-Caveat Lector- www.newsmax.com "The Government Has Lied to Us About TWA 800" Michael Rivero July 10, 1999 Recent posts have celebrated the exoneration of Don Adams, who was acquitted of obviously trumped-up charges resulting from his anti-Clinton protests and the reaction of teamster thugs. It is well that we celebrate each and every triumph of justice in this nation, justice having become an increasingly endangered species in our society. Thus it is that I must again call your attention to the ongoing ordeal of James and Elizabeth Sanders, convicted of the theft of a swatch of fabric from the wreckage of TWA 800. They were prosecuted under an obscure law intended to deter souvenir hunters, and in one of the case's many bizarre twists, the FBI agent in charge of the TWA 800 investigation, James Kallstrom, also broke that same law. Kallstrom, as was reported in the newspapers and as he admitted to in court documents, removed an item from the wreck of TWA 800 to give away as a memento; the very act the law in question was written to deter. To be accurate, James and Elizabeth Sanders didn't steal anything. The actual removal of the fabric was done by TWA pilot and crash investigator Terrell Stacy. Stacy didn't want a souvenir. Neither did James Sanders. The fabric was sent to a lab for analysis of a strange red residue that tainted three rows of seats in the wreckage of the 747. Journalists are always exhorted to "check their facts." James Sanders did just that. The government stated, as a fact, that the red residue was 3M seat glue, and James Sanders checked that fact. In hindsight, he had good reason to. For such insolence, James Sanders and his wife were arrested, charged and convicted. Meanwhile, James Kallstrom, guilty of the same exact offense, walks free. Terrell Stacy, who actually broke the law in question, was charged with a misdemeanor. The Sanders have been convicted of a felony. The reason for the disparity in charges, between the man who took the fabric and the couple to whom that man gave it, is the government's desperation to lock the Sanderses away from the public; to bury with them the darkest of dark secrets in this whole affair. The results of the lab test on the Sanders' swatch of TWA 800 seat fabric called into question the official government declaration that the strange red residue was 3M seat glue. And evidence entered into the court record proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the government not only lied when it stated that the red residue was seat glue but, more damning yet, did so knowingly and with malice of forethought. The government claimed that a lab test done by a NASA scientist, Dr. Charles Bassett, proved that the residue was 3M seat glue. On the basis of that one result, the government maintained, and maintains to this very day, that the red residue was seat glue. But during the discovery phase of the Sanders trial, Dr. Charles Bassett swore under oath that his tests did not link the red residue to seat glue. More to the point, the tests he was asked to perform for the NTSB could not have made such a determination. Even more damning, efforts by Bassett to coax the normally pale green 3M seat glue into assuming the reddish color of the residue all failed. This is the "other verdict" in the trial of James Sanders. The government lied. In fact, now documented in a court of law, what they had was a lab test that proved exactly the opposite. In the trial of James Sanders, regardless of the verdicts handed down by the jury, it is the government that leaves the courtroom branded a liar. It's official now. The government is lying to the public about TWA 800. And not just about the red residue and bogus lab tests. Many other lies have been exposed, including the initial denial of the status of the warning zones, the presence of military vessels near the crash site, the workability of the pingers on the flight recorders; even the government's explanation for a suspicious line of flight recorder data has been proven to be a lie. The claim that a noseless 747 can maintain stable flight and climb 1000 feet per the government's cover story is both aerodynamically and structurally impossible. But the government's claim that a lab test proved that the red residue was seat glue is not only another in a long list of proven lies, it's a lie that was exposed in a court of law. Just think about what that really means, to know for a fact, proven in a court of law, that the government is lying to the public about TWA 800. It means, for one thing, that the mainstream media, which still parrots the claim that the red residue is seat glue, is also lying - yet another nail in the coffin of the mainstream media's credibility. It means that the government is using your tax money to pay public relations firms, intelligence operatives and media assets to lie to you. Nowhere in the Constitution is the government given the right to lie to the public, much less use the public's money to do so. It's a crime for them to do so, but like James Kallstrom's