911. THE PREQUEL. Things we didn't read in MainStream Media ergo cannot easily remember. That it didn’t start on 9/11!
  by Sam Smith

       There were, however, two major alternative theories. One was that it was the accidental result of a test missile being fired
       off of a Navy vessel. The other was that it was the result of a missile fired by terrorists.

       There was considerable support for the latter theory, some of which is noted below. What is, however, thoroughly
       astounding and virtually unnoticed is that the latter theory was held by a large number of people in government – including
       in intelligence agencies – and strongly enough that it began the extreme security measures we now associate with the “war
       on terror.” The war on terror did not begin on 9/11 but five years earlier in 1996.

       At no point – including after the official designation of the incident as an accident – did the government do anything to
       retract the additional security measures it had taken. In other words, it acted in every way as though the initial assumption
       was still valid - that the crash was the result of an enemy attack– although, of course, it never said as much.
 

       One can only speculate what would have happened if the incident had been publicly treated as an enemy attack. Would
       there have ever been a 9/11? One can’t answer that, but it is safe to assume that our recent history would have been vastly
       different.

       The back story        A week after the crash, CNN reported:

            |||| After consoling relatives of those who died last week in the crash of TWA Flight 800, President Clinton
            announced new steps Thursday to improve airline safety. Clinton said he does not know whether the July
            17 crash that killed 230 people was the result of a security breach. Instead the measures were described
            as a response to increased anxiety over air travel prompted by the TWA crash and the ValuJet crash that
            killed 110 people May 11.

            Clinton said authorities will hand search more luggage and screen more bags and that all airliners to and
            from the United States will be searched before takeoff. Every plane, every cabin, every cargo hold, every
            time.

            To improve airline safety and security, Clinton said he would order Vice President Al Gore will head a
            commission, and will report to Clinton within 45 days on additional security measures, including plans to
            use high tech machines to detect sophisticated explosives.

            Clinton acknowledged the steps would increase inconvenience and cost for passengers, but he said, the
            safety and security of the American people must be our top priority.||||

       Less than two months later, the presidential commission under Al Gore went into session and made recommendations
       just four days later, probably a record for presidential commissions that will never be broken.

       Jack Cashill and James Sanders would write later:

            ||| The full commission held its first executive session on Sept. 5, 1996, and on Sept. 9 submitted its tough
            preliminary report to the president. The report advanced 20 serious recommendations to strengthen
            aviation security. The proposals called for a 60-day test for matching bags with passengers on domestic
            flights and a computer-based system of ''profiling'' passengers that, of course, immediately riled the ACLU.

            Also proposed were ''vulnerability assessments'' at every commercial airport in the country, increased
            numbers of bomb-sniffing dogs, better screening and training of the workers who examined bags, and
            more frequent tests of their work. At a press conference on Sept. 9, Vice President Gore declared his strong
            support for these proposals. .

            Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, saying they are convinced that none of the
            physical evidence recovered from TWA Flight 800 proves that a bomb brought down the plane, plan tests
            intended to show that the explosion could have been caused by a mechanical failure alone.

            Weeks before the Times had reported that "the only good explanations remaining are that a bomb or a
            missile brought down the plane off Long Island. . . .

            In the weeks following Sept. 11, 2001, several political insiders referred to the destruction of Flight 800 as a
            terrorist incident. But only one did it twice. That person is Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. Appearing on
            Larry King Live on Sept. 11 itself, Kerry suggested that TWA Flight 800 was brought down by a terrorist act.
            On Sept. 24, on Hardball with Chris Matthews, the authors watched as Kerry casually recited a number of
            terrorist attacks against the United States, among them TWA "Flight 800." Like Larry King before him, Chris
            Matthews either did not catch the remark or chose to let it pass.

            As security slows the process, travelers may find themselves spending more time in airports than on
            airplanes. In addition, some conveniences will be removed. Curbside baggage check in for international
            flights will be discontinued, and hotels will no longer be allowed to deliver guests bags to the airport. ||||
                                              oooo

     Nick Welsh, Independent, UK - In his book Peter Lance claims that in
1996, high-ranking FBI and Justice Department officials turned a
deliberate blind eye on documentary evidence provided by a high-ranking
mob snitch that a key Al Qaeda terrorist, Ramzi Yousef, behind bars for
the original bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, was actively
plotting to blow up what turned out to be TWA Flight 800, which exploded
13,000 feet in the air above Long Island in the summer of 1996, killing
all 230 passengers and crewmembers on board. After a 16-month
investigation, the FBI blamed that tragedy on mechanical failure. Given
that Yousef's uncle, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, was one of the masterminds
behind the September 11 plot, Lance contends the FBI blew yet another
golden opportunity to prevent 9/11 from ever occurring. . .

