PERSPECTIVE ON TERRORISM : No Zeal to Catch Pan Am Bombers : The culprits’ trail leads to Syria, and the families of Flight 103 fear that Gulf War politics will block prosecution.

Again, there has been catastrophic loss of life in the midair explosion of a passenger jet, with the inevitable comparison to the downing of Pan Am Flight 103.

The circumstances of the Lauda Air tragedy Sunday in Thailand will not be known for some time, if ever. It took two years for authorities in Scotland to pin down the cause in the Pan Am case: A bomb had been hidden in a suitcase that went on board Flight 103 in Frankfurt, on the first leg of the New York-bound flight. The bag had been unaccompanied by a passenger and unexamined, a clear violation of both international and FAA security regulations.

The Scottish findings match those of an earlier U.S. commission. But both inquiries were prevented by their respective governments from touching on the question of who planted the bomb and why. There is fear that international political considerations will keep this from ever being answered.

Within weeks, perhaps within days, of the Dec. 21, 1988, disaster, investigators concluded that the atrocity had been commissioned by high officials in the Iranian government in retaliation for the accidental U.S. downing of an Iranian airliner over the Persian Gulf on July, 3, 1988. The contract had been given to Ahmed Jibril of the Syrian-based and -controlled Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command. Early in 1990, investigators determined that when the front’s operation in Germany was disrupted, the final step, actually placing the bomb, was subcontracted to Libyan agents working out of Malta.

Information has leaked, and at times poured out of the various investigating agencies. Yet the Bush Administration insists that it knows nothing and can say nothing officially for fear of jeopardizing the criminal investigation. FBI Director William Sessions told a group of Pan Am 103 victims’ relatives that the government’s aim was to develop a “prosecutable” case.

We have every reason to believe that the investigation has been carried out in a thoroughly professional manner. But attempts to treat the bombing as an ordinary law-enforcement matter will lead to a dead end. A “prosecutable” case assumes that suspects are going to be caught and brought to trial. Over the past decade only two international terrorists have been caught and brought to trial in the United States. Both were low-level operatives and one was caught by accident. Is Syria’s dictator Hafez Assad going to surrender his creature Jibril for trial? Will he turn himself in? The 103 bombers can remain out of reach in Syria, Iran or any one of a number of other countries.

Let us assume for a moment that some of the terrorists actually were caught. Would they ever be brought to trial? Many of the necessary witnesses would be in Syria, Iran or Libya. Evidence presented in open court might involve sensitive or embarrassing intelligence information. More than one prosecution has been abandoned for that reason.

There are rumors that indictments will be announced “soon”--whatever that means. There are conflicting rumors that no indictments are in sight. Victims’ family members fear, with good reason, that the case will drag on in inconclusive secrecy for years. That would suit the Bush Administration just fine. Indictments would surely complicate our current good-buddy relationship with Assad and our wooing of the mullahs in Tehran.

From the beginning, the Administration has shown absolutely no zeal in pursuing those responsible. Terrorism becomes an important issue only if it serves a larger political purpose. The Reagan Administration did not wait for indictments and a trial before announcing that Libya was behind the attack on a German nightclub in which U.S. servicemen were killed. Tripoli was bombed in retaliation. Libya is weak, insignificant and an easy target. Justice for those murdered in the Pan Am 103 bombing doesn’t figure into the political calculations at all.

Perhaps indictments will be announced tomorrow. Failing that, investigators could issue a report detailing their information about who planned and carried out the bombing. I’m not going to hold my breath.

If the United States doesn’t reveal what it knows, the Scots might. Scotland’s lord advocate, stung by suggestions of political interference, told the Scottish press: “I am absolutely clear that we cannot allow this investigation to run into the sand. At some point it will undoubtedly be necessary to explain where we have got to and who we consider responsible.” When might this be? “I certainly can’t see the inquiry trundling on past the third anniversary without a firm conclusion.”

So it will be another nine months, at most, before we get official word. Again, I’m not holding my breath. Lord Fraser insists that he will not be influenced by political pressure. But the Pan Am 103 wreckage landed in the gritty little town of Lockerbie, not in Brigadoon.