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No Longer An Accident - Downing of TWA Flight 800
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | November 19, 2002 | Jack Cashill

Posted on 11/19/2002 4:41:39 AM PST by canalabamian

No longer an accident!

WorldNetDaily.com

The jury is in on TWA Flight 800, and the verdict is clear: There is absolutely no evidence of either a mechanical failure, or of a bomb planted in the fuselage. Indeed, all available evidence suggests the explosive event that destroyed the ill-fated airliner in 1996 was caused by a terrorist group called the Islamic Change Movement.

This is the "group" that had taken responsibility for the Riyadh bombing in 1995 that killed five Americans and two Indian nationals, and the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia on June 25, 1996, that killed 19 American servicemen.

Early on July 17, 1996, the very day TWA Flight 800 was destroyed, this same group issued a communique that, according to Yossef Bodansky, "laid the foundation for the downing of TWA 800." As director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, Bodansky knows the subject as well as any man alive.

The communique was chilling: "The mujahideen will deliver the ultimate response to the threats of the foolish American president. Everyone will be amazed at the size of that response," it read in part. "Their time is at the morning-dawn. Is not the morning-dawn near?" Dawn in Afghanistan corresponded almost exactly to dusk in New York, the moment of TWA Flight 800's demise.

So powerful and public was the warning that, by the night of July 18, the State Department had already swung into denial mode. "While it's up to those leading the investigation to make a judgment on what this means," said spokesman Glyn Davies unconvincingly, "we think that this is a common type of political tract circulated commonly in the Middle East, and that the only connection is a vague chronological one – that this thing surfaced at this dreadful time."

The State department failed to note that on this same day, July 18, the Islamic Change Movement released another communique through well-established Islamist terrorist channels in Beirut. It read in part, "We carried out our promise with the plane attack of yesterday."

Bodansky was not impressed by the State Department denials. He raised the chillingly prophetic alarm that follows – not after Sept. 11, but two years before:

The case of TWA 800 served as a turning point because of Washington's determination – and to a great extent ability – to suppress terrorist explanations and "float" mechanical failure theories. To avoid such suppression after future strikes, terrorism-sponsoring states would raise the ante so that the West cannot ignore them.

Less well understood is just which "terrorism-sponsoring state" was backing the Islamic Change Movement. In her fascinating book, "The War Against America," Laurie Mylroie makes the case that the one nation with the means and the motivation was Iraq. "The most likely interpretation," she notes, "is that the Islamic Change Movement was a name given by Iraqi intelligence to threaten or claim credit for bombings."

To be sure, Mylroie does not link the Islamic Change Movement to TWA Flight 800. In fact, she does not mention the doomed flight at all. She focuses primarily on the first World Trade Center bombing. A meticulous researcher, Mylroie developed much of her material as a consultant for Newsweek. She has sifted through the various documents unearthed in the various criminal trials, and followed the paper trail right back to Iraq. Her reasoning and her documentation are difficult to refute.

Curious as to why she avoided the subject of TWA Flight 800, I called Ms. Mylroie. As I told her, I did not expect her to commit to a theory on the crash based on my five-minute phone explanation, but I would appreciate her insight on a few key points. One was on the question of whether it was indeed the Islamic Change Movement that had sent a specific threat the morning of the flight. "No," she answered cagily, "They actually sent it the night before."

A second point of interest was the date of the plane's destruction. Mylroie mentions frequently, as have others, that terrorists in the Islamic world have a fixation with dates. She argues, for instance, that the first World Trade Center bombing took place on the second anniversary of the final day of the Gulf War, a correlation she sees as significant. (She does not explore the Oklahoma City bombing, despite the fact that its modus operandi is eerily similar to the bombing of the World Trade Center and that it took place on the second anniversary of the final day of another siege – the one on Waco).

The most significant day on the Iraqi revolutionary calendar marks the coup that brought Hussein's Ba'th party to power in the ill-starred year of 1969. Mylroie makes several references to this date – July 17 – but, curiously, she makes no reference to the most violent terrorist event that tracks with that date, namely the destruction of TWA Flight 800. Again, Mylroie was aware of the connection, but chose not to pursue it.

A third point of interest is the man responsible for the first World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef. Mylroie makes a compelling case that Yousef was an Iraqi agent. Indeed, the Arabs with whom he conspired in the New York area knew him as "Rashid, the Iraqi."

