-Caveat Lector-
TWA Flight 800 Missile Cover-up Suspicions Renewed
David J. Hale Jr.
December 9, 1998
Suspicions of a government cover-up of the TWA Flight 800 tragedy have
been fueled by the unexplained appearance of three fast-moving ships
and another unidentified radar target off Long Island at the same time
as the jets explosion over the cold Atlantic in July 1996.
More interest was sparked in July 1998 when former FBI assistant
director James Kallstrom, who headed the bureau's investigation of the
incident, claimed in a taped interview that the ships were, in fact,
U.S. Navy vessels on "classified" maneuvers.
Since that interview, Kallstrom says his answers were misinterpreted.
According to the Islip, New York, FAA, three radar targets were
detected moving at about 15 knots in an undefined direction about five
miles from fight 800. One radar target was detected moving at 30 knots
about two miles from the crash in a southeasterly direction.
One vessel was caught on radar because its structure was at least six
stories high, a moving object consistent with a large naval vessel.
Some theories, buttressed by an ample amount of eyewitness and
physical evidence, suggest that a missile was fired from sea,
destroying the plane, in either a Navy accident or an attack by a
terrorist group or foreign nation.
Soon after the tragedy, ABC correspondent Pierre Salinger claimed that
a U.S. Navy ship on maneuvers accidentally fired on the civilian
airliner. Other experts like investigative reporter David Hendrix,
claim that numerous U.S. Navy vessels were within a 50- to
290-nautical-mile radius of the crash site. He obtained the data
through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Also, private investigator James Sanders has argued that a U.S. Navy
ship fired a missile that downed Flight 800.
These claims took on new credibility when Kallstrom admitted to
Accuracy in Media's Reed Irvine that the ships picked up on radar were
indeed naval vessels.
An excerpt of his July 1998 interview follows:
IRVINE: Let's open up the report, lets open up the record, lets take
out the secrecy. That's the point.
KALLSTROM: Yeah, I think it would be good to do that at this point now
that the criminal case is not open. But it's in the hands of NTSB. ...
IRVINE: Hey, the bureau [FBI] just sent [Congressman] Trafficant a
letter saying they couldn't identify three vessels that were in the
vicinity, for privacy reasons -- come on!
KALLSTROM: Well, yeah. Well, we all know what those were. In fact, I
even spoke about those publicly.
IRVINE: What were they?
KALLSTROM: They were Navy vessels that were on classified maneuvers.
IRVINE: What about the one that went racing out to sea at 30 knots?
KALLSTROM: That was a helicopter.
IRVINE: On the surface?...
KALLSTROM: Well, between you and I, the conventional wisdom was,
although it's probably not totally provable, was that it was a
helicopter.
In a recent interview with NewsMax.com, Kallstrom, now a vice
president at a major credit card company, later amended his statement
to Irvine.
"When Reed Irvine asked me that question, I thought he meant in the
vicinity, which to me means within a 200-nautical-mile radius of the
crash," said Kallstrom.
"The closest ship was the USS Normandy about 180 nautical miles from
the crash. Those radar blips, I do believe we did know what they were.
They were boats and one was a low-flying helicopter traveling at 30
knots, which was initially of great concern."
Kallstrom vehemently denies claims that the plane crashed as a result
of a missile firing.
One person not buying Kallstrom's claims is William Donaldson.
Donaldson retired in 1991 from the Navy after a career as a decorated
fighter pilot and Navy accident investigator.
In July 1998, Donaldson's organization, Associated Retired Aviation
Professionals (ARAP), issued a report detailing the case that one or
more missiles struck TWA 800. Donaldson has claimed that as many as
two foreign missiles exploded near the plane.
He says that Navy vessels were in the area close to the crash on
"top-secret" maneuvers. "They had a good reason to be there," he says.
"There were Navy ships where they weren't supposed to be, and it
appears they were actually in a defensive mode, trying to catch
somebody."
Donaldson discusses the Navy presence in his report and bases his
information on his own eyewitness interviews, Navy records, and radar
images. The Navy acknowledged that an aircraft carrier and its
aircraft, a submarine, and a P-3 plane were active in military
exercises 200 miles south of the crash.
The missile theory is supported by more than 115 eyewitnesses who
reported seeing a light streaking upward. These eyewitnesses include
former FBI agents, military officers, pilots, boat owners, and other
witnesses on the ground.
The FBI and National Transportation Safety Board deny the Navy missile
theory, and both agencies refuse to release their official eyewitness
interviews.
"Those records cannot be released, because there is a pending inactive
criminal investigation," said Kallstrom. "We have ruled out criminal
activity to the 99.9 percentile."
In the report, Donaldson pinpoints the locations of two missile
firings using triangulation methods based on damage assessments and
his eyewitness interviews. His mathematical backtracking precludes the
possibility of the missile being fired from any of the alleged Navy
ships in the area.
"The weapon used against TWA Flight 800 was most probably a modified
Soviet SAM-6," said Donaldson's report. The SAM-6 missile is radar- or
optically guided with a maximum altitude of 36,000 feet and a maximum
speed of Mach 2.6. It explodes by proximity or contact.
"We had the best experts in the world look at the possibility of a
missile, and they all agreed that it wasn't a missile," said
Kallstrom. "The reports of what [eyewitnesses] saw is what made me
send a thousand people up there to investigate," said Kallstrom of his
willingness to investigate the missile theory.
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