Lockerbie Case Far From Closed

The verdict of a Scottish court in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing case does not close the book on that murderous act of terrorism, which a dozen years ago took the lives of 270 people, 189 of them Americans. The conviction of Libyan intelligence official Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi does not absolve others involved in the crime, nor does the acquittal of a second Libyan accused of smuggling a bomb aboard the airliner mean that Megrahi acted alone. It’s all but inconceivable that others didn’t help plan the attack, or that Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi did not know of or even order it. That’s why the U.S. government insists, rightly, that Libya take responsibility for the actions of its operatives, reveal everything it knows about the atrocity and pay reparations to the families of those killed.

Megrahi was convicted and given a life sentence largely on circumstantial evidence. Much of it consisted of shreds of physical evidence painstakingly gathered around the village of Lockerbie, Scotland, and reconstructed to form a plausible picture of a bomb hidden in a radio and packed in a suitcase along with recently purchased clothing. Tracing that material led in time to Megrahi, though it wasn’t until April 1999 that Libya agreed to hand him and the second suspect over to the United Nations. The nine-month trial took place in the Netherlands, before a panel of Scottish judges. Its cost exceeded $87 million, most of it paid by the United States.

Civil suits against Libya that were suspended while the criminal trial was underway will now be pressed in federal court in New York. The suits are based on a 1996 law that allows individuals to sue foreign governments that are on the State Department’s list of sponsors of terrorism. A finding for the plaintiffs could lead to billions of dollars in punitive damages against Libya. Libyan assets in the United States that were frozen 14 years ago are believed to total hundreds of millions of dollars.

Washington will maintain the sanctions it imposed on Libya in 1992, and it wants U.N.-imposed sanctions--suspended but not lifted two years ago--to remain as well. Those are aimed at forcing Libya to renounce terrorism and compensate the families of the bombing’s victims. Such action by Libya would be an implicit acknowledgment of responsibility. The United States wants that acknowledgment to be unambiguous. That’s the right position, and it should not be softened under pressure from Libya’s sympathizers.