'Bombing' of TWA Flight 800: Reed Irvine reveals new admissions by Stephanopoulos and Kallstrom

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Thursday, September 20, 2001 | Reed Irvine

[JohnHuang2]

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The 'bombing' of TWA Flight 800

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By Reed Irvine
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

Over five years have passed since the crash of TWA Flight 800 killed 230 people, and now, at long last, two former high-ranking government officials speaking on television have implicitly disavowed the claim that a fuel-tank explosion caused the destruction of that airplane.

The government's $40 million investigation of the crash of TWA Flight 800 ended up with the National Transportation Safety Board, the FBI and the CIA all agreeing that an explosion in the center-wing fuel tank caused it to crash. They said that after the explosion broke off the entire front end of the plane, its tail dropped and it shot up like a rocket, trailing burning fuel behind it. They said that was what hundreds of eyewitnesses saw, mistaking it for a missile. The CIA actually produced a video showing the huge noseless jet ascending like a rocket, an aeronautical impossibility.

They got away with it because our establishment media in the Clinton era had the bad habit of believing nearly everything government agencies told them, even if it was patently ridiculous. But now, a former White House official, George Stephanopoulos, who was a senior adviser to President Clinton, has made a statement on television that indicates that the claim that a fuel-tank explosion caused the TWA 800 crash was false. On September 11, the unforgettable day of disaster, Stephanopoulos, who is now an ABC News correspondent, was talking to ABC's Peter Jennings on camera about President Bush being flown to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska and taken to the situation room on the base where he could keep in touch with Washington by teleconferencing.

Stephanopoulos, implying that this was unnecessary, made this surprising statement: "There are facilities in the White House, not the normal situation room, which everyone has seen in the past, has seen pictures of. There is a second situation room, behind the primary situation room, which has video conferencing capabilities. The director of the Pentagon, the defense chief, can speak from a national military command center at the Pentagon. The Secretary of State can speak from the State Department, the president from wherever he is, and they'll have this capability for video conferencing throughout this crisis. In my time at the White House it was used in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, in the aftermath of the TWA Flight 800 bombing, and that would be the way they would stay in contact through the afternoon."

The TWA Flight 800 bombing? Peter Jennings, the anchorman for ABC's "World News Tonight," didn't bat an eyelash. Instead of asking his colleague to explain his use of the word "bombing" and why there was a special meeting in the White House situation room to discuss it, Jennings asked a question about the president taking orders from the Secret Service.

Efforts to reach Mr. Stephanopoulos to find out if he has information that the plane was destroyed by a bomb have been unsuccessful, and no one at ABC News recognized that Stephanopoulos had revealed that he was privy to what might be a very important change in the story about TWA 800. When informed of this, Brian Ross, who heads ABC News's investigative unit, promised to look into it.

There had to be something special about the TWA 800 crash to justify holding a meeting in the White House situation room to discuss it. That surely is not done every time one of our planes crashes. Stephanopoulos said that it was held in the "aftermath of the bombing," but the precise date and time are important.

In his book, "The Downing of TWA Flight 800," James Sanders says that there was a meeting in the White House situation room on the night of July 17, 1996, that began before the crash. Sanders says that he was told by a confidential source that high officials gathered there to watch in real time a video transmission of a Navy demonstration of its ability to shoot down a missile off the shore of Long Island. They were horrified when something went wrong and they saw the missile shoot down TWA Flight 800. What Stephanopoulos should tell us is whether the meeting he described began before or after the plane crashed. If he won't reveal that, the White House should.

The fuel-tank theory of the crash was also disavowed by James Kallstrom, who headed the FBI investigation. He said on CNN on September 11 that the attack that day was "the first act of terrorism in the U.S. since TWA 800." He has yet to explain when he discovered that TWA 800 was brought down by terrorists.

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Reed Irvine is the chairman of Accuracy In Media, a media watchdog group based in Washington, D.C.

For Education And Discussion Only. Not For Commercial Use.

[Cold Heat]

I was wondering how long it would take for this to come out in the open...

[Elle Bee]

No surprises here

.

