-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. [INLINE] [INLINE] [INLINE] [INLINE] [INLINE] NewsMax Home · Archives · Inside Cover · TalkMax · Liners · Comment Max · News Links · Contact Us! [INLINE] [INLINE] © 1998, NewsMax.com Site Design by David Grumm / Luke Kelly DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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