TWA Flight 800: Attacked, destroyed, covered-up

Editor's note: In his extraordinary new DVD documentary, "Mega Fix," Emmy-award-winning filmmaker Jack Cashill traces the roots of Sept. 11 to the political exploitation of terror investigations by the Clinton White House in the desperate 1995-1996 election cycle. This 8-part series began in Oklahoma City and today moves to the coast of Long Island.

On July 17, 1996 – Liberation Day in Saddam's Iraq and two days before the Atlanta Olympics – at least 270 people see streaking objects zigzagging off the horizon and culminating in the destruction of TWA Flight 800 off the south coast of Long Island.

At the time of the crash, Richard Clarke is serving as chairman of the Coordinating Security Group on terrorism. Within 30 minutes of the plane's crash, Clarke tells us, he convenes a meeting of the CSG in the White House situation room.

"The FAA," Clarke reports, is "at a total loss for an explanation. The flight path and the cockpit communications were normal. The aircraft climbed to 17,000 feet, then there was no aircraft."

In fact, the Federal Aviation Administration does have an explanation. Its radar operators in New York saw on their screens an unknown object "merging" with TWA 800 in the seconds before the crash and rushed the radar data to Washington. For reasons that will become clear later, Clarke also deceives the reader about the altitude of TWA 800. The last altitude the FAA actually recorded was about 13,700 feet. This is easily verified and beyond debate.

And remember the concept of planes as bombs, Ramzi Yousef and the Bojinka-related plot? President Clinton, in fact, reviews these plans in the summer of 1996, after TWA Flight 800 has been destroyed. U.S. Air Force Col. Buzz Patterson, who carried the "nuclear football" for the president, relates in his book, "Dereliction of Duty," that he was returning a daily intelligence update from the president's desk to the National Security Council when he notices the heading "Operation Bojinka." He keys on a reference to "a plot to use commercial airliners as weapons." As a pilot, he has a keen interest in the same.

About four weeks after the crash, based on his own rough timeline, Richard Clarke visits the site of the TWA 800 investigation on Long Island. There he casually stops to talk to a technician, who shares with Clarke the astounding fact that, despite all evidence to the contrary, an exploding fuel tank destroyed TWA Flight 800.

That same day, Clarke tells us he returns to Washington and breathlessly shares his exploding fuel tank theory with Chief of Staff Leon Panetta and NSA Director Tony Lake, even sketching the 747 design.

"Not yet," says Clarke. In one chance stroll through the hangar, the amateur Clarke discovers something the National Transportation Safety Board has not yet discovered itself.

Clarke then adds the telling comment: "We were all cautiously encouraged." They are "encouraged" because the political people do not want to face the consequences of terrorism. It could derail their cakewalk to re-election.

At this same time in the investigation, however, the FBI is ignoring the politics. Its agents are telling the New York Times that explosive residue has been found throughout the plane and especially along the right wing. Plus, the FBI's Washington lab has identified the residue as PETN, a component of either missiles or bombs. The same Times article calls the finding "a serious blow to the already remote possibility that a mechanical accident caused the crash."

Something has to give, and it's the FBI. On Aug. 22, future 9-11 commissioner Jamie Gorelick – as the Clintons' deputy attorney general she was also field commander at Oklahoma City – summons the FBI's Jim Kallstrom to Washington for a Come-to-Jesus meeting.

Kallstrom has been a good soldier the past five weeks. He's kept all talk of eyewitnesses and satellites and radar and missiles out of the news. But the evidence has led him to a terrorist scenario of some sort, and there's no easy way to turn back.

No account of the meeting provides any more than routine detail, but behaviors begin to change immediately, especially after the New York Times breaks a headline story the next day, top right, above the fold – "Prime Evidence Found That Device Exploded in Cabin of Flight 800." This article steals the thunder from Clinton's election-driven approval of welfare reform in that same day's paper and threatens to undermine the whole peace and prosperity mantra of the Democratic convention just days away.

From this point on, the administration spends all its energies making Clarke's exploding fuel tank theory stick. When the FBI is forced to change its story, so does the New York Times. And America lets its guard down once more.

About Mega Fix: In this stunning, surprisingly entertaining, 90-minute DVD video documentary, Emmy-award-winning filmmaker Jack Cashill traces the roots of Sept. 11 to the perfect storm of disinformation that surrounded the Clintons' desperate drive for the White House in the years 1995-1996.

Cashill leads the viewer from Oklahoma City to Dubrovnik, where Ron Brown's plane crashed, to the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia to the destruction of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island to the Olympic Park bombing.

As Cashill proves beyond dispute in this DVD, these are not multiple conspiracies, but all part of one major political fix, the mother of all fixes ... the Mega Fix

I've posted this top a few other threads. Please ignore if you've seen it before ...

I called our local Clear Channel station the night after this story broke and spoke for about 10 minutes describing the procedures used to handle classified information. The following is a basic description of what I said ...

1) A person who wishes to review classified information at a given facility must have his/her clearance on file with the security office that has legal custody of the information.

2) Once they arrive to the facility, they must show their credentials to identify themselves, sign into the facility - maybe issued a badge indicating their clearance and access and escorted to the room where the material will be reviewed.

