-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- .............................................................. >From the New Paradigms Project [Not Necessarily Endorsed]: Conspiracy Shopping Cart: http://a-albionic.com/shopping.html From: Ian Goddard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: TWA800: Suppressed Data Looks New in Paris Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2000 3:08 AM An important report from Insight Magazine reporter Kelly O'Meara: ================================================= http://www.InsightMag.com/archive/200002117.shtml ================================================= Suppressed TWA Data Looks New in Paris By Kelly Patricia O'Meara from Paris [EMAIL PROTECTED] Almost four years ago, a TWA jumbo jet exploded in midair. Now, the families of the 42 French victims are wondering why pertinent radar information has been withheld. Relatives of the victims of the as yet unexplained 1996 explosion of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island, N.Y., want to believe they are being told the truth by investigating U.S. agencies. Their faith in the investigators is so strong, in fact, that when confronted with evidence that has been withheld from them for nearly three-and-a-half years, their first instinct is to question the legitimacy of the evidence rather than demand an explanation of the omission. The classic catch-22 in this instance is that while many family members believe the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, has lied to them, they nonetheless are willing to accept as authentic only the evidentiary pronouncements by the board. This point recently was underscored when more than a dozen French family members of the victims of TWA Flight 800 met in Paris to discuss the status of the ongoing $40 million official U.S. probe of the downing of the jumbo jet. The families tell Insight they feel isolated from the investigation, separated not only by an ocean and language barriers but also by a French legal system that prohibits their direct participation. They expressed astonishment during their first look at radar data that, to date, have been published only by Insight (see "New Radar Blips and TWA 800," Sept. 20, 1999). [ See: http://Flight800.org/flotilla.htm ] These data, which cover a much wider geographical area than previously acknowledged, reveal that at about the time of the accident, nearly two dozen surface vessels and aircraft entered military warning area known as W-105, which was in close proximity to the site of the crash. Critics say such facts add fuel to the fire of those who believe that the Department of the Navy may have played a role in the crash. Although this information was available to federal investigators within hours of the disaster, inexplicably it was withheld from NTSB Exhibit 13A of the CD-ROM record of evidence provided at the December 1997 public hearings on the disaster in Baltimore. It seemed incredible to the families, they report, that the NTSB would withhold the data and that no other news organization -- French or U.S. -- carried this major news break concerning the investigation. "Why should we believe," says Catherine Breistroff, who lost her 25-year-old brother, Michel, "that they [NTSB] would give up the data? Why would they just give you the information? Has the NTSB confirmed that this interpretation of the data is correct? If we write to the NTSB, who is to say they won't lie to us? What difference will it make? Already we have not been given all the information. Everybody lies to us and we don't know what to believe." Christophe Delange also lost his brother, Sylvain, on Flight 800 and voices the feelings of many others: "I don't have any hope in the political process anymore. I have stopped looking on a personal level, but it really disturbs me that something is right here and it appears as though it has been hidden from me. I have no personal convictions, but this radar data is very disturbing news. We have this new information, but what do we do now?" Although the French families feel excluded from the investigation, they nonetheless have taken one step that their American counterparts have not. An attorney representing some of them has hired a professional aviation investigator, Serge Roche, to conduct an independent enquiry into the cause of the crash. A retired commercial airline pilot, Roche is an expert in air-accident investigations and airline security. He makes no bones about what he believes caused the center wing tank, or CWT, of the Paris-bound 747 to explode. As he presents evidence that supports a likely missile involvement, he expects to be attacked for disputing the official theory of a mechanical malfunction. A source close to the investigation tells Insight that "a lawsuit against Roche has been threatened if he persists in pursuing the missile theory." Roche is not concerned about such warnings and remains committed to a thorough investigation. "I am doing my job, asking questions. How can they sue me?" he asks. Though the FBI's lead investigator on TWA Flight 800, James Kallstrom, has referred to the independent investigators who have been publishing their findings on the Internet as "bottom-feeders," such sources have provided carefully authenticated information, some of which Roche has verified and incorporated into his analysis. Based on evidence he has collected on his own, information gathered from the NTSB Baltimore hearings and through other independent investigators, Roche says he is sure that "the mechanical theory is false." In fact, despite repeated reports in the press that the NTSB has concluded the explosion was caused by a spark inside the CWT, the official investigation remains active and the NTSB has yet to provide any evidence of the source of ignition inside the CWT. Roche believes that the NTSB has withheld important information, but he also cites failures by the French magistrate responsible for conducting an official investigation for the families of French victims. And he says that the press on both sides of the Atlantic has failed to insist on answers. "In France," says Roche, "journalists are basically hard-news writers. It's more day-to-day news. But they also are very aware and worried about what happened to [former White House press secretary] Pierre Salinger when he came out with his report of the first radar tape. More importantly, journalists never asked for the NTSB CD-ROM [showing the radar scan of the area at the time of the explosion] because they didn't know about it. What we have to do is force the issue by going back to the United States and interviewing the eyewitnesses, going into the hangar and having the ability to view the wreckage. Then I can bring this information back to the press and hopefully they will finally do their job. The revelation [by Insight] of the new radar data should have been enough to get them involved again, but although more than a dozen reporters covered the Paris conference and saw and heard the presentation of the new radar data, not one news organization mentioned it." Meanwhile, Roche and the families tell Insight they believe much of the blame for the lack of press enthusiasm about the story should fall on the French magistrate. "She has been totally unresponsive to the families' wishes," complains Roche. "The magistrate is put in place to conduct an investigation. This magistrate has no background in aircraft accidents and one year after the accident, and after the NTSB preliminary report was prepared for the Baltimore hearings, she finally traveled to the United States and