where the wreckage landed, the laws of scotland. because i'd always an interest in the lockerbie bombing, i put my hand up and volunteered to cover the lockerbie trial. the trial is expected to last more than one year. almost $20m have been spent building the court, prison and media center, on a tiny patch of dutch soil designated as scotland. this was going to be a scottish court inside a former us airbase inside of the netherlands,

and that area would be declared scottish territory for the duration of the trial. so, they were tried under scottish law. because scottish judges were trying the case, my job was to assist the international press and news agencies in understanding the trial. victoria: there's quite a bit of difference between scottish law and american law. under scottish law, there is no death penalty, there's no life imprisonment without parole. so, we were horrified that this was supposed to be, you know, the trial of the century that was going to bring justice to our loved ones. jim: we arranged to live in holland for the duration of the trial. and call me obsessed or what you like, i was determined to extract all the information i could from the trial.

this is why we're here. this is my daughter. this is theo cohen. she was 20 years old when she was blown up over lockerbie, scotland over 11 years ago. reporter: the two libyan defendants arrived for this landmark trial, coming face to face with the relatives of pan am 103's victims. you know, there was sort of, for me personally, kind of a disconnect. that these two little guys, sitting there in their robes, dressed in holy garb, so to speak, could have committed these enormous atrocities. it was very hard for me to actually connect them to having murdered my boy. i'm hoping for peace at the end of it. that i can finally grieve for my daughter and my grand... sorry. for some of them, it was sort of an emotional release. they talked about it as a sort of moment of calm,

when they could finally see the accused. others were much more angry, and they were angry with these men. they were convinced, even before the trial, that they were guilty. i want them to see my daughter's picture. i'm gonna say, "this is what you did." i lost four on that plane, my daughter was pregnant. i'd like to see them get executed. i'm sorry, that's how i feel about it. all of us had been exposed to the publicity, the negative publicity about libya, about gaddafi, the mad dog of africa. there was an assumption that these two libyans were clearly guilty, and there must be a lot of evidence against them. trials, by their nature, as complicated to cover, and this was going to be one of the most complicated in uk history.

a very important witness for the prosecution was edwin bollier. edwin bollier owned a company called mebo ltd, which was in zurich, which, according to the prosecution, had manufactured the timing device that detonated the bomb. and a fragment of the timing device was found in lockerbie. this is the one item of evidence that led the track to libyan intelligence agents having a role in the downing of pan am 103. so, it's where the dots all start to connect together. he's a westerner, he is not connected to the libyan government,

other than through business, and we assumed that he would get on the stand and tell the same story that he told us. but all of a sudden, he wasn't quite as certain that his timer blew up pan am 103. bollier appeared to recant his previous testimony. he said different things to that that'd he'd originally told the police. he seemed mercurial. he seemed untrustworthy. we thought he was going to be a very important part to find the accused guilty. and then he comes and switches. nic: edwin bollier would have every reason

to essentially recant what he'd previously said. don't forget, muammar gaddafi, when this court case was going on, was a formidable power. he could reach you. you could, as a witness, be justifiably scared of going against the libyan government. i now understand why he might have said that. i should make it clear that i consider the evidence about pt/35b to be a falsehood from beginning to end. there was a lot of doubt about where this was found. by whom it was found. it seemed to me quite remarkable that a very tiny, tiny fragment should miraculously be found in the wilds outside lockerbie. and questions then raised over how such a tiny, tiny fragment could be identified.

interviewer: so, do you think that the scottish police -tampered with the evidence? -yes. that cracks the prosecution's case right there.

now, the lockerbie trial has heard crucial evidence linking the two libyan accused to the place where it's claimed the bomb was originally planted. reporter: fragments of a suit recovered from the wreckage of the flight were traced back to a clothes shop in malta. giving evidence, the shop owner, tony gauci, said a libyan man resembling megrahi had been in his shop about a fortnight before christmas, 1988. gauci is significant, because he is the one who can identify megrahi. he says megrahi came into his store to buy random clothes that were packed around the bomb in the suitcase that was put aboard, ultimately, pan am 103. he's the witness that fingers megrahi. now, out of all of that, the most controversial thing

was mr gauci's identification. where would you like to stand? it was put up by the scottish police. later, it became clear that tony gauci had actually seen a picture of megrahi in a magazine, shortly before the line-up. but also, megrahi, it turned out, was the only libyan in the line-up. so, that's where the prosecutions case weakens again. could you all turn round. clare: it's ridiculous. even with all of that, he doesn't say it's definitely him. the impression i got was that he was under some pressure to um... accommodate the police inquiry.

it was quite difficult to establish just how many statements this man had given. but what is clear is that his recollection of critical matters varied hugely. i mean, for example, the man who'd purchased the maltese clothing was described as much older, much bigger. he had identified other people, quite apart from megrahi. and the identification of megrahi was, i would say, laughable. it didn't quite deliver, because he had changing recollections of what the suspect looked like, that his initial, seemingly positive, identification of megrahi, then seemed less positive. he seemed like an unsatisfactory witness when finally put on the stand. tony gauci was a simple, decent businessman, eking out a living in this shop. the police show up in the biggest case

