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Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial

The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial began on 3 May 2000, more than 11 years after the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988. The 36-week bench trial took place at a specially convened Scottish Court in the Netherlands set up under Scots law and held at a disused United States Air Force base called Camp Zeist near Utrecht.

Venue
Upon the indictment of the two Libyan suspects in November 1991, the Libyan government was called upon to extradite them for trial in either the United Kingdom or the United States. Since no bilateral extradition treaty was in force between any of the three countries, Libya refused to hand the men over but did offer to detain them for trial in Libya, as long as all the incriminating evidence was provided. The offer was unacceptable to the US and UK, and there was an impasse for the next three years.

In November 1994, President Nelson Mandela offered South Africa as a neutral venue for the trial but this was rejected by the then British prime minister, John Major. A further three years elapsed until Mandela's offer was repeated to Major's successor, Tony Blair, when the president visited London in July 1997 and again at the 1997 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Edinburgh in October 1997. At the latter meeting, Mandela warned that "no one nation should be complainant, prosecutor and judge" in the Lockerbie case. The eventually agreed compromise solution of a trial in the Netherlands governed by Scots law was engineered by legal academic Professor Robert Black of the University of Edinburgh and, in accordance with the Labour government's promotion of an "ethical" foreign policy, was given political impetus by the then foreign secretary, Robin Cook. The Scottish Court in the Netherlands, a special High Court of Justiciary, was set up under Scots law in a disused United States Air Force base called Camp Zeist in Utrecht, in the Netherlands. Facilities for a high security prison were also installed there. Under a bilateral treaty between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, these premises were, for the duration of the trial and any subsequent appeal, under the authority and control of the Scottish Court. Dutch law still theoretically applied to the area, but, barring an emergency, the Dutch authorities were banned from entering the premises and the Court had the authority to enact regulations that superseded Dutch law when necessary for the execution of the trial, and to jail people for contempt of court. The court itself, as well as people involved in the trial also enjoyed total or partial immunity from Dutch law.

Accused
Two Libyans, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, were accused of the crime. In the run-up to the trial, the prosecution considered bringing charges against Swiss businessman, Edwin Bollier, of the electronics firm that made the timer for the bomb Mebo AG, but decided that, unless evidence to incriminate Bollier were to be introduced during the trial, he would not be included as a co-conspirator in causing the bombing.

Libya made three stipulations, when agreeing to hand over the two accused to the Scottish police: that they would not be interviewed by the police; no one else in Libya would be sought for the bombing; and, that the trial should be before three Scottish judges, sitting without a jury. On 5 April 1999, over a year ahead of the start of the trial, Megrahi and Fhimah arrived in the Netherlands.

Charges
The two accused denied all charges against them. Three outline charges were:
 * murder;
 * conspiracy to murder; and,
 * a breach of the Aviation Security Act 1982.

The full charges included the names of the murdered 259 passengers and crew of Pan Am Flight 103, and the eleven residents killed at Lockerbie in Scotland.

Judges
The Scottish High Court of Justiciary at Camp Zeist, Netherlands was presided over by three senior judges, known as Lords Commissioners of Justiciary and an additional judge (non-voting): with:
 * Presiding Judge: Lord Sutherland;
 * Lord Coulsfield;
 * Lord MacLean;
 * Additional judge (non-voting): Lord Abernethy.

Prosecution
Five different Lords Advocate were in post from the 1991 indictment of the two accused Libyans until their trial in 2000 – three Conservative: Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Lord Mackay of Drumadoon, and two Labour: Lord Hardie and Lord Boyd of Duncansby. Lord Boyd led the prosecution on behalf of the Crown Office. Assisting him were Advocate Deputes Alastair Campbell QC and Alan Turnbull QC. Alongside the prosecution were seated U.S. Department of Justice representatives Brian Murtagh, who had helped draw up the indictment against the two accused, and Dana Biehl.

Five years after the trial, former Lord Advocate, Lord Fraser, who issued the arrest warrants in 1991, was alleged to have said that he was not entirely happy with the evidence presented against Megrahi during his trial in 2000, and in his subsequent appeal in 2002. However, he made it clear that this did not mean that he believed Megrahi to be innocent. According to The Sunday Times of 23 October 2005, Lord Fraser allegedly cast doubt upon the reliability of the main prosecution witness, Tony Gauci.

Defence
Representing Megrahi were solicitor, Alistair Duff, and advocates William Taylor QC, David Burns QC and John Beckett. Fhimah was represented by solicitors and by advocates Richard Keen QC, Jack Davidson QC and Murdo Macleod. Both defendants also had access to Libyan defence lawyer Kamel Maghur.

Pre-trial hearings
Five pre-trial hearings took place: the accused waived their right to attend two procedural hearings at the High Court in Edinburgh; they attended two hearings at Camp Zeist which were held in private; and, on 7 December 1999 they made their first public appearance before the Scottish Court in the Netherlands. At this public hearing the presiding judge, Lord Sutherland, ruled that:
 * the two Libyans should face charges of conspiracy as well as murder;
 * they could be described as members of their country's intelligence services; and,
 * the start of the full trial was delayed by three months (from 2 February 2000).

Case
The case against the two defendants rested primarily on three points:
 * that the bomb timer used was from a batch sold by a Swiss firm, Mebo AG to Libya;
 * a former colleague in the Libyan Airlines office in Malta, Abdulmajid Gialka, who was due to testify that he had seen the construction of the bomb, or at least its loading onto the plane at Frankfurt;
 * that the clothes identified as having been in the bomb suitcase had been bought by the defendant Megrahi at a shop in Malta.

Each of these points was contested by the defence.
 * Edwin Bollier, the co-founder of the Swiss manufacturer of the timer, testified that he had sold similar timers to East Germany, and admitted having connections to a number of intelligence agencies, including both the Libyans and the CIA.
 * Gialka, by the time of the trial was living under the Witness Protection Program in the US, had connections with the CIA prior to 1988, and stood to collect up to $4m in reward money following a conviction.
 * Tony Gauci, the Maltese shopkeeper, failed to positively identify Megrahi in nineteen separate pre-trial statements to the police. In court, Gauci was asked five times if he recognised anyone in the courtroom, without replying. Only when the prosecutor pointed to Megrahi did Gauci say that "he resembles him". On a previous occasion Gauci had identified Abu Talb (who the defence contended was the real bomber) saying that Talb resembled the customer "a lot". Gauci's police statements identified the customer as over 6 feet tall and over 50 years of age; Megrahi is 5 feet 8 inches, and in late 1988 was 36.
 * The clothes purchase took place on either 23 November or 7 December 1988; Megrahi was only in Malta on 7 December. Gauci recalled the customer also buying an umbrella due to the rain. The defence argued, using meteorological records, that it rained all day on 23 November, but only briefly or not at all on 7 December.

In its closing arguments, the prosecution stressed that Megrahi could not have planted the bomb without the assistance of Fhimah – both defendants were equally guilty, and should stand or fall together.

Proceedings (May 2000 – January 2001)
Court proceedings started on 3 May 2000 with the prosecution outlining the case against the accused and previewing the evidence which they expected would satisfy the judges beyond reasonable doubt that the sabotage of PA 103 was caused by:
 * the explosion of an improvised explosive device (IED);
 * an IED that was contained within a Toshiba radio cassette player in a hard-shell Samsonite suitcase along with various items of clothing which had been bought in Mary's House, Sliema, Malta;
 * an IED triggered by the use of an MST-13 timer, manufactured by Mebo Ag in Switzerland; and,
 * the so-called primary suitcase being introduced as unaccompanied baggage at Luqa Airport in Malta, conveyed by Air Malta flight KM180 to Frankfurt International Airport, transferred there onto feeder flight PA 103A to Heathrow Airport, loaded into the interline baggage container AVE 4041PA at Heathrow, and put on board PA 103 in the forward cargo hold.

