Lockerbie victim hopes defection stops Qaddafi

The defection of Libya's foreign minister this week has renewed hopes that Muammar Qaddafi can be directly tied to the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 that took place nearly 23 years ago.

Moussa Koussa, the Libyan official who British officials said resigned Wednesday after travelling to England, was a "key organizer" of the bombing, the Central Intelligence Agency's lead investigator into the bombing told CBS News Thursday. All 259 people on the plane and 11 people on the ground were killed when the plane crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, Dec. 21, 1988.

Vincent Cannistraro, who led the CIA bombing investigation, told CBS News that Qaddafi has long been suspected of initiating the attack.

"Yes, Moussa Koussa was personally responsible for the actual organization of it," said Cannistraro. "The orders to do it clearly came from Muammar Qaddafi himself as everything that happened in Libya over the years did originate with Qaddafi himself."

When Koussa defected to England, he brought with him secrets of his decades-long relationship with Quaddafi. Koussa was once Qadaffi's intelligence chief and is believed to know the intricate details of the Libyan leader's involvement with terrorism.

"Moussa is a person with a lot of blood on his hands over many years," Cannistraro said.

While the British government has so far refused to offer Koussa immunity from prosecution, one family member of the bombing's victims said he hopes Koussa links Qaddafi to the terrorist attack.

"If his information can lead to Qaddafi's removal from power and prevent thousands of Libyan citizens from getting killed, I accept that," Bert Ammerman, a former spokesman of the organization Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 Inc., told CBSNews.com Thursday. "It's a major defection from the Libyan government."

Ammerman's brother, Tom Ammerman, was one of the 189 Americans on the Pan Am flight. He was returning home from a business trip to spend Christmas with his wife and two daughters, then aged 6 and 4, Bert Ammerman said.

FBI and Justice Department officials told CBS News that the investigation into Lockerbie is still open and that investigators are planning to ask British officials to interview Koussa.

Ammerman said he hopes Koussa's defection is an early indication of Qaddafi's downfall, even if that means the British eventually have to offer the former official a deal.

"If we get Qaddafi, that's worth the whole thing," said Ammerman. "If Qaddafi is overthrown and removed from power, I am satisfied knowing that my brother and the other victims of Pam Am Flight 103 didn't die in vain."

Ammerman doesn't have a particular punishment in mind for Qaddafi, just that he's no longer in power.

"I would be satisfied with his death," said Ammerman. "I would be satisfied with his trial of international crimes, and I would be satisfied with his removal from power."