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Website of Jack Cashill: Cashill.com
AMAZON: TWA 800: Behind the Cover-Up and Conspiracy – NOW IN PAPERBACK!
By Douglas J. Hagmann
I was recently contacted by a state police detective who is working on an unsolved homicide case. There is nothing unusual in that, as I previously worked on the same case and he wanted to review my notes and findings relative to his. What might be considered unusual, however, is that the case is nearly 30 years old.
The victim, in this case, was 25 years-old at the time of his murder and was not considered a high-risk victim. Simply stated, he was not engaged in any behavior that would place him in jeopardy of being killed. He was a hard-working, law-abiding family man working a steady job and intent on making a better life for himself and his family. His life was cut short by a single bullet to his heart inside of his own home.
The murder of this young man affected the lives of everyone around him, and still does. He was a son, a father, a brother, an uncle and a husband. The ripples of his untimely death touched the lives of many people.
Too frequently, older and cold case homicides don’t get the attention they deserve. Leads dry up, dead ends are reached, and soon, the case gets pushed aside by other cases. Sadly, and all too often, people forget. People outside the small circle of those impacted by a murder or death move on. Justice for the victim is denied, as are answers for the family. Time runs roughshod over the victims and everyone impacted by the event.
What was supposed to be an afternoon meeting ended up spanning several hours over two days and included a visit to the victim’s elderly mother. In a slight stretch of policy, I was invited along. We were warmly greeted, and she invited us to her kitchen table.
“After all these years, I glad there are people who still remember, who still care,” she said to the detective. She showed us the last picture taken of her son that occupied a frame and sat in a treasured position atop her mantle. Much was said, and tears were shed, but her determination was clear.
“I think about my son every day. He’s gone, and nothing can bring him back. He can’t speak for himself, but even worse, I feel like no one is speaking for him, and it seems that even those who are in a position to get to the bottom of what happened don’t care. The hardest part is not knowing what happened that night. Someone knows the truth, and now you are in a position to get answers,” she said as she leaned closer to the detective. “The truth is all I want. I deserve to know what happened, no matter how painful it might be. Maybe then I’ll be able to rest.”
The detective sat across from the victim’s mother and looked directly into her eyes. “I’ll do everything in my power to give you’re the answers you deserve.” he told her in response.
Back at the station and at the conclusion of our two-day meeting, I asked the detective how long he’d be working this case, and how much effort he would really expend on the investigation considering the passage of time and other factors that influence the assignment of manpower. Political pressure and bureaucracy. Like the detective, I know the reality of a case like this. I know that there was a line of cold case detectives before him and who made the same assurances to this still-grieving mother, merely to placate her, and told him as much.
There was a long pause as he seemed to carefully consider my question. I was surprised and even grateful by his terse reply.
“Well, I’m not them.”
“Meaning what?” I prompted.
“I take my position and responsibility seriously. I look at this as an opportunity that few are given to make a positive difference by virtue of their position. When I was assigned this case, I was given the chance to make a difference to the victim’s family. To give them the truth they have sought for so long. To provide justice for the victim, and closure to the family. To answer your question, as long as it takes.”
He said one more thing that reignited my belief in the existence of genuinely good men of integrity and principle.
“Maybe I can’t change the world for the better, but I can change her world. How many people are given that opportunity, and act on it?” I want to believe that there are still men of character and integrity when given the chance, will give it their all to ferret out the truth. I know I’ve got to face myself in the mirror each morning, and face my sons and my wife every day. I want them to know that I’m that kind of a man. I want that to be my legacy as a cop and as a man.”
Memories of those two days came rushing back to me as I listened to Jack Cashill this past weekend relate his impromptu meeting with the acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). He told me that he wrote a column about it, and it was scheduled for publication on Monday.
The day after we spoke, I read about his “improbable lunch” with Christopher A. Hart, the current chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. Mr. Hart has an impressive resume and comes from a family that, according to his official biography, has a tradition of accomplishment in the field of transportation. His great uncle, James Herman Banning, was the first African-American to receive a pilot’s license issued by the U.S. Government in 1926. An impressive legacy.
It is interesting to note that this is Mr. Hart’s second stint at the NTSB. As noted by Mr. Cashill, Mr. Hart served on the board of the NTSB from 1990 through 1993. He was replaced by Clinton political operative Jim Hall, a man with no aviation experience but ample political connections. It was under Hall’s oversight, or Hall’s willingness to surrender such oversight, that the investigation into the downing of TWA Flight 800 was conducted.