In the trial's second week, Detective Constable Gilchrist was asked about the piece of charred material that he and DC McColm had found three weeks after the PA 103 crash. DC Gilchrist attached a label to the material and wrote "Cloth (charred)" on it. The word 'cloth' was overwritten by the word 'debris'. DC Gilchrist's attempts to explain the overwriting were later described by the judges as "at worst evasive and at best confusing."

There was no third week and, because of equipment problems in the courtroom, only a truncated fourth week. In week 5, Professor Peel of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) gave evidence concerning the baggage container AVE 4041PA.

Week 6 was devoted to the testimony behind screens of CIA agents and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms officers relating to interception of arms caches (including MST-13 timers) in the West African countries of Senegal and Togo.

In week 7 Alan Feraday, also of DERA, gave evidence. Feraday presented the court with a simulated IED of the type alleged to have caused the sabotage of PA 103. Under cross-examination, he admitted the fragments of radio cassette and timer, found in DC Gilchrist's cloth/debris (charred) material, had not been tested for explosives residue. The defence were, however, later criticized for having failed to challenge Feraday to explain why his note to Detective Chief Inspector William Williamson in September 1989, covering a Polaroid photograph of the timer fragment (identified in May 1989), said it was "the best I can do in such a short time."

Later in week 7, the co-founder of Mebo AG, Erwin Meister, testified that Mebo had supplied Libya with 20 MST-13 timing devices, and identified one of the two accused (Megrahi) as a former business contact. The defence asked Meister, under cross-examination, to explain the purpose of his visit to Syria in 1984.

Meister's partner, Edwin Bollier, was questioned in week 8. Bollier said Mebo made a range of products including briefcases equipped to radio-detonate IEDs. He agreed that Mebo had sold 20 MST-13 timers to Libya in 1985 which were later tested by Libyan special forces at their base at Sabha. Bollier said: "I was present when two such timers were included in bomb cylinders". In court, Bollier was shown a number of printed circuit board fragments which he identified as coming from the Mebo MST-13 timer, but he claimed that these timer fragments appeared to have been modified.

Joachim Wenzel, an employee of the Stasi, the former East German intelligence agency, testified behind screens in week 9. Wenzel claimed to have been Bollier's handler in the years 1982–85 and testified that Mebo had supplied the Stasi with timers.

Former Mebo employee, Ulrich Lumpert, confirmed that as an electronics engineer he had produced all of the firm's MST-13 timers. Lumpert agreed that the fragments shown to him in court "could be" from that timer and was asked to confirm his signature on a letter concerning a technical fault with the prototype MST-13 timer. The trial was then adjourned until 12 July 2000.

On 18 July 2007 Lumpert admitted he had lied at the trial. In an affidavit before a Zürich notary, Lumpert stated that he had stolen a prototype MST-13 timer PC-board from Mebo and gave it without permission on 22 June 1989, to "an official person investigating the Lockerbie case". Dr Hans Köchler, UN observer at the Lockerbie trial, who was sent a copy of Lumpert's affidavit, said: "The Scottish authorities are now obliged to investigate this situation. Not only has Mr Lumpert admitted to stealing a sample of the timer, but to the fact he gave it to an official and then lied in court".

In week 11, Mebo lawyer Dieter Neupert filed an official criminal complaint against the Crown over what he alleged was a 'forged fragment of MST-13 timer'. Tony Gauci of Mary's House, Sliema in Malta, testified that he had sold a number of items of clothing to one of the defendants, Megrahi. Wilfred Borg, Ground Operations Manager at Malta's Luqa airport, was questioned about Luqa's baggage handling procedures. A Mr Ferrugia confirmed that he had been a passenger on Air Malta flight KM 180 to Frankfurt on 21 December 1988.

Two Germans, Birgit Seliger and Evelin Steinwandt, confirmed in week 12 that they had also travelled on flight KM 180. Martin Huebner and Joachim Koscha were questioned about baggage handling procedures at Frankfurt airport.

Five more passengers on flight KM 180 testified in week 13. The captain of flight KM 180, Khalil Lahoud, also gave evidence and was asked to confirm that the aircraft's altitude during the flight had exceeded 30,000 ft. This information was intended to demonstrate that an IED loaded at Luqa airport would have had a timed detonator rather than a barometric trigger. The trial was then adjourned until 22 August 2000.

In week 17, another four passengers on flight KM 180 were asked to testify. The following week, Abdul Majid Giaka, a defector from the Libyan intelligence service, appeared wearing sunglasses and a wig. Giaka, who had been on the US Witness Protection Program since July 1991, testified that Megrahi was a Libyan agent.

Rather than calling the defendants to the witness stand, their legal team sought to use the special defence of incrimination against the person or persons they believed were guilty of the crime. There was speculation that Mohammed Abu Talb, a convicted PFLP-GC member, would be called by the defence to testify in week 19, and when he failed to appear the trial was adjourned for the next five weeks to allow new evidence from a "country in the Mid East" to be examined.

One of the last witnesses for the prosecution was broadcaster and politician, Pierre Salinger, who was questioned by prosecutor Alan Turnbull and by both defence counsel William Taylor and Richard Keen. After his testimony, judge Lord Sutherland asked Salinger to leave the witness box. However, the broadcaster responded:
 * "That's all? You're not letting me tell the truth. Wait a minute, I know exactly who did it. I know how it was done."

But Lord Sutherland told Salinger:
 * "If you wish to make a point you may do so elsewhere, but I'm afraid you may not do so in this court."

Abu Talb gave evidence in week 25 and testified that he had been babysitting at home in Sweden when PA 103 was sabotaged on 21 December 1988.

The Crown concluded the prosecution case in week 26. In its closing address for Fhimah in weeks 26 and 27, the defence submitted there was no case for him to answer. There were no weeks 28 to 32.

The expected documents from the "country in the Mid East" – thought to be Syria – had not materialized by week 33, and the defence confirmed that the accused would not take the witness stand. The prosecution dropped two of the three charges against the accused, leaving the single charge of murder against both Megrahi and Fhimah. The defence claimed the accused had no case to answer.

In week 34 the defence argued that the IED started its journey at Heathrow, rather than Luqa airport in Malta. The judges then retired to consider their verdict.

There was no week 35. The judges announced their verdict on 31 January 2001 in week 36.

Verdicts (January 2001)
In addition to the options of guilty and not guilty, a third verdict of not proven was available to the judges under Scots Law. The judges announced their verdicts on 31 January 2001.

The judgement stated: "From the evidence which we have discussed so far, we are satisfied that it has been proved that the primary suitcase containing the explosive device was dispatched from Malta, passed through Frankfurt and was loaded onto PA103 at Heathrow. It is, as we have said, clear that with one exception the clothing in the primary suitcase was the clothing purchased in Mr Gauci’s shop on 7 December 1988.  The purchaser was, on Mr Gauci’s evidence, a Libyan.  The trigger for the explosion was an MST-13 timer of the single solder mask variety.  A substantial quantity of such timers had been supplied to Libya.

