CAMP ZEIST, Netherlands — The CIA has given a foreign court unprecedented access to secret dispatches from one of its spies, a Scottish prosecutor said Monday, reflecting Washington's eagerness to see a conviction in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
The spy — a former Libyan agent who offered his services to the CIA — is due to appear in the courtroom later this week, to present what is expected to be the key evidence in the prosecution's case.
Lawyers for two Libyans accused in the Lockerbie case have been given revised texts of dispatches from the Libyan double agent, known as Abdul Majid Giaka, Scotland's chief prosecutor Lord Advocate Colin Boyd told the court.
Over the weekend, the CIA withdrew its censorship of parts of the cables it previously had deleted from Giaka's dispatches.
Defense attorneys said the text of the CIA cables contained information relevant to the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing. The attack killed 270 people over Lockerbie, Scotland.
"The cables have now been produced in their entirety except for those areas which relate to the safety of individuals and to national safety of the United States," said Boyd.
"This is the first time the CIA has produced evidence for a foreign court," he added.
Boyd pointed out that in the United States, court rules allow the CIA to disguise sensitive information in court documents.
"It has been emphasized to me that the amount of detail now in the public domain far exceeds that put into the public domain before by the CIA," said Boyd.
In response to the new disclosures, defense lawyers said they needed to consult with their clients and the court adjourned for the afternoon.
Defense attorney Bill Taylor spoke about "a number of routes available to the accused" which he said "will have repercussions for the court itself."
Giaka was scheduled to appear in court last week, but his testimony was postponed after the defense complained about parts of the cables blacked out by a CIA censor.
The cables were filed between Aug. 10, 1988, and Aug. 31, 1989, by an intelligence handler who debriefed Giaka.
Boyd said he watched last week at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague as a CIA records custodian identified as William McNair undid deletions in the cables from Giaka, whom crown prosecutors refer to as "Mr. Majid."
"I can tell the court that everything Mr. Majid is reported to have said in these cables is revealed except for three matters," relating to the identities of CIA informants and methods of operation, Boyd said.
Newly revealed information included references to CIA payments to Giaka and his request to secure a waiver from military service in Libya.
Giaka has been in the U.S. federal witness protection program since he worked as a CIA informant on the Mediterranean island of Malta.
Giaka worked at the Maltese offices of the Libyan Arab Airlines along with the two defendants, alleged also to have been Libyan undercover agents.
Prosecutors say Malta was the origination point of the Samsonite suitcase containing the bomb that blew up the Boeing 747.
According to the indictment, the suitcase was furnished with stolen tags transferring it through Frankfurt, Germany, onto Pan Am 103 leaving for New York from London's Heathrow Airport.
Defendants Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah have pleaded innocent to mass murder charges, blaming Palestinian terrorists operating in Germany in the late 1980s.
The trial began May 3 before a special Scottish courthouse on a former U.S. air base in the Netherlands. The proceedings are expected to continue for several more months.