Editor’s note: The first air-terror strike against the United States did not take place on Sept. 11, 2001, according to a groundbreaking new release from WND Books. “First Strike,” by investigative reporters Jack Cashill and James Sanders, argues that the first air-terror strike took place on July 17, 1996, when 230 died with the tragic downing of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island.
In this exclusive interview, author Jack Cashill explains why he doesn’t buy the government’s explanation of the tragedy and presents some of the compelling evidence detailed in “First Stike.”
Question: From the title of your book, can we assume that terrorists destroyed TWA 800?
Answer: Ultimately, yes. On the night of July 17, the military was on the highest state of alert since the Cuban missile crisis. They were looking for something.
Q: Terrorist missiles?
A: No, although terrorist missiles were capable of hitting the plane, they were not capable of creating so massive an explosion.
Q: If not terrorist missiles, then what?
A: A terrorist plane filled with high-energy explosives. This is a complex story, one that would have been difficult to explain to the American people in 1996 – or now.
Q: Why should anyone believe you?
A: According to the FBI, 270 people – several of them in the military – saw flare-like objects with smoke trails converging on TWA 800 in the seconds before it exploded. FAA radar technicians saw an object merging with TWA 800 at the moment of the first explosion. These facts are indisputable.
Q: What is the government’s line?
A: The NTSB tells us that these were all optical illusions or computer glitches and that at that very second, for the first time in the 75-year history of commercial aviation, without a word from the cockpit, an airplane spontaneously self-destructed in mid-air because of a fuel tank explosion.
Q: Wouldn’t thousands of people have to participate in this conspiracy?
A: No. This was a genuine issue of national security. The few military who really knew what happened followed legitimate orders not to disclose any information, even to the FBI. The eyewitnesses have been eager and willing to talk from day one, but no one would listen, even the media, and that in itself is scandalous. Actual “conspirators” could be counted on one hand.
Q: When did the Clinton White House learn the truth?
A: Immediately.
Q: Why would they conceal it?
A: After two desperate years of raising money to keep the presidency, Clinton knew that telling the truth would have meant the end of peace and the end of prosperity. We would have had to impose the kind of air restrictions we did after Sept. 11. Clinton was also famous for his indecision, and once he hesitated, it would have been highly problematic to explain the delay.
Q: If we had told the truth, would there have been a Sept. 11?
A: No. The authorities would have been alert to other air-terror schemes, and the American people would have been motivated and prepared.
Q: How sure are you that a spontaneous fuel tank explosion did not destroy the plane?
A: One hundred percent. We disprove this theory 20 times over. A month after the crash, investigators were telling the New York Times that chances of mechanical failure were “remote” and getting “more remote” with every passing day.
Q: What changed investigators’ minds?
A: It certainly wasn’t the evidence. There was none. It was largely the need to find some explanation that would not suppress air travel – all the better to raise campaign cash from the airline industry.
Q: Didn’t the NTSB tests prove an explosion in the center fuel tank?
A: Just the opposite. After four years and $40 million, the NTSB could not even find a credible theoretical scenario. In the final report, moreover, the aerospace mechanics union (IAMAW) forcefully rejected the NTSB’s position and argued instead for a massive explosion outside the airplane.
Q: What caused that explosion?
A: U.S. Navy missiles destroying a terrorist airplane. To learn the details, please read the book.
Q: How confident are you of this thesis?
A: Ninety percent. All available evidence leads to this conclusion, but we have not identified the servicemen that pulled the trigger or spoken to them. We would, however, be willing to share all of our evidence with any interested parties and challenge the authorities to do the same.
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