DATE=03/14/02

TYPE=INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

TITLE=SMITH/ROSENTHAL INTERVIEW

NUMBER=3-90

BYLINE=TOM CROSBY

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTERNET=

/// Editors: This interview is available in Dalet under SOD/English News Now Interviews in the folder for today or yesterday ///

HOST: A special Scottish court in the Netherlands has upheld the conviction of a Libyan intelligence agent sentenced to life in prison for the 1988 bombing of a U-S airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. The five-judge panel unanimously rejected an appeal by Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, who was convicted last year of planting a suitcase bomb that exploded aboard the Pan American passenger jet, killing 270 people.

Among those killed was the wife of Bruce Smith, a former PanAm and Delta airlines pilot. He, along with his attorney, Douglas Rosenthal, headed the legal effort to make the Libyan government accountable for the Lockerbie bombing and Captain Smith helped start a rewards program for information leading to the capture of terrorists. They spoke with New Now's Tom Crosby who asked Captain Smith about his life since that tragedy in 1988.

MR. SMITH: People always express sympathy when it comes up, and I like to tell them that what we're trying to do, in terms of holding the Libyan Government responsible, accomplishes two things: it discourages other governments and it's a memorial for my wife.

MR. CROSBY: And I would have to think that is a very fitting memorial, but is there more you can do for her?

MR. SMITH: I think this is the best thing I can do for her, is to make her the -- if Helen of Troy's face launched 10,000 ships, I think my wife is the one that inspired the Anti-Terrorist Reward Program and the civil case against Libya.

MR. CROSBY: As a former airline pilot yourself, do you now look upon the safety of those who man our aircraft in the skies a little differently than you did almost 14 years ago?

MR. SMITH: No. It just reemphasizes my opinion that if you are going to trust pilots with a $100 million airplane and 200 or 300 lives in the back end, you should trust them to defend themselves and not say, okay, we are going to teach the flight attendants hand-to-hand combat and tell the pilots that they aren't allowed to have any kind of weapon in the cockpit. I think that's wrong. I think the pilots should be allowed to defend the airplane.

MR. CROSBY: A question to both of you: Have you been in Lockerbie and in the courtroom, watching the proceedings?

MR. SMITH: Yes, I have visited Lockerbie. I have been to the various places that most intimately concern me. And I did go to Camp Zeist for the opening and the conclusion of the trial of the two Libyan agents.

MR. ROSENTHAL: I have been to Camp Zeist and talked to the prosecutors in Scotland and the prosecutors in the United States who have assisted them. I haven't yet been to Lockerbie, but that will come.

MR. CROSBY: It must be extraordinarily difficult to do that, to see the site, to see the people who may have been involved, who may have been a causal factor.

MR. ROSENTHAL: Being able to take action and do something constructive is better than not being able to take action. And because of Bruce Smith, a lot of action has been started. Bruce mentioned something that is often forgotten, but the State Department now has a program to provide rewards for those who help bring to justice terrorists, and that was entirely Bruce's doing. Bruce got that State Department program going by donating the money to make it happen.

MR. SMITH: And, more important, we got the law changed to allow a large reward program, and the State Department enthusiastically adopted this and started to disseminate the information in various places. And there are people in prison in the United States today who were apprehended abroad because of this reward program.

HOST: Bruce Smith whose wife died in the 1988 bombing of PanAm flight 103 and his attorney Douglas Rosenthal.

A special three-judge Scottish court had sentenced Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi to life in prison for the bombing and said he should serve a minimum of 20 years. The court acquitted al-Megrahi's co-defendant, Al-amin Khalifa Fahima.

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