We cannot say that it is impossible that the clothing might have been taken from Malta, united somewhere with a timer from some source other than Libya and introduced into the airline baggage system at Frankfurt or Heathrow. When, however, the evidence regarding the clothing, the purchaser and the timer is taken with the evidence that an unaccompanied bag was taken from KM180 to PA103A, the inference that that was the primary suitcase becomes, in our view, irresistible. As we have also said, the absence of an explanation as to how the suitcase was taken into the system at Luqa is a major difficulty for the Crown case but after taking full account of that difficulty, we remain of the view that the primary suitcase began its journey at Luqa. The clear inference which we draw from this evidence is that the conception, planning and execution of the plot which led to the planting of the explosive device was of Libyan origin.

While no doubt organisations such as the PFLP-GC and the PPSF were also engaged in terrorist activities during the same period, we are satisfied that there was no evidence from which we could infer that they were involved in this particular act of terrorism, and the evidence relating to their activities does not create a reasonable doubt in our minds about the Libyan origin of this crime."

The judges were unanimous in finding the second accused, Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, not guilty of the murder charge. Fhimah was freed and he returned to his home at Souk al-Juma in Libya on 1 February 2001. As for Abdelbaset al-Megrahi the judges said: "There is nothing in the evidence which leaves us with any reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the first accused, and accordingly we find him guilty of the remaining charge in the indictment as amended."

Megrahi was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation that he should serve at least 20 years before being eligible for parole.

Appeal (January 2001 – March 2002)
The defence team had 14 days in which to appeal against Megrahi's conviction on 31 January 2001, and a further six weeks to submit the full grounds of the appeal. These were considered by a judge sitting in private who decided to grant Megrahi leave to appeal. The only basis for an appeal under Scots law is that there has been a "miscarriage of justice" which is not defined in statute and so it is for the appeal court to determine the meaning of these words in each case. Because three judges and one alternate judge had presided over the trial, five judges were required to preside over the Court of Criminal Appeal: In what was described as a milestone in Scottish legal history, Lord Cullen granted the BBC permission in January 2002 to televise the appeal, and to broadcast it on the Internet in English with a simultaneous Arabic translation.
 * Lord Cullen, Lord Justice-General
 * Lord Kirkwood
 * Lord Osborne
 * Lord Macfadyen and
 * Lord Nimmo Smith

William Taylor QC, leading the defence, said at the appeal's opening on 23 January 2002 that the three trial judges sitting without a jury had failed to see the relevance of "significant" evidence and had accepted unreliable facts. He argued that the verdict was not one that a reasonable jury in an ordinary trial could have reached if it were given proper directions by the judge. The grounds of the appeal rested on two areas of evidence where the defence claimed the original court was mistaken: the evidence of Maltese shopkeeper, Tony Gauci, which the judges accepted as sufficient to prove that the "primary suitcase" started its journey in Malta; and, disputing the prosecution's case, fresh evidence would be adduced to show that the bomb's journey actually started at Heathrow. That evidence, which was not heard at the trial, showed that at some time in the two hours before 00:35 on 21 December 1988 a padlock had been forced on a secure door giving access air-side in Terminal 3 of Heathrow airport, near to the area referred to at the trial as the "baggage build-up area". Taylor claimed that the PA 103 bomb could have been planted then.

On 14 March 2002 it took Lord Cullen less than three minutes to deliver the decision of the High Court of Justiciary. The five judges rejected the appeal, ruling unanimously that "none of the grounds of appeal was well-founded", adding "this brings proceedings to an end". The following day, a helicopter took Megrahi from Camp Zeist to continue his life sentence in Barlinnie Prison, Glasgow.

SCCRC review (September 2003 – June 2007)
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), which was established by Act of Parliament in April 1999, has wide-ranging powers to investigate cases where a miscarriage of justice is alleged, and reviewed Megrahi's case from September 2003. Although the Commission normally expects to review a case and announce its decision within 12 months, it took nearly four years to complete the Megrahi review. On 28 June 2007 the SCCRC published a summary of its 800-page report and referred Megrahi's conviction to the Court of Criminal Appeal for a fresh appeal. The SCCRC's findings were examined in detail by Al Jazeera in two episodes of the network's People & Power series in July 2007.

Second appeal (2007–2009)
The second appeal was to have been heard by five Scottish judges in 2009 at the Court of Criminal Appeal. A procedural hearing at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh took place on 11 October 2007 when prosecution lawyers and Megrahi's defence Counsel, Maggie Scott QC, discussed legal issues with a panel of three judges. One of the issues concerns a number of CIA documents that were shown to the prosecution but were not disclosed to the defence. The documents are understood to relate to the Mebo MST-13 timer that allegedly detonated the PA103 bomb. Further procedural hearings were scheduled to take place between December 2007 and June 2008.

Pointing out an error on the FCO's website and accusing the British government of "delaying tactics" in relation to Megrahi's second Lockerbie appeal, UN Observer at the Lockerbie trial, Hans Köchler, wrote to Foreign Secretary David Miliband on 21 July 2008 saying:

"As international observer, appointed by the United Nations, at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands I am also concerned about the Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificate which has been issued by you in connection with the new Appeal of the convicted Libyan national. Withholding of evidence from the Defence was one of the reasons why the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred Mr. Al-Megrahi’s case back to the High Court of Justiciary. The Appeal cannot go ahead if the Government of the United Kingdom, through the PII certificate issued by you, denies the Defence the right (also guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights) to have access to a document which is in the possession of the Prosecution. How can there be equality of arms in such a situation? How can the independence of the judiciary be upheld if the executive power interferes into the appeal process in such a way?"

The FCO corrected the error on its website and wrote to Köchler on 27 August 2008: "'Ultimately, it will be for the Court to decide whether the material should be disclosed, not the Foreign Secretary.'"

In September 2008, following an application made at a closed hearing of the Appeal Court in Edinburgh, it was reported that a security-vetted Defence Counsel is to be appointed to examine the disputed document. The court's decision on the application has not been published but in a letter seen by BBC Scotland, FCO minister Kim Howells says it has decided to appoint a special defender. In a BBC interview, Hans Köchler criticised the development as "intolerable" and "detrimental to the rule of law." Köchler said: "'In no country can the situation be allowed where the accused or the appellant is not free to have his own defence team, and instead someone is imposed upon him.'"

On 15 October 2008, five Scottish judges decided unanimously to reject a submission by the Crown Office that the scope of Megrahi's second appeal should be limited to the specific grounds of appeal that were identified by the SCCRC in June 2007. On 21 October 2008 Megrahi's lawyer, revealed that his client had been diagnosed with "advanced stage" prostate cancer. Despite the appeals of Jim Swire, that keeping Megrahi behind bars while he battled the disease "would amount to exquisite torture", the High Court ruled on 14 November 2008 that Megrahi should remain in jail while his appeal continued. In an article published on 29 December 2008 award-winning journalist and author, Hugh Miles, described the Lockerbie trial as an historic miscarriage of justice. The article concluded: "If Megrahi didn't do it, who did?" On 31 December 2008, Dr L. De Braeckeleer ended a 174-part series entitled Diary of a Vengeance Foretold. The article alleges that Iran ordered the bombing of Pan Am 103 in revenge for the downing of Iran Air Flight 655.

In January 2009, it was reported that, although Megrahi's second appeal against conviction was scheduled to begin on 27 April 2009, the hearing could last as long as 12 months because of the complexity of the case and volume of material to be examined.

