Democracynow! showed parts of the film...it looks good!...here is the transcript - go to their website to see the clips and interviews!
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/6/20/di..._about_twa
JUAN GONZÃLEZ: We begin with a look at shocking new claims about an airplane crash that happened 17 years ago. More than 200 people were killed when TWA Flight 800 burst into flames just minutes after taking off from New York on July 17th, 1996. The cause of that explosion has been in dispute ever since. Government investigators say it was most likely triggered by a failure in the plane's electrical system. But many witnesses say they saw a streak a light move toward the plane before the explosion.
Now, six investigators who participated in the original probe of the crash have come forward to request that the case be reopened. They have petitioned the National Transportation Safety Board to reactivate its investigation. Their stories are featured in a new film directed by Kristina Borjesson, a former CBS News producer. We'll be joined by her later in the broadcast, but first we look at Kristina's 17-year struggle to discover what happened on the night TWA Flight 800 went down. Her story is featured in the film Shadows of Liberty, directed by Jean-Philippe Tremblay. This clip also includes former Assistant FBI Director James Kallstrom, former New York congressional aide Kelly O'Meara and journalist Philip Weiss.
NARRATOR: On the night of July 17th, 1996, Flight TWA 800 was en route from New York City to Paris carrying 230 passengers when disaster struck.
CNN ANCHOR: Bringing you up to date, a TWA flight, a 747 aircraft, has gone down.
REPORTER: You see in the water down there, it is the burning wreckage from that plane.
KRISTINA BORJESSON: That day, I was at CBS, and my executive producer called me down and told me to look into it. And it completely changed my life, shifted my paradigm.
NARRATOR: As Borjesson investigated the crash for CBS News, many people reported something disturbing they had seen in the night sky.
KRISTINA BORJESSON: All these eyewitnesses said they had seen something go up. Then they followed it up to where the plane was. And then, all of a sudden the plane exploded.
NARRATOR: With different reports emerging about TWA 800, the FBI declared the surrounding area a crime scene.
JAMES KALLSTROM: If it is a terrorist event, we then have the challenge to find out who the perpetrators were, who the cowards were that did this.
NARRATOR: As Navy divers were called to recover the plane's wreckage, rumors of friendly fire emerged.
KRISTINA BORJESSON: That first FBI press conference I went to, some guy raised his hand, and he said, "Why is the Navy involved in the recovery when they are suspects?
JAMES KALLSTROM: Remove him. Remove him.
REPORTER: The Navy is a suspect.
SECURITY GUARD: Let's go. Come on.
REPORTER: The Navy is a suspect.
KRISTINA BORJESSON: Kallstrom just pointed at him, and he goes, "Remove him!" And then everybody continued as ifas if this hadn't happened. And to my mind, we should have all pressed on that question.
JAMES KALLSTROM: ...the United States military that friendly fire was not involved in this incident. And I used the strongest terms I could use: I said it was highly, highly, highly, highly, highly unlikely.
NARRATOR: Despite FBI denials, Borjesson's research uncovered a different scenario, based on the Navy's activity on the night of the disaster.
KRISTINA BORJESSON: When they released the radar information, they only gave half of it. They cut it off right when you can see that there were all these military vessels in this exercise zone that was right there.
KELLY O'MEARA: Not only were there ships there, but there actually was a live fire exercise going on off the coast that night, and that's why they had closed down the flight corridor that is parallel to the commercial flight path.
RADIO OPERATOR 1: TWA 800, SANO. TWA 800, if you hear, SANO ident. TWA 800, SANO.
RADIO OPERATOR 2: I think that was him.
RADIO OPERATOR 1: I think so.
RADIO OPERATOR 2: God bless.
KELLY O'MEARA: When there's a distress, you're supposed to, by law of the sea, go and try and help. These ships went in the absolute opposite direction away from the crash site, and at 30 knots.
NARRATOR: The search for clear-cut evidence continued. And Borjesson was offered a piece of seat fabric from the plane that had undergone preliminary testing.
PHILIP WEISS: The test had revealed that there were heavy metals in it that were consistent with a missile strike that went through the plane at a certain point where this seat was very close to. And Kristina received a sample to do independent verification.
KRISTINA BORJESSON: I mean, it was just amazing. How many times do you get hard evidence from something? I had no idea there was going to be any problem whatsoever.
NARRATOR: As CBS News gave Borjesson the go-ahead to accept the seat fabric, she was close to discovering whether a missile strike had brought down the plane.