In 1995, a Philippine colonel named Rodolfo Mendoza informed American
authorities that he'd obtained a confession from Abdul Murad, a close
associate of Yousef's, who revealed then that Yousef - in addition to
assassination plots against the Pope and President Bill Clinton - was
working on plans to send a hijacked airliner crashing into one or more
of six possible targets in the United States. These included the
Pentagon, the World Trade Center, a nuclear power plant, the Sears Tower
in Chicago, and the Transworld Building in San Francisco. No date was
set. In addition, Mendoza said Murad told him that Yousef had enrolled
his accomplices in flight-training schools. Lance claims Mendoza's
warning clearly establishes the official beginning of the 9/11 plot in
1995, not 1998 as outlined in the 9/11 Commission's report.

Jack Cashill, Worldnet Daily - More than six years after retired United
Airline captain Ray Lahr launched his Freedom of Information Act
petition into the fate of TWA Flight 800, the FBI has shown him - likely
by accident - one seriously smoking gun. The Boeing 747 blew up off the
coast of Long Island on July 17, 1996. One of the FBI documents received
recently by Lahr and his attorney, John Clarke of Washington DC, details
a communication that took place six days after the crash: "On Tuesday,
July 23, 1996, a representative from the Defense Intelligence Agency
advised [the FBI] that after a visual analysis of both the videotape as
well as a number of still photographs taken from various portions of the
tape, the phenomenon captured by [name redacted] appeared to be
consistent with the exhaust plume from a MANPAD [Man-portable
air-defense] missile."

"The FBI guy who looked at this must not have read it, or not have
realized what it would reveal," says Lahr. "Otherwise he would have
redacted most of it as before.". . .

During a Senate inquiry in May 1999, the FBI's number two man on the
investigation, Lewis Schiliro, conceded that MSIC analysts had arrived
on the scene in Long Island just two days after the July 17, 1996 crash
of TWA Flight 800 and interviewed eyewitnesses. "They reported to us,"
Schiliro told the senators of the MSIC analysts, "that many of the
descriptions given by eyewitnesses were very consistent with the
characteristics of the flight of [surface-to-air] missiles.". . .

When FBI officials shut down the criminal investigation in November
1997, they publicly discredited the eyewitnesses and fully ignored the
work done by the MSIC analysts. At the final press conference, The FBI's
James Kallstrom discussed only two images of a possible missile captured
in flight. Both were photographic stills, and he cavalierly dismissed
these as well.

There was no reference at all to the video analyzed by the DIA. In fact,
there was no public mention of the DIA. The MSIC analysis was relegated
to a footnote.

Nor, of course, was there any mention of the video shot on the night of
July 17. From the beginning, there has been ample evidence that an
amateur video had been taken of TWA Flight 800's destruction.

                                              oooo

In an amazing and disturbing sidebar to the World Trade Center attacks,
a number of prominent figures subsequently appeared on TV referring to
the TWA 800 in the same category as other terrorist incidents:

George Stephanopoulos, ABC: There are facilities in the White House, not
the normal situation room, which everyone has seen in the past, has seen
pictures of. There is a second situation room, behind the primary
situation room, which has video conferencing capabilities. The director
of the Pentagon, the defense chief, can speak from a national military
command center at the Pentagon. The Secretary of State can speak from
the State Department, the President from wherever he is, and they'll
have this capability for video conferencing throughout this crisis. In
my time at the White House it was used in the aftermath of the Oklahoma
City bombing, in the aftermath of the TWA Flight 800 bombing, and that
would be the way they would stay in contact through the afternoon."
 

Former FBI investigator James Kalstrom on TV: This [referring to the WTC
attack] is the first time since TWA 800. . .

Brian Williams, MSNBC: Do you think the US is still under the threat of
terrorist hijackings, of aircraft being used as flying bombs? With your
knowledge of the terrorism business, do you think they won't just move
on to another mode of delivering terror? . . .
 

Isaac Yeffet, Former Director of Security for El-Al Airlines: We thought
in the past, in the '70's, that what happened with the US air carriers,
this would be the end of the terrorist attack. Look what happened since
Lockerbie, Pan Am 103? What happened to TWA 800? Look now what happened.
Who can guarantee us that the terrorists will decide no more attacks in
the US, unless somebody will tell me that we took control over the
terrorist organizations and we let them know that here, they cannot
come."

                                              oooo

Agence France Presse, 2000: An independent panel of experts on Monday
lambasted the results of an official investigation into the 1996 fatal
TWA Flight 800 crash, and maintained its theory the plane was downed by
a missile. According to the Flight 800 Independent Research
Organization, the official investigators had concealed crucial pieces of
information from a final report. . .

Many former investigators, military experts, and airline pilots continue
to insist the Boeing was shot down by a missile. . . NTSB investigators
have explained that bystanders may have been looking at an arc of fire
in the sky that occurred after the airplane broke in two and a part of
the fuselage was briefly hurtled into the sky in flames. The FBI
initially tried to probe the missile theory, but later abandoned it and
withdrew from the investigation altogether in the fall of 1997.

