Lester Coleman
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| Lester Knox Coleman III[1] | |
|---|---|
| 1944 – July 26, 2007 | |
| Nickname | Mr. Benjamin |
| Place of death | Panacea, Florida |
| Allegiance |  United States of America |
| Service/branch | Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) |
| Rank | Cmdr |
| Battles/wars | Lebanon Civil War |
Lester Coleman, III Cmdr. USN (Deceased) was a U.S. military intelligence or Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer.[2] He was the shadowy "Mr. Benjamin" who ran a DIA covert operation backing a Christian Milita in Lebanon, known as the Lebanese Forces (Samir Ghea Ghea) during the Lebanese Civil War. It was while working for the DIA that he came into contact with agents involved in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 or the Lockerbie bombing. Coleman blew the whistle on a compromised American covert operation, that allowed Iranian backed terrorists the PFLP-GC led by Ahmed Jibril to slip a Symtex bomb aboard Pan Am flight 103, December, 1988.[3] The death toll was 270 people from 21 countries, including 11 people in Lockerbie.[4]
Contents |
[edit] Bio
[edit] DIA
In his book, Trail of the Octopus, Lester Coleman talks about how he recruited in 1984 by the Defence Intelligence Agency.[2] Originally a journalist Coleman would use his former occupation as cover while out on assignments.[citation needed] While on assignment for the DIA in Nicosia, Cyprus Coleman job was to spy on the DEA who according to Coleman tolerated and supervised a regular drug run from Lebanon to the United States.[3] The drug sales raised revenue for American backed groups in Lebanon fighting during the Lebanese Civil War.
It was this drug that was comprised by the PFLP-GC led by Ahmed Jibril. They switched a bag of heroin that was to be smuggled into Europe with a bag that contained a bomb, a bomb that caused the explosion on Pan Am Flight 103 or the Lockerbie bombing.
[edit] Arrest
Coleman left the DEA in Cyprus in 1988 and was not engaged by the DIA again until 1990. He was told to apply for a passport using a former false identity that he used when he used to work for the CIA.[2] In May 1990, as he prepared for his unknown job, he was arrested and charged with applying for at false passport. Thinking it was mistake Coleman waited for his handlers to sort out the mistake. The DIA and then other federal agencies quickly disavowed Coleman and denied he had any links with them.[citation needed] Seeing he was being abandoned by his former employers Coleman turned to the Pan American World Airways and provided a civil affidavit that cleared Pan Am of full responsibility for the Pan Am Lockerbie bombing.[2]
Cmdr.Coleman fled the USA and was granted political sanctuary in Sweden.[citation needed] The US government indicted him for making a false statement in an a civil affidavit he had provided to Pan American lawyers.[citation needed] He is the only person in US history to ever be accused of criminal perjury based on an affidavit submitted in a civil case.[citation needed] In 2000 a US Court of Appeals cleared him.[citation needed] He reached an undisclosed civil settlement with the US government in 2002.[citation needed]
[edit] 1999 Fraud Arrest
In 1999 Coleman was due to attend the Pan Am 103 trial in the Hague.[5] He was sent a cheque for $1200 by the trial officials.[5] Coleman used the money to pay his rent. Before he could leave for the trial he arrested under charges that the check was forged.[5]
During the trial it was revealed the charges were part of a CIA operation to keep Coleman from the trial. Court records show CIA operative, Patrick MacMillian used this scam with another former Operative, Oswald LeWinter in a devious trap to discredit and silence him.[citation needed] LeWinter, like Coleman, had been named in 1991 as a potential witness to appear in Zeist, Holland, in the case against two Libyans accused of blowing up Pan Am 103.[citation needed] MacMillian devised a scheme in 1998 using forged documents, provided to him by his handlers, that claimed the death of Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayad was a British Intelligence plot.[citation needed] He offered LeWinter a piece of the profits from the sale of the information to Dodi Fayad’s Father, Egyptian Financier, Muhammad Al Fayad.[citation needed] A meeting with Fayad was arranged in a Vienna, Austria hotel.[citation needed] During the meeting Viennese police, assisted by U.S. FBI Agents, under Oliver Revell’s direction, swooped down and arrested LeWinter. He was charged with possessing forged documents. Patrick McMillian returned to Las Vegas, but not before using a unique bank-book account from Katherein Bank, Acct. No. 50307495 ,and flying to Casablanca, Morocco.[citation needed]
Three months later, Coleman was arrested in a hotel eight thousand miles away, in Lexington, Kentucky, July, 1999. Local police swooped down on him accompanied by federal agents, and charged him with possessing forged documents, mainly foreign bank checks that appeared in his account at Central Bank & Trust of Kentucky, cleared on deposit.[citation needed] Central Bank Founder, the late Garvis Kincaid had business connections in the Bahamas with Edwin P. Wilson and his boss at the CIA, Theodore G. Shackley. Coleman's arrest was the work of confessed CIA Asset, James P. Vassilos a shady Dutch Financier living in Beirut, according to court documents.[6]
[edit] Death
Cmdr. Coleman died suddenly at his home in Panacea, Florida, July 26, 2007.[citation needed]
[edit] Edwin P. Wilson
In 2003, former CIA intelligence agent, Edwin P. Wilson was freed after spending 27 years in prison. The federal court ruled the CIA had lied when they claimed Wilson was not working for the agency when he sold 2000 pounds of plastique explosives to Libya, and trained Libyans and the PFLP-GC terrorist cell to build bombs inside boom box radios. Wilson's freedom proved Coleman's original claims, that US intelligence had a role in the bomb manufacturing process that blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, December 21, 1988.[citation needed]
[edit] Lester Coleman in media
- In 1998 Film maker Allan Francovitch dropped dead while being questioned by U.S. Customs at Houston Hobby International Airport. The two key figures who appeared in his film about the Pan Am bombing, Oswald LeWinter and Lester Coleman suffered their own fate.
- The Maltese Double Cross-Lockerbie A Allan Francovich film, Hermer Productions, London, UK )
[edit] External links
- Donald Goddard (Author), Lester K. Coleman (Author). Trail of the Octopus, October 27, 1993, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 320. ISBN 074751562X.
- The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie (1994) at the Internet Movie Database
[edit] References
- ^ Pan Am 103 Why Did They Die? (HTML). Time (April 27, 1992). Retrieved on 2008-06-10.
- ^ a b c d Paul Foot (January 6, 1994). Taking the Blame (HTML). ©London Review of Books. Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
- ^ a b Donald Goddard (Author), Lester K. Coleman (Author). Trail of the Octopus, October 27, 1993, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 320. ISBN 074751562X.
- ^ Clipper Maid of the Seas:REMEMBERING THOSE ON FLIGHT 103 (HTML). panamair.org (2007). Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
- ^ a b c You must specify title = and url = when using {{cite web}}.Rayelan Allan (2007). (HTML). RMNews Agency. Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
- ^ US Dist Ct, Dist of Columbia Coleman et al v U.S. 1:04-CV-01688-EGS