[DoughtyOne]

Well _Jim, care to explain what we really read here? You've stated emphatically that the government line on this incident was irrefutable. Now even the government is backing away from it's hard line.

[timestax]

BUMP

[thinden]

heads up

[JohnHuang2]

heads up

[piasa]

So... a bombing and not a feul tank explosion, and not a missile strike from either terrorists or the Rivero Theory?

A bombing still won't explain people seeing what looked like a missile.

Did they not really know what happened but had known of threats, and thus met in the situation room?

[stylin19a]

JohnHuang2

you're the best....keep bumpin

[Las Vegas Dave]

Bump (for later reading)

[JohnHuang2]

Thank you.

[Sabertooth]

This seems especially relevant in light of the threats made against Air Force One on 9/11. Since a hijacked jetliner would be just about impossible to use as a weapon against a moving target, the substantial and credible threat cited by Ari Fleischer had to be missile or a fighter jet. And we know it wasn't the latter.

And we know that Afghanistan, whatever dismal state it's in, has had the capacity to bring down airplanes with missiles fired from the ground for about 15 years now... Because we gave them Stinger missiles to bring down Soviet aircraft during the Reagan Administration. (Not questioning RR's wisdom at the time, it's just a fact.)

Seems reasonable to me to assume that the Taliban's pals bin Laden,and Saddam Hussein have the same capability. Probably for some time now.

[kcvl]

Vol. 15, No. 17
August 16, 1999
More on Flight TWA 800

More Pieces to TWA 800 Puzzle
by William Norman Grigg

Three years after TWA flight 800 exploded in mid-air over the Atlantic just off Long Island, killing all 230 aboard, evidence is continuing to accumulate that the federal government has deliberately misled the public about the cause of the tragedy. After an investigation that consumed 16 months and devoured $20 million, federal authorities concluded that an aberrant spark in the plane’s center fuel tank triggered the catastrophic explosion. However, in order to reach this conclusion, federal investigators had to discard a significant body of evidence suggesting that the plane was shot down in an act of terrorism and mass murder.

The July 14th-20th edition of the left-wing Village Voice quoted an unnamed "missile expert" who worked in the FBI’s investigation of the Flight 800 explosion. The expert, a military engineer "who specializes in infrared missile technology," was "made privy to evidence suggesting that TWA 800 could have been shot down." In addition to receiving eyewitness accounts of a "flare-like object" zooming toward the plane shortly before the explosion, the engineer was permitted to inspect the assembled debris from the crash. He has also been "in contact with military labs where, he says, the chemists have been unable to make jet fuel vapor explode"; this undermines the official explanation provided by the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB), which maintains that fuel vapor in the ill-fated plane’s center fuel tank somehow ignited. The engineer concludes that there is a "70-percent chance" that the plane was shot down by a shoulder-launched missile.

Mystery Boat

The July 12th issue of the New York Observer referred to a mysterious "30-knot track," the radar signature of a boat "that was the closest vessel to the 747 when it exploded and that then headed out to sea on a beeline from right under the burning wreckage." In the immediate aftermath of the crash, the "mystery boat" headed directly out to sea on a south-southwest course, "even as other boats rushed to the crash to help out," explained the Observer account. "It was nearly 9 o’clock at night, not the usual time for an excursion."

The "30-knot track" is particularly intriguing to retired Navy Commander William S. Donaldson, a former Judge Advocate General investigator who has conducted inquiries into 12 Navy air crashes. Upon viewing the data, "I looked at that and said, ‘Wow, what is that guy doing leaving the scene?’ And of course I assumed he was identified." However, when he asked FBI agent Steve Bongardt whether investigators were able to interview the occupants of every boat in the region of the crash, Commander Donaldson was told that the question couldn’t be answered without clearance "from a higher authority."