On 18 August 2009, Megrahi dropped his appeal in light of his terminal prostate cancer.

Release and death of Megrahi (2009–2012)
On 20 August 2009, Scotland's Justice Minister, Kenny MacAskill, announced the release of Megrahi under terms of Scottish laws permitting the early release on compassionate grounds of prisoners with terminal illnesses. He had terminal prostate cancer. After his release from Greenock Prison in Scotland, Megrahi travelled in a white police van flanked by police cars to Glasgow Airport, where he boarded a special flight from Libya's Afriqiyah Airways. Megrahi flew home to Tripoli, Libya, accompanied by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi and to a hero's welcome. He died in 2012. In May 2014 a group of relatives of the Lockerbie victims continued to campaign for al-Megrahi's name to be cleared by reopening the case.

In December 2014 the Lord Advocate, Frank Mulholland, said no Crown Office investigator or prosecutor had ever raised concerns about the evidence used to convict Megrahi. He also pledged to continue to track down Megrahi's accomplices.

Views of Jim Swire
Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the bombing, and who has been a spokesman for UK Families Flight 103, which represented British relatives, has stated that he believes Megrahi is innocent. Swire is also concerned by comments attributed to the former lord advocate Lord Fraser, which appeared to doubt the credibility of a key prosecution witness, Tony Gauci.

Swire has stated that "the scandal around Megrahi is not that a sick man was released, but that he was ever convicted in the first place. All I have ever wanted is to see the people who murdered my daughter are brought to justice."

Law Professor Robert Black
Professor Robert Black of the University of Edinburgh, one of Scotland's top legal experts and the person who devised the non-jury trial that saw the Lockerbie case heard in 2000, has called al-Megrahi's murder conviction "the most disgraceful miscarriage of justice in Scotland for 100 years". Prof. Black said he felt "a measure of personal responsibility" for persuading Libya to allow Megrahi and his co-accused, Al-Amin Khalifa Fhima, who was acquitted, to stand trial under Scots law.

"I have written about this and nobody is interested..Every lawyer who has ... read the judgment says 'this is nonsense'. It is nonsense. It really distresses me; I won't let it go."

In 2007 Prof. Black has written that he is "satisfied that not only was there a wrongful conviction [of al-Megrahi], but the victim of it was an innocent man. Lawyers, and I hope others, will appreciate this distinction."

In August 2011, Black claimed that the three judges at the trial of the Lockerbie bomber reached a guilty verdict "contrary to the evidence" because, "consciously or subconsciously", they were under pressure to convict from the then Lord Advocate (Scotland's leading legal official), Lord Boyd of Duncansby. Lord Boyd declared the allegations "ludicrous".

Remarks by Lord Fraser
The Sunday Times of 23 October 2005 reported that Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, who drew up the 1991 indictment against the two accused Libyans and issued warrants for their arrest, had now cast doubt upon the reliability of the main prosecution witness, Tony Gauci. Lord Fraser criticised the Maltese shopkeeper for inter alia being "not quite the full shilling" and an "apple short of a picnic".

The then Lord Advocate, Lord Boyd, reacted to the remarks, as follows:
 * "It was Lord Fraser who, as Lord Advocate, initiated the Lockerbie prosecution. At no stage, then or since, has he conveyed any reservation about any aspect of the prosecution to those who worked on the case, or to anyone in the prosecution service."

Lord Boyd has asked Lord Fraser to clarify his apparent attack on Gauci by issuing a public statement of explanation.

William Taylor QC, who defended Megrahi at the trial and the appeal, said Lord Fraser should never have presented Gauci as a crown witness:
 * "A man who has a public office, who is prosecuting in the criminal courts in Scotland, has got a duty to put forward evidence based upon people he considers to be reliable. He was prepared to advance Gauci as a witness of truth in terms of identification and, if he had these misgivings about him, they should have surfaced at the time. The fact that he is coming out many years later after my former client has been in prison for nearly four and a half years is nothing short of disgraceful. Gauci's evidence was absolutely central to the conviction and for Peter Fraser not to realise that is scandalous," Taylor said.

Tam Dalyell, former Labour MP who played a crucial role in organising the trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, described Lord Fraser's remarks as an 'extraordinary development':
 * "I think there is an obligation for the chairman and members of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to ask Lord Fraser to see them and testify under oath – it's that serious. Fraser should have said this at the time and, if not then, he was under a moral obligation to do so before the trial at Zeist. I think there will be all sorts of consequences," Dalyell declared.

Gerard Sinclair, chief executive of the SCCRC, refused to say whether the commission was investigating Lord Fraser's reported remarks. "Any investigation we carry out we seek to do so as rigorously and as thoroughly as possible," he said.

Robert Black, Professor Emeritus of Scots Law at the University of Edinburgh and a Lockerbie expert, described the alleged remarks as "an indication that various people who have been involved in the Lockerbie prosecution are now positioning themselves in anticipation of the SCCRC holding that there was a prima facie miscarriage of justice, and sending it back for a fresh appeal."

UN observer
Professor Hans Köchler, who was appointed as one of the UN observers by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, criticised the trial in his report and evaluation. Köchler observed that the trial had been politically influenced in breach of legal traditions and principles, such as the Rule of law. In an interview for the BBC on the day the first appeal was rejected, he described the court's decision as a "spectacular miscarriage of justice".

In a radio programme entitled Politics and justice: the Lockerbie trial, which was broadcast on 9 September 2007 by Australia's ABC Radio National, Köchler, Robert Black and Jim Swire expressed their views on the Lockerbie trial and the first appeal, and suggested what should happen next.

In the June 2008 edition of the Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm, Köchler referred to the 'totalitarian' nature of the ongoing second Lockerbie appeal process saying it "bears the hallmarks of an 'intelligence operation'."

Statistics
Some general statistics:
 * there were 84 court days (between 3 May 2000 and 31 January 2001)
 * 230 witnesses gave evidence
 * the Crown listed 1160 witnesses and called 227
 * the defence listed 121 and called 3
 * witnesses came from the UK, USA, Libya, Japan, Germany, Malta, Switzerland, Slovenia, Sweden, the Czech Republic, India, France and Singapore
 * languages translated in court were Arabic, French, Czech, Japanese, Swedish, Maltese and German
 * there were 1867 documentary reproductions and 621 label productions (or exhibits – the largest of which was an aircraft reconstruction)
 * the aircraft reconstruction was the only one not conveyed to court (it remained at the Air Accident Investigations Branch premises at Farnborough in England)
 * there were 10,232 pages of court transcripts covering more than three million words
 * the cost of the trial itself was estimated at £60m
 * the running costs of the appeal were put at about £2m per month, which combined to produce a total bill of £75m, as estimated by the Scottish Executive
 * 20% of the running costs were met by Scotland's Justice Department
 * 80% of the running costs along with capital expenditure were borne by the UK government
 * the US government made a substantial contribution towards the extra costs of holding the trial in the Netherlands
 * the creation of the special court and prison complex at Camp Zeist cost £12m
 * original estimates for the entire proceedings were put at £150m (or double the actual spend)
 * compensation of £4.5 million ($8 million) was paid in August 2003 by Libya to each family of the 270 victims: a total of £1.23 billion ($2.16 billion)
 * contingency fees of £1.4 million ($2.5 million) were deducted from each family's compensation payment, and were retained by the US law firms involved: a total of £385 million ($675 million) in legal fees

title: Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial


text:
Direct-attached storage

Direct-attached storage (DAS) is digital storage directly attached to the computer accessing it, as opposed to storage accessed over a computer network (i.e. network-attached storage). DAS consists of one or more storage units such as hard drives, solid-state drives, optical disc drives within an external enclosure. The term "DAS" is a retronym to contrast with storage area network (SAN) and network-attached storage (NAS).