theft of TWA 800 weckage, one committed with impunity. Most of all, it means that the government's story - that TWA 800 was brought down by a fuel tank explosion of undetermined origin, now proven to be supported by lies - is itself a proven lie. Something else brought down that 747 and killed 230 people. Something about which the government is clearly lying to misinform the public. Behind it all is the red residue itself. Even though the government has since stripped the seats in Rows 17, 18, and 19 of the TWA wreckage right down to the bare metal, the existence of the residue is recorded in photographs and lab results, both Dr. Bassett's and those from the lab James Sanders used. If the red residue had a benign origin, if it were, for example, tomato sauce from the in-flight dinner service, there would hardly be a need for the government to misrepresent the results of Dr. Bassett's lab tests to claim it was seat glue. Ergo, the government already knows what the red residue is, and it has clearly decided that the public is not allowed to know what that is. James and Elizabeth Sanders are appealing their verdict. There is much reason to be hopeful that the appeals court will throw out the verdict based on the laws which hold that journalists are not legally liable for the actions of their sources. There is hope that the judge in the case, to forestall an appeal that might prove embarrassing to the government, will impose a lenient or a suspended sentance and hope the whole affair just goes away. If enough public attention becomes focused on the Sanders' case between now and the scheduled sentencing date of July 16th, the court may decide not to create martyrs out of a journalist and a stewardess whose only motive was the search for truth. On the other hand, the government is well motivated to make an example of the Sanderses in order to deter other investigative journalists from the heresy of doubting the official explanation, and to judge by the actions of federal prosecutors as recorded in the trial transcript, they clearly do not feel required to abide by the rules. The government has so many secrets to hide these days. Rides on Air Force 1 only go so far; fear is still the best means to control the press and curtail curiosity. There is much more at stake here than just the Sanderses. In order to convict the Sanderses, the prosecutors and the judge set aside long-standing Department of Justice guidelines which held that journalists could not be prosecuted for the criminal actions of their sources. This is an important legal safeguard for our system of justice. Most of the major news stories that have held abusive government in check, from the Pentagon papers to Watergate to Whitewater, involved documents the govenment doesn't want you to see. It therefore follows that documents proving government wrongdoing are sometimes obtained by less than legal means. In the COINTELPRO scandal of the 70s, the illegal actions of the FBI committed against American citizens were exposed by official FBI documents that had been stolen. But reporters were safe to publish those documents because of the DOJ guidelines, and COINTELPRO was shut down by Congress. Had the same standard of law been applied to the reporters in the 70s as is being applied to the Sanderses, no reporter would have dared expose the criminal acts of the FBI. If the convictions of the Sanderses stand, and if they are given a stiff sentance, the government will move swiftly to silence any other journalist who dares question the �official explanation� for anything, based on the precedent set in this case. Despite the promise of the First Amendment, freedom of the press will be dead, because no reporter will ever dare print anything other than what the government hands out, for fear of going to jail. You can help protect a free press. You can help restore the right of journalists to expose government wrongdoing. All you need to do is call your local media and your congressional representatives and make a stink. Let them KNOW what's at stake. Let them KNOW the world is watching. Let them KNOW that the Sanderses in jail will keep the issue of TWA 800 alive in the pubic mind, a constant reminder that the government was caught lying to the people about this disaster; that it will be impossible to think about the Sanderses in jail and NOT remember that the government was caught lying. Congressional contact info is at www.congress.org. The public attention on the Don Adams case helped win a great moral victory. Together, we can all do it again and prove that the government may not use selective prosecution of the laws to protect the lies it tells to the public; that the first amendment is still alive and well in the United States because We The People make it so. James Sanders has a legal defense fund, and he needs your help. The First Amendment needs your help. The truth needs your help. Make check payable to: United States Justice Foundation, and mail to: James Sanders P.O. 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