On July 17, 1996, Yousef was standing trial in New York for his role in a plot known as "Bojinka," the Serbian word for explosive. Yousef had been planning to blow up 11 American airliners over the Pacific more or less simultaneously. The scary thing is that he was capable of doing it.

One element of Bojinka planning mirrored Yousef's most successful crime: the truck bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. If one could stuff a thousand pounds of explosives into a van, reasoned Yousef (on the laptop seized from the Manila apartment he shared with Abdul Hakim Murad, a Pakistani pilot), why not stuff a comparable amount in a small plane and strike real terror into the belly of the beast? The one speculative target cited was the CIA building. But more important was the methodology. The following excerpt from a classified Republic of the Philippines intelligence report shows that al-Qaida had plans to use small planes as flying bombs as early as 1994.

The document [from Yousef's computer] specifically cited the charter service of a commercial-type aircraft loaded with powerful bombs to be dive-crashed by Saeed Akman. This is apparently intended to demonstrate to the whole world that a Muslim martyr is ready and determined to die for the glorification of Islam.

Sept. 11 mastermind, Mohammed Atta, also made plans to use small, private planes to launch an attack of some kind within America. During the spring of 2000, in a stunning bit of chutzpah, Atta visited a U.S. Department of Agriculture office in Homestead, Fla., and attempted to apply for a government financed loan. USDA manager Johnelle Bryant described his unlikely (and happily unsuccessful) request for ABC News:

He … actually wanted to purchase a six-passenger, twin-engine airplane, that he could pull the back seats out, and build a special-made chemical tank to put … into … the aircraft to hold the chemicals for crop-dusting, and yet remove that when he … needed to, and replace the seats for … [a] charter-type plane.

Although Atta had no known connection to the destruction of TWA Flight 800, and his avowed interest was in "crop-dusting," his plans to reconfigure the plane seem to have come right out of the Yousef playbook. I cite these references to small planes because there was undeniably one in the mix on July 17, 1996 – one described by the most credible eyewitness as a "six-seater."

A fourth point of interest is the behavior of President Bill Clinton. Although she served as an adviser to Clinton during his 1992 campaign, Mylroie finds his reaction to Iraqi-backed terrorism "inexplicable." In fact, throughout the book, Mylroie quietly condemns the seeming "policy disarray" that leads time and again to inaction. The administration, she notes, suffered from the inability to tell the truth about Iraq even to itself.

In an insightful National Review article, Byron York argues that in the desperately political year of 1996, Clinton adviser Dick Morris polled continuously, even on tragic events like Khobar Towers and TWA Flight 800, to see how the president should respond. The conclusion was that "talking tough" would suffice. The implication is that tough talk would allow Clinton to hold his lead over the Republican's aging warrior, Bob Dole, without engendering further risk. Says York, "Clinton was preoccupied with his own political fortunes to an extent that precluded his giving serious and sustained attention to fighting terrorism."

For the Clinton White House, there was no political upside to terrorism unless it could be blamed on the American right wing. And if there were no political upside, why pursue it at all – why not just wish it away? Such was America's foreign policy for eight years, and never more intensely so than in the anxious run-up to Clinton's 1996 re-election bid.

If Mylroie ignores TWA Flight 800 altogether, York addresses it parenthetically: "It was later ruled to be an accident," he notes. One cannot blame either for avoiding the topic. When they were writing, there was no substantial body of evidence refuting the government's specious but complex argument for mechanical failure. That is about to change. And when it does, the brief for an attack on Iraq could only grow stronger.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aegisradar; blackhelicopters; coverup; faa; flight800; flighttwa800; iraq; longisland; paris; rathionbomb; terrorism; tinfoil; twa800list; usnavy
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To: Swordmaker
Thanks for the heads up!
201 posted on 11/19/2002 2:21:52 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: shezza
Years ago I read a science fiction novella in which the modus operandi of the gov't is to "sanitize" all terrorists attacks in order to prevent the spread of panic, deny the terrorists a forum, and not incidentally keep those at the top in place!Sorry,forget the title and author, but it was plausible and chilling.
202 posted on 11/19/2002 3:17:12 PM PST by hoosierham
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To: canalabamian
Welcome to FR!

I'm beginning to think the Xlinton administration's constant state of denial and lies brought us directly to 9-11. It emboldened Islamists.