Features
A typical DAS system is made of a data storage device (for example enclosures holding a number of hard disk drives) connected directly to a computer through a host bus adapter (HBA). Between those two points there is no network device (like hub, switch, or router), and this is the main characteristic of DAS.

The main protocols used for DAS connections are Parallel ATA, SATA, eSATA, NVMe, Parallel SCSI, SAS, USB, and IEEE 1394.

Storage features of SAN, DAS, and NAS
Most functions found in modern storage do not depend on whether the storage is attached directly to servers (DAS), or via a network (SAN and NAS). In enterprise environments, direct-attached storage systems can utilize storage devices that have higher endurance in terms of data workload capability, along with scalability in the amount of capacity that storage arrays can achieve compared to consumer-grade NAS and other storage devices.

Advantages and disadvantages
The key difference between DAS and NAS is that DAS storage does not incorporate any network hardware and related operating environment to provide a facility to share storage resources independently of the host so is only available via the host to which the DAS is attached.

DAS is typically considered much faster than NAS due to lower latency in the type of host connection although contemporary network and direct connection throughput typically exceeds the raw read/write performance of the storage units themselves.

A SAN (storage area network) has more in common with a DAS than a NAS with the key difference being that DAS is a 1:1 relationship between storage and host whereas SAN is many to many.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Direct-attached storage


text:
Talk:Amateur sports

Untitled
ok so what i really want to know is how many people have really been affected by this rule? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.88.161.101 (talk) 15:04, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

 * What rule, specifically, are you referring to? Ecopirate 09:47, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Sailing
Added a section on Sailing. --Dastal 16:06, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

NPOV?
I was kinda wondering why this article had a NPOV tag? I'll remove it in 24 hours, if a response is not had. Ecopirate 09:47, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Given no response, I have removed the NPOV tag. Ecopirate 17:06, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Cycling
What about cycling? -193.77.233.8 18:52, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

 * What about it? If you have sourced material on amateur cycling, then feel free to add it. —  SMcCandlish   Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 16:30, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Other kinds of amateurism?
This article should be called "Amateur Sport", or it should be broadened significantly to describe amateurism in other areas such as culture, education, etc.--Krvovo 03:52, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I thoroughly agree. I also think that the articles on Amateur, Amateurism and Pro-am should be combined into one article.

 * I am thinking about writing on amateur music, and wanted a logical place to put it (I didn't think it merited an article in its own right). But, with three articles on the topic or amateurism, I don't know where to put it.

 * --Ravpapa 06:50, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Use Amateur for non-sports. —  SMcCandlish   Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 16:30, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Weasel words and opinions
This article reads rather like an opinion piece reminiscing about the "good old days". I've added weasel and unreferenced as that seemed much better than either deleting the weasel words and unreferenced opinions (which would leave little more than half of the first paragraph as the total article) or liberally scattering fact throughout it. Could the people who know about this topic please have a look at improving the article? Thanks. --Scott Davis Talk 10:18, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Explain Corinthian
I believe any sports club that has the term Corinthian in its name denotes the members are amateurs rather than professional. The term Corinthian spirit is used in this article without explanation. Can anyone explain or verify this? Vegemine 02:33, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

 * I added a sub-section explaining the origins of the word Corinthian to describe amateur athletes. Ricardosoli (talk) 07:13, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Rugby Union in Argentina
Argentina has remained staunchly committed to its Amateurism status. The reason for this is because it remains the game of the wealthy elite. The majority of its International rugby team plays its rugby in France and Italy. --A nonny mouse 16:06, 10 Oct 2005 (UTC)

Rugby union bias again
Whosoever wrote the section on rugby needs to read "A People's Game: The Official History of Rugby League 1895-1995" by Geoffrey Moorhouse ISBN 0-340-62834-0.

The break was nothing like as simple as being paid to play rugby. Indeed rugby league was staunchly amatuer in the early days with players only being paid broken time payments. Time spent away from work - earnings foregone by playing league. Typically, this was the time "unworked" in a shift as players had to leave the coalface early in order to make kick off. In those days you were only paid for the time actually at the coalface - you travelled through the mine tunnels on your own time.

The northern teams were winning too much for the liking of the rich southern teams. They fought back the only way they knew how. The story about the RFU organising the meeting to outlaw broken time payments is just astonishing in itself.

86.134.199.34 22:34, 23 October 2007 (UTC) Paul

Class divide before Northern Union
Rugby union was not fully amateur before the Northern Union was founded. The issue was that substantial expenses could (and were) paid to gentlemen - but not those of the working class. Thus, those who needed the broken time payments could not afford them.

As stated below, ultimately this became more of an issue of not wanting the working classes making the games competitive (rather than the system of friendly matches) and the amateur ethos, with expenses for gentlemen, was seen as a way of enforcing this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.153.53.224 (talk) 10:37, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Shamateurism?
Perhaps I'm alone, but I'm not familiar with this term. Any sources? Duncan1800 (talk) 06:29, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

 * Never heard it before. Tyler John (talk) 01:00, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Background
"In the United Kingdom sport had always been the preserve of the rich who were the only people who had free time in which to pursue sport, the working classes worked six days a week and sport was forbidden on the sabbath." ... What imbecile wrote this? This is worse than the sort of rubbish you get in a tabloid newspaper. I'm no historian, but even I know that for a period in mediaeval England, certain sports were banned in order to allow more time for archery practice (itself a sport), which was compulsory on a Sunday for nearly all males; and so, I assume that other sports were already practised, by all sorts of people, on a Sunday. Few things annoy me more than people who try to rewrite or re-colour the past to suit their own political standpoints. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.37.33.46 (talk) 12:44, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

High School sports?
why do high school sports redirect to this article when there is not one mention in the article, at least none that I found. Tyler John (talk) 01:02, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

 * Because someone redirected it here. —  SMcCandlish   Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 16:30, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

When you research high school althletes you are redirected to this page and there is nothing on high school athletes. I think a section should be added about high school athletes and what the benefits of participating in sports are. Playing sports in high school can be very beneficial and to many people look over that fact. I think people need to be aware of just how beneficial play sports are. Kkosik (talk) 23:33, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

 * Whoever added in the part on High School sports, thank you, it was exactly the information I was looking for. However, I'm concerned it has some bias? The article currently reads that "Roger Whitley conducted a study that showed how playing sports can improve you academics"--he did no such thing. He found a positive correlation between athletic participation and several key academic performance indicators. But, the abstract to his study fully admits that there is no research done on any causitive connection, and that in all likelyhood a large portion of the correlation can be explain via self-selection. The quote implies that all, or most, people can improve their academic performance by engaging in athletics. Whitley's research takes pains to avoid supporting such a claim. I would also add that the section is stylistically a bit on the casual side, as seen by use of the second person in the above quotation.

 * Again, thanks for adding the section, the reference was very useful and the page was noticably incomplete without it. However, I think there is room for improvement. Sardoome (talk) 23:54, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Cleanup needed
Lead needs to be completely rewritten, and any non-sports material needs to move to amateur. —  SMcCandlish   Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 13:31, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

 * I've done some of this. Needs to be checked for further cleanup needs, section by section. —  SMcCandlish   Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 16:30, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

amateur racing
Why is there no section on amateur racing? Amateurs compete at the highest level with professional jockeys, sometimes with considerable success (eg Marcus Armitage, Sam Waley-Cohen).