A lunch meeting between Jack Cashill and Jim Hart was indeed improbable and would have likely never taken place had it not been for the casual invitation made by former NTSB board member Vernon Grose, who had previously scheduled the lunch with Hart and casually invited Jack to come along.
Mr. Grose has an impressive background as an applied physicist and a former air traffic controller, and provided his expert on-air commentary on CNN for six hours during the network’s coverage of the incident. According to Mr. Cashill, Grose has become convinced, through his own research and investigation, that “a missile or missiles destroyed TWA 800,” and caused the deaths of 230 people.
As related by Mr. Cashill, Christopher Hart was provided with his book, TWA 800, The Crash, The Cover-Up, The Conspiracy and a reference outline of findings. In addition to investigative findings detailed in Cashill’s book, Hart also has the benefit of the expert analysis of former board member Mr. Grose. And many other experts as well, all seeking one thing: the truth about what happened.
I cannot help comparing my recent experience with the homicide investigation, the position of the detective and the plight of the victim’s mother to Christopher Hart, his position on the NTSB, and the 230 victims and their families.
Just as the detective has the opportunity to bring justice to a victim and provide answers to his family, Christopher Hart has the ability to do the same, except on a much larger scale. There are 230 victims of TWA Flight 800, and 230 families who deserve to know the truth. In the case of Christopher Hart, it’s even bigger than that. The citizens of America also deserve to know the truth.
As the Irish statesman Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” I want to believe that every man who is in a position to make a positive difference has the will and courage to do so. I want to believe that there are still men who possess honor and integrity, and these characteristics are not for sale at any price, nor can they be held hostage by political pressure or outside influence. I want to believe that men of integrity still exist, and when given the chance, or even a second chance to correct an injustice will do so, even in the face of formidable opposition. Especially while facing such opposition, for acting when it is unpopular, inconvenient, and even potentially dangerous reveals one’s true character and creates a legacy that can never be taken away.
I want to believe that Christopher A. Hart, a man who has the opportunity to make a difference through his actions, will rise to the challenge, restore integrity to the NTSB, provide justice to the 230 victims, and much needed answers to their families,
Christopher A. Hart has the authority, opportunity, and even the willing assistance of many experts. The only question that remains is does he have the will and courage to do so?
I want to believe he does.
By Douglas J. Hagmann
“The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.” -Winston Churchill
In a number of ways, one specific event that happened twenty-years ago next month is even more relevant to today’s political and geopolitical landscape.
It was on Wednesday, July 17, 1996, a serene summer evening when the burning wreckage of TWA Flight 800 fell into the Atlantic Ocean not far from the southern coastline of Long Island, New York.
At 8:31 PM ET, just twelve minutes after taking off from JFK airport, the lives of all 230 people on-board tragically and unexpectedly ended. The lives of their surviving family members were also forever changed. So too, was the trajectory of our nation.
We were told that following a long and exhaustive investigation, the cause of this significant loss of life was a mechanical malfunction of the Boeing 747-100, an explosion of the center fuel tank, something that had not happened before or since. The actual facts, however, point to something entirely different. Enter author Jack Cashill.
Admittedly, investigative journalist Jack Cashill was not the first or only person to pick up the mantle of investigation of TWA Flight 800 in the fall of 2000, nor did his questioning the government account come lightly. However, Mr. Cashill made up for any lost ground through his tenacious investigation and contacts that exposes not only the lie, but the mechanics of the lie. He exposes the identities of those who orchestrated and facilitated in perpetuating the lie in his forthcoming book, TWA 800, The Crash, The Cover-Up, and The Conspiracy (available for purchase here on July 5, 2016).
I was graciously given the opportunity to read an advance copy of his book, which led to a revealing, in-depth on camera interview with Mr. Cashill that can be seen here. Mr. Cashill pulls no punches in his identification of the people involved in directing the official investigation away from the truth even before last pieces of the aircraft struck the water.
With the passing of time and his relentless investigative efforts, new information is contained in this work that must immediately become a matter of public record. Those involved in the deception must be held accountable for the sake of the victims as well as the future of our nation, for some of the people behind the cover-up either remain in positions of power or are actively seeking them today.
