It's amazing how that perennial question – where were you when XYZ happened? – keeps recurring.
Perhaps it's a byproduct of living; the longer you live, the more you can answer that question with stark memories.
When you are, as I have been, in the business of news and continue to be a news junkie, the question has more relevance.
Where were you when you first learned about the 9/11 attacks?
When Jim Jones led the Jonestown murders in Guyana?
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When the big earthquake struck?
When the Bay Bridge fell?
When Pan Am 103 blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland?
When JFK was shot?
When RFK was shot?
When MLK was shot?
When a brave Arizona sheriff and friend was suddenly killed amidst continuing mystery of why and how?
There are many others that haunt me.
One that's timely because of the date, and its 20th anniversary, is the explosion and crash of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island, New York, on July 17, 1996.
It was a civilian flight, having departed JFK Airport, and it was filled with families, college students, the flight crew – men, women and children. They were headed for Paris with no expectation of problems.
But the plane blew up, and all were killed.
I know where I was when I learned of the crash. I'd been traveling for some political consulting I was doing at the time and was staying at a hotel in New York City.
There were screaming headlines and TV news coverage, which treated the crash as terrible accident.
It was the only topic of conversation for most people. I learned that the brother of one of my co-workers was one of the rescuers searching for victims, and it was there that seeds of doubt were planted as to how the investigation was being conducted.
There was nothing immediately specific, except that something just wasn't quite right with the story.
Officials' immediate designation of the crash as "an accident" was too quick. But what made it more puzzling, and quite frankly angering, were the hundreds of eyewitness reports who said it wasn't just a "simple" problem on board and the plane went down.
There were scores of eyewitness reports from people in the area who said "something" took the plane down.
In other words, it didn't crash. It was shot down.
But as for the official NTSB report – it was an electrical short in some wires in the center fuel tank. The plane exploded and crashed.
Never mind that there was no history of such possible problems.
Never mind that there had never been any type of accident like that – before or after. This was the only one.
Never mind that explosive residue was found on upholstery from the cabin wreckage. It's evidence the government has denied and covered up.
As time passed, and the controversies grew as to what really did cause the downing of TWA 800, it was also revealed that the presidential plane was that same model, but it was never grounded.
There was also no grounding of any of the other similar planes still being used at the time – and since.
I'm not an aviation specialist, but if there's a report of a fault in the electrical system of an aircraft – severe enough to cause a crash – then every one of those of those planes should be grounded until each is inspected to be certain it is safe to fly.
That was never done.
I was suspicious then and still is now. I'm not alone in that sentiment.
One man has been a mainstay in finding out what happened, exposing the cover-up and determining who was involved – Jack Cashill.
He's a writer, investigator and editor. I've interviewed Jack over the years on my conservative radio programs on KSFO in San Francisco, have read his many books and have met and interviewed him in person several times.
He doesn't have a dog in this fight except to find the truth about TWA 800 and lay the blame for the massive cover up at the right doorstep(s).
In other words, Jack Cashill wants justice for those 230 men women and children who were killed on that July day, 20 years ago
He also wants justice for the American people who have been lied to and deceived by their government and elected officials all these years.
Jack Cashill continues his investigation and his new book, "TWA 800: The Crash, The Cover-Up, The Conspiracy," is a broadside of evidence illustrating governmental and judicial deception.
He reports on recently revealed CIA documents that confirm a missile launch intersecting with TWA 800, after which the plane disappeared from radar – in other words, the plane was shot down.
But who did it?
Rather than allow a normal investigation, the FBI took over and effectively controlled all information released to the public.
The NTSB identified 258 eyewitnesses who saw a glowing object streak toward the plane.
When the FBI allowed the New York Times to conduct interviews, they only talked to one person, ignoring the rest. Right after that, the paper headlined it was an explosive device in the cabin that brought the plane down.
The CIA released a computer-generated video purporting to show what happened – the explosion and the plane continued an upward flight until it came apart and crashed. That "upward flight" would be impossible.
I remember seeing that on TV news, and it was never questioned.
Some may not consider it a coincidence that this was the end of Bill Clinton's first term and the beginning of his re-election campaign with Al Gore against Bob Dole and Jack Kemp. A Clinton cover-up? You decide.
In Jack Cashill's first book on this, "First Strike," he called the video "the boldest and most flagrant lie ever visited on the American people in peacetime."
Removal and denial of evidence, missing evidence, misrepresentation of eyewitness accounts, apparent collusion of the courts in dealing with the incident – the whole situation is a stinking mess.
It all adds to Americans growing mistrust of their government and elected officials, who seem to consider the U.S. their own private fiefdom.
Jack Cashill's newest book, "TWA 800: The Crash, The Cover-Up, The Conspiracy," lays out the grim truth. But so far, no one is being held responsible.
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