At the same time amateur racing, ie racing open only to amateur jockeys, gives rise to a number of interesting and difficult questions.

90.198.128.21 (talk) 18:58, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

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Interesting reference to read
- https://www.vice.com/en/article/gvaqdm/for-love-or-for-money-a-history-of-amateurism-in-the-olympic-games

Also an unknown magazine reference --Greatder (talk) 09:20, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

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title: User talk:The architect


text:
Talk:Harvey, Illinois

Untitled
I'm moving the "people from Harvey" sub-category out of the people from illinois" list and into this article.

Harvey is present being racked with scandle by the present Mayoral Adminstration.

'Kellogg: 'There's been some serious problems here in Harvey' Mayor denies fault in missing gun case, admits problems in city police force'''

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/harvey/56033,sept2_06.article

Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg denied having anything to do with a gun missing from Harvey police evidence in his first public statement about the allegations Friday.At the same time, he also admitted for the first time the police department needs fixing...

Harvey police Detective Hollis Dorrough was charged Thursday by Illinois State Police in connection with a gun that went missing from Harvey police custody.Dorrough, 37, of Chicago's Marquette Park neighborhood, was arrested at the Markham courthouse...

 * And in June of 2014 the feds levied fraud charges against the town's comptroller for issuing fraudulent bonds and "misusing" the proceeds. There are a number of small, mostly-minority towns ringing Chicago, and they're all subject to this sort of mismanagement and casual criminality. 107.1.91.202 (talk) 16:31, 26 June 2014 (UTC)HelenChicago

New Geobox
(copied from earlier user talk page discussion): Honestly, I have to say I like the old map better, the new font better, the new layout better, but the old stats better. In all I have trouble giving up the detail on the map. Unless there is a consensus across other states to omit the local land mass detail, I would like to keep it somehow. I am not sure how necessary the demographic breakout is, but there is no need to get rid of the data. I won't be on WP much this week. My mom arrives at O'Hare International Airport in 9 hours. I am about to hit the sack. I may not have much time over the next week, but I would suggest not to make too many of these changes because I definitely like the old maps. Let's go back and forth on this and get some other opinions. I definitely would respect the opinions of Ivo and Speciate on this since.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 06:21, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, I converted the old Infobox Chicago over to the new Geobox2. I know you don't like some things, and like others Tony. What we might be able to do to help out, is make a new map of just the Chicago Metro Area counties. It won't be as detailed as far as area. Or, we can include the map in the geobox. The Geobox will be a bit longer, but it would include the map with the area shown as before. As far as the demographics, I don't see the need for them in the infobox. Basically, what you will get is too much info, but it might be something that could be worked in with the "Free Fields".--Kranar drogin 23:16, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I would like the area shown as before depicting the shape of the municipality within the county. I think that is helpful especially for many of the municipalities that transverse counties.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 23:23, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Ok, I added in the old map. Now, we can keep the state map or remove it, depending on what you want to do. I am leaning towards getting rid of the state one, since it takes up so much room, BUT it does show where the city is in the state. Your thoughts on this?--Kranar drogin 00:45, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Economic decline
Odd that the concept of the economic decline which has plagued Harvey, Illinois is more clearly and unequivocally explained in Dixie Square Mall's article than in this one? That article comes out and says that the area has been destroyed by crime, poverty and flight of residents to other suburbs - this one leaves it buried in figures amongst all the statistical rambot census spam but doesn't come right out and say that this is basically a ruined community. 66.102.83.61 (talk) 06:12, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

title: Talk:Harvey, Illinois


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User talk:Krymzon

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Monastery of the Holy Cross (Coimbra)

The Monastery of the Holy Cross (Mosteiro da Santa Cruz), also known as the Church of the Holy Cross, is a National Monument in Coimbra, Portugal. Because the first two kings of Portugal are buried in the church it was granted the status of National Pantheon. Founded in 1131 outside the protecting walls of Coimbra, the Monastery of the Holy Cross was the most important monastic house during the early days of the Portuguese monarchy. Saint Theotonius founded this community of Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra and served as their first prior. The monastery and church were erected between 1132 and 1223. The monastery was granted numerous papal privileges and royal grants, which allowed the accumulation of considerable wealth, at the same time as it consolidated its position on the politico-institutional and cultural scene. Its school, with its vast library, was highly respected in medieval times and was a meeting point for the intellectual and power elites. Its scriptorium was used for the consolidation of royal power by King Afonso Henriques, thus it was not considered strange that he decided to be buried there.

Architecture
Nothing remains of the early Romanesque monastery. It is known that it had only one nave and a high tower in the façade, as typical of the Augustinian-Romanesque constructions, but none of those elements subsisted. In the first half of the 16th century, the Monastery was completely renovated by King Manuel's order, this monarch having assumed the Monastery tutelage.

The whole monastic complex, the church and the tombs of King Afonso Henriques and of his successor, King Sancho I, were rearranged and transferred to the main-chapel in 1530, where they still lie in a sculptural work by Nicolau Chanterene. The architect Diogo de Boitaca was responsible for the layout of the Manueline church and the chapter house with its basket-handled and ribbed ceilings. Marco Pires gave continuity to the work, with the completion of the church, the Capela de São Miguel (St. Michael's Chapel) and the Claustro do Silêncio (Cloister of Silence). The main portal, built between 1522 and 1525 under Chanterene, is the most emblematic piece of the whole monastic ensemble, harmonising the artistic elements of the Manueline with other features from Renaissance inspiration.

Through the whole 16th century, the most respected architects, sculptors, and painters worked at the Monastery of the Holy Cross of Coimbra, such as Diogo de Castilho, Machim and Jean of Rouen, Cristóvão de Figueiredo and Vasco Fernandes besides the already mentioned Chanterene, Boitaca and Diogo Pires the Younger. The sacristy dates back to the 17th century and keeps some notable 16th-century canvases.

Members of the community
Saint Anthony of Lisbon, more widely known as Saint Anthony of Padua, was a member of the community of canons regular, and after his ordination, he was placed in charge of hospitality for the monastery. It was in this capacity that he welcomed the remains of the Franciscan protomartyrs, whose remains were being transported back to Assisi, after their deaths in Morocco. This led to his decision to leave the security and ease of the life of a canon for that of the newly founded Franciscans.

title: Monastery of the Holy Cross (Coimbra)


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BB6 contestant images
Hi there. I noticed that you've uploaded the images of all the BB6 housemates. Under what license are you saying these come under, as it would seem that you've taken them directly from the Channel 4 website and thus they are probably in violation of their copyright. This is covered at Image copyright tags. Cheers, violet/riga (t) 19:00, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

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PRueda29 RFA
Thanks for your support ! I really appreiate it. PRueda29|Ptalk29 12:06, 06 November 2005

My RFA
Thank you very much for supporting my rather contentious request for adminship, but now that I've been promoted, I'd like to do a little dance here *DANCES*. If you have any specific issues/problems with me, please feel free to state them on my talk page so that I can work to prevent them in the future, and thanks once again! ALKIVAR ™ 07:33, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Fir e  Fo  x RFA

Thanks for your support on my request for adminship.