                                              oooo
 

1999 - Regarding the TWA 800 mystery, are some key points to keep in
mind:

-- Major media outlets such as The Washington Post and New York Times
have long attempted to squash any consideration of a missile attack. The
Times early went after such a possibility as the fantasy of conspiracy
theorists, even though it is now known that among those considering such
a possibility were the FBI and the plane's manufacturer. The Post and
Times coverage has been counter-journalistic, aimed at suppressing
doubts about the investigation.

-- There is at least reasonable evidence to support the theory that the
plane was brought down by a hand-held missile known as a MANPADS. The
main proponent of this theory -- which was also apparently held by the
FBI until it caved to the government consensus -- is a retired Navy
Commander, William S. Donaldson, who has collected an impressive array
of facts challenging the official explanation.

-- Key to William Donaldson's theory is the eyewitness accounts of over
100 persons who saw a streak of light moving towards the plane before it
crashed. These witnesses have been discounted, ignored, and ridiculed by
law enforcement and the media. They have been given a modified version
of the treatment experienced by the president's former girlfriends. No
final judgement of the cause of the crash can be made until the
testimony of these witnesses has been given a fair hearing.

       Here is just some of what Commander Donaldson has charged:

-- "We can provide testimony that immediately after Flight 800 was shot
down, Mr. Clinton called an FBI command post supporting the Olympics and
informed them Flight 800 was downed with shoulder-fired missiles."

-- "We have access to 107 witnesses on 4 aircraft, 19 boats, and 31
locations ashore. They were located in a 360° circle around the missile
engagement. Their live testimony alone will prove the aircraft was shot
down."

-- "In December 1996, FBI missile team members told military experts
that two separate commercial fishermen dredged up and threw back a
MANPADS first stage, the missile ejector-motor can. The ejector motor,
about the size of a Coke can, fires in the tube, ejecting the missile,
then drops in the water when the missile 2nd stage booster ignites."

Is Commander Donaldson's theory wrong? We don't know for the simple
reason that no one in the Clinton administration, law enforcement,
intelligence, or Capitol Hill -- and few in the media -- seems to want
to find out. We do know that the government has responded to attempts to
get at the truth in a deceitful, harassing, stonewalling and illogical
fashion, one that sadly has become a pattern over the past few decades.
Once again, if the government is not covering up, it is certainly acting
as though it is.

                                              oooo

1999 - The Village Voice has joined those seriously questioning the
conventional wisdom on the TWA800 crash. The VV piece by Robert Davey
says:

-- 128 eyewitnesses have been tallied by the NSTB who saw a "streak if
light ending in a fireball, flash, or an explosion.

-- Proper tests were not performed on possible explosive debris found in
the wreckage.

-- A police investigator claims that tags identifying the location of
certain seats were changed in order to bolster the official version of
the crash.

                                              oooo
 

1998- Conspiracy theories at TWA, Boeing? At least that is what Newsweek
seemed to imply in a story that began, "Conspiracy theorists who still
believe that TWA Flight 800 was shot down by a missile will get a boost
when statements of more than 400 eyewitnesses collected by the FBI after
the crash are released. . . ."

Newsweek then proceeds to buy into the CIA's dubious theory that all
four hundred were victims of an optical illusion but then ends by saying
"lawyers for TWA and Boeing, anticipating the accounts' release, have
told the court handling lawsuits against them that they cannot rule out
the possibility of a missile." You've got to watch out for those
conspiracy theorists. They're all over the place.

                                              oooo

1998 - Col. David Hackworth's newsletter raises a number of critical
matters:

Over 150 persons saw a streak of light heading for the plane before it
exploded. These included two airline pilots, and two National Guard
pilots, one of whom has stated that "I saw what I swear to God was
military ordinance explode."

For the first time in history the FBI seized control of the
investigation from the National Transportation Safety Board,.

After the crash, President Clinton issued an executive order denying
whistleblower protection to Navy divers.

The FBI washed off recovered debris with high pressure hoses before
examining for explosive residue.

The FBI removed some debris without signing it out and stored part of
the debris in a hanger off limits to other crash investigators.

oooo

1997 - Here are some of the early news and witness reports:

Several witnesses . . . saw a bright, flare-like object streaking
towards the jumbo jet seconds before it blew up (Washington Times
7/24/96)

"We saw what appeared to be a flare going straight up. As a matter fact,
we thought it was from a boat. It was a bright reddish-orange color.
Once it went into flames, I knew that it wasn't a flare." (Lou Desyron
on ABC 7/21/96)

"It looked like a big skyrocket going up, and it kept going up and up,
and the next thing I knew there was an orange ball of fire." (New York
Daily News 11/09/96)

"Victor Fehner wondered who was shooting flares in the sky . . .Then he
saw a flash overhead and watched a fireball that grew larger and larger.
(St Louis Post-Dispatch 7/1/8/96)

Aviation Week and Space Technology reported that two Air National Guard
pilots, "with the best view of the crash of TWA Flight 800" both believe
a violent explosion tore the plane apart "propelling some of its
passenger high enough that they did not hit the water's surface until
3-4 minutes after the initial explosion."

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