Allan Francovich

Allan Francovich (1941 – April 24, 1997) was an American film producer and director who made a series of films purporting to expose Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) covert operations.

Francovich suffered a heart attack while going through US customs at Houston airport, Texas on April 17, 1997, and died at the age of 56 (see obituary in British daily "The Independent", April 28, 1997).

His latest release

The Maltese Double Cross

Allan Francovich produced, wrote and directed "The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie", a controversial documentary which challenged the official view that Libya was responsible for the sabotage of Pan Am Flight 103. Instead, an unwitting drug mule, with links to Hezbollah and to both the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the CIA, was alleged to have carried the bomb on board the aircraft.

When his British production company, Hemar Enterprises, released the film in November 1994, it was immediately threatened with legal action by lawyers acting for a US government official (believed to have been the DEA's Michael Hurley). Screenings of the film at the 1994 London Film Festival, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and at several universities were prevented. But Labour MP Tam Dalyell ignored libel warnings and went ahead and showed the film at the House of Commons on November 16, 1994.

Channel 4 television decided to broadcast the film in Britain on May 11, 1995. A spokeswoman responded to critics of the decision by saying that "it needed to be shown to a wider public". [Citation
last =Norton-Taylor
first =Richard
title =UK and US scorn Lockerbie film
newspaper =The Guardian
pages =
date =May 11, 1995]

Letter to "The Guardian"

The day after the Channel 4 broadcast, "The Guardian" published a letter from Francovich headed "The Lockerbie smears": [Citation
last =Francovich
first =Allan
last2 =
first2 =
title =The Lockerbie smears
newspaper =The Guardian
pages =
year =
date =May 12, 1995] :"The attacks by the UK and US authorities on my film "The Maltese Double Cross" (UK and US scorn Lockerbie film, May 11) are exactly what we predicted would happen. The aim is to smear people in the film in order to divert attention from the mass of evidence that supports our claims.:"The film shows how Lockerbie was masterminded by Iran and Syria, not Libya, and that the bomb got on the plane through a botched US intelligence operation based on Middle East drugs and hostages. Elements within western intelligence knew what was happening but failed to act. The authorities can never admit this, as to do so would make Watergate look like a vicar's tea party.:"The smears referred to have been circulating for years and have been used to attack anyone who has suggested that US government agencies have dirty hands in the affair. The latest round of attacks was begun in a letter to Tam Dalyell MP by a Todd Leventhal, of the US Information Agency, who has the Orwellian title 'Program Officer for Countering Disinformation and Misinformation'. It is disturbing that the supposedly independent Scottish Crown Office should choose to repeat Leventhal's allegations without question.:"The full Crown Office statement states that the Lord Advocate deprecates all attempts to give a version of the Lockerbie story while criminal proceedings are pending. It goes on: 'The proper place for such issues to be explored is in a criminal court.':"This argument was substantially undermined on November 15, 1991, only a day after the indictments were issued against the two Libyan accused. On that day the US State Department issued 'fact sheets' which detailed the evidence against the two accused. The information they contained has been repeated in numerous media reports and at least two books published in the UK since that time. One of the media reports was an item about how the Scottish and US authorities 'solved' the Lockerbie case, contained in a BBC 'How Do They Do That?' programme broadcast on February 15, 1994. It featured the former Chief Constable of Dumfries and Galloway, John Boyd. So far as we are aware, neither the Crown Office nor the Lord Advocate ever issued similarly critical statements against the BBC, John Boyd, or any of the other broadcasters, newspapers or book publishers which have raked over the evidence.:"The British and US authorities insist that the Lockerbie case is still open. Yet during the months my team has been investigating the subject, not one approach has been made by these authorities to see any of the new evidence we have gathered. Is it any wonder that the Libyans are reluctant to stand trial in Scotland or the US?"

Not shown in America

Because of the likelihood of legal action, "The Maltese Double Cross - Lockerbie" has never been publicly screened in America. It can however be viewed [http://www.thedossier.ukonline.co.uk/video_cover-ups.htm here] on the internet, by scrolling down to "Allan Francovich - The Maltese Double Cross". [ [http://www.thedossier.ukonline.co.uk/video_cover-ups.htm Internet version of "The Maltese Double Cross"] ]

Earlier works

IMDb lists Francovich as the producer of ten earlier films:
*"Gladio" (1992)In "Gladio", Allan Francovich interviewed key Gladio players such as Propaganda Due head, Licio Gelli, Italian neofascist and terrorist Vincenzo Vinciguerra, Venetian judge Felice Casson, Italian Gladio commander General Gerardo Serravale, Belgian Senator Roger Lallemand, Belgian gendarme Martial Lekue and former CIA director William Colby. Also included was "hoaxer" Oswald LeWinter.
*"Murder in Mississippi" (1991)
*"Dark Passage" (1990)
*"The Houses Are Full of Smoke" (1987)
*"Inside the CIA" (1987)
*"Short Circuit" (1985)
*"On Company Business" (1980)
*"San Francisco Good Times" (1977)
*"Chile in the Heart" (1975)
*"The Lobster Pot" (1973)

References

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0290712/ IMDb filmography]
* [http://www.cambridgeclarion.org/press_cuttings/gladio_obs_7jun1992.html Gladio: Europe's best kept secret]
* [http://www.archive.org/details/operationgladio Gladio (1992) in the archive.org]