I had know idea this happened. So I googled and came back to a Free Republic Thread! Go figure....Anyway give it a read. this is a great Great Mystery Story.
Where is 
when you need him?
Posted on 05/23/2004 5:27:07 PM PDT by Peach
Ron Brown could tell tales from the grave
By DAWN HARRIS Special to The Star
You'd think that after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, we'd have learned our lesson. We didn't.
As with JFK's murder in 1963, two recent events have been marked by conspiracy theories and bungled investigations: the crash of TWA Flight 800 and the plane crash that killed then Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.
But don't count Kansas City author Jack Cashill as a garden-variety conspiracy theorist. Although the title of his new book suggests both the conspiratorial and the partisan, Cashill bends over backward to include the most benign of explanations to a most disturbing case.
Ron Brown's Body: How One Man's Death Saved the Clinton Presidency and Hillary's Future will be like salt in wounds for many of Bill Clinton's defenders, yet not nearly salty enough for his adversaries. In it, Cashill paints a human and sympathetic portrait of Brown, Clinton's Secretary of Commerce.
Cashill depicts Brown with the help of details provided by Nolanda Hill, Brown's longtime business partner and lover, also the subject of numerous investigations related to Brown's activities. Hill seems to have poured out her heart — and her recollections — to Cashill because she became convinced that he wanted to discover what really happened to Brown and his doomed 1996 flight to Dubrovnik, Croatia.
The tale is a twisted one. At times, especially early in the work, Cashill seems to have six synapses firing at once and doesn't know which one to follow. But as the narrative unfolds, that sense gives way to riveting storytelling.
Brown made frequent trade missions to foreign countries, often with leaders of industry in tow. His aim was to smooth the way for these Americans to conduct business with other countries.
Cashill reports that the way for an American businessman to get a seat on one of those missions was to make a substantial contribution to the Democratic National Committee, which was producing ads at the time for the presidential campaign in an effort to get around campaign contribution and spending limits. Once these businessmen made such contributions, they expected something in return — something Brown was expected to deliver.
As the 1996 election approached, Brown was sent on more of these trade missions. On the ill-fated trip, he was to be accompanied by executives of Enron Corp. But those executives traveled to Dubrovnik on a plane that landed about an hour ahead of the time at which the secretary was to arrive.
He never made it. On April 3, the plane on which he was traveling with 34 other people veered off course and crashed into St. John's Peak. Investigators did not locate the wreckage until hours later, and the one woman to survive impact died on the way to the hospital.
The story might have ended there. But there was something odd about Ron Brown's lifeless body. He had suffered a circular wound in the top of his head. Some military investigators and photographers noticed what appeared to them to be a bullet hole. But strangely, no mention of the symmetrically shaped cylinder appeared in any report on the crash, and although an Air Force doctor examined Brown's body, a full autopsy was not ordered.
This is the nexus at which a conspiracy is born. Had investigators simply performed an autopsy, all the questions could have been answered. But they didn't.
Cashill has a theory about exactly what happened to Ron Brown (which I leave for the reader to discover) and why it happened. The “why” involves Brown's apparent knowledge of the Clintons' involvement in using international means, including ties with China, in what may have been blatant circumventions of campaign finance law. Cashill goes to great pains to make clear the difference between what has been documented and what he surmises from the evidence.
Cashill meticulously researched this work, consulting with experts on everything from campaign finance law to aircraft navigation systems to encryption technology to Ron Brown's life, personal and professional.
In scrupulous detail, the author chronicles Brown's life as the young lawyer made his way through Washington and became entwined in Democratic politics. He connects the dots between Brown and President Clinton. But he does not lay blame at Clinton's doorstep, as some might expect. Cashill doesn't let Brown off the hook for getting himself entangled in a life of power grabs and money lust. He does view Brown as a tragic figure, someone who had potential but who was spoiled by license and largesse.
We don't know if fate or force brought that plane down in Dubrovnik. Cashill emphasizes that it is entirely possible that what happened to Ron Brown was an accident riddled with unfortunate coincidence. But Cashill, who holds a doctorate in American studies, knows a conspiracy is hard to come by without someone acting as if someone had something to hide.
After living through the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, one would think that, in similar circumstances, all possible leads would be followed so that the ghosts that haunt us from that fateful day in Dallas would not multiply but be cast into the light and disappear. But because of the action (or inaction) of investigators, questions linger over Brown's death.
Cashill also recently investigated the crash of TWA Flight 800, and because this book comes on the heels of that, some might dismiss him as just another too-eager conspiracy theorist. That would be a harmful oversimplification. Many others have taken issue with the official findings on Flight 800, including Cap Parlier, a respected former Navy test pilot who co-wrote a book on the crash.