TWA 800, The Crash, The Cover-Up, and The Conspiracy contains new information that will leave even the most well-informed and well-read stunned. His manner of presentation is well-sourced and heavily documented. His new findings, combined with previously established facts, is capable of withstanding even the most vigorous governmental cross-examination, and should readily convince even the most hardened skeptic of the lies that have been thrust down the throats of the American public.
Sadly, though, it is due to an orchestration of deceit that the victims of this tragedy and their families have been further victimized, along with each eyewitness that night and every American citizen who cares about the truth. Even after two decades, the blood of the victims cries out for the truth, while the cries of their loved ones continue to be unceremoniously muffled by the foot soldiers of the unscrupulous and corrupt.
From the outset, Mr. Cashill expertly destroys the myth that a cover-up and conspiracy involving TWA Flight 800 to prevent the truth from being known would take too many people to accomplish. It’s a common and legitimate argument, yet one that Mr. Cashill painstakingly and adeptly rebuts by describing how the magnitude of the TWA 800 deception actually helped protect it.
He describes how the investigation was ultimately directed by the highest people within our own government and how the flow of information was expertly controlled through the careful placement and discreet handling of agency heads. In this and other common conspiracies, it’s all about controlling the gatekeepers of the information.
Specific to the cover-up and conspiracy involving TWA 800, it should surprise no one that all roads lead directly the Clinton White House and Clinton-era newsrooms. This is a situation that has continued inside and outside of the beltway and one that has been reinvigorated and reinforced for the upcoming 2016 election.
The astute reader and honest investigative journalist will be able to see the emergence of a familiar strategy of information containment and political damage control orchestrated by the “Clinton cabal,” past and present. In this and numerous other situations potentially damaging to the political aspirations and ambitions of these serial liars and their abettors, their behavioral profile becomes clear. Tactics employed on the night of July 17, 1996, did not begin then, but much earlier. Nor have they stopped, but continue today.
Having a compliant infrastructure already in place and a captured media ready to direct an already fatigued public away from the truth, including a certain few ‘investigative journalists’ to give the false appearance of honesty, inconvenient truths can be more easily contained and managed. Under the pretext of exposing scandalous activity, the public’s attention can be diverted away from far more serious criminal actions. It’s an effective strategy used by the media, and a comfortably profitable enterprise for certain journalists and pundits willing to compromise truth for the warm glow of the spotlight, however fleeting. To them, the lives of the victims be damned, along with the truth.
Then there are the career politicians and agency heads placed in certain key political, intelligence and even military positions. Their tactics of containing the truth and misdirecting the public becomes even easier, especially if convinced that perpetuating a lie is not merely a matter of loyalty, but an issue of national security. Ending the careers of those who see through the charade or who are unwilling to assist becomes blood sport, while those who agree to play are handsomely rewarded.
If this operational strategy sounds familiar, it should. We have seen Hillary Clinton use the same tactics in her position as Secretary of State as she dealt with the loss of life in Benghazi and her continually troublesome e-mails. Previously, it was Whitewater, the strange death of Vince Foster, Travelgate, et al. Again, the operational strategy is from the same playbook, the same set of plays, and in some cases, the same players today, some twenty years after TWA 800.
To fully appreciate the importance of what happened on July 17, 1996 and the events that followed, we must understand the context of events current to that era. It was just two days before the opening of the Olympic games in Atlanta and less than four months before the 1996 general election.
America had already experienced a number of terror events under the Clinton watch, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. Reelection was foremost on the minds of the Clintons, their aides and supporters, and the appearance of peace and prosperity was vital.
During the previous administration, we had humiliated Saddam Hussein in Desert Storm. As it happened, July 17, 1996 was Saddam Hussein’s National Liberation Day. Iran was also emboldened by foreign policy, and other seemingly disparate events that threatened Americans sense of peace and prosperity were of political concern to the Clintons. Consequently, America’s military forces were at a high state of alert, and there was a heavy presence of naval and other military assets off our east coast.
The peace and serenity on that calm summer evening seemed to sufficiently distract most Americans away from an election campaign that convinced us we were living in a Norman Rockwell setting. In an instant on that warm summer evening, the perception of serenity was threatened by the worst aviation disaster in America at that time.
