Putting It Together, Bit By Bit

By Sidney Urquhart

One tiny fragment sifted from the tons of debris that rained down over Lockerbie, Scotland, may at last reveal who blew up PAN AM 103. While both Syrian and Palestinian terrorists have been suspected of planting the bomb, the focus has shifted to the Libyan intelligence service. Scottish police, baffled by a fingernail-size bit of electronic circuitry from the wreckage, shipped it off to Washington. When FBI lab analysts compared the shard with the printed-circuit boards of two unexploded bombs taken from Libyan agents in Africa, it was a match. FBI agents and Scottish investigators tracked the timers to a Swiss electronics firm, which acknowledged selling two dozen to the Libyan government. A grand jury in Washington is expected to indict several Libyan intelligence agents in November.

With reporting by DANIEL S. LEVY