Flight cover-up: Part II

In my last column, I introduced many of the complexities surrounding the explosion of TWA Flight 800. What is most troubling is the little attention paid to the witnesses in this case. \nThe FBI didn't allow any eyewitnesses to speak at the National Transportation Safety Board hearings. Practically everyone dismissed the accounts of Air National Guard pilot Major Fritz Meyers and Dwight Brumley, a senior Navy NCO. These two men were especially crucial witnesses because they both had aeronautical experience and were in the air at the time TWA Flight 800 exploded (Meyers was in his helicopter above Long Island and Brumley was on board U.S. Air Flight 217). \n Why were their accounts ignored?\n One person who didn't ignore them was journalist Jim Sanders. In the initial stages of his investigation, Sanders had Terrel Stacey, TWA's number two man covering Flight 800, got samples from the plane's fuselage. A California lab tested the foam rubber removed by Stacey and found it consistent with residue that would be put off from a solid fuel warhead or missile. When the story hit the Riverside Press-Enterprise on March 10, 1997, many started to question their trust in the investigators.\nWith the $40 million investigation now concluded, perhaps the most suspicious thing is what government officials don't know or what questions they refuse to answer. For example, why is it that the supposed Navy radar tape RP44 is rumored to have four deleted points of data during its last sweep that night?\nWhy has the FBI been unable to identify the ship that fled at 30 knots away from the site of the crash? \nWhy has the NTSB not responded to Glen Schultz, an expert on flight data recorders, who claimed that the last four seconds of Flight 800's data recorder were deleted? Why has the CIA refused to release the KH-11 satellite imagery from that night? It would only prove their point, if they are telling the truth. You can undoubtedly say that a strong attempt is being made to hide something, but what?\n Was there any truth behind the slip made during an interview with ABC News' Peter Jennings by George Stephanopolous' on Sept. 11 when he said that the second White House Situation Room was used "in the aftermath of the TWA Flight 800 bombing"? In November of 1996 NTSB Chairman Jim Hall wrote in a memo: Top intelligence and security officials were told in a video conference room from the White House Situation Room that radar tapes showed an object headed at the plane before it exploded. \nSanders, in his book, "The Downing of TWA Flight 800," says that a confidential source revealed to him that top government officials met in that situation room on July 17, 1996 (the same night of the crash) to watch live the new capabilities of the Navy to shoot a missile down near Long Island. Did the Navy make a huge error in mistaking TWA Flight 800 for the test missile?\nThe downing of TWA Flight 800 may have been a terrible Navy misfire or another act of terrorism against our country. Most tragic, though, is the overwhelming evidence that says many of the victims' families are being told lies. Someone has to speak up and tell the truth. I'm listening.\nFurther information on the crash of Flight 800 can be found at http://www.ntsb.gov and http://www.cnn.com.