Lester Coleman

Lester Knox Coleman III (September 25, 1943 – August 15, 2021) was an American who was the co-author of the 1993 book Trail of the Octopus: From Beirut to Lockerbie – Inside the DIA, in which he claimed that a secret drug sting enabled terrorists to evade airport security in the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan American World Airways Flight 103. Coleman further alleged that a compromised American covert drug-operation allowed Iranian-backed terrorists – the PFLP-GC, led by Ahmed Jibril – to slip a Semtex bomb aboard the plane. Conspiracy theories alleging that the federal convictions of Lester Coleman were an effort to silence him and to hide the truth about Pan Am Flight 103 circulated around the internet.

Background Coleman's hometown was Panama City, Florida. According to one source, Coleman once served as a news director for WSGN radio in Birmingham. In 1985, he worked as a correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network in the Middle East. CBN later closed its Beirut bureau, and Coleman was no longer employed by CBN. He also worked as a public relations employee of the Boy Scouts of America in Chicago. Micheal Hurley, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) operations in Nicosia, Cyprus, said that Coleman worked as an overseas informant for the DEA. Joe Boohaker, a Birmingham, Alabama man who served as Coleman's defense attorney, said that Coleman worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency and checked on the DEA's operations. a later article in the American Journalism Review disputes that he ever worked for that agency. That identity was to be a man named Thomas Leavy. In May 1990, as he prepared for his unknown job, Coleman was arrested by the FBI and charged with applying for a false passport. According to Redding Pitt, a federal government attorney from Montgomery, Alabama, Coleman missed the bail hearing and appeared in Europe. Coleman accused the federal government of prosecuting him to try to silence Coleman's knowledge of the crash of Pan Am Flight 103. titled "Pan Am 103 Why Did They Die?," using Coleman's version of the events and directly naming Coleman as a source. The Time article that used Coleman's thesis included a photograph of Michael Schafer, a 39-year-old man from Atlanta; Coleman wrote that terrorists had infiltrated a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) operation outside of the United States and, because of incompetence on the part of the DEA, were able to smuggle a bomb on Pan Am 103. Hurley sued Bloomsbury in a London court.

Pan Am civil suit In 1991, as part of a civil suit between Pan American World Airways and the families of Flight 103 victims, Lester Coleman made a sworn statement accusing the Drug Enforcement Administration of allowing PA103 to be bombed; his allegations were reported internationally. The federal court imposed a gag order on the defendants and plaintiffs in the Pan Am case. Christopher Byron of New York magazine said that members of the defense "appear to have repeatedly" violated the court-imposed gag. Byron argued that the Pan Am Time magazine story was possibly a leak. The lawyers of the plaintiffs complained, saying that the Time story was leaked in violation of the gag order.

Perjury accusation, asylum, attempted U.S. extradition The U.S. government indicted Coleman on perjury charges, accusing him of making false statements in an affidavit supporting Pan Am's claims against the Federal Government of the United States in a Pan Am 103 civil suit. Joe Boohaker, Coleman's defense attorney, said that the filing of criminal charges based on the course of a civil suit was "the most unusual thing" he had ever encountered. During this time, the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent letters to the Swedish Government, requesting Coleman's extradition request to Sweden.

Tam Dalyell, a Labour Party Member of Parliament from Linlithgow, asked the Lord Advocate, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, to grant diplomatic immunity to Lester Coleman, so he could give evidence in the Lockerbie bombing trial in Scotland. Allan Stewart, a former Office Minister of Scotland and a Conservative Party MP for Eastwood, also said that Coleman should be granted immunity, so he could testify in Scotland. The Lord Advocate rejected Dalyell's plea, saying that the Home Office and the English courts have the jurisdiction over the demand of the U.S. government's extradition demand regarding Coleman, and that the Crown Office and the Scottish Office had no authority over the case.

According to Redding Pitt, Coleman called Governor of Alabama Fob James, an acquaintance of Coleman from the 1970s, for help in his case. James helped arrange Coleman's State of Alabama-paid voluntary return to the United States. Boohaker said that James apparently knew Coleman from his radio days. Upon Coleman's return, federal agents in Atlanta, Georgia arrested Coleman.

State charges, federal and state incarceration In 2000, The forged instrument charges originate from the state's accusation that Coleman used his computer to print forged checks and stole money from the Central Bank and two individuals. Lester Coleman, Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)#47321-019, was released from BOP custody on December 7, 2000. In May 2003 Coleman was arrested in Panama City, Florida, his hometown. On Friday May 23, 2003 , Coleman admitted in the Fayette Circuit Court that he had violated the terms of his state probation by leaving the state without the probation officer's permission and not paying restitution to his victims who individually lost over $10,000 ($ in today's currency). Thomas Clark, the circuit judge, immediately sent Coleman to prison. and Mayor of Lexington "Rebecca" Isaac, accusing them of violating his constitutional rights. Coleman said that judge Clark had violated his rights by giving him 10 years instead of the jury's recommended four; Coleman did not mention the probation that the judge had included in the sentence.

Daniel Cohen, the father of Pan Am 103 victim Theodora Cohen, said that Coleman was a "conman."