Posted on 12/23/2003 3:31:14 PM PST by CedarDave
TWA FLIGHT 800: Pilot takes NTSB to court: CIA lied, expert eyewitnesses come forward
See: TWA 800 "It wasn't terrorists. It couldn't have been."
ML/NJ
Modern day version of the Kennedy "Magic Bullet" theory.
Lot's of conspiracy theorists sit back and claim that TWA 800 was shot down by a US ship by accident. You people never fail to dissapoint me in your low opinion of your armed forces. I've been in the Navy for 20 years now, and stood many a watch in CIC. That you think that we have not the honor or courage to own up to our mistakes is pretty crappy.
During any missile shot, CIC is crowded with people, both participants on watch and those who just want to see the shot. Typically, there are 25 to 35 people in CIC during a missile shot. If YOU were there and saw the accident, would YOU blow the whistle? My guess is YES. Are you somehow better, braver, more honest than all of those sailors? I think NOT.
A cover-up by a very small group of people is possible. A cover-up by the entire crew of a US Navy ship, I don't believe. I hope most here don't believe it either.
From the open letter to Boeing and TWA by Cmdr. William S. Donaldson:
1. The Administration knew that in 1996, surrogates from rogue states had access to MANPADS (Man Portable Air Defense Systems) or shoulder-fired missiles in mid-eastern weapons bazaars. $5,000 would acquire the least capable model, the Russian SA-7. $50,000 would buy the most capable, the Chinese Vanguard, a deadly new missile upgraded from US Stinger technology transferred to the Chinese in the early 90's. Superior to the Stinger, this missile has a much longer range. The Administration also knew Iran had a limited number of US Stinger missiles in inventory.-PJ2. The Administration was aware that, worldwide, MANPADS missiles had already claimed 26 civil transport aircraft and was only a matter of time before a U.S. Flag carrier would be targeted and hit. They knew the Administration had dodged a bullet in 1994 when Maryland State Police found a fully armed French Mistral MANPADS missile ready to fire on its tripod directly under a busy northeastern air route.
3. In response to sanctions unilaterally levied against Iran by Mr. Clinton in 1995, Iranian surrogate's car bombed US troops in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and later smuggled MANPADS missiles into the US from across the Canadian border. Iranian officials warned the Administration that they considered enactment of the Iran/Libya Sanctions Act tantamount to an act of war!
4. When Mr. Clinton signed the Iran, Libya Sanctions Act of 1996, a decision was made by the Iranian Supreme Council to approve attacks on major American targets. Terrorist surrogate groups from nine countries were summoned to Tehran to meet with Iranian officials in June of 1996. Later that month, a huge truck bomb was deployed against the US Air Force barracks complex at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. Three weeks later, TWA Flight 800 was shot down only hours after an explicit warning of an attack was received in London and Washington that taunted the President.
5. The White House, the CIA and the FBI were aware of the threat and they knew preventing that attack was their primary responsibility.
6. We can show the Administration anticipated incorrectly that, if the missiles were used, they would be targeted against Olympic air traffic landing or taking off in the Atlanta area.
7. We can provide testimony that immediately after Flight 800 was shot down, Mr. Clinton called an FBI command post supporting the Olympics and informed them Flight 800 was downed with shoulder-fired missiles.
8. The White House, the CIA and the FBI political leadership have waged an unrelenting disinformation campaign from the onset. This has ranged from the White House spokesman stating, "Anyone in government that says this was a missile only has half a brain", and to the CIA cartoon that libeled hundreds of eyewitnesses.
She's about the only person who could get to the bottom of this - in about a New York minute.
Regardless, I have given up hope that the truth about FL800 will ever be made public.
IF TWA Flight 800 was brought down by a missile, it was an accidental shoot-down related to naval exercises that were being conducted off the south shore of Long Island that night. It was not caused by any kind of terrorist activity.
I base this primarily on the fact that anyone interested in deliberately shooting down a passenger aircraft flying out of JFK International Airport in New York would not have selected that location to do it -- it was simply too far east, at a point where eastbound flights out of JFK are normally at or beyond the range of most surface-to-air missiles.
In a situation like that, I can see why the U.S. Navy might feel a need to "hush up" the incident.
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