NYP: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED ON FLIGHT 800?-- NATIONAL GEO AND THE LI MYSTERY

New York Post ^ | January 29, 2008 | Linda Stasi

[OESY]

...Tonight's "The Final Report: Investigation of TWA Flight 800" on National Geographic Channel presents a brilliant, well-researched look into what the investigators found - and what they didn't find.

The show details the animosity that existed from day one between the NTSB and the FBI.

The NTSB is usually the final word in all air crashes. But because a number of eyewitnesses on the ground saw streaks flying towards the aircraft right before it exploded, and air traffic controllers reporting blips around the aircraft, the FBI came in and took over the investigation, calling it a possible crime.

There were immediately three prevailing theories. One was friendly fire. The US Navy runs weapons training exercises in a 300-mile-wide swath near the flight path.

The second held that it could have been terrorists with ground-to-air missiles.

The third was that there had been a bomb on board.

The producers interview most of the players in the investigation including eyewitnesses; Robert Francis, the former chairman of the NTSB who was not happy to have the FBI crawling over his investigation; James Kallstrom of the FBI, who knew that 747s just don't randomly blow up; Leon Panetta, then-White House Chief of Staff; as well as cops who dove for the wreckage, like Vincente Termine.

After this show, you may trust the government even less than you do now. Or you may think they are as honest as they possibly could be in simply admitting that they just don't know.

Whatever you conclude, you won't conclude that National Geographic didn't do a very thorough job. Great reporting.

[Non-Sequitur]

Because of the seats they were sitting in and I said “as if” and you can ask Jim Quinn for more details.

Oh it's more fun to ask you. So...what differentiates a person decapitated by a missile with a dummy warhead from those decapitated through other means? How do they know what seats the bodies were in? How do they know what row the 'missile' hit? A whole lot of things about the story doesn't make sense, except to those who will believe anything.

Oh and thanks for being a Free Republic smart ass.

You're welcome. Thanks for being part of the tin beanie brigade. It's always fun watching y'all at work.

[PhilDragoo]

Dzakovc did not know, however, what was going on behind the scenes. As we have reported earlier, FBI honcho Jim Kallstrom was called to Washington on Aug. 22 for a come-to-Jesus meeting chaired by Deputy Attorney General, Jamie Gorelick, now conveniently one of only five Democrats on the high-level 9-11 commission. All behavior changed after this day, just three days before the Democratic Convention. Despite overwhelming evidence of a missile strike, the FBI was no longer allowed to search for the truth. Its new mission was to find a plausible scenario other than a bomb or a missile strike. FAA special agent blows whistle on FBI-TWA Flight 800

Jamie Gorelick killed any further mention of missiles or bombs--with the Democrat National Convention three days away.

270 witnesses mentioning a missile--what are they going to believe, their lying eyes or the same woman who kept the CIA and FBI from pursuing the ChiCom purchase of the president and the military secrets of the leader of the Free World.

[aculeus]

Not long after the event the WSJ published on its editorial page an article describing radar evidence showing a single boat speeding from the scene immediately after the crash.

The article reported that an effort was made to locate the vessel but that the search was unsuccessful.

I never read anything further about this vessel. Having flown on TWA 800 several times as a passenger, I was exceptionally interested.

[null and void]

The NTSB never grounded the 747’s fleet to inspect the wiring.

They didn't?????

Why not do you suppose?

(With a screen name like "Aviator" I suspect he knew that)...

I'm not sure it was sarcasm. Something like that but not quite. More like utter disgust that a) they would think we are stupid enough to buy that story, and b) that they were right...

[matthew fuller]

"If Obama keeps it up we'll see how his plane went down due to a malfunction of the in-flight film. "

Or that wascally center wing tank.

[Non-Sequitur]

I always thought the eyewitness reports to be credible, and couldn’t understand why they were met by such skepticism by some.

Any police officer can tell you that usually the least reliable evidence they have to go on is eyewitness testimony.

[LurkingSince'98]

you stated “..NOT ONE reported, on the same night of the incident...”

That sir is one of teh biggest reddest herrings I have ever seen!

The FBI couldn’t find it in their busy schedule to interview some folks who call THEM with sightings for weeks.

absolute Bravo Sierra Sir

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks Phil. I’ve followed the case fairly close, but I don’t recall seeing that before. Heck I’ve probably forgotten a lot of what I did know about the case, figuring we’ll never know and too frustrated to keep looking at it.

I’m sure others besides myself benefited from your posting that.

As for the witnesses, from what I understand the FBI even started refusing to take names and phone numbers of people that called in to say they had seen something. Others who had told the FBI they had seen something and did give their information weren’t contacted for a full report.

That’s my take on what I’ve read about the witnesses. It’s rather shocking to me to see the conclusion that the government came up with, and witnesses out there that nobody bothered to talk to.

Thanks for your post.

[null and void]

AQ did not claim 9/11 for years (the Arabs blamed it on the Jews).

Interestingly enough, while about 150 Israelis died in the WTC, ZERO Arabs did.

[Uri’el-2012]

Oklahoma City Bombing: Expert Analysis

[oneolcop]

When the plane went down, I was working on olympic security in Atlanta. One of my employees was very high up in the USAF. He got recalled to his unit (I won't say which) and told to stand by for a retaliatory strike. Clinton didn't want to "spoil" the games, so the whole thing was pushed under the rug. IMHO. BTW the same thing happened with the olympic park bombing. Mr. C wanted a "quick kill" on the suspect so Richard Jewell took the heat. (Of course this is just my opinion)

[null and void]

I would have thought the Bush Admin would play it up as another reason to go after Saddam. I don’t understand keeping things from the American people forever when it’s OUR country.

Better to never have the peons doubt any official word handed down from any of their 'Betters'...

[okie01]

Maybe I’m dense, but I just don’t get why anyone would cover up an attack. What would be the point of that?

Some Presidents don't like to deal with messy problems. It could be bad for their poll ratings. Sometimes, events like this can be turned to their advantage.

Recall that Algore chaired a committee that was appointed to develop a special airline security program. Their security recommendations were dropped after the airlines came thru with about $8 million for the 1996 campaign.

You could ask the same question about Oklahoma City...and get pretty much the same answer.

[fso301]

what they never look into is the possibility of an incindiary device having been placed inside the center fuel tank

[matthew fuller]

"Yes, I could understand why that would be the case. But I wonder how they assess multiple corroborating eyewitnesses. "

Hey, 270 similar witness reports must be 270 times worse, right? Oh, wait...

[Non-Sequitur]

But I wonder how they assess multiple corroborating eyewitnesses.

But that's just it, they aren't all corroborating. You have witnesses saying it rose from water, other say it rose from land, some say it was air-to-air. Some say it rose and hit the plane, other say it hit it broadside, other say it came from above. Some say it was white, some say it was pink, others say it was yellow or orange. It traveled east to west, west to east, south to north. Here is a site that gives some of the discrepancies. Other sites give witness accounts and they're all over the board.

[fso301]

For those who claim to have seen a missle. A thing called retinal persistence can make the eye play tricks on a person at night. A number of people reported seeing what they thought was a missle trail but no one claims to have heard a missle. Missles are pretty loud.

[Straight Vermonter]

There were Lebanese, Jordanian, Egyptian and Lebanese victims.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/interactives.html