"It would seem that even the FBI secretly regarded the 30-knot track as suspicious," said the Observer. "For six months, the government conducted a $5.5 million trawling operation of the waters surrounding the crash, using scallop boats. Commander Donaldson obtained documents left by the FBI on one scalloper, showing that the FBI was specifically looking for shoulder-fired Stinger missile parts — notably a Stinger ejector motor — in what the FBI called a ‘possible missile launch zone’ 2.7 miles from the crash. That circle included the mystery boat." The FBI also seized some boats to inspect their floorboards for burns typical of backwash from a shoulder-fired rocket. However, investigators have been singularly incurious regarding the unidentified fleeing boat.

"If it’s a legitimate criminal investigation, with a possibility of 230 homicides," observes Commander Donaldson, "how do you close the investigation when you haven’t identified the boat that was within missile firing range? To me that’s egregious. I don’t see how you justify it."

The FBI’s indifference regarding the "mystery boat" becomes even more inexplicable in light of the account provided by a witness identified as Lou Desyron. As previously reported in these pages (see "What Happened to TWA 800?" in our October 14, 1996 issue), Desyron told ABC News that "we saw what appeared to be a flare going straight up. As a matter of fact, we thought it was from a boat." (Emphasis added.)

Prime Suspect

The July 16th USA Today, published on the eve of the tragedy’s third anniversary, reported that Bill Clinton "was ready to strike back at Middle East terrorists if they could be linked to the explosion of TWA Flight 800," but that no strike occurred because "the FBI never made the connection." According to Associated Press correspondent Pat Milton, author of In the Blink of an Eye: The FBI Investigation of TWA Flight 800, one of the chief suspects was renegade Saudi terrorist financier Osama bin Laden, who is suspected of plotting the 1996 attack on Saudi Arabia’s Khobar Towers barracks, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen and wounded another 250. Bin Laden has also been accused of masterminding the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. And, lest it be forgotten, bin Laden has provided financial and material support to the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, the drug-dealing Muslim/Marxist terrorists who were NATO’s allies in the war on Yugoslavia.

USA Today also pointed out that "weeks before the crash [of TWA 800], Clinton had placed the United States on its highest state of alert since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. This was because the White House had received classified intelligence reports that Iran was planning a wave of terrorist attacks against the United States." Bin Laden is tightly allied both with Iran and with anti-American elements of the Afghan Mujahadeen guerillas who were provided with Stinger missiles during the war against the Soviets.

According to James Kallstrom, the FBI’s lead investigator in the TWA 800 case, the agency’s "exhaustive" inquiry "left no stone unturned." Kallstrom testified before Congress that the FBI’s investigation included "tracking of all air and waterborne vessels in the area at the time of the explosion followed by appropriate interviews." The sole exception to this dragnet was the mysterious vessel responsible for the enigmatic "30-knot track" — and the possible link between the air disaster and the international terrorist network.

[Lockbox]

Well which is it, a terrorist’s bombing or a US Navy test gone wrong?

I have not read of any lawsuits over this crash. Why in lawsuit happy America?

I have not read of any bulletin by Boeing to “Fix” the fuel tank problem. Why in lawsuit happy America would a major corporation leave itself open to further damages from a ‘major problem’ with the 747?

I have not read of any FAA directive to the airlines to ‘Fix’ the fuel tanks on 747s.

Why at this time did both Mr. Stephanopoulos and Mr. Kallstrom bring up TWA 800? What’s the connection to the terrorist’s WTC action and TWA 800? For those that do not believe in coincidence, the timing of the both these statements is very interesting. And not from ‘one source’ but two major Clinton administration players. Remember that TWA 800 was not a bombing, or missile strike according to the Clinton regimen, so now what’s the connection to a hijacking by terrorists?

Could this be both a terrorist’s action and a US Navy test gone wrong? Could some how the terrorists discovered the ‘Secret' US Navy test and flown TWA 800 into the test area to draw the missile away from the target and towards TWA 800? Or just a bad time for a missile test, which leads us back to coincidence!

More questions then answers, but it seems there is something rotten in Denmark. We need to pressure the sources to explain. This maybe the crack in the Clinton dam. Time to apply pressure! For five years the press may have been covering up this story to cover Clinton. What a story, the ‘free press’ kill a story about either the terrorist’s first blood of US civilians, or a major Clinton mistake that killed US civilians.

Either way, I want to know!

