-Caveat Lector- "At a hearing by Senator Grassley's judicial subcommittee, the FBI was accused of being in a rush to prove that a terrorist bomb or missile downed TWA Flight 800." Report: Problems in TWA Probe By SHANNON McCAFFREY .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal agencies failed to share important information with each other a previous time they investigated the crash into the Atlantic of a big airliner that had taken off from New York, a congressional report says. The criticism Monday of the handling of the investigation of TWA Flight 800 came as crash experts assembled again, this time to try to determine why EgyptAir Flight 990 fell into the waters off Massachusetts. The assessment by the General Accounting Office said that a report by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, which pointed early on to the explosion of a center fuel tank as the cause of the TWA crash in 1996, was never forwarded to the National Transportation Safety Board. The ATF provided the January 1997 report to the FBI, but the FBI never sent it the safety board, the report said. Had the FBI immediately provided the report to the safety board, changes might have been implemented sooner in the Boeing 747's center wing fuel tank, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and other critics said Monday. ``We ought to have an ethic of overreporting,'' Grassley said. ``Especially when it comes to passenger safety.'' The GAO investigation was prompted by Grassley, who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. At a hearing by his subcommittee in May, the FBI was accused of using heavy-handed and sometimes bumbling tactics in a rush to prove that a bomb or a missile downed the plane. Grassley, R-Iowa, asked for the GAO - Congress' investigative arm - to look into the whether the FBI had furnished the report to the NTSB, as officials said at the hearing. But while GAO investigators say that the official ATF report never made its way to the NTSB, they say there is no evidence that it was purposefully withheld. ``It looks like it fell through the cracks,'' said the GAO's assistant director of Investigations, Ron Malfi. An investigation by Grassley's subcommittee and the GAO also found that Boeing Co. knew of problems with the fuel tanks on its jumbo jets as early as 1980 but never disclosed that information to NTSB officials investigating the TWA crash until this June. The FBI is now assisting the investigation into the crash early Sunday morning of EgyptAir Flight 990 off the coast of Nantucket. Like TWA Flight 800, the EgyptAir Flight took off From John F. Kennedy Airport on Long Island. Everyone aboard was killed. FBI spokesman Jim Davis would not comment on the GAO report, but he also said, ``We learned a lot from the TWA investigation.'' ``It would be fair to say we are being extra-conscientious,'' Davis said of the EgyptAir inquiry. ``No one here is saying we have to handle this with kid gloves because of TWA but I do think it is in the back of people's minds.'' The NTSB did not return a phone call seeking comment on Monday. ATF spokesman Jeff Roehm declined to address the contents of the report directly but said that the agency ``has tremendous experience in the area of explosive investigations'' and looked forward to being of assistance when needed. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om