TWA 800 Conspiracy Theorist Has an Anti-Hillary Agenda

July 11, 2016 / 20 Comments

Boeing_747-131,_Trans_World_Airlines_(TWA)_JP7174508As sure as July 17th will arrive each summer, families of the 230 people who died in the crash of TWA Flight 800 twenty years ago, will remember with sadness the night the Boeing 747 exploded off the coast of Long Island.

Here’s something else they can count on, a pre-anniversary story from someone, promising to blow the lid off the conspiracy to hide the truth about what really happened to the airplane.

But July 2016 is not just the 20th anniversary of the disaster it is also the month of the presidential nominating conventions and the newest book about TWA 800, The Crash, the Coverup and the Conspiracy by conservative writer Jack Cashill, has a political agenda.

Calling it the “the most consequential cover-up in American peacetime history,” Cashill writes that a missile destroyed the airplane and President Bill Clinton ordered the CIA to cover it up.

The reason the story can’t get traction, Cashill complains, is because ninety percent of the mainstream media is actively pulling for Hillary Clinton’s election.

Or as he writes, “The presidential couple that orchestrated the cover-up in 1996 is attempting to claw its way back into the White House.”

Spare me. Better yet, spare the families. When asked about the latest “truther” book,  John Seaman, whose niece died on the Paris-bound flight said simply.  “Let it go.”

Bernie Loeb and black boxes from TWA 800The NTSB spent more than four years and 20 million dollars probing the wreckage, records and operating environment in which the plane was flying and concluded the mid-air explosion was the result of a design flaw on Boeing airliners that allows the center fuel tanks to get hot enough to explode on a regular basis.

Trust me, Boeing wasn’t exactly shouting that news from the rooftops. In fact, as you can read in my book about the disaster, the airplane maker made some pretty deliberate attempts to keep investigators from finding out about this elemental design flaw.

Nope, that isn’t juicy enough. What Cashill and others promoting an alternative to the official report want the world to believe is that Bill Clinton orchestrated the chiefs of a dozen departments in the U.S. government to put their evil heads together to hide a friendly-fire, shoot-down of the airplane.

Jack Cashill Accuracy in Media

Cashill at an Accuracy in Media event photo courtesy AIM

Cashill says as much in a post on his website, urging people to come forward with what they know about the disaster.

“If we are to break this story out (sic) before the November election I need to hear more from primary sources,” he writes.

That’s an odd call to make after one’s book is published. But reading the post accompanying the plea, I can understand why he’s making it. He’s simply rehashed statements already reported but adding drama by giving the speakers aliases. It makes it seem as if old allegations were brand new.

There is one exception.

Cashill claims that former FBI agent Robert Knapp, who died in 2014, called the spark-in-the-fuel-tank ignition theory “bullshit”.

Well there’s no asking Knapp, but I knew Bob for 18 years. I met him within weeks of the accident, which I covered for CNN. We remained friends until his death and I can assure you, whatever he may have initially thought about the ignition source of the Boeing 747’s fuel tank, he did not believe the U.S. government was conspiring to cover up what really happened.

During his time with the FBI in New York, Knapp, who was also a lawyer, specialized in organized crime.

It is not at all unusual that at first he might find it hard to believe that a fuel tank could explode from an internal source. Lots of people, even those in aviation found the volatility of the 747 fuel tank surprising.

TWA 800 wreckageBut to extrapolate such a brief and early comment, to a full-blown FBI endorsement of a cover-up, is exactly the kind of agenda-driven twisting of the facts that casts huge doubts on everything else Cashill writes. Is it any wonder the ninety percent in the main stream media Cashill complains about, won’t give his theories the time of day?

In urging people to help him reveal the conspiracy and the cover-up, Cashill warns there is a deadline, the nominating conventions are just days away.

“If the conspirators get beyond this July unscathed, they will cease to worry,” he writes.

For everyone who believes that the crash of TWA 800 revealed and resolved a real air safety issue, I hope Cashill’s last sentence is correct. If so, an end to the TWA 800 conspiracy nonsense would be an assuredly good thing to emerge from upcoming presidential conventions.

 

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20 responses to “TWA 800 Conspiracy Theorist Has an Anti-Hillary Agenda”

  1. Christine, as always a fan, follower and humbled by your insightful thoughts. Maurizio

  2. Christine, as always your insight and clarity comes through loud & clear. Maurizio

    • Christine Negroni says:

      Wow Maurizio, that’s humbling. But the truth is, I learn so much from professionals like you, whose generosity in sharing your experiences makes me look smart. Thank you for that.

