US paid reward to Lockerbie witness, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi papers claim

Scottish detectives discussed secret payments of up to $3m made to witness and his brother, documents claim

BACKGROUND:  On 21 December 1988, a terrorist bomb exploded on board Pan Am flight 103, destroying the aircraft over the Scottish town of Lockerbie and killing 270 people. Anglo-American authorities soon accused Libya of being behind the terrorist act, fingering a Libyan, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, as the key man behind the plot.

Reconstructed fuselage of doomed plane.

The claims about the payments were revealed in a dossier of evidence that was intended to be used in an appeal by Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of murdering 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988.

“I continue to protest my innocence – how could I fail to do so?,” he said. “I have no desire to add to the upset of many people I know are profoundly affected by what happened in Lockerbie. My intention is only for the truth to be made known.”

John Pilger argues that while liberals now celebrate America's return to its "moral ideals", they are silent on a venerable taboo. This is the true role of Americanism: an ideology distinguished by its myths and the denial that it exists. President Obama is its embodiment.

A transcription of John Pilger’s address to Socialism 2009 in San Francisco

John Pilger de-codes the "historic" speech President Obama made in Cairo "reaching out to the Muslim world", according to the BBC: in reality showing the seductive face of American power as it proceeds towards its unchanged goal.

John Pilger describes the power of advertising - from the effects of smoking to politics - as he reaches behind the facade of of the first 100 days President Barack Obama.