3) A quick sidebar on program access and document marking. The term "Access" refers to the concept of "Need to Know". The fact you have a clearance that matches the level required to have access to the material does not establish your "need to know". It must be determined by someone like a program manager or security personnel that your job function requires access to certain information. If you are granted access, you may be required to go through another level of investigation. Some levels of access (at least the ones I was exposed to) are known as "Special Need to Know" or SNTK (pronounced Snick) and "Special Access Required" or SAR. Programs with these designations require special prominent markings on each page of a classified document along with the classification level. Believe it or not, after all the markings (top and bottom) there usually is enough room for the content of the page.

4) I should also mention that each paragraph of the document starts with a designation indicating the classification level of that paragraph. This would look like (U), (C), (S), (S/SAR), (S/SNTK), (TS) or (TS/SAR). Every page is marked top and bottom based upon the highest level of any paragraph on that page. ie. it's possible to have an unclassified page in a top secret document. And as you might think, the overall classification of the document is classified at the highest level of any single page.

5) This next point is especially important in light of the current investigation. Every page is marked "Page x of y Pages". For example page 13 of a 32 page document would be clearly marked in the banner section of the page "Page 13 of 32 Pages". This is done for obvious reasons - if any page is missing, it can be accounted for. The page count is also part of the document's registration in the security catalog.

6) Once in the room, the container (probably a safe i.e. a very heavy duty file cabinet with heavy combination locks with different combinations on each drawer) is opened. This process should be logged by security personnel.

7) The documents are taken from the container. All classified documents are stamped (each page) with items such as a control number, date of creation, level of clearance (top and bottom), program name indicating what access is required and eventual dispensation (i.e. when the material is designated to destruction if applicable).

8) If the documents are classified "top secret", each document has a log on the cover sheet. EACH time a person has access to this information, they must sign and date it.

9) The material is not to be removed (ie stuffed in underwear, socks ... etc) without approval of security personnel. If this takes place, the transfer is documented on both ends of the transaction. If the material is top secret or above, it requires at least two cleared people as an escort.

10) If you travel overnight, the material is not to be kept in your hotel/motel room but instead must be taken to an approved facility. Arrangements are usually made in advance. Security people do not like suprise visits. They like to make them but not receive them.

11) No photocopies are to be made or notes copied without the proper security personnel logging this activity and making appropriate markings (mentioned above) on the documents.

12) This material is frequently audited by internal security agents and is subject to "suprise" audits conducted by military, FBI or other external security personnel.

13) People given access to this type of information are briefed and attend classes on how to handle this material - ie. no excuses for "honest mistakes".

14) As the NSA for the Clinton administration, I imagine Berger was personally responsible that this protocol was designed, implemented and enforced by his staff - at least in an appropriately managed administration. This would apply to government employees, officials, military personnel and civilians under contract and extended clearances issued by the DoD, DoE or other intel operations.

15) As such, ANYBODY who has worked in this environment and heard Mr. Berger's comments yesterday about being "sloppy" and "an honest mistake" knows beyond any doubt that he was not only lying, but this was a premeditated act.

16) I left the aerospace business(as an engineer) in 1993 so these comments are based upon the security world of that time. Only Lord knows how the Clinton administration changed things during his 8 years.

That summarizes what I mentioned to Steve Cannon of WTVN 610 AM (Columbus, Oh) the night after the story broke.

I should have added another issue that may pertain to the current case. The concept of "Working papers". This would be scratch material that is never intended to end up in a document being prepared. For example, preliminary drafts, graphics with various scales, handdrawn sketches, ... etc. Usually, this kind of material is kept in a folder or envelope which is marked as a regular document would be. This folder falls under the same criteria as a regular document ie locking up when not being used ... etc. Usually, this material is collected on a regular basis when the work is finished and tossed into a "burn barrel". The burn barrel is emptied periodically by cleared personnel and either burned or processed through an approved shredder (ends up as dust).

The latest word I have heard is that this material was classified "Code Word Access". Folks, if true, this is "Above Top Secret" ie. John Pollard type material.

So the question comes to mind, why would anybody do such a thing under conditions where he knew he stood a huge chance of being caught? The mission must have been extraordinary for such a risk. The presumption is that he wanted to alter or remove and destroy material that implicated either himself, or quite possibly Mr. Clinton. The fact that some of the material is "lost" implies that regardless of the consequences, the mission has been accomplished with his current situation collateral damage.

Webb Hubbell's infamous quote "I guess I'll have to roll over again for Hillary" comes to mind. Another example of the Clinton whirlwind leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

I should stress that I'm no security expert - but I did work in that environment for nearly 12 years as an engineer in the aerospace industry (stealth technology). Amongst my duties, I was also the secured computer contact person during our department's audits with "The customer" and the FBI. This included things like proving procedures were being followed concerning the registering, cataloging and tracking of classified storage media, secured networks, hardcopy audit trails ... etc. It was not very exciting work - very boring but also needed.

Because of this work, I have a good idea of what that part of the world looks like. Who knows though after #42 and his crowd. I remember how O'leary (spelling) turned the DoE upside down with her wacky ideas of security. Remember the classified media supposedly found behind the copy machine during the Wen Ho-Li case? I have a friend who works for a private computer consulting firm that is contracted by the DoE and I think the DoD to perform inspections at government and contractor facilities. He told me the rules changed significantly during Clinton's years (to the worse) but I have no first hand knowledge.

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