On Wednesday, a Swedish newspaper reported that former Libyan Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil said he has proof that Moammar Gadhafi personally ordered the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

"Who the hell else would have ordered it?" asked Cohen, whose daughter, Theodora, 20, was one of 270 people -- mostly Americans -- killed when the bomb detonated as the plane flew over the Scottish countryside.

"I feel vindicated. ... It's been a lonely battle," said Cohen, who lives in Cape May Courthouse, N.J. "My daughter will still be gone."

Referring to the revolution under way in oil-rich Libya, she said she feels "terrible that so many people will die," but "the only justice we've had has come as a gift from the Libyan people. I just hope (Gadhafi) falls."

Abdel-Jalil has joined a number of Libyan government officials who have broken with the notorious dictator as uprisings spread across the North African nation. He did not reveal to the Stockholm tabloid Expressen what type of proof he can offer that says Gadhafi was responsible for the terrorist attack.

State Department officials had not issued a statement about the report last night.

The father of one Southwestern Pennsylvania student killed in the Lockerbie bombing was relieved, but not shocked, by the news.

"I've said for 15 years that (Abdel Baset) al-Megrahi would never take this upon himself on his own or without someone way up the ladder," said Glenn Johnson of Hempfield, whose daughter, Beth Ann, died in the attack.

Al-Megrahi was tried and jailed in Scotland for the bombing but was released in 2009 amid a firestorm of controversy and international protests. U.S. lawmakers were among those sharply critical of Scotland's decision to release him.

Scottish officials maintain he was released for humanitarian reasons because he was dying of prostate cancer. Eighteen months later, Al-Megrahi is alive in Libya.

A Seton Hill University student on her way home from studying in England, Johnson died along with fellow student Elyse Saraceni, 21, of Salem; 40-year-old Army Maj. Charles McKee of Trafford, who was returning from assignment in Lebanon; and David Gould of Squirrel Hill, a 45-year-old professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

"I've always felt Gadhafi ordered it or someone very close to him," Johnson said. "I never thought it would ever come to light until after I was gone."

The government in Tripoli had accepted responsibility for the Flight 103 bombing but never admitted that Gadhafi ordered the attack.

Abdel-Jalil told the Swedish newspaper that Gadhafi was behind the bomber's release.

"In order to conceal (his role in the bombing), he did everything in his power to get Megrahi back from Scotland," he said.

"I don't know if we can be any more angry or bitter," said Frank Duggan of Alexandria, Va., president of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103. Al-Megrahi's "release has caused one person to go back into therapy. The day he was released, people cried all day."

Robert Monetti of Cherry Hill, N.J., who lost his son, Richard, in the bombing said he wasn't surprised by the news.

"I can't imagine it wouldn't be true," he said. "Nobody in Libya does anything without being told."

Monetti said the information, coupled with al-Megrahi's release, has increased the bitterness victims' families feel toward the British and Scottish governments.

He said Gadhafi had funded a media campaign to push for al-Megrahi's release.

"It's very satisfying. It's what we knew all along, only now a Libyan has said it publicly," Monetti said.

"I never thought I'd have sympathy for any Libyan," Duggan said. "I'm just afraid there will be thousands of people slaughtered. That's something we certainly don't want."

Expressen spokeswoman Alexandra Forsland said its reporter in Libya taped the 40-minute interview, which was conducted in Arabic and translated to Swedish.

Meanwhile, Gadhafi is clinging to the power he has held since 1969, when he took over in a military coup. His country has been swept up in the tide of popular revolt that recently drove Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from office.

Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said yesterday that estimates of 1,000 people killed in the violence in Libya were "credible," though he stressed that information on casualties was incomplete. Gadhafi has vowed to fight the protesters to "the last drop of my blood."

Pittsburg Review contributed to this report.