In this context and with the presidential election a long four months ahead, reality needed to take a back seat to perception to avoid disrupting the unfinished business of the Clintons and their associates. With such high political stakes, getting ahead of whatever happened that night and shaping the public account was paramount.
At 8:19 p.m. ET on July 17, 1996, TWA 800 departed from JFK enroute to Rome with a stopover in Paris. There were 212 passengers aboard along with 18 crewmembers. An additional 53 employees of TWA were also aboard, most of them deadheading back to Paris. Everything appeared normal until twelve minutes into the flight. At an altitude of 13,760 feet and about 12 miles from the southern shore of Long Island, the aircraft was destroyed and all lives aboard were lost. That much is indisputable.
But what caused this massive loss of life? An honest investigation of the evidence, including those who witnessed what happened in the sky that night, should answer this question. The necessary component is, of course, the honesty and integrity of the investigation. As it was ultimately discovered, the investigation was “managed” from the start and a false narrative was served to the American people.
There were nearly 700 eyewitnesses to what happened to TWA Flight 800 on that fateful night. Of those witnesses, 258 people saw an object ascending from the horizon to the aircraft, leaving a signature contrail in its wake. Another dozen additional witnesses saw what could be described as a missile strike and the passenger aircraft breaking up and falling into the Atlantic in about 120 feet of water.
These eyewitnesses were interviewed by the FBI, who had taken over the reins of the investigation from the NTSB, an interesting (if not telling) investigative hand-off itself. Yet those witnesses who were interviewed found that their accounts were radically different on the FBI’s 302’s, or interview reports, to represent a completely different scenario than they witnessed. No, it was not due to the much ballyhooed “Mandela Effect,” but to deliberate human intervention.
In some cases, supplemental interviews with witnesses were… wait for it… completely fabricated – created out of whole cloth. The addition of witness statements that better conformed to the government’s account streamlined the lie. In other cases, witness statements were significantly changed without the knowledge or consent of the witness for the same purpose.
Equally disturbing is the fact detailed by Jack Cashill that evidence inside the hanger where TWA 800 was being methodically reassembled for investigative analysis was deliberately mislabeled and in some cases, physically altered or completely removed. Entire seats were, in fact removed and other parts found missing.
Evidence tampering was so bad that at one point, a surveillance camera was installed by a senior NTSB investigator inside the hangar where TWA 800 was being stored and reassembled. Covertly secured footage documented recorded two FBI agents inside the hangar without authorization at 3 a.m. during the investigation. Additionally, and even more telling, the footage captured the activities of a FBI agent trying to flatten out a piece of metal with a hammer. Shaping the narrative, perhaps literally.
In all such instances, it is obvious that the objective was to remove or change the evidence to better fit the official account of the Clinton White House.
Such evidence tampering also seems to potentially include the “black boxes” of TWA 800. Jack Cashill describes the strange circumstances surrounding not only the recovery of these vital instruments, but the analysis of the data they held. Oddly, the boxes reportedly contained no useful information that would shed any light on the cause of the crash.
While Mr. Cashill declined to speculate on the cause for insufficient or missing data, others have suggested activities far more nefarious that includes the recovery, editing and replacement of the data recorders to be found later. As improbable as this conspiracy might appear, circumstances indeed suggest something did happen in the days before the boxes were recovered.
The altering, removal and tampering of evidence by agents of the government is well documented and beyond dispute. Yet none of those involved in this practice were ever investigated themselves, except one. Terry Stacey, a 747 pilot and an investigator on-site at the hangar where TWA 800 was being stored, developed serious concerns about what he was witnessing with the investigation. To that end, he sent a small bit of foam from one of the seatbacks that appeared to contain explosive residue to author and investigative journalist James Sanders for testing at an independent lab.
Testing of this bit of fabric was critical in determining the presence of explosive residue consistent with a missile tearing through the plane. This residue was found on parts of the aircraft’s wing and on the seats in a confined area, and ended up registering positive in independent testing. Such findings were consistent with the numerous accounts of a missile strike.
Faced with a possible breach in their official narrative with the release of their findings, the Clinton Department of Justice vigorously pursued Stacey and prosecuted Sanders to regain control of the official account of the event. Not even the ultimate Clinton fixer and unofficial custodian of inconvenient archived documents, Sandy Berger, received such treatment. But that’s yet another perverse aspect of this most amazingly brazen saga.
