More on Susan Lindauer

The following piece of Lindauer's history may be utterly unconnected to her arrest on the charge of spying for Iraq. Still, I am surprised that so few people have mentioned that today's arrest is NOT the first time Susan Lindauer's name has appeared in a controversial context. If (as suggested below) a frame-up is in the works, we may now have a hint as to motive.

In 1994, a CIA employee named Dr. Richard Fuisz confided to congressional aide Lindauer that Libya was NOT responsible for the destruction of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. Lindauer testified to this effect in 1998. Due to a gag order, Fuisz could not speak about the matter.

In July of 2000, the Middle East Intelligence Bulletin offered an interesting report on Lindauer's testimony in the Lockerbie affair. An excerpt from that piece:


"Lindauer says that she has been subject to intense surveillance, threats, and attacks since she began meeting with Libyan officials in 1995 to discuss her knowledge of the Lockerbie bombing. "Someone put acid on the steering wheel of my car on a day I was supposed to drive to NYC for a meeting at the Libya House. I scrubbed my hands with a toilet brush, but my face was burned so badly that 3 weeks later friends worried I might be badly scarred," Lindauer told MEIB. "Also, my house was bugged with listening devices and cameras -- little red laser lights in the shower vent. And I survived several assassination attempts...""


The following words come from her 1998 deposition:


"Dr. Fuisz told me in September, 1994 that he had lived in Syria during the 1980s, and that he maintained close ties to Saudi Arabia and the Middle East overall. Mutual friends and associates have confirmed this. He was vague as to what capacity he was working, but after our conversation, I concluded by myself that he must have been feeding U.S. intelligence efforts. He told me that he had infiltrated a network of Syrian terrorists tied to the Iranian Hezbollah, who, at the time of his residence in Damascus, were holding Americans hostage in Beirut. Dr. Fuisz impressed on me that he had identified the organizers behind the hostage crisis, and that he had actually located the streets and buildings where those Americans were being held captive, at tremendous personal risk, in order to try to orchestrate a rescue. This information was later confirmed by a third party source.

"We talked a great deal about how the sale of heroin/opium from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon is financing terrorist activities on a global scale. I must add, the rise of heroin in street markets all over the U.S. is a most insidious trend with enormous human costs, which has further motivated my determination to stay involved in this question of Pan Am 103. (The bombing of Pan Am 103 was intended to strike drug enforcement agents of the United States, in reprisal for their aggressive efforts.)

"As further evidence of his deep infiltration of terrorist circles, occasionally Dr. Fuisz pointed to photographs on his wall that showed individuals engaged in social activities at private homes. He said they were some of the "most famous terrorists in the Middle East," to use his words. Obliquely he told me they might be household names in the United States."


Further on, we read:


"Dr. Fuisz made it very clear that he knows a great deal of insider knowledge about this case. Because of his Syrian ties, he told me he "was first on the ground in the investigation," to use his words. At one point, I said to him, "Oh yeah, everybody knows Syria did it, and the U.S. repaid them for supporting us during the Iraqi War by shifting the blame to Libya."

"Immediately he cut me off.

""Susan ‚ Do you understand the difference between a primary source and a secondary source? Those people in Virginia are analysts. They're reading reports from the field, but they don't have first-hand contact with events as they're happening on the ground. Or first hand knowledge about what's taking place. So they don't actually know it, even if they think they do."

""I know it, Susan. I know it. That's the difference. Because of my Syria contacts, I was the first on the ground in the investigation. I was there. They're reading my reports." (His emphasis. Then he laughed sarcastically.) "In this case, they're reading them and destroying them." (And he threw up his hands.)"


End of the excerpts. For a fuller version of her testimony, check out the above-linked article.

The piece alleges that Fuisz, as an employee of the intelligence community, is subject to laws which forbid him from discussing this matter in public sans permission. Libya has, of course, recently admitted to the crime, and this admission paved the way for the newly warm relations between that country and the United States.

Is Dr. Fuisz telling the truth about Pan Am 103? I have no way of knowing. Obviously, the court did not believe any of this. However, I can't see what motive he would have for lying to Susan Lindauer, and I cannot see what motive Lindauer might have had for lying about Dr. Fuisz. If the matter were of no consequence, then why was he asked to keep mum?

I cannot help but wonder if Susan Lindauer's current troubles stem in any way from the fact that she proved troublesome during the Lockerbie investigation, the repercussions of which have yet to fade.