Friends: Please copy and either email or snailmail the following to news organizations everywhere. It is vitally important that you do so. Les's safety almost certainly depends on what all of us are willing to do NOW. Do not delude yourself into thinking that someone else — more "important" than you — will do the citizen's work of bringing light to an injustice. Individual efforts matter, all the more so when organizations fail. The media has failed thus far. If we let news organizations know that we care about what happens to Les, we may be able to rouse it from its stupor — or cowardice. Please help. Blessings to all of you — D

To the Editor:

It appears as if someone in our State Department or White House would rather have a new relationship with Iran than have Les Coleman tell the truth about who and why Pan Am 103 was bombed.

Les Coleman is a whistleblower, and a key witness in the case. I implore

you to assign a reporter to investigate it. I’ve provided a release of the most pertinent information below.

Thank you, NAME

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

19 April 2000

Contacts: Rayelan Allan Publisher, RMNews 831 477 1550

Doretta Wildes

860 342 1355

AS ATTORNEYS PREPARE FOR PAN AM 103 TRIAL, PRIME WITNESS REMAINS IMPRISONED.

Former DIA agent Lester Coleman was recently incarcerated in a Kentucky prison on charges he alleges were false, yet another effort by the federal government to silence him. Upon his release last week, Coleman was remanded into custody once again, this time by New York Federal Judge Thomas Platt.

Coleman is a key witness in the Pan Am 103 trial, set for early May in Camp Zeist, Holland. The airliner blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 259 people on board and 11 on the ground.

Coleman’s “crime,” according to Judge Platt, is perjury, committed in an

affidavit he gave in 1997. His testimony blew the whistle on a massive CIA/DEA drug smuggling operation which facilitated the smuggling of a bomb aboard Flight 103. A bag of heroin aboard the flight, bound for a DEA drug sting operation in Chicago, was switched for a bag of explosives. Coleman maintains that this testimony is true, and has attempted to appeal the perjury conviction, claiming that his guilty plea was made under extreme duress.

A front page story that appeared on April 16 in The Sunday Herald (1), a

Scotland newspaper, corroborates Coleman’s statements. The story reveals

claims made by Roland O’Neill, the Pan Am baggage handler who was in charge of loading luggage onto Flight 103. O’Neill’s statements back up long-held suspicions that Palestinian terrorists operating in Germany planted the bomb at the behest of Iran, mirroring Coleman’s allegations.

Coleman has led the life of a fugitive ever since co-authoring a book, The Trail of the Octopus, based on his knowledge of drug smuggling by various U.S. intelligence agencies. Upon the book’s publication, an order for Coleman’s arrest was issued by the U.S. government, primarily on accusations of perjury. He was attacked and viciously beaten shortly before his return to the U.S. in 1996, then placed in custody on federal

charges. His book’s release by major publishers has since been successfully suppressed.

While awaiting his trial in 1997, Coleman was incarcerated for months in

the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn. While there, he developed a malignant growth on his chest, but was denied medical treatment. The cancer eventually burst, like an egg, through his skin. Coleman says he was given treatment only after other prisoners complained about the odor of the abscesses. After surgery, the wound became infected. Coleman was thrown into solitary confinement where he suffered the pain of an abscessing wound without medical treatment.

Harvey Berman, M.D./Ph.D., (914 946 5644) associate professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College (Valhalla, New York) confirms Coleman’s description of his treatment at MDC. He also confirms that Coleman’s guilty plea to perjury charges were made to save himself from the “living hell” he endured in prison.

Coleman has been subpoenaed to testify at the trial of the two Libyans who have been blamed for the Pan Am 103 bombing. However, his continued imprisonment will effectively prevent his appearance.

Currently scheduled to appear before Judge Thomas Platt (2,3) this week on the charge of violating the terms of his probation, Coleman fears that he will once again be incarcerated at MDC, this time for good.

Coleman would not be the first person to die as the result of inside knowledge regarding the Pan Am tragedy. Investigative journalist Danny Casalaro was found with his wrists slashed in Martinsdale, West Virginia

in 1991 — one week after interviewing Coleman. Former DIA/DEA associates

of Coleman, including two Lebanese operatives who knew about the drug sting, have been murdered.

As attorneys for the Libyan suspects and survivors of the Pan Am crash seek answers, it appears that the one man who can still provide them is unavailable for questioning. The European media is slowly unearthing the facts unaided by its stateside counterparts.

It’s time for the U.S. media to shine a light on Les Coleman.

###

Notes:

1. http://www.sundayherald.com/news/newsi.hts?section=News&story_id=8212

2. A complaint against Judge Platt (TITLE 28 U.S.C. 372(c)(1)) based on

misconduct and thoroughgoing disregard for constitutional law, was filed

in July 1998. See the following page for details: http://www.copi.com/octopus/PlAttitude.html

Platt may be reached as follows:

Hon. Thomas C. Platt U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York 2 Uniondale Avenue Uniondale, NY 11553 (516) 292-1835 - Court Clerk's Office (516) 485-6508 - His Secretary's number (516) 486-6949 - Courtroom Deputy Number

3. Mr. Coleman's Federal ID # is 47321-019.