It’s unlikely that the majority of readers will pick up on my reference to Jackie Gleason in the above sub-heading, but one thing is abundantly clear. A visual rendition of the mid-flight break-up of TWA 800, created by none other than the folks at the Central Intelligence Agency, was rolled out for public consumption. Not quite ready for either prime time or inclusion at Cannes, it was dutifully peddled to a slumbering public by a complicit media.
While referencing Jackie Gleason’s The Honeymooners might seem a bit obscure, I contend that it is no more obscure than a more recent reference to another feature presentation tied to Hillary Rodham Clinton. I redirect your attention to 2012, to the pre-planned and well-organized attack of the CIA compound in Benghazi, Libya, when the Clinton State Department sent their carnival barker Susan Rice to all of the Sunday morning talk shows to cite an obscure Internet video as the motive for the attack that killed four Americans, including a U.S. Ambassador. Again, we find a Clinton in the mix of credits and at the end of the investigative trail, along with the fingerprints of the current head of the CIA, John Brennan.
This animation explains how deceptive the lyin’ eyes of multitudes of witnesses can be. Furthermore, by believing in this animation, we were forced to completely reevaluate certain basic laws of physics and aerodynamics. Here, the CIA showed the irrelevance of gravity and the myth of physics by claiming that the body of the 747 managed to climb around 3000 feet after a catastrophic event ripped the nose from the plane.
The CIA created film never made it beyond trailer status and aside from a few cult followers and media pundits, was considered a flop unworthy of widespread release. Its role in this investigation complete, it has been relegated back to the dustbin of history, except by those hold-outs who receive their salaries from taxpayers or those in the media who continue to promote the B-Roll from Benghazi.
At this point, you might be questioning the relevance of an event that took place 20 years ago to current events and the present state of affairs.
There is, of course, the obvious Clinton connection, especially since Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to be the presumptive nominee on the Democratic ticket for this November. Beyond that, however, the benefit of time and the investigative work of Jack Cashill provides us with a roster of other individuals involved and the positions they hold today. Some have been amply rewarded with prime political appointments after providing their complete cooperation in the TWA 800 investigation, while others have become pernicious pundits peddling their prevarications on both sides of the political paradigm, compliments of a complicit media.
One thing, however, should remain perfectly clear. The lives of 230 people were snuffed out on July 17, 1996, and the lives of their families and loved ones were forever changed. With every passing anniversary, they are being victimized again by those who refuse to tell the truth about the events of that night and in the days, weeks, months and years that have followed. There are people alive today who know the truth and still do the right thing.
As we have seen since that night in July 1996, history is repeated. There have been more victims and more lies, all for the sake of politics, money and power. We must not let the victimization continue, for it will only get worse. Only when one looks back with intellectual clarity will the future become much clearer.
By Douglas J. Hagmann
Seventeen years ago today, the lives of 230 men, women, and children were snuffed out, and the lives of their families and friends were forever changed. At 8:31 p.m. ET on July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 fell from the sky in a sickening fireball of debris and human carnage, plunging into the Atlantic Ocean about 8 miles off the southern coast of Long Island, New York. It was only twelve minutes into its flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Rome, Italy, with a scheduled stopover in Paris when the flight, like the lives of those aboard, was abruptly and prematurely terminated.
The evening was clear, and the weather calm as the large passenger plane climbed to 13,700 feet and was traveling parallel to Long Island. Many people were outside on patios, beaches, and boats enjoying this pleasant summer evening when the serenity of the approaching twilight was shattered by an explosion in the sky that was TWA Flight 800. Not only did they witness the explosion and events leading up to it, but they also bore witness to much more.
They had front-row center seats to yet more death; the death of honor, integrity, and truth by the very people who had taken an oath to uphold it. Sadly, the only thing that has changed over the last 17 years is the depth of the depravity by those who have chosen to deceive, the exponential rise of the criminally complicit, and the number of the willfully clueless clinging to a compromised corporate media.