As for Ron Brown's Body, the book does sound shrill notes now and again and takes a partisan shot here and there. But if half of what Cashill writes is true, all Americans, regardless of political affiliations, should demand a full investigation into Ron Brown's activities as Commerce Secretary and into the circumstances of his death.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cashill at Unity
Jack Cashill will discuss and sign Ron Brown's Body: How One Man's Death Saved the Clinton Presidency and Hillary's Future, at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 W. 47th St. For more information call Rainy Day Books at (913) 384-3126.
What was the weather ? -- What is your info about the suicide of the person responsible for the instruments.
I had know idea this happened. So I googled and came back to a Free Republic Thread! Go figure....Anyway give it a read. this is a great Great Mystery Story.
Where is when you need him?
Thanks for this reminder...I was sure that a lady was found, but I thought maybe I was going crazy because I hadn't heard anything since.
It seems like there was disinformation about her death, too, like maybe it was leaked that she had links to a Republican? I seem to remember something sinister going on at the time.
Hydrant Marking for later
Not so. The GOP had a near death experience with Watergate, and the lesson took. The dems also took a lesson: that Nixon should have burned the tapes. No, the Republicans aren't perfect, but there is a systematic difference between the parties. Republicans assume the law will be enforced against them. The Democrats assume they can get away with cheating.
There are a hundred damning details about what the Clinton/Gore/DNC machine did in '95-96. One of the most damning yet most overlooked (because it is "inside baseball" stuff) is that the DNC shut down its donor verification system just prior to opening the Chinese money spiggot. The excuse given was that they were just getting so many big contributions that they couldn't possibly be expected to keep track of them all, and then the person who was doing it left, and in the press of events they just forgot about it. That is not an exaggeration: the dems blame it all on administrative oversight. The truth is, the DNC knew it was setting up an illegal operation and made sure there would be no paper trail.
Meanwhile the RNC, which raised even more money that cycle, continued to contact and verify all major donors as a routine matter of course.
Ron Brown Could Tell Tales From the Grave
Kansas City Star | May 23, 2004 | Dawn Harris
Posted on 05/23/2004 5:27:07 PM PDT by Peach
Ron Brown could tell tales from the grave
By DAWN HARRIS Special to The Star
You'd think that after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, we'd have learned our lesson. We didn't.
As with JFK's murder in 1963, two recent events have been marked by conspiracy theories and bungled investigations: the crash of TWA Flight 800 and the plane crash that killed then Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.
But don't count Kansas City author Jack Cashill as a garden-variety conspiracy theorist. Although the title of his new book suggests both the conspiratorial and the partisan, Cashill bends over backward to include the most benign of explanations to a most disturbing case.
Ron Brown's Body: How One Man's Death Saved the Clinton Presidency and Hillary's Future will be like salt in wounds for many of Bill Clinton's defenders, yet not nearly salty enough for his adversaries. In it, Cashill paints a human and sympathetic portrait of Brown, Clinton's Secretary of Commerce.
Cashill depicts Brown with the help of details provided by Nolanda Hill, Brown's longtime business partner and lover, also the subject of numerous investigations related to Brown's activities. Hill seems to have poured out her heart — and her recollections — to Cashill because she became convinced that he wanted to discover what really happened to Brown and his doomed 1996 flight to Dubrovnik, Croatia.
The tale is a twisted one. At times, especially early in the work, Cashill seems to have six synapses firing at once and doesn't know which one to follow. But as the narrative unfolds, that sense gives way to riveting storytelling.
Brown made frequent trade missions to foreign countries, often with leaders of industry in tow. His aim was to smooth the way for these Americans to conduct business with other countries.
Cashill reports that the way for an American businessman to get a seat on one of those missions was to make a substantial contribution to the Democratic National Committee, which was producing ads at the time for the presidential campaign in an effort to get around campaign contribution and spending limits. Once these businessmen made such contributions, they expected something in return — something Brown was expected to deliver.
As the 1996 election approached, Brown was sent on more of these trade missions. On the ill-fated trip, he was to be accompanied by executives of Enron Corp. But those executives traveled to Dubrovnik on a plane that landed about an hour ahead of the time at which the secretary was to arrive.
He never made it. On April 3, the plane on which he was traveling with 34 other people veered off course and crashed into St. John's Peak. Investigators did not locate the wreckage until hours later, and the one woman to survive impact died on the way to the hospital.
The story might have ended there. But there was something odd about Ron Brown's lifeless body. He had suffered a circular wound in the top of his head. Some military investigators and photographers noticed what appeared to them to be a bullet hole. But strangely, no mention of the symmetrically shaped cylinder appeared in any report on the crash, and although an Air Force doctor examined Brown's body, a full autopsy was not ordered.
This is the nexus at which a conspiracy is born. Had investigators simply performed an autopsy, all the questions could have been answered. But they didn't.
Cashill has a theory about exactly what happened to Ron Brown (which I leave for the reader to discover) and why it happened. The “why” involves Brown's apparent knowledge of the Clintons' involvement in using international means, including ties with China, in what may have been blatant circumventions of campaign finance law. Cashill goes to great pains to make clear the difference between what has been documented and what he surmises from the evidence.
