JUDGE dismisses libel lawsuit filed by former FBI official in Pan Am bombing

Monday, May 7th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A federal judge has dismissed a libel lawsuit filed by a former FBI official who was alleged to have had advance knowledge of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Oliver ``Buck'' Revell, a retired FBI associate deputy director, complained that a book, ``The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror,'' accused him of allowing the mass murder of the 259 people on board the flight and 11 more on the ground.

The book, by David M. Hoffman, claimed Revell had prior knowledge of the bombing and pulled his son and daughter-in-law off the plane in London.

Revell said his son was briefly booked on the flight, but had left London a week earlier. His daughter-in-law was in the United States.

Judge Robin J. Cauthron ruled Thursday that Revell had not shown that the author or his publisher knew the statements were false.

The publisher, Feral House Inc., agreed in 1999 to destroy all copies of the book because of the inaccuracies.