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Judith Miller, TWA 800 and the Death of Press Freedom
NewsMax ^ | 7/6/05 | James D. Sanders

Posted on 07/05/2005 5:57:37 PM PDT by wagglebee

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To: ladyinred

No terrorist organization ever took credit for it, which is the reason they commit these acts.... for publicity. It was most likely a government SNAFU.


21 posted on 07/05/2005 6:20:57 PM PDT by kylaka
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To: OldFriend
Well, OK -- if you insist.

But I certainly don't believe that the facts of the case point to what the author of this article suggests.

22 posted on 07/05/2005 6:21:13 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (I ain't got a dime, but what I got is mine. I ain't rich, but Lord I'm free.)
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To: Ramius; Alberta's Child
I was watching ABC's This Week when Stephanopolis et al were discussing the incident and I believe terrorism in general. George, who was IIRC Clinton's press guy at the time, clearly said "We were in the White House situation room when TWA800 was shot down..."

George Will looked as if he was going to fall out of his chair. Subject was changed quickly and to my knowledge no one ever called Steph on his statement again.

I don't generally go in for conspiracy threories, and I also doubt that if the Navy had been involved everyone could have successfully kept quiet, unless the nature of the exercise was such that only a few people in command and control were in a position to know what happened with the missile (I don't have anywhere near the knowledge of how these things are done to speculate). Still, Steph's statement should have at least triggered an embarassed "uh...I mean blew up" or something to the effect. That it was quickly passed over and "forgotten" has always stuck me as very suspicious. That, and my understanding that simply hanging out in the sit room is not standard behaviour.

Somehow it just smells very strange, and I would never put anything past Clinton and his team. I suppose we'll never really know for sure unless someone does talk, maybe a deathbed confession or whatever.

23 posted on 07/05/2005 6:21:28 PM PDT by mitchbert (Facts Are Stubborn Things .)
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To: wagglebee; All

I'd like to see this alleged tape that was taken from NBC by the FBI. Can anyone confirm such a tape exists?


24 posted on 07/05/2005 6:26:13 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: Alberta's Child
The number of crew members on a naval vessel who would have been aware of what happened would be dwarfed by the number of U.S. government officials who were involved in the investigation.

I don't agree. The investigation could have been diverted by a mere handful of people, IMO.

Part of the story that is never really questioned very hard are the a.) altitude of the plane and b.) the type of missile that a terrorist might have used.

Everybody seems to just accept that the missiles available to terrorists couldn't reasonably reach the 13,000 feet of the plane. Maybe there's something wrong that *that* part of the story.

25 posted on 07/05/2005 6:27:27 PM PDT by Ramius
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To: mitchbert

that's an interesting stephanopolis story.

hillary was the one in charge of damage control.

i remember hearing on the radio live interviews with people who observed 800.

one was a military helicopter pilot who was in the air. he said it was a missile rising from the surface of the ocean to the plane. i told a college instructor this and he said, "you can't trust the u.s. military".

another was a woman who was entertaining on her patio on the beach. she had her camera in hand, saw the same thing, and shot a series of photos. she offered them to the fbi and they weren't interested.


26 posted on 07/05/2005 6:28:12 PM PDT by ken21 (it takes a village to brainwash your child + to steal your property! /s)
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To: Criminal Number 18F
Let's fisk this lying ex-male-stewardess a little: July 17, 1996, when missile-fire brought the giant 747

He can say it as many times as he likes but that's not what happened.

TWA Flight 800 was shot down

See above

a video showing missile-fire bringing down TWA Flight 800.

There's no such video because there was no missile fire.

The bidding went above $50,000, at which time, the Fox News team, New York, was blocked from further bidding. The video ended up in the hands of NBC, where it was confiscated by the FBI.

Sanders doesn't cite a single named source for any of this. Based on his past performance, he's probably making it up (or similar cranks are resonating with him). As far as video confiscated by the FBI, I don't know if that happened, but if it did, bear in mind that the FBI was investigating whether a crime had been committed. Which is the FBI's job, as much as criminals like Sanders may not like it.

The head of the Fox News team in the field on Long Island

Conveniently nameless

.. was then approached by an American military officer who said there was a major screw-up, the White House had ordered a 48 hour "stand-down" while it decided how to handle this crisis.

Here Sanders, a former male stewardess, slanders the military, by imputing some kind of criminal behaviour to a (once again nameless) military officer. He doesn't even identify what service this alleged, phantom officer is from... an officer is commissioned into a branch of a service and would never ID him or herself as a generic "military" officer.

Significant evidence of missile-fire was already in hand.

No, there wasn't. There was never (and is still) nothing more than speculation supporting the supposition of a missile strike. The physical evidence absolutely, positively proves that the aircraft was not struck by a missile or missile fragment. On the other hand, there is a mountain of physical evidence for a fuel-air explosion.

Much more was easily available. There were witnesses who watching TWA Flight 800 as it headed east toward Paris. They then watched as a missile approached and brought the plane down All 700-odd (!) witness reports are part of the complete docket and I have read them all. About 150 saw a "streak of light." There is no consensus on which way the streak was going.