If we'd had a REAL leader for the preceeding 8 yrs, they would've continued to be content eating their own, IMHO.
203 posted on 11/19/2002 3:20:13 PM PST by Humidston
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To: canalabamian
Remembering that projection of guilt is the 5th pillar of liberalism.

What did Bush bill know, and when did he know it?

hillary's got some 'splaining to do.

204 posted on 11/19/2002 3:25:53 PM PST by PeaceBeWithYou
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To: Quix
I don't KNOW whether it was terrorists or the Navy. The terrorists messages, if authentic, sound convincing enough. I believe the news source is AT LEAST AS CREDIBLE as CNN et al. It sure wasn't the fuel tank. I could believe the Navy did it and that Dilldo bent everything backwards to cover it up. But it seems at least AS likely that terrorists did it, to me. And probably more likely.

I'll repeat again, this was not terrorism. Either the U.S. or some other military force shot the plane down. I'm not willing to debate this, being that I conversed with the Boeing Engineer responsible for submitting a report based on fact finding. I'll also tell you that what he and I discussed is NOT what was in the report he was forced to hand over to the government. It was purely off the record.

205 posted on 11/19/2002 3:30:47 PM PST by YoungKentuckyConservative
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To: canalabamian
It is waaaay past time for the facts to be known about this one.
206 posted on 11/19/2002 3:50:16 PM PST by Darlin'
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To: RedBloodedAmerican
Hey Bob! Jump in!

Nah - I'm an engine troop, not a fuel tank specialist.

207 posted on 11/19/2002 3:50:50 PM PST by Tennessee_Bob
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To: canalabamian
Welcome to FR. You did a great job in getting this article posted.
208 posted on 11/19/2002 3:52:51 PM PST by Darlin'
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To: Alberta's Child
thought one of the Osama bin Laden videos showed him meeting with a Muslim cleric in Afghanistan, explaining how the purpose of the 9/11 attacks on the WTC was to have the towers collapse only down to the point of impact.

I meant to say that they initially denied it. I must proof-read for more then just the HTML formating in the future ;-)

209 posted on 11/19/2002 3:57:21 PM PST by Mixer
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To: canalabamian
WOW!!!! What a story!

Great job posting--

pinging for later.
210 posted on 11/19/2002 4:04:35 PM PST by SerpentDove
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Comment #211 Removed by Moderator

To: Illbay
Drivel? Then explain why George StephhieBoy was on some talk show and he said, "the bombing of TWA flight 800"? Freudian slip? Mistake?

As with most of the reactions to terrorist attacks during the Clinton administration, it's coverup and ignore the possibilities to avoid having to do anything.

I suppose I wear an aluminum-foil (they haven't used tin in decades) hat because I totally believe McVeigh had terrorist help in OKC?
212 posted on 11/19/2002 4:09:43 PM PST by Fledermaus
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To: canalabamian
bmp
213 posted on 11/19/2002 4:26:38 PM PST by bzrd
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To: steve50; canalabamian
"The same people who screamed tin foil hat at people for claiming Iraqi involvement in OKC are now screaming to bomb Iraq over it."

Anyone who lives inside the beltway and had a very close friend or two in the intelligence community started smiling ruefully at what we call the "saran capped hordes" from the first day. These are people who scream "tin foil hat" at anyone who brings out anything which hasn't been published by the lying liberal triumverate or patted down by the suitable thought manufacturing agencies.

The reason they are saran capped is because they prefer to display their "head"y knowledge and tin foil is too upscale for them. One can smile about them because, instead, it is inanity which is so aptly displayed since the vacancy within the saran is patently obvious.

Some of these "saran caps" are merely propogandized unthinkables who dutifully repeat the current approved mantra. Others are PAID to orchestrate thought patterns of the sheeple masses to bring to concert whatever is deemed acceptable by the decision makers who are certain that the truth is the last thing citizens should know. Or perhaps it is because they prefer subjects to citizens.

In any event the tin foil hat epithet is not operating too well lately. More and more truth will out and that "puts the lie" to whatever has been the approved mantra of the saran caps.

Canalabamian you put a little heat to the saran cap horde but I suspect that you are able to handle ice storms!



