Did I have a brush with terrorism?

[NomoneyNohoney]

In the news this morning was the mention that a posthumous investigation/pardon for the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi has been rejected.
That stirred some memories for me.

In the 1970s I was a part time DJ, with aspirations to do the job full - time. This was the era of pirate radio, and after the established pirate ships had settled in to become part of the UK radio scene, a new station started test broadcasts, calling itself Radio North Sea International. Listening to the test broadcasts, one of the DJs mentioned that the owners of the station, Messrs. Bolier and Meister, were currently staying at the Grand Hotel in Scheveningen, Holland. I got enthused with the romantic idea of meeting these guys and having them offer me a job, after they were naturally bowled over by my magnetic personality, so I discussed the matter with my girlfriend, and she was very supportive of the idea, so I went to a travel agents and booked myself a plane ticket to Holland for the following day, a Friday.
Once I got to the airport I suddenly thought about telling work why I wasn't there, so I found a payphone, called in to work, put on my best croaky voice and told them I had a cold and felt dreadful. This ruse was somewhat spoiled by flight announcements on the Tannoy at the moment I was on the phone, but luckily the person I was talking to didn't twig, and off I went to Holland.

I think this was the first time I'd gone abroad on my own, and I felt very out of my depth, my bravado faded, so I said to myself that I'd not go that day, the Friday, to the Grand Hotel, but I'd leave it till Saturday. Saturday arrived and I was in full prevaricating insecure mode, so I told myself I'd go the following day to meet these two chaps, prior to obviously being offered a job on the spot, as was my dream.
The next day, Sunday, arrived, and I very nervously got myself over to the hotel, and at reception, asked if I could meet with Messrs Bolier and Meister. "Sorry Sir," came the answer, "they checked out this morning and flew to Switzerland. Do you want their address there?" So I took that address, and then phoned my girlfriend and confessed how it was all going pear-shaped. She was very gung-ho, and told me to get on a plane to Switzerland, but unfortunately I didn't have enough money, so the following day I came back to Blighty, having achieved nothing except learning that the Dutch put mayonnaise on potato chips as a matter of habit, and that asking in a tobacconists for "English cigars" to take back as a present for my Dad was laughable to the Dutch.

Some time after, Radio North Sea International started broadcasting full time from a ship called the "Mebo 2" and I was quite chuffed to work out that it was an amalgam of the names of the owners, MEister and BOlier. They had a strong signal, and, as a radio enthusiast I was also interested to hear they had a powerful short wave transmitter on board, I assumed in expectation of using lower frequencies to be able to broadcast over a much greater range. I was now back in the UK, and this whimsical idea of being a pirate DJ faded and died. Now, you may well ask, what has any of this got to do with the title of this post?

There were rumours that the short wave transmitters during the night were occasionally being fired up and messages were being sent to Libya, of all places. That was just an interesting tidbit of information, to be filed in the "weird rumours and stories" folder in my mind.

You will be glad to hear, that after this monumental preamble, I'm finally getting to the heart of the matter.
You will recall, sadly, the explosion of an aircraft over Lockerbie in Scotland, and allegations that Libya was responsible? Well, analysis of the fragments of debris showed that the bomb had a timer fitted, which allegedly was sold in Malta prior to being incorporated in the bomb. This timer was of a type supplied or made by Mebo Telecom of Switzerland.

This was the moment that I put a few things together - RNI owned by MEister and BOlier, MEBO Telecoms' timers , Libya and Switzerland, clandestine broadcasts from the ship allegedly to Libya...

Now that much time has passed, the mention of the Libyan bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi today reminded me of this chain of connections. Looking on the web this morning, I was fascinated to find the following links:-

a ) https://inteltoday.org/2017/10/25/locke ... 13-timers/
b ) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Nor ... ernational

Just a couple of extracts from each of those links:
a) “...The problem with the Lockerbie trial has been that the man who supplied the timer for the bomb which brought down the aircraft was never put on trial. Western intelligence agencies knew of the activities of Edwin Bollier as far back as 1971. The envelope which should have brought Edwin Bollier’s career to an end — he was then an agent for the Stasi East German intelligence — was handed to MI6 in the summer of 1971. I know because I handed the envelope containing the evidence to “W”, my MI6 controller, retired Perth Detective Superintendent, in an office in Guild Street, Aberdeen...”


b) “...While the two vessels were laid up in the Netherlands, both were fully refitted. Early in 1977, Mebo I, now renamed Angela and Mebo II were sold to Libya. They sailed, each with a crew of nine, for Libya, arriving at Tripoli on 9 February 1977. Mebo II was renamed El Fatah, and Angela was renamed Almasira. El Fatah then broadcast as Radio Jamharia with programmes such as the Arab Voice, Libya International in English and the Holy Quran. This continued until 1980... The Almasira and the El Fatah were said to have been used as target practice by the Libyan Navy in the 1980s, and were sunk in the Gulf of Sidra, Mediterranean Sea ...“

I reckon that I was quite lucky that I bottled out of meeting those guys too quickly in Holland, as the story might have ended in a different way.

[XFool]

...Fascinating

From the Wikipedia link: "Spangles Muldoon reported:"

I can't compete with that, my original discovery at the age of 13 or so, of an East German Numbers Station on SW pales into insignificance!

Well, I could tell you of the time one part of the UK Intelligence service wanted to recruit me. But then I'd probably have to kill you.

[bungeejumper]

Wow. I can't match that, but I only missed the Paddington train smash in 1999 (31 killed, 417 injured) because I'd overslept. By the time I'd heard the news on the radio, it was clear that I'd have to drive to my London meeting instead.

Except that a lorry had overturned on the M4, pretty much shutting off the west of England. Somebody out there really didn't want me to make that meeting.

BJ

[NomoneyNohoney]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63933837

"Lockerbie bombing suspect in US custody"

It'll be interesting to see if anything of substance turns up after today's news, that substantiates the story I told. Remember, Messrs. Bolier and Meister, and timer(s) made by Mebo Telecoms of Switzerland.

[NomoneyNohoney]

I quite enjoyed a program I found on You Tube about Radio NorthSea International - if it piques your interest, check
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaTQOneyhxE
Quite interesting to hear mention of the Grand Hotel in Scheveningen and also a Zurich connection, both of which I remarked on in my initial story.