came back with the NTSB CD-ROM of the investigation. When pressed by the families for information, she complained that she didn't have the correct software to read the CD-ROM, then complained that she could not interpret the information. I have written to her numerous times, including one letter that posed more than 100 questions about the investigation, but to this day I've not re-ceived even one response. Because she won't do what is required, I am obliged to go around her, but without the magistrate's intervention I cannot get into the hangar at Calverton [New York] to view the wreckage. I have no doubt that the NTSB and FBI have not provided all the truth, but I also need to see the physical evidence firsthand." Under French law, family members are prohibited from making direct contact with the NTSB and FBI, and therefore are forced to work through the magistrate. However, based on the discussion among the family members who attended the weekend conference, it appears they are ready to make a formal request to get the current magistrate replaced with someone better suited to investigate aviation disasters and more responsive to the families' inquiries. They will take up the matter when all of the families of the 42 French victims meet in Paris in late March. But even within this small group of people there are divisions. "The families who attended this conference," says Roche, "believe in the possibility that something other than a mechanical problem caused the CWT to explode. The other families believe what the NTSB is telling them because they are the official agency. Some of the families even have suggested that I am being paid by Boeing and that's why I'm pursuing the missile scenario. This is absurd." Lawsuits have been filed on behalf of the French families against Boeing, TWA and the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA. However, according to Maitre Portejoie, the Paris-based attorney representing just two of the French families and under contract with Frank Granito, the New York attorney representing a large number of French and American families, "I am just the executor of my clients' wishes. I am paid to represent my clients who believe the cause of the explosion was mechanical." Many consider this an odd response given that Portejoie hired Roche to investigate the cause of the crash. Two days after the conference with the French families, and nearly five months after Insight published the new radar data, Portejoie still had not seen the radar data and had not deposed the NTSB, FBI or eyewitnesses, let alone reviewed the eyewitness statements. Back in the states, Granito also has not seen the new radar data nor has he deposed the eyewitnesses, the NTSB or the FBI. According to Granito, "It's hard for the families to understand that we are retained to represent them in a civil suit, not a criminal suit. My job is to establish by a preponderance of the evidence the probable cause. I don't have to prove Boeing was negligent. I don't have to find out with 100 percent certainty. I only have to prove that the product was defective at the time of the accident." When questioned about why Boeing continues to pursue the missile theory when he is so sure the cause was mechanical, Granito says, "I don't know why. But the Boeing attorneys and their engineers are not together on this. It makes Boeing very happy because it keeps the conspiracy theory alive. There is no credible evidence that this is a missile. I haven't seen the radar data so I don't know what you're talking about. Would it surprise me that there are more ships and aircraft in the area? Yes. But it's a big leap in logic that because there are ships out there that they shot a missile at this aircraft. This information isn't relevant. The bottom line is we’re never going to know what was the initiating spark inside the CWT. I have more access to the evidence than anyone, and all of the evidence points to the interior of the CWT." Granito's remarks raise a number of questions. For instance, if he "has more access to the evidence than anyone," how is it that he is unaware of the newly released radar data? Did the NTSB fail to make the radar data available to the lead attorney for the families? Why did the FBI withhold unrestricted access to the eyewitness accounts from the NTSB investigators until the bureau's criminal investigation was put in an inactive/pending status? Why did lead FBI investigator Kallstrom formally request that the eyewitness reports be withheld from the NTSB public hearings in Baltimore? And why has the NTSB yet to release the eyewitness reports to the public for review, despite Public Law No. 93-633, which requires that the NTSB report its findings and make them available to the public? So far, the NTSB has withheld from the public two important pieces of the investigation -- the radar data and the eyewitness reports. Would it be unreasonable for the families to question why the investigative bodies consider this information important while the attorney who represents them does not? Would it be relevant for the families to wonder what other information about the crash that took the lives of their loved ones is being kept from them? Although Granito's job may only be to settle the claims, the families are interested in the truth. Bernard Jacquemot, who lost his son, Benoit, aboard TWA 800 is one who attended the Paris conference. "The new radar data is important," he tells Insight, "and raises many new questions about the cause of the crash. I have no idea why the NTSB would hide this information, but I would like them to explain the reason. I would like to know what the ships are that show up on this data. I am surprised that this information was not released in the press, and I find it strange that no one would cover it. All the information we get is from the American families' newsletter [The Families of TWA Flight 800]." Jacquemot agrees with Roche that the French press has done little to investigate the incident because maybe they "consider it an American story and now they are more interested in things that are happening today" -- things such as two more mysterious airline disasters -- one in South Africa and one off the coast of California -- which occurred during these interviews. "I want to express very much my deep emotion for the families of those who died," says Granito. "Every time this happens, it brings it all back to us. We have to have a meeting with the French magistrate and the NTSB so they can answer some of these questions. We need to know why they withheld the radar data. So far, there has been no pressure to make the data public, and now we need to put pressure on them to explain it." ================================================= http://www.InsightMag.com/archive/200002117.shtml ================================================= ======================================================== WACO PROTEST: http://users.erols.com/igoddard/waco-1.htm ======================================================== "There are times when you cannot keep your job and put alternative explanations for data on the table." Former FBI Special Agent Dr. Frederic Whitehurst Shop for Cars On-Line: http://a-albionic.com/ads/srch.html Forwarded for info and discussion from the New Paradigms Discussion List, not necessarily endorsed by: *********************************** Lloyd Miller, Research Director for A-albionic Research (POB 20273, Ferndale, MI 48220), a ruling class/conspiracy research resource for the entire political-ideological spectrum. 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