214 posted on 11/19/2002 4:26:57 PM PST by Spirited
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To: dljordan
No tinfoil. You get first class steel! Thanks for joining the discussion. Wish you had been here years ago. But, then, that was pre-911. Wish your prof had been here too. The reason that investigation was so bizarre, so out of character, was that it was a coverup, plain and simple. Why is it so difficult for people to understand that the standard operating procedure for Bill and Hillary Clinton and their Criminal cabal is this:

CONTROL EVERYTHING and if anything is going to adversely affect your power - use whatever force you can get away with to see to it that whatever it is does NOT adversely affect your power.

That NTSB chairman - what was his name? Hall? He was the most disgusting Clinton stooge I have ever seen. His assignment was to make any and all speculation about a missile "hit" on TWA800 go away. (That was the general assignment to the entire TWA800 "investigative" (guffaw) team).

Now why would this be so highly desired?

a) An enemy missile strike would show Clinton's disolution of our national security apparatus and guarantee his political defeat in Nov 1996 - just a few short months after the airliner was shot out of ths ky.

b) A US Naval military accidental shoot down of a civilian airliner would bring most Americans calling for the Commander in Chief's head! and would most certainly lead to his defeat in 1996. It might even lead to Ross Perot bowing out of the 96 election.......a fate worse than death.

c) A US Missile shoot down or an enemy (non-terrorist) shootdown which was a payoff to the Chicoms or to the Iraqi's for their support of Bill Clinton in the 96 election (fund raising and who knows how else???) Saddam Hussein actually THANKED Bill Clinton - for what? For not going after him when he violated the Gulf War defeat terms? Or for giving him one of our Airliners in exchange for Saddam not doing anything bad against us???? who knows?

The reaction of the US Navy after the shootdown is the most inexplicable detail I have read so far. It simply does not make sense. And it is these Naval personnel who I am counting on to one day come forward and tell the truth about what happened that day. God will honor them for doing so, no matter what the whistle blower provisions do or don't do. And one of these days, we all will face our Maker.

215 posted on 11/19/2002 4:44:14 PM PST by Freedom'sWorthIt
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To: sultan88
You are welcome. Glad to know others see the same elephant. I thought it was just my tired old "eyes"....
216 posted on 11/19/2002 4:45:27 PM PST by Freedom'sWorthIt
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To: YoungKentuckyConservative
Your comments are very welcome.
217 posted on 11/19/2002 4:46:24 PM PST by Freedom'sWorthIt
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To: Spirited
"In any event the tin foil hat epithet is not operating too well lately."

No it isn't, is it. It used to be a hysterical laugh getter.

Let's say it again: The Clinton Criminal Cabal dismantled America's security apparatus from the first day of moving into "power". They further moved immediately to take over all prosecutorial power (fired every single US Attorney, something never done before) and all investigational power (putting Clintonoids in high positions at the FBI, the CIA, the NTSB, the ATF, and the Dept of Defense. When it became clear Algore was going to be defeated (most likely), Clintonoids burrowed deep in the agency bureaucracies everywhere in DC and around the country so that civil service laws would keep them from being fired. THEY ARE THERE NOW! THOUSANDS OF LITTLE SPIES AND TROUBLE MAKERS operating on command from Hillary of the Database! UNLESS 9-11 shook some of them up and brought them to their senses! (we can hope and pray for this).

Do we know why this Homeland Security Agency bill was such a battle? BECAUSE IT ALLOWS PRESIDENT BUSH TO NOT BE RESTRICTED TO USING CLINTONISTAS IN THESE AGENCIES!!!! Why do you think Hillary Daschle made such a mad push to stop this bill - risking and losing the American elections to do so??????

218 posted on 11/19/2002 4:54:35 PM PST by Freedom'sWorthIt
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To: RedBloodedAmerican
"Give me your thoughts on center fuel tanks exploding....I could be way wrong on this but my understanding is it won't happen."

Caltech Explosion Dynamics Laboratory
"Misconceptions
Unfortunately, misinformation about aviation kerosene combustion and misrepresentations about the official investigation of TWA 800 and the investigators have been published in print and on the worldwide web. The most common of these erroneous claims are discussed . . . " here.

219 posted on 11/19/2002 5:16:00 PM PST by Asmodeus
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To: Ditter
I wish it came from the NYT instead of WND

Don't hold your breath for "All the news that's fit to be suppressed" from the Old Gray Biddie.

220 posted on 11/19/2002 5:47:13 PM PST by El Gato
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