The final outcome was (96/2/0), so I am now an administrator. If you ever have any queries about my actions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Again, thanks! Fir e  Fo  x  19:07, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Thank you
Very much for your kind support of my adminship. I'll do my best to live up to your and my other supporters' expectations. If you have any comments or concerns on my actions as an administrator, please let me know. Thank you! — MC MasterChef :: Leave a tip — 14:44, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

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text:
User talk:ElvisThePrince

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Meelar (talk) 15:07, July 26, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for looking at my RfC and giving an honest assessment. The fact is that I have been agressively coming back at Jemptymethod since he started accusing me of putting a map to his house on his talk page using a sockpuppet that clearly belongs to Catmistake. I've tried to convince Jemptymethod that he can indeed go to the police to get a court order for the information to find out just who posted that map. Instead, he continued to slander my name so I came back at him agressively. If you look at Jemptymethod's talk page history, you will see that I first came at him civily, but as he continued to threaten me and get agressive, I did the same. As he started stating that he was doing google searches for me, I started doing google searches for him. As he started posting my name on Wikipedia and threatening to call my employers and give them the same nonsense he's feeding me, I started hosting his name and the information I found about him. I demanded an appology because he's already slandered me. I will continue to badger him until he either shuts up or appologizes and agrees to seek his vendetta against Catmistake with the right authorities. In any case, I do agree that I've not behaved 100% as I should have and I do agree that it took me a while to mellow out here, but the only person that I didn't deserve to get any crap from was the one person that continues to harass me. Anyway, thanks again for the honest assessment without the bias. I appreciate your taking the time to look at the history. - Sleepnomore 06:02, August 21, 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requests for comment/User:girlvinyl
Thanks for your message. I didn't even know that that page exists. 2004-12-29T22:45Z 23:32, August 22, 2005 (UTC)

warning people
whoops, overlooked that, thanks for the warning before someone yells at me. cheers. Sasquatch  讲  看  03:00, August 30, 2005 (UTC)

wards of bradford
Well I've sourced them all. I'm fairly happy with them now, a few could do with expanding the description (all 3 Keighley, Toller) which leaves Clayton, Ilkley, Manningham & Shipley where there were already substantial articles. I suppose it's time to wp:be bold and create sections on each about the wards, what do you reckon? As for you putting the sources in, I'm sure you could have guessed what I used. You created the template in the first place anyway. --MGSpiller 21:08, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I also completly forgot about http://www.bradfordinfo.com/census/WardProfiles.cfm which has the data accesabile in something other than IE, (the profiles may be worth basing some of the "qualitative" information for each ward on as well.--ElvisThePrince 22:42, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Yorkshire
Thanks for the support regarding the county status of Yorkshire. I'm presuming you also stick by the policy on counties found at Naming conventions (places).

I'm reviewing the situation on the unusual edits to lead sections and have contacted the user in question. Thanks for the support again however, do get in touch should you wish to discuss this further. Jhamez84 14:04, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Actualy I'm just trying to follow common sense rather than any policy per se, and the fact that the council refers to iteself as Bradford, West Yorkshire.--ElvisThePrince 14:29, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Well I'm personally inclined to think the policy is common sense and shouldn't be necessary in the first place! Thanks, however, Jhamez84 14:38, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

AfD nomination of Special school
An editor has nominated one or more articles which you have created or worked on, for deletion. The nominated article is Special school. We appreciate your contributions, but the nominator doesn't believe that the article satisfies Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion and has explained why in his/her nomination (see also Notability and "What Wikipedia is not").

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Nomination for merging of Template:UK ward
Template:UK ward has been nominated for merging with Template:Infobox UK ward. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. – Temporal User (Talk) 07:56, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:04, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:32, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:ElvisThePrince


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Application essay

An admissions or application essay, sometimes also called a personal statement or a statement of purpose, is an essay or other written statement written by an applicant, often a prospective student applying to some college, university, or graduate school. The application essay is a common part of the university and college admissions process.

In the context of academic admissions, there are key distinctions between a statement of purpose, a personal statement, and an application essay. A statement of purpose is a formal essay that outlines an applicant's career goals and reasons for choosing a specific field of study or program. It often includes a tentative research plan and highlights relevant experience and accomplishments. A personal statement, on the other hand, is more personal and introspective. It provides insight into an applicant's motivations, values, and life experiences, often demonstrating their character and passion for their chosen field. An application essay, while similar to the other two, is typically broader and may cover a range of topics. It might ask applicants to reflect on their past experiences, discuss a significant event, or express their thoughts on a given topic. The objective of this essay is to assess the applicant's writing skills, critical thinking, and ability to articulate their thoughts coherently.

Some applications may require one or more essays to be completed, while others make essays optional or supplementary. Essay topics range from very specific to open-ended.

United States
The Common Application, used for undergraduate admissions by many American colleges and universities, requires a general admissions essay, in addition to any supplemental admissions essays required by member institutions. The Common Application offers students six admissions essay prompts from which to choose. According to Uni in the USA, the Common Application essay is intended as a chance to describe "things that are unique, interesting and informative about yourself".

The University of Chicago is known for its unusual essay prompts in its undergraduate admissions application, including "What would you do with a foot-and-a-half-tall jar of mustard"?

Recently, many colleges have started to use short-answer responses instead of full-length essays. In 2023, Harvard replaced its long supplemental essay requirement with five 200-word short answer responses. Harvard cited the need know more broadly about applicants' backgrounds following a Supreme Court ruling banning the use of race as a factor for admissions. Other highly-selective schools like USC, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, and Yale have followed suit. Some colleges such as Williams and Amherst have eliminated supplemental writing from their applications entirely, instead giving students a choice to optionally submit an example of their academic writing.

A 2021 study in Science Advances found that the content of the admission essays submitted to University of California had stronger correlations to self-reported household income than did SAT scores.

While admission essays' prompts are varied and leave room for creativity, they may unintentionally be misleading, potentially widening the achievement gap between lower-income, minority students and their higher-income peers by perpetuating an "undemocratic curriculum" that favors students already familiar with implicit academic expectations.

United Kingdom
A personal statement is part of an application sent to UCAS by a prospective student at a UK university. In a personal statement, the student writes about what they hope to achieve in a UK university course, what they hope to do after the course and why they are applying to this particular university.

title: Application essay


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Vince Flynn

Vincent Joseph Flynn (April 6, 1966 – June 19, 2013) was an American author of political thriller novels featuring the fictional assassin Mitch Rapp. He was a story consultant for the fifth season of the television series 24. He died of prostate cancer on June 19, 2013.

Early life and education
Flynn was one of seven children born to Terry and Kathleen Flynn, and a graduate of Saint Thomas Academy (1984) and the University of St. Thomas with a B.A. in economics (1989).

Early career
After graduating, Flynn went to work for Kraft Foods as an account and sales marketing specialist. In 1991, he left Kraft to pursue a career as an aviator with the United States Marine Corps. One week before leaving for Officer Candidate School, he was medically disqualified from the Marine Aviation Program.

In an effort to overcome the difficulties of dyslexia, Flynn forced himself into a daily writing and reading routine. His writing influences included Leon Uris, Tom Clancy, Ernest Hemingway, John Irving, Robert Ludlum, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Gore Vidal.

Writing and media career
Flynn's newfound interest in fiction motivated him to begin work on a novel of his own. While employed as a bartender in the St. Paul area, he completed his first book, Term Limits, which he self-published. Of the book, Flynn said: "I had just finished reading The Government Racket: Washington Waste from A to Z, by Martin L. Gross. It is without a doubt the most disheartening and enlightening book about politics that I've ever read. I was out jogging one day wondering what it would take to really change Washington, when my thoughts turned to a friend who had been shot and killed in Washington, D.C., several summers earlier. As I continued running, a story started to unfold."