[jamaksin]

To add ... will the truth about the USS Liberty, USS Maddox, ... Pearl Harbor ever see the light of day?

The US government must have held many, many things "under the rug" for many, many years ... TWA 800 being only one such.

[kcvl]

October 10, 1998 by Ian Williams Goddard. From the article: After first claiming that no Navy assets were in the area accept a P-3 Orion aircraft, the Navy then admi- tted that they had three submarines in the area.[10] After first claiming that there were no military man- euvers in the area that night [11], months later the Navy admitted that there were. [10] In addition, TWA 800 researcher Tom Shoemaker proved that there was a large-scale wargame in the area during July 17, 1996 [12], and private investigator James Sanders learned through his inside contacts that the Navy was testing advanced anti-missile technologies that evening. [13]

Now, after claims that the closest Navy ship was 185 miles away, comes the admission that Navy ships were in fact within 3 to 6 miles of the TWA 800 crash, in the very area from which witnesses saw a missile rise.

[Lockbox]

Just went to the FAA’s web site and found the ‘AVIATION MAINTENANCE ALERTS‘ page. The links for the ‘View present and previous issues‘, ‘Search the database‘ and the ‘Instant M or D, Form (8010-4)‘ return ‘The page cannot be found’

Interesting, but I’ll try back later, maybe the computer system is down for maintenance!

[Yellow Rose of Texas]

If jet fuel does not explode then were the WTC buildings on fire from candles? Why are the planes destroyed being called bombs?

[kcvl]

April 24, 1997
First Letter to the NTSB From the letter: I couldn't let [NTSB Director] Jim Hall's April 11 Letter to the Editor go without mention of salient facts ("Flight 800: It Wasn't a Missile"). I was a Navy carrier pilot for 25 years and a crash investigator. Mr. Hall made two statements that are markedly unscientific: "We know that an explosive fuel air vapor mixture existed in the center fuel tank." Wrong. We most definitely don't know that. Aviation kerosene cannot be induced to burn at temperatures below 100 degrees Fahrenheit (flash point), and will not propagate fire until 400 degrees Fahrenheit (auto ignition temperature) is reached.

September 18, 1997
Second Letter to the NTSB From the letter: Understand the tone of my letter you express concern for was the result of hundreds of uncompensated man-hours of careful study balanced against the intimate knowledge of jet aircraft piloting, maintenance, and mishap investigation assimilated during a twenty-five year military career. Also be assured somehow during that span my "delusional state of mind" as you put it, must have been in remission, that is unless the 19 personal and 5 unit awards hanging in my den are figments of my imagination!

December 3, 1997
Letter to Director of the FBI From the letter: Mr. Freeh I will be candid, the fact that the FBI is now joining in lockstep with the NTSB political script sadly was not a surprise to me, because of what I had discovered on Long Island. Mr. Kallstrom's agents who "turned over every rock ten times," failed to tape critical eyewitness testimony, failed to establish visual bearing lines from the witnesses who observed ascending objects, failed to get elevation measurements, failed to get relative motion statements and in some cases failed to even go to the observation point, that is except from some eyewitnesses who didn't see a missile! Like Mrs. Sahid. Multiple witnesses tell me agents on rare second or third visits to persons who saw ascending objects tried to get the witness to change their original stories? Many of these people are now afraid of and disgusted with their own government, the administrations mantra "No evidence of a criminal act" is turning normal American citizens into bitter cynics.

Reply: None

September 25, 1998
Letter to FBI: Soviet SAM 6 Missile From the letter: After careful study of witness provided characteristics, speed, range, launch and staging sounds, sustainer motor burn out time, launch position, optical guidance flare, etc. coupled with warhead burst characteristics and aircraft damage in evidence, our missile experts are in agreement: The weapon used against TWA Flight 800 was most probably a modified Soviet SAM 6...

...The SA6 is normally carried on a TEL with three missiles loaded. Designed as a mobile air defense system for soviet armor and troops, the TEL with missiles loaded could easily be carried aboard any ocean going vessel and transported as covered deck cargo.

Reply: Not yet