Yesterday evening I went to Costco where I spent some time reading Nelson DeMille's new book Night Fall. The book is about what really happened to TWA Flight 800, which crashed off the Long Island coast in the summer of 1996.
It is of interest to me because I knew someone on the flight. One of the passengers was the younger brother of someone I went to high school with and he was someone that I played basketball with at my gym.
Until recently I had been content to accept the explanation that the plane went down due to a mechanical failure, but now I am less certain that I believe that. I am not a conspiracy theorist, I don't buy into most of them. Often the theory of what really happened to such and such is just as riddled with holes as the official explanation.
But this is one of those things that just makes me wonder. I agree with those people who say that war was declared on the US long before 911. Daniel Pipes argues that Reagan had the first victory on the war on terror when the hostage criss in Iran ended on the day of his inauguration. That was Jan. 20, 1981, almost 25 years ago.
There have been numerous incidents of terror since then, with two successful terrorist incidents within the United States. Those two being the Oklahoma City bombing and the bombing in 1993 of the World Trade Center.
We also know that convicted "Millenium Bomber", Ahmed Rassam was stopped and arrested in December of 1999.
The point is that there have been numerous attempts to use terrorist activities against the US and it is not unreasonable not inconceivable to wonder if the story about what happened on TWA Flight 800 is accurate, or if there were more sinister actions than "mechanical failure" behind it's demise.
I am not against the possibility of the government hiding this information from the public as it could have created a major panic. Clearly the passengers on the various flights on 911 made it impossible to cover things up.
Again, I am not convinced that there is a coverup, but I am not convinced either that we know the full story here. We probably never will.
What I am convinced of is that the war on terror is necessary and that there are bad people out there who are willing to maim and murder indiscriminately and that we need to work on preventing this.
Sometimes the world can be a scary place, but in spite of that I still think that there is more good than bad.
3 comments:
Hi Jack,
With all that has happened, I'm inclined to agree that what happened to TWA Flight 800 was probably a result of terrorism.
Incidentally, a little off topic ( if I may) but what are your thoughts about Prince Harry wearing a Nazi Uniform to a costume party ?
Jeanne
There have been other terrorist incidents in the US:
The 1994 shootings of yeshiva students in a van, killing Ari Halberstam (http://www.ou.org/public/statements/2000/betty38.htm)
I might argue that the murder of Meir Kahane was also a terror incident. http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/terrorists/elsayid_nosair/ from Court TV seems to agree.
And there have been other failed attacks against New York subways: http://www.cnn.com/US/9708/02/brooklyn.bomb.pm/ in 1997, and http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/features/10559/index.html
That being said, the thought that the NTSB's scores of investigators would all conspire to lie about Flight 800 seems far-fetched to me.
Hi Jeanne,
I think that it was incredibly dumb, just a stupid move. I don't buy the argument that he is only 20. It is not just a Jewish thing. Look at what the Nazis did to London, not to mention millions upon millions of others. They were a major reason the world went to war.
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