We must not forget that 1996 was an election year, and incumbent William Jefferson Clinton was running for a second term. The opening ceremonies for the Olympics were just days away, and the national political conventions were scheduled for the following month. Peace and prosperity were the forced ambiance in the U.S., reality be damned.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, the nation’s first co-President, was as much a powerful political influence and purveyor of false reality then as she is today. In fact, the parallels between her role in the narrative of TWA Flight 800 and the official story behind the murders of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, are strikingly similar.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, in conjunction with Bill Clinton and former deputy National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, led the charge to construct the official account of TWA Flight 800 to ensure that nothing would interrupt or interfere with the Clinton power structure or the false reality of peace and prosperity, including the ‘inconsequential’ lives of 230 innocent people aboard a U.S. aircraft. The Clinton response team was in full damage control mode on that fateful night, assembled in the White House residence where the Clintons and their personal point man Sandy Berger busily created a viable alternative to the reality of the events relating to the downed airliner. Hardly any imagination is necessary to compare her rabid machinations of revisionism of the events of July 17, 1996, with those of September 11, 2012. It’s all about power and perception, the former held by a Hillary death grip and the latter fabricated through whatever might be convenient and available. The names, faces, and numbers of those forever lost might be different, but the objective of maintaining power has remained unchanged.
What difference does it make, whether it’s the murder of four Americans or the death of 230 passengers aboard a commercial airliner when the reins of power are at stake? What’s the difference between a center fuel tank or an obscure internet video when it comes down to a gullible public, placated into submission, and a cooperative mass media running interference against any difficult or stubborn questions? What difference does it make as royalty reigns supreme over the facts?
There were 270 documented eyewitnesses to the events of that night, each observing what can best be described as a missile striking the aircraft. Of those 270 witnesses, 96 individually described their observations in more detail, stating that a missile-like object rapidly ascended from the horizon, or ground level, toward the doomed flight. According to top-rated researcher and author Jack Cashill, many of the witnesses provided nearly identical accounts of an object, ” a red tip, a plume trail after it, gray, and then it gets near the plane and it arcs over, zigzags, hits the plane, [and] blows up.”
These people are indeed witnesses to history. Not only did they witness death on a wholesale level, they witnessed history being revised to suit an official narrative designed and decided by those in power, victims and their families… the truth be damned.
Like the events in Benghazi, truth is as relative as the morality behind it, or its absence. Despite the compelling accounts of eyewitnesses hovering in the three digit range to missile activity on the night of July 17, 1996, we were told that they were all mistaken as to what they saw. To negate the observations of the subjugated masses, the collective intelligence of a thinking American public was further insulted by a contracted CIA animation of an event that not only defied logic, but physics as well. Ripping a page from the Warren Commission, the infamous animation depicted Flight 800 climbing from 13,700 feet to 17,000 feet, minus the front of the plane.
Whether it’s 17,000 feet or 17 years, a center fuel tank or an obscure internet video, the process of revising the official account of inconvenient history has not changed. The official account of any event necessary to achieve certain objectives, regardless of its inherent insanity, will be brazenly foisted upon the public at will.
Concurrent with the eyewitnesses, FAA radar operators operating out of Islip, Long Island, observed an unidentified object on their radar screens that was visibly “merging with TWA Flight 800.” As indefatigable investigative journalist and author Jack Cashill reported several years ago, Ron Schleede of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) admitted that radar data “showed this track that suggested something fast made the turn and ‘took’ the airplane.”
In addition to the airborne object, FAA radar also documented a large ship positioned directly under TWA Flight 800 at the moment of impact. In a most unusual move, the ship immediately and inexplicably turned away from the expanding debris field, speeding away at 30 knots.
Interestingly, some of the key sections of radar data have since been deleted, while other data remains suppressed. As for the presence of the ship, the FBI publicly denied its existence for at least six months of their investigation.
Perhaps the missing portions of the radar data can be found in the possession of Clinton confidante Sandy Berger, along with the classified documents he allegedly removed from the National Archives in 2003, just prior to testifying before the 9/11 Commission. Maybe they are with the missing computers and files taken from the law offices of Schulman & Mathias during a burglary last month – the law firm representing state department whistleblowers of events that occurred under her tenure as Secretary of State.
Perhaps the unidentified ship situated immediately below Flight 800 was re-commissioned by Hillary Rodham Clinton in her role as Secretary of State to ship arms from Libya to Syria. But then, “what difference does it make?” Whether they are lies by omission, lies by commission, they are lies just the same.