They didn't see some mysterious light way off in the distance. They were not confused. They knew what they had seen.

First, Sanders here is asserting that all the witnesses saw the same thing (ask any cop how often this happens). Next, he's asserting that people know what a missile looks like.

We now know the FBI and CIA knew they witnessed missile-fire, according to documents recently unearthed through the Freedom of Information Act.

We know no such thing. Sanders has made these assertions right along. In his book, he claims that the White House had a meeting in the SItuation Room which began BEFORE the plane went down, and he implies that Clinton had it shot down.

Clinton was not my favorite president, but he didn't do this, and once again Sanders slanders the military by suggesting that they'd (1) carry out such an order and (2) keep it secret. Didn't happen.

A political decision was then made at the top of the Clinton administration. It was an election year. A criminal act might provoke the sleeping masses.

OK., now he is suggesting that someone else shot the plane down and the Administration covered it up. This is simply loopy.

Truth could conceivably prevail if the shills at the New York Times ceased running interference for the National Security State.

Is it just me, or is that a little paranoid?

Federal propagandists

Ah, which Department is that, Jailbird Jim?

...told the New York Times a criminal act did not bring down TWA Flight 800.

Ah, he means the hundreds of FBI agents and dozens of NTSB investigators and such facilities as the scientists of the Explosion Dynamics Laboratory at Cal Tech. Yep, they're all gummint shills, and the only true torchbearer of truth is a simple ex-stewardess from New Jersey, James Sanders. Excuse me, flight attendant. And felon.

All that explosive residue was from a dog training exercise.

What explosive residue -- the stuff that was on the piece of seat that James D. arranged to have stolen from the NTSB has the same composition as... wait for it... bottom sand.

The New York Times did not interview the St. Louis Airport Police Officer

Here, Jailbird Jim is standing up and knocking down a strawman. The report of a dog training exercise was a media report, not any part of the actual investigation.

I could go on and on... about the only thing that's true in this pathetic loser's writing is his bitterness and rage. He's destroyed his life, and the lives of people close to him, and cast doubt and fear into the hearts of people who were already bereaved, and he makes a good living at it, but you can see the hate is eating away at him.

And hate what? His collossal conspiracy now includes the NTSB, FAA, FBI, CIA (which was not even involved in the whole thing except to lend a computer graphics lab), Boeing, TWA (and American, TWA's successor), the NYT, Fox News, the military, and two of the most different administrations the country's ever produced, BJ Bill's and Cowboy George's. Think about a conspiracy that big (which I guess I am part of because I disagree, to put it mildly, with this loser). For crying out loud, when did Washington ever keep anything secret? Mark Felt's identity as Deep Throat must have been one of the longest-running ever, and nobody died when Nixon fell (except three million Cambodians). And that was a conspiracy between four people - Felt, Woodward, Bernstein, and Bradlee.

Jailbird Jim posits a conspiracy of four thousand people. Cue Napoleon XVI, they're coming to take him away.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

27 posted on 07/05/2005 6:30:40 PM PDT by Criminal Number 18F (Support and avenge our fallen operators)
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To: Alberta's Child

>"What does that have to do with the facts of the case?"

these two journalists attempted to take fabric samples from the seats.

these samples were to be chemically analyzed to determine whether the residue from a missile was present.


28 posted on 07/05/2005 6:31:08 PM PDT by ken21 (it takes a village to brainwash your child + to steal your property! /s)
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To: mitchbert

Do you think an entire Navy crew of a couple hundred Sailors would participate in a conspiracy ot protect Clinton? C'mon!!!! I personally know at least ten Chiefs that refused retirement ceremonies because they didn't want the certificates signed by the man!


29 posted on 07/05/2005 6:35:29 PM PDT by Wristpin ( Varitek says to A-Rod: "We don't throw at .260 hitters.....")
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To: wagglebee
Do I believe that TWA 800 was brought down by a missile? Yes, I do. Can I prove it? No I can't. Do I believe that it was brought down by a missile fired by a US Navy vessel? No way! Think about this... Remember what happened the last time a US naval vessal accidentally shot down a civilian air liner? Weeks and weeks of publicity. I can't believe that the government could possibly shutdown a public enquery over something like this.

Mark

30 posted on 07/05/2005 6:40:09 PM PDT by MarkL (It was a shocking cock-up. The mice were furious!)
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To: wagglebee

They don't have to reveal a source except for criminal proceedings. This investigation is a criminal proceeding.

And .. it was the media who INSISTED on an investigation. Now they're whining because they've been caught in their own net.


31 posted on 07/05/2005 6:40:57 PM PDT by CyberAnt (President Bush: "America is the greatest nation on the face of the earth")
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To: wagglebee

I wonder what the moonbats at DU were saying about this(downing of flight 800) when it happened.


32 posted on 07/05/2005 6:41:18 PM PDT by satchmodog9 (Murder and weather are our only news)
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To: wagglebee

Clinton was running for re election and the summer olypics in Atlanta was more important so the coverup--NO TROUBLE HERE IN AMERICA-NOT HERE,NOT NOW UNDER BILL!