in the history of malta and started asking him questions. i honestly think he was just a man that was trying to be honest and tell the truth to the best of his recollection. we found out subsequently a lot of things that weren't known at the time of the trial, and if they were, would have completely demolished any credibility that he had. such as him being paid a lot of money after the trial. and not only was tony gauci paid money, but his brother, paul gauci, was also paid money. one of the pieces of evidence that emerged later, that wasn't presented in court, was from notes from a scottish police officer, where tony gauci said that he wanted some form of compensation for his information. which... is not outwith the practice

of the us department of justice to do that. and i believe that an fbi agent said, "we can get some money to help re-locate him after the court case was over, for his safety and protection." we didn't know what the threat to tony gauci was. interviewer: how much money are we talking here? they got millions. i think a million dollars. two million dollars, i think, for tony gauci, a million for paul. he was never called as a witness, so what was he getting one million dollars for? he didn't say anything at the trial. you can't have people being paid. it is totally contrary to the interests of justice. the trial period was a very difficult one for me because at the beginning of it, i still believed that our government had been telling us the truth as best they knew it.

but the lack of credible evidence was what converted me to realizing that the intelligence services of britain and america had other things in mind than truth and justice. reporter: in one of these cars is a witness from libya who could decide the outcome of britain's biggest murder trial. abdul majid was once a libyan secret agent and now fears that his former libyan colleagues want to kill him. phil: the double agent, who we called puzzle piece, was willing to testify. you know, that was the real, you know, crux of that trial. there was some critical questions. "did you see, with your own eyes, those two suspects, al-megrahi and fhimah, bring in the bag containing the bomb

that brought down pan am flight 103?"

our xfinity network is built for streaming all the stuff people love. how can it get any better? -i'm just spitballin' here, but, what if we offer people apple tv+, netflix and peacock? for one low monthly price. -yes. so, people could stream the shows they love. and we could call it... xfinity streamsaver! mmmmm. what about something like: streamsaver? ooooooo. -i love that. add streamsaver with apple tv+, netflix and peacock included for only $15 a month... and stream all your favorite entertainment, all in one place. two libyans are on trial at a court set up in the netherlands, they have always insisted they are innocent. the prosecution has hung much of its case on the man who was on the stand today.

reporter: abdul majid giaka is the super-grass billed as the lockerbie-trial star witness. he had presented to himself to the cia as working for libyan intelligence. so, this is somebody who would seem to be able to put the finger on the culpability of megrahi and fhimah in this. reporter: from behind a screen, with his voice disguised electronically, abdul majid told the court how libyan intelligence planned the bombing. reporter 2: he told the court he'd seen explosives in the desk drawer of one of the defendants, and he had seen both defendants with a brown suitcase. reporter 3: abdul majid claimed that before the bombing he passed all this on to his cia handlers. he never mentioned to us anything about any knowledge at all about the pan am bombing. and we were handling him. he was asked that question. he knew nothing about it. all i know is that i spent a lot of time with him initially.

and i'm a skeptical kind of guy, you know, until proven otherwise. i found him just... honest. um... i wouldn't believe he would tell a lie about nothing. i think that he changed the story. he was looking for more money. he was looking for possible resettlement. he would have told us if he knew anything. doesn't make logical sense that he would hide it then, but all of a sudden, later, know everything. i think he was a manipulator and a shyster. i certainly have never had any reason to question his honesty. everything that he said, we were able to substantiate. john: the fbi are primarily cops. and you get this guy walking in, a former cia agent, who has initially claimed to be a true libyan intelligence officer, they grabbed him immediately. this can make their case. this will make the fbi look good.

the fbi and the cia have a history of not getting along with each other. they don't trust each other. reporter: the former double agent is not facing cross-examination by a defense seeking to undermine the credibility of a man who stands to collect a $4m reward if the two suspects are convicted. eddie: he was such a dreadful witness. he actually did a lot more good for the defense than you could ever imagine. he'd gone from knowing nothing about lockerbie, to later giving evidence to the fbi that he had seen both fhimah and megrahi with a brown samsonite suitcase, going through the airport the day before the bombing. they'd gone through, avoiding any security checks. i mean, this was dynamite if it were true. but clearly it was not true. it's been something he had invented, perhaps encouraged to invent later. this is bs. this is...

..the government, you know, manipulating the evidence to get whatever outcome that they wanted. even giaka didn't try to incriminate fhimah, in terms of being a member of the intelligence service. and that, in my view, was a very clear signal to anyone, including the judges, that this case against fhimah was dreadful. nic: another flawed witness for the prosecution. his testimony doesn't stand up. he's seen as something as a walter mitty. somebody who says they're something that they're actually not. so, his evidence is, therefore, much less credible. victoria: it was confusing for us to understand what was going on. this person is being put on as an expert witness, or... i mean, to us, it was quite a sham.

reporter: the day long-awaited by lockerbie investigators and victims' families is at hand. reporter 2: the court that has heard 84 days and three million words of evidence is ready for the final day of britain's biggest mass murder trial. this is another part of the healing. you know, it's still, you know, his murderers. right? it's still the people that committed this horrendous crime. so, there is that sense of, like, wanting to kind of see... you just never stop wanting justice to somehow be served. it wasn't until near the end of the trial that i realized i could not continue to believe that there was a cogent body of evidence that justified the finding of either of these two men guilty. i've never really been a big conspiracy theorist to being with.

but i believe that the... ..the libyans were responsible for the bombing. john: i never believed that libya did it. our government and us presidents have hated gaddafi since he took over in 1969. he kicked all of the american oil companies out of libya. he confiscated our biggest airbase anywhere in the world. i think the us government had an agenda.