Cooperation with Hillary Rodham Clinton, even at the expense of the truth, certainly has its perks. Conversely, being uncooperative might be perilous. In matters relating to civilian transportation, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), an ‘independent’ U.S. government investigative agency, assumes the lead in investigations involving incidents and accidents. Under congressional mandate, the NTSB has full authority to take the investigative lead over and above any other law enforcement body unless the incident is officially declared a crime scene.
That scenario informally changed with Jim Hall, the head of the NTSB on the night of the TWA Flight 800 takedown. Hall, an attorney from Tennessee with no aeronautical experience but with very close political and personal ties to Al Gore, offered no resistance when former U.S. Attorney Valerie Caproni arrived on scene with a troop of FBI agents and snatched the investigation away from Hall, despite refusing to identify the incident as a crime or the area as a crime scene. Caproni’s boss, then U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, served as the trusted eyes and ears of William Jefferson Clinton and his closest aides.
The reasoning behind this investigative power grab, posits Mr. Cashill, was simple in its strategy. Regarding Flight 800, the FBI would report directly to Gorelick who would ultimately control the flow of information to the public about the events of July 17, 1996. Her direction and oversight began on August 22, 1996 with a meeting of the lead FBI agents. According to at least one report, she reportedly provided the narrow investigative parameters which directed the investigation to a predetermined cause.
The investigation conducted by the FBI, as thoroughly documented by Mr. Cashill in the book co-authored with James Sanders titled “First Strike, TWA 800 and the Attack on America,” was troubling and appeared scripted in advance. Based on numerous accounts of witnesses and others who encountered the FBI, the agents under the Gorelick umbrella seemed to have little interest in seeking truthful accounts that did not fit into an already established official narrative. Witnesses who became persistent were deemed uncooperative, and others were reportedly threatened.
Gorelick did her job of controlling the investigation and the flow of information very well. Less than a year later, Gorelick was rewarded by being selected to be the vice chair of Fannie Mae at a salary of about $4 million annually, a position she held for six years. Not bad for a lawyer with no related experience. Having cut her teeth on the TWA “investigation” and later for constructing a legal wall that prevented cross-agency sharing of intelligence data, Jamie Gorelick was later tapped by former President George W. Bush to be a member of the 9/11 Commission.
To be sure, her service on that commission warrants an investigative report of its own, as does the reason for her selection. Valerie Caproni, meanwhile, was tapped to serve as the FBI’s general counsel from 2003 to September 2011. Presently, she is vice president and deputy general counsel, litigation and investigations, for Northrop Grumman, a U.S. defense contractor.
While under FBI control, the NTSB remained in the background as window dressing, only stepping back into the “investigation” after the FBI bowed out on December 8, 1997. It was the determination by the FBI that the downing of TWA 800 was unrelated to terrorism or any other crime. Following that announcement, the investigation was turned back over to the NTSB which began public hearings.
As noted, those who cooperated were handsomely rewarded by positions of power and wealth. In the end, a 50,000-page report was published and the case was conveniently closed. Well, almost.
Today, a documentary produced by Tom Stalcup and Kristina Borjesson is being released to the public. Tom Stalcup, a Ph.D. physicist by background, dedicated the last sixteen years of his life to exposing what is arguably the most flagrant government cover-up in American peacetime history, according to author Jack Cashill. Ms. Borjesson was a producer at CBS in 1996 when TWA 800 was destroyed, and as noted by Mr. Cashill, “sacrificed her future at CBS to get at the truth.”
Despite the compelling presentation of facts, the identification of inconsistencies, and the introduction of witnesses coming forward in this documentary, the video is being criticized by some officials involved in the original investigation faster than the video trailer “Innocence of Muslims” was elevated to a cult favorite within the Obama regime. Such reviews serve as catalysts to ward off an unthinking public, and are already relegating the video to the dustbins of conspiracy tales.
From TWA Flight 800 to the attack in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, it appears that the corruption by those in power has only deepened. It is because we have permitted it, again and again. To quote Jack Cashill:
“Too many ordinary citizens have reconciled themselves to an enduring heart of American darkness, one that can swallow reputations and bank accounts whole and possibly even lives.”
We must not allow legitimate questions to remain unanswered. We must not be deterred by accusations of having a conspiratorial mindset. Between TWA 800 and the Benghazi attacks, there are 234 individual reasons that cry out for answers and demand justice in place of a shrill, rhetorical “what difference does it make” response to legitimate questions. Seventeen years is far too long.
