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"If TWA Flight 800 was brought down by a missile, it was the U.S. Navy that fired it."

Facinating, if true.
Accidents happen, as the Iranians know all too well.
This theory sure absolves the ragheads (I'd suspected) of any invlovement, doesn't it.
But what's more important?

...it'd more than explain Clintigula's motive for a cover-up.

Actually, I shoudl clarify my statement. If it was a missile that brought down Flight 800, it was fired during a naval exercise off the coast of Long Island that night. One explanation I saw for the cover-up was that it was not actually a U.S. ship that fired the missile, but a ship from another NATO country that was conducting joint exercises with the U.S.

If my speculation about the type of missile (a RAM-116 "rolling airframe missile") is correct, then I'm pretty sure that this partcular model was developed by Hughes as part of a joint U.S.-German initiative. The RAM-116 was originally designed as a last-ditch countermeasure to defend ships against an incoming cruise missile like an Exocet, but in the late 1990s a second-generation version of the RAM-116 was developed that would enable it to be used as an aircraft-intercept weapon.

One interesting characteristic of the RAM-116 is that it is not a heat-seeking missile, but finds its way to the target using the target's own radar signature.

Also of interest, the first Congressional authorization for the RAM-116 was passed in 1996, the same year as the TWA Flight 800 crash.

Facinating, if true. Accidents happen, as the Iranians know all too well. This theory sure absolves the ragheads (I'd suspected) of any invlovement, doesn't it. But what's more important?

...it'd more than explain Clintigula's motive for a cover-up.

Actually it would have given the bent one a big stick to beat the military with. We all know about the "high esteem" (read loathing) the Clintons hold the military. He could have used this to further cut budgets, dismiss many of the brass who refused to toe the Clintonian line, and so forth. He certainly wouldn't risk any political capital in a coverup to protect the military.