Cashill meticulously researched this work, consulting with experts on everything from campaign finance law to aircraft navigation systems to encryption technology to Ron Brown's life, personal and professional.
In scrupulous detail, the author chronicles Brown's life as the young lawyer made his way through Washington and became entwined in Democratic politics. He connects the dots between Brown and President Clinton. But he does not lay blame at Clinton's doorstep, as some might expect. Cashill doesn't let Brown off the hook for getting himself entangled in a life of power grabs and money lust. He does view Brown as a tragic figure, someone who had potential but who was spoiled by license and largesse.
We don't know if fate or force brought that plane down in Dubrovnik. Cashill emphasizes that it is entirely possible that what happened to Ron Brown was an accident riddled with unfortunate coincidence. But Cashill, who holds a doctorate in American studies, knows a conspiracy is hard to come by without someone acting as if someone had something to hide.
After living through the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, one would think that, in similar circumstances, all possible leads would be followed so that the ghosts that haunt us from that fateful day in Dallas would not multiply but be cast into the light and disappear. But because of the action (or inaction) of investigators, questions linger over Brown's death.
Cashill also recently investigated the crash of TWA Flight 800, and because this book comes on the heels of that, some might dismiss him as just another too-eager conspiracy theorist. That would be a harmful oversimplification. Many others have taken issue with the official findings on Flight 800, including Cap Parlier, a respected former Navy test pilot who co-wrote a book on the crash.
As for Ron Brown's Body, the book does sound shrill notes now and again and takes a partisan shot here and there. But if half of what Cashill writes is true, all Americans, regardless of political affiliations, should demand a full investigation into Ron Brown's activities as Commerce Secretary and into the circumstances of his death.
Interesting post!
I dont' know if cashill still has a talk-show..but he was always nice to listen to.
Thanks for posting this..will check out and read later.
bttt
For Dubrovnik, typical. For flying, not too great. I don't have my stuff here (I'm away from the office) but it was night, instrument meteorological conditions. It's doubtful that the aircrew had any way to tell their terrain clearance was insufficient until far too late.
In the mountains in IMC, you not only need to be vertically oriented with complete precision, but you need to be horizontally oriented, too. In terms of loss of situational awareness in IMC in mountains this accident is reminiscent of the AA flight that hit a mountaintop inbound to Cali, Colombia, a KAL flight that hit Nimitz Hill in Guam (although the wx wasn't terribly bad for this accident), and another air force accident where a C-130 hit rising terrain on climbout from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. (Interesting, although at the risk of stirring up the conspiracy fans: that plane was carrying a member of Clinton's secret service detail, and some of the protective detail's equipment).
What is your info about the suicide of the person responsible for the instruments.
You're referring to a Croatian air traffic controller. He did indeed kill himself; supposedly out of depression. I don't know if a feeling of responsibility for the crash was a factor (his actions were not a significant factor in the crash, but he might have felt bad about it anyway). In any event his statement had been taken by the investigators and they had no further interest in him. The Croatian ATC service didn't provide radar control at the time, IIRC, and it's hard to see how he could have done anything to help the crew. It's also hard to see how he could have known anything anybody would want to whack him for.
One factor that is seldom reported is that the Jeppesen chart was based on Croatian data, and did not report the minimum safe altitude correctly. The USAF was froth with a battle over whether to use such foreign-sourced charts at the time (the crash helped the USAF make a safe decision).
A couple of things many websites say are just out and out false. A flight attendant (the USAF version of a flight attendant) was fatally injured in the crash, but some sites claim she walked to a rescue chopper. (1) there was no chopper (it was at night and the weather was bad, rescuers came overland). (2) She was at death's door with multiple blunt force injuries and unable to stand or speak when they got to her and died enroute to hospital.
Also, there are those who hunt for a "missing" flight data recorder. No such animal exists; it's a red herring. At the time of this accident, military transport aircraft did not use these recorders which have been common on civilian jets for many years. The airplane was a military version of a Boeing 737, and wasn't fitted for cockpit or data recorders.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Reports on the weather posted on FR at the time indicated the weather might not have been a factor.
The suicide caused a lot of discussion --- the possibility was raised that he could have placed a beacon on the mountain or else knew of his equipment being used and was thus shot in the chest with a caliber larger than standard in that region.
The female that survived the crash was said to have then bled to death on the way to the hospital, from a serious cut. The blunt force injuries were not mentioned at the time. Very interesting.
bttt
Not unusual for exsanguination to be the cause of death for someone killed in an air (or auto, for that matter) collision. Unless you can get to an ER in the "golden hour" (or have very good SO combat medics right there with you) any major arterial wound is usually fatal. I'll have to look at the 51-3. Another real common cause of "delayed action" death in these cases is pneumothorax (pressure collapsing the lungs... suffocation).
When you bleed out to a certain amount you might even be in a state where you are alive, but unable to be helped by medical intervention... your veins can be too hard to hit for IV fluids...
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
check this one out.
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