All governments lie, some more than others.
To protect themselves or 'the national interest', American governments lie more than most. The story of Washington's blackest lie in modern times began, typically, with a bureaucratic blunder. Seven months later, on 21 December 1988, a bomb exploded in the cargo hold of Pan Am Flight 103 from Frankfurt to New York, killing all 259 passengers and crew. Eleven more people died on the ground as the wreckage of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet, Maid of the Seas, rained down on the Scottish border town of Lockerbie. American intelligence agents, who had disregarded standing orders by choosing to fly home from Beirut on an Americanflag airline, and a DEA LebaneseAmerican courier who had previously carried out at least three controlled deliveries of heroin to Detroit as part of the sting.