On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing everyone on board as well as eleven people in the town. Just who placed the bomb, why, and with whose blessing, is the disturbing subject of The Maltese Double Cross, which challenges the too-easy official verdict that two Libyan terrorists in the service of Qaddafi were responsible. Francovich gives the mystery a human face: a Rashomon-like story is told by the people of gentle green Lockerbie, by intrepid journalists and bemused local investigators, by FBI spokesmen and CIA operatives, even by the Libyans accused of the deed, and by the families of the dead who ask why their loved ones were sent to the slaughter while select high-level passengers were warned not to get on Flight 103. The truth, all that can redeem their deaths, lies somewhere in a sordid if riveting tale involving CIA-sanctioned Syrian drug running, convoluted international politics, and calculated uncaring. Francovich's important film is itself the target of controversy and coverup, starting with its being pulled from a premiere at the London Film Festival in response to a legal challenge by a former U.S. drug agent. (It premiered, appropriately, in Scotland, at the Edinburgh Festival, where it won Best Documentary.) Two versions of the film exist: the original, at 168 minutes, a piece of penetrating film research; and the 90-minute version shown on British TV. As we go to press we hope to obtain the longer version.