Pocket Books published the hardcover edition of Term Limits in 1998, and a mass market paperback in 1999, which spent several weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. Subsequent works, including Flynn's 1999 novel Transfer of Power, his 2000 novel The Third Option, and his 2001 novel Separation of Power, also appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, with Separation of Power rising as high as No. 7.

Flynn's fifth novel, Executive Power, was published in hardcover by Atria Books in 2003, followed by his sixth novel, Memorial Day in 2004, his seventh, Consent To Kill, in 2005, his eighth, Act Of Treason, in 2006, his ninth, Protect And Defend, in 2007, and his tenth, Extreme Measures, in 2008. Except for Term Limits, his books centered around counterterrorism agent Mitch Rapp.

Flynn wrote six New York Times bestsellers for Atria Books, and had a contract for four more. He remembered deciding between following the path that was the most uncomfortable—continuing with what looked to be a promising career as a commercial real estate leasing agent—or taking a big risk and starting a new career as a writer: "I look back on it now and I couldn't be happier with my decision, but at the time I remember a lot of people thought I was nuts."

In February 2008, Flynn agreed on film and book projects with CBS Corporation units CBS Films and Simon & Schuster/Atria Books. Lorenzo di Bonaventura was negotiating to produce Mitch Rapp films. The first film, American Assassin, was released in 2017. Atria Books got worldwide rights to four of Flynn's books. In August 2010, Flynn signed a two-book deal for a new series that he would have co-written with Brian Haig, a retired Army lieutenant colonel. He was a frequent guest on The Glenn Beck Radio Program on the Fox News Channel, and on Dan Barreiro's radio program on Twin Cities station KFAN.

Personal life
Flynn lived with his wife, Lysa, and their three children in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul) area.

Illness and death
On February 1, 2011, in his fan newsletter, Flynn announced that he was being treated for advanced Stage III prostate cancer. He died of a rare form of aggressive prostate cancer in Saint Paul, aged 47, on June 19, 2013.

Novels
Mitch Rapp is a fictional undercover CIA counterterrorism agent. Rapp's primary focus is to thwart terrorist attacks on the U.S., and he is presented as an aggressive operative willing to take measures more extreme than might commonly be considered acceptable. His constant frustration with procedures and red tape is a major theme in the series.
 * Mitch Rapp series:

From 2015 to 2023, the Mitch Rapp series was continued by Kyle Mills. Starting in 2024 with Capture or Kill, the Mitch Rapp series has been continued by Don Bentley.

Related book

Term Limits is not part of the Mitch Rapp series, but takes place in the same universe. Scott Coleman from the Mitch Rapp series appears in the book, which takes place after the events of Kill Shot.

Adaptations

 * American Assassin (2017), film directed by Michael Cuesta, based on the novel American Assassin

title: Vince Flynn


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Illinois Route 32

Illinois Route 32 (IL 32) is a north–south highway with its southern terminus at U.S. Route 40 and Illinois Route 33 in Effingham and its northern terminus at Illinois Route 48 at Cisco, a few hundred feet south of Interstate 72. Illinois 32 is 69.32 mi long.

Route description
Illinois 32 overlaps Illinois 33 from Shumway to Effingham, where Illinois 32 terminates and Illinois 33 continues east through Effingham to the Vincennes, Indiana area. Traveling north, Illinois 32 services Windsor, Sullivan, Lovington, and Cerro Gordo before reaching Cisco.

History
SBI Route 32 was established in 1918 from the Decatur area (actually Cerro Gordo) to Windsor. In 1937 it was extended to Effingham, and in January 1998, it was extended north to Illinois 48.

title: Illinois Route 32


text: User:Fornadan/sandbox

title: User:Fornadan/sandbox


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Olav Bjortomt

Stein Olav Bjortomt (pronounced Bortom) (born 13 December 1978 in Eastbourne) is an English international quiz player, four-time world champion (2003, 2015, 2018, 2019) and three-time individual European champion (2010, 2014, 2015). He is the star player of the world's most successful quizzing clubs, Broken Hearts, with which he has won several European championships.

He is of Norwegian and Filipino descent and writes questions for University Challenge and The Chase.

In contrast to the other two full-time professionals of Team England Pat Gibson and Kevin Ashman he has not done as well both in domestic competitions, with only a second place in the individual British championships 2007 to his credit (though he has won the pairs competition) and as a TV candidate, a second place in the Fifteen to One series of 2002 being his best result.

National and international titles
He was the winner of the inaugural 2003 individual World Quizzing Championships, when it was a fledgling event with then only 45 participants (now in the thousands) but won a second title in 2015. In 2009 he won three out of four possible European titles and was runner-up behind Kevin Ashman in the singles to become the most successful participant.

Time Out described him in 2006 as a "former child quiz prodigy and a rising star of the quiz world".

After his triumph at the very first World Quizzing Championship 2003 he did not win a medal at the world stage for twelve years, but always was Top 10. His absence at Ghent in 2004 (when England won the first European Championship) meant he was not selected for the national team until 2006. He should have played in 2007 but travel problems delayed his arrival at the event. Consequently, he has only latterly become a regular in the star-studded English national team (Ashman, Mark Bytheway and Pat Gibson).

He is also part of the Broken Hearts (with Ian Bayley, formerly David Stainer, replaced by Didier Bruyere and Mark Grant) quiz team which play in the QLL and have been European Club champions from 2007 to 2009. Bjortomt won the Pairs Championships with partner Stainer in 2009 and has won 21 international medals on aggregate (see medal table). He also holds the title "British Quizzing Grandmaster".

TV appearances
Bjortomt's success on TV has been rather moderate compared with that of his teammates in the national team, and he describes himself as a "choker" (see Q&A link). He appeared on the quiz show Fifteen to One four times, finishing as a series runner-up in 2002.

He captained the University of Nottingham team to the quarter-finals in the 1999–2000 series of BBC's University Challenge, and according to the credits of the show as of 2012, is currently a question setter. When he appeared on the Channel 4 quiz show Grand Slam in 2003, commentator James Richardson described him as the "Wayne Rooney of the quiz world."

In 2007, Bjortomt competed in The National Lottery People's Quiz and was the first contestant to qualify for the grand final, answering 97 per cent of his questions correctly during the show.

In 2008, he appeared in the quiz programme Battle of the Brains.

On 10 October 2008 he appeared on Mastermind, scoring eight points on questions about West Indies Test cricket, and fourteen in the General Knowledge section, to finish in second place.

In 2008 and 2009 he unsuccessfully competed in Are You an Egghead?, which attempts to find another player to join the existing team.

In 2021 he became part of the Channel 5 quiz show Eggheads.

Book

 * National Quiz Team: The Only Quiz Book You Will Ever Need (co author)ISBN 978-1780893693

Personal details
In 2001 Bjortomt was the winner of The Guardian's Student Feature writer of the Year award. He has a History degree from the University of Nottingham and a Postgraduate Diploma in Newspaper Journalism from Nottingham Trent University. He worked for The Times newspaper in London and has set the weekday Times2 quiz since July 2005 to the present day along with The Times Saturday quiz.

His parents are Norwegian and Filipino. He has two younger sisters and a younger brother.

title: Olav Bjortomt