KRISTINA BORJESSON: And I was looking around for a lab, and that's when the FBI called and said, "You have a piece of stolen evidence." To my great disappointment and dismay, CBS just gave it right back.
NEWS ANCHOR: CBS has given federal investigators a piece of cloth purportedly from the downed TWA Flight 800. The FBI wanted the fabric because it is investigating whether evidence...
PHILIP WEISS: CBS folded. Like an ice cube in the sun, they just went. They decided this is not a story we're going to fight for. It was a great moment of spinelessness on the corporate media's part.
JAMES KALLSTROM: No evidence has been found which would indicate that a criminal act was the cause of the tragedy of TWA Flight 800. The law enforcement team has looked at every theory and has left no stone unturned.
NARRATOR: With eyewitness accounts of a possible missile strike still unexplained, the CIA produced an animation that was broadcast nationally.
PHILIP WEISS: When they showed that animation, it wasn't like they then went out and talked to the fishing boat captain who had seen something completely different.
CIA ANIMATION: Flames, visible to eyewitnesses more than 40 miles away...
PHILIP WEISS: I did. And they said, "This is ridiculous. This does not describe what I saw."
CIA ANIMATION: As the aircraft descended, it produced an increasingly visible fire trail.
KRISTINA BORJESSON: The video was shown on network TV. It was shown nationally. It was shown over and over.
CIA ANIMATION: To date, there is no evidence that any eyewitness saw a missile shoot down TWA Flight 800.
PHILIP WEISS: The press bought it. The press bought the government's version of events.
NARRATOR: At the time of the disaster, Westinghouse, a nuclear power company and major defense contractor, owned CBS News.
KELLY O'MEARA: Any logical person would go, "Well, where does the vast majority of their money come from? Government contracting." If Kristina were getting too close to the truth, would they shut down the investigation, or would they lose their government contracts? I mean, these are logical questions that you have to wonder. What's more important to CBS?
NARRATOR: Ultimately, Borjesson's pursuit of what happened that night challenged the priorities of corporate media.
KRISTINA BORJESSON: I walked into this meeting of news executives, and I said, "Why aren't we recovering this?" And one guy looks up at me, and he goes, "Oh, you think it's a missile, don't you?" And I said, "I don't know what it is, but I'll tell you, it's not a straightforward thing. There's something going on here." And there was just this silence, and I was just looking out at this sea of white shirts. And as I turned around and left, I just thought, "God, you know, my goose is cooked here." And it was, you know? I was out a few weeks later.
NARRATOR: The government's official explanation of the disastermechanical failurehasn't been proven, and questions still remain.
KRISTINA BORJESSON: I can't tell you with absolute certainty what happened. When that many people die, you owe it to them and to the other people who are getting on those planes every day to find out what really happened.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Kristina Borjesson from the film Shadows of Liberty, directed by Jean-Philippe Tremblay. Kristina Borjesson has just made a new documentary, along with physicist Tom Stalcup, called TWA Flight 800. They'll join us after break to talk about their new film and the call for a reopening of the TWA crash investigation. We'll also play excerpts from the new film. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
JUAN GONZÃLEZ: We continue our coverage over shocking new claims about the crash of TWA Flight 800 that killed 230 people on July 17th, 1996. The plane burst into flames off the coast of New York just minutes after takeoff. A government investigation concluded the cause of the explosion was a mechanical failure. But on Wednesday, a group of investigators who participated in that probe submitted a petition to the National Transportation Safety Board asking them to reopen the case.
The investigators say they have, quote, "reviewed the FAA radar evidence along with new evidence not available to the NTSB during the official investigation and [they] contend that the NTSB's probable cause determination is erroneous and should be reconsidered." Among those who have come forward is former senior NTSB accident investigator Hank Hughes. He is featured in a new film called TWA Flight 800 that premieres on the premium TV channel EPIX next month.
HANK HUGHES: My report, which was 496 pages in length, or thereabouts, with photographic supplement, was cut and amended without my knowledge. When I did find out about it, I complained. Nothing was done. We were required to provide a factual report, but ordered not to write an analysis.
KRISTINA BORJESSON: What? Could you say that again?
HANK HUGHES: We were directed to write a factual report, but not an analysis.
KRISTINA BORJESSON: What would your analysis have been?
HANK HUGHES: The primaryprimary conclusion was the explosive forces came from outside the airplane, not the center fuel tank.
TOM STALCUP: Would that statement have been in your analysis?
HANK HUGHES: If I got the right one.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
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