Posted on 07/18/2008 5:32:26 AM PDT by Sioux-san
I dedicated my book, What’s The Matter With California, to a retired United Airline pilot named Ray Lahr, “a true Californian and patriot”—and with good reason.
Today, the tireless World War II vet and his intrepid attorney, John Clarke, are all that stand in the way of the successful execution of the single most astonishing cover-up in American peacetime history.
What makes this whole event so astonishing is that TWA Flight 800 went down with 230 good souls on board in full view of literally hundreds of eyewitnesses on Long Island’s affluent south shore.
Even more astonishing, although 270 of those eyewitnesses—pilots, fishermen, surfers, military people—gave the FBI detailed accounts, many with illustrations, of a likely missile attack on the aircraft, the New York Times interviewed not a one of them.
(Excerpt) Read more at cashill.com ...
It was reported that President Clinton was going to show up at the airport.
Cardinal O'Connor made it very clear that if Clinton showed up at the airport, Cardinal O'Connor would leave.
The only way that Clinton ever set foot in St Patrick's was when the good Cardinal died.
..and than when Cardinal Egan mentioned how O'Connor was an advocate for the unborn, they there shamed into standing after an over 1 minute ovation.
And there is absolutely nothing that I, or anyone else will ever be able to do to change your mind. But you'll forgive me if I continue to point out areas where the missile theory makes no sense?
Having both flown aboard aircraft as a crewman in the service and performed maintenance on them, I’m pretty familiar with maintenance and operational characteristics of aircraft. At the time of TWA 800, the 747 had tens of thousands of operational flight hours. TWA 800 cannot have been the first time that the 747 had fuel vapors in the center tank that were exposed to the fuel pump. It just doesn’t add up.
I hope so. It's certainly starting out well and i am hoping to learn more about TWA 800.
So you're saying that Cardinal O'Connor would have refused to carry out his pastoral duties merely because of his distate for Bill Clinton? You don't think much of His Eminence, do you? I have a hard time believing that a man of his stature would let personal animosity keep him from ministering to those in need.
I just remember him from a long time ago on this issue and the “Kursk” incident as well. He had a conspracy theory for EVERYTHING.
All of the available evidence points to terrorists launching a 2-pronged “bracketing” attack on what they thought was an El-Al 747.
They likely used Stinger missles launched from 2 boats under the flight path, about 3-5 miles apart.
Shoot the missles, dump the evidence overboard, wash down the boat, ride back to port with the hundreds of other boats out that day.
OK, now you got me because I'm not aware of any witness accounts that say they saw two separate missiles. I won't go into the range limitations and the fact that Stingers use a heat-seeking warhead and the engines weren't hit, but I will ask how the terrorists could pick out an El-Al 747 from miles away?
Cardinal O Connor would not allow himself to be in a photo shoot with Clinton.
The cardinal was very adamant on the life issue.
He also banned Geraldine Ferraro from speaking at St Patrick's because of her stand on life issues.
But the combined engine wash from a 747 is titanically different from the wash of (say) an F15, a MIG or any of the usual design targets of a AA missile. A 747 wash will easily throw cars around. I can certainly imagine a missile striking the 'wrong' part of a plane if it engaged the wash.
Oh I know that there was absolutely no love lost between Cardinal O’Connor and Bill Clinton. I just have a hard time believing that someone like Cardinal O’Connor would threaten to leave those who needed his help merely because Clinton was showning up. I think he was a much bigger man than that. I would have expected him to continue ministering to the grieving relatives and ignoring Clinton rather than the other way around.
That's because eye witnesses are quite often wrong. Case in point, AA587 which crashed in Rockaway (Queens, NY). There were some people who clearly stated, on camera, that they saw a missile hit it. Didn't happen. Pilot error (actually due to incorrect training) caused the Vstab to get ripped from the plane.
Cardinal's Dying Wish: Keep Clinton Out of St. Patrick's
As Cardinal O'Connor battled brain cancer and faced death during the past eight months, he remained steadfast in his distaste of Bill Clinton. A source close to the Cardinal tells NewsMax.com that O'Connor had a long-standing order to keep Bill Clinton out of St. Patrick's Cathedral _ no matter how important the occasion. Last week the White House announced that both Bill and Hillary Clinton would be attending the Cardinal's funeral mass at St. Patrick's, set for Monday afternoon. "O'Connor would have gone berserk if he knew Clinton was coming," the source said.
O'Connor was said to be extremely hostile to Clinton, a man who annoyed him on several levels. O'Connor had been a veteran, a Navy Admiral who had served in the military and in the front lines of Vietnam. Clinton's draft avoidance record didn't sit well with the Cardinal, nor did Clinton's corruption.
O'Connor was also annoyed with Clinton's strong advocacy of partial birth abortion _ a procedure O'Connor likened to infanticide.
O'Connor's animus toward the president erupted after the crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996. In the days after the tragedy, Mayor Giuliani had organized a memorial service for the victims' families at JFK Airport.
Cardinal O'Connor was set to officiate, until he found out Clinton planned on attending. "If Clinton is coming, you can count me out," O'Connor's office bluntly told the mayor's office. Clinton was quickly disinvited.
A month or so after the crash, O'Connor hosted his own memorial mass at St. Patrick's for the victims. Clinton was in New York that weekend for a birthday party and the White House called the Archdiocese and asked if he could attend.
The answer from the Cardinal's Office was blunt: Bill Clinton is not welcome at St. Patrick's.
A launcher system for any rocket or missile can be improvised and lightened to fit an operational need, especially if safety of the operators isn’t a high priority.
I do have a problem with an IR seeker striking the center fuel tank. That is an unusual scenario, but missiles, especially old missiles, do not always operate as intended, even if it was an IR seeker it could have malfunctioned and “missed” the engine striking the center fuel tank by mere chance, plausible even if unlikely.
A Chaparral sized missile (9 feet long and 200 lbs) could quite easily be fitted to a 30 foot boat (I wouldn’t want to be on it when it launches) and an IR seeker missile could strike the center tank.
I sometimes have a problem keeping all the missile theories straight, but I don't remember any that identify exactly where the missile was supposed to have hit. Any such place would have shown evidence of an explosion. I know that none of the engines showed damage, what part of the airlplane did?
Nicely done!
And in the end I suppose Clinton kind of got his revenge by showing up at the Cardinal's funeral. He was that kind of guy.
You're assuming the missile flew where it was aimed. An error of a few feet could easily happened. What was then accuracy rate back then?
I would ask you to keep an open mind during this discussion. None of us here are experts in this niche area as far as I know.
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