33 posted on 07/05/2005 6:43:30 PM PDT by rang1995 (They will love us when we win)
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To: wagglebee

I was in the military, and I have a little knowledge of how it operates. Let's speculate that this was a US Navy ship that shot the airliner down. Maybe an Aegis class cruiser, with a crew of 24 officers and 340 enlisted. Now, you have to get ALL these guys to to forget they fired a missle off the coast of Long Island or wherever they were supposed to be. Even the dimmest bulb in the most remote compartment is going to put two and two together when they hear the news that an airliner was shot down WHILE THEY WERE SHOOTING LIVE MISSLES OFF THE COAST OF THE USA RIGHT NEAR THAT AREA!

But, you say, the government could go in and make them all swear secrecy or they are going to go to jail for life. Maybe. But I doubt it.

I don't buy it. There aren't enough black helicopters involved here.


34 posted on 07/05/2005 6:43:40 PM PDT by rlmorel ("Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does." Whittaker Chambers)
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To: Criminal Number 18F

I hear you. I don't like any of the fact sets, frankly. While none of the various missile theories really add up, I still am left with a quandry. This means it was caused by a spark in low-voltage wiring in the fuel tank.

How many 747's have been re-wired to remove this threat from the fuel tanks?


35 posted on 07/05/2005 6:44:02 PM PDT by Ramius
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To: MarkL

you're right.

the iranian civilian plane, for example.




if the u.s. navy shot 800 down, the nyt and wawa post would have been all over it.

in addition, many of the people on the plane were french nationals and they'd want compensation.

we paid iran big bucks.


36 posted on 07/05/2005 6:44:08 PM PDT by ken21 (it takes a village to brainwash your child + to steal your property! /s)
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To: Ramius

the guy who was an authority on fuel tank explosions died several years ago.


37 posted on 07/05/2005 6:45:21 PM PDT by ken21 (it takes a village to brainwash your child + to steal your property! /s)
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To: Ramius
Maybe there's something wrong that *that* part of the story.

Exactly. We really don't even KNOW if the 13,000 ft. figure is accurate.
So what do we know?
A lot of people were killed in a "crash".
Witnesses saw a missile.
Planes, trains, and automobiles log many miles every day with electrical circuits in their fuel tanks and don't blow up.
Sailors talk.
If the Clintonistas were in cover up mode for a terrorist attack, they would need to "muddy the water". Peter Salinger?

38 posted on 07/05/2005 6:48:47 PM PDT by labette (If only common sense would be more common..)
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To: wagglebee

.

I say again,
...why did TWA Flight 800 just have to go down the very evening before HILLARY-hired White House Security Chief CRAIG LIVINGSTONE's highly publicized TV appearance before a U.S. Senate Investigating Committee..? A Committee that was trying to find out if HILLARY hired him in order to get her FBI Files on Republicans in Congress for blackmail purposes..?

I wonder which event you saw wall to wall TV Coverage on your TV's the next morning..?

It couldn't have been CRAIG LIVINGSTONE because Congress quickly cancelled all its work that morning out of respect for the now suddenly dead passengers of TWA Flight 800.

CRAIG LIVINGSTONE's pleading of the 5th against self-incrimination in FBI Filegate came 3 weeks later away from TV Cameras.

"It's the TV, Stupid, no matter what" =

The CLINTONS' real lifetime Motto

...still.

.


39 posted on 07/05/2005 6:51:13 PM PDT by ALOHA RONNIE ("ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer/Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965 http://www.lzxray.com)
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To: All

Here is the alt.disasters.aviation newsgroup FAQ. It includes a section on TWA800 that provides backup for some of my statements in previous posts:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~philmil/ADA_FAQ/ADA_FAQ.htm

Here is some technical information on the CalTech EDL studies that established how the event occurred without a doubt.

http://www.ntsb.gov/speeches/ve981021.htm

http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/EDL/projects/JetA/background.html

the Misconceptions page is specially good:

http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/EDL/projects/JetA/misconceptions.html

You also need to read the entire docket on the NTSB website, especially the structures report where they address a possibility of a meteorite by demonstrating that (1) the structural breakup began with the fuel tank explosion, and (2) there is no path from outside the skin of the airplane into the tank. No meteorite, no missile, no shell, no fragment. When the people writing the report wrote about a missile, they just said, "see the meteorite bit." It never occurred to them that there would be people with no scientific training writing books, who wouldn't even read the accident report docket. (It takes about a week, and it's clear from Sanders's writing that he hasn't taken the week, or maybe he has too little education to follow the report).

Someone may say, what about a bomb? Even Jailbird Jim knows it can't be a bomb. Basically, high explosives leave a distinctive signature when they do their work. It was no problem seeing where HE had worked on Pan AM 103, and that plane was nearly as fragmented (and more burned) than TWA 800. There's no such signature on the TWA 800 wreckage.

Sanders and his crowd have asserted that the wreckage was disposed of. Actually GWU has it and uses it to train grad students in accident investigation.

http://www.gwu.edu/~aviation/safetyandsecurity/safetyandsecurity.html

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F


40 posted on 07/05/2005 6:52:32 PM PDT by Criminal Number 18F (Support and avenge our fallen operators)
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