  3. Sharyn Bovat says:

    Christine – pls call me 615-944-7599 I would like to share information with you about the cover-up. My Uncle is Bill Frisbie he was the Chief Pilot of Pan Am and my Grandfater Karl Frisbie was Navel Intel-OSS-CIA you can read about me at sharynbovat.com Frank Duggan knows who i am & so does Buck Revell.

  4. Gail Dunham says:

    Thank you to Jim Hall, NTSB Chair, and President Clinton, at the time of TWA800 for doing the extensive and necessary investigation into the true cause of the disaster with 230 wonderful souls on board. The aircraft is at the NTSB training academy, and clearly show the cause of the crash, an explosion that came from the inside of the center wing fuel tank.

  5. William Teele III says:

    I have to say that Jack is correct. I was there in W105 and ran to Bermuda after we made the mistake. I’ve begged the FBI for a polygraph and no response. I am a Veteran of the U.S. Navy and proudly served. But we made a mistake.

  6. Matthew L. Wald says:

    Bravo, Christine. The NTSB faced enormous challenges in this investigation — a primitive flight data recorder, an unreveailing cockpit voice recorder, the wreckage at the bottom of the ocean, and an airframer that was eager to blame someone else. Added to that, the Board’s investigators had the “assistance” of a swarm of law enforcement people who make their living finding crime, not ferreting out engineering problems. And now, 20 years later, it’s got the conspiracy theorists. But none of this throws doubt on the physics and engineering conclusions — at least not if you’re a serious crash investigator.

  7. Max Flight says:

    I have seen TWA 800 at the NTSB training facility and the physical evidence proves that it was an internal explosion in the fuel tank. You can see how the bulkhead was forced forward, how other components were damaged, and how the resulting cracks in the fuselage propagated. There are no signs of explosive residue from a missile, and no evidence of an external explosion. I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, but you have to look elsewhere to find one that is even possible.

  8. MartinA says:

    Somebody needs to point out that when the US military had a friendly fire incident, the Iranian A310, it was quick to acknowledge the accident and did everything possible to compensate for it.

  9. Craig Muldavin says:

    I would have been much more comfortable with the investigation if the FBI was not walking unattended in the building containing the parts to the aircraft. The NTSB does not go to the location of a shooting and walk all around it unattended or at all. Having said that it seams highly unlikely flt. 800 was shot down.

  10. Bob says:

    And yet it is amazing that no other 747’s had a catastrophic event such as TWA 800 in all the years of flying.

    A co-worker of mine’s brother was one of the sea pilots which took out the naval vessel that night. They were supposed to return after their exercise, but they never did. Why?

    How did witnesses report seeing something flying to the plane before it blew up?

    Come on.

  11. Christopher Gray says:

    “A co-worker of mine’s brother was one of the sea pilots which took out the naval vessel that night. They were supposed to return after their exercise, but they never did. Why?”

    “Never” is a long time. Christopher Gray

  12. President-elect- Trump said he will reopen the TWA 800 shot down. Thank God the Butcher of Bengahzi did not get to win the presidency. Jamie Gorelick will have to live off the $25 Million “reward” money she got from Fannie Mae…….no more fixing for her! We dodged a bullet or exploding center wing fuel tank lol! oh look over there…..is that Sandy Berger stuffing white house TWA 800 related documents down his pants? Good Bojinka I think it is! Gulf of Tonkin anyone!

  13. Jay says:

    Who was onboard that the Arkansas Crime Family wanted Dead??

  14. Scott says:

    That is the question Jay … THAT is the question.

  15. Tamra Smith says:

    I checked the passenger list. Several financial big wings….one from Arkansas. If one person needs to die the whole plane will.

  16. Pat says:

    It was shot down. Whether accident or not, it was shot down. I was up when the news broke through about the crash. It was ABC in St. Louis, and they had a father and son who were in a boat and saw the ground to air object and then the plane exploded. It was ground to air, then the plane exploded. It probably hit where the fuel was. Anyway, those witnesses disappeared! I wish I had the VCR taping at the time! Also, partiers on a deck were interviewed and they saw ground to air. Never heard from them again either. Does anyone remember or have the St. Louis Dispatch showing a photo of President Clinton accompanying those with the black box? I wish someone has that photo. I mean since when does a president accompany the black box?? Also, Erickson quit right after the crash and he should be the one to interview.

  17. James says:

    James Kalstrom was ordered to cover it up and he carries that curse with him to this day. Did anyone not notice his hostility towards Hillary Clinton in the media during her run for president?

  18. Marc says:

    With Negroni working for the New York Times, Huffington Post & CNN why would anyone ever think she would be covering for the Clintons. Christine call MSNBC maybe they need an aviation “expert” also!

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