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"House report dismisses TWA missle theory" A report commissioned by a House subcommittee investigating the explosion of TWA Flight 800 endorses key government findings and dismisses the theory that a missile brought down the plane. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., Ohio Democrat, who earlier had backed the missile theory, renounces that scenario as incredible in a draft report to House aviation subcommitte Chairman John Duncan, who authorized the investigation. A copy of the report, dated today, was obtained by The Washington Times. Mr. Trafficant dismisses claims that the Boeing 747 was brought down by a U.S. Navy ship, terrorist missile, electromagnetic missile, meteorite or a bomb. "If, for argument's sake, the government is covering up the real cause of this tragedy it is a cover-up involving hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals," Mr. Traficant says in embracing the view shared by the National Transportation Safety Board, FBI, Central Intelligence Agency and the Boeing Co.
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Coming from a member of Congress who met and cooperated with "conspiracy theorists," the new report may blunt the impact of the principal critics.
"Despite the good intentions of many of these individuals, their assumptions are not based on the available evidence," Mr. Traficant says. His draft report is based on a 10-month investigation of the explosion, which occurred shortly after Flight 800 left New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for Paris. (end of excerpt)
Most of the rest of the article discusses the fact that retired Navy Cmdr. William S. Donaldson heads a group that has objected to the official findings. There is no discussion in the article of the evidence that Traficant's draft report (Why just a draft after 10 months?) presents.
Where have we heard arguments like these before? How many people, would you estimate, are in on the suppression of the news of the judge-ordered attachment of the Knowlton addendum to the Starr Report, to take just one example? Do not tens of thousands of people work for the American news media?
In fact, in this short news item, one can see the clear and obvious use of techniques 5, 7, and 11 in Thirteen Techniques for Truth Suppression.
4 is invoked, as well, later in the article, to wit: "The NTSB yesterday characterized as 'extremely remote' suggestions that electromagnetic interference (EMI) from warships or warplanes ignited the explosion. That possibility was suggested by Harvard professor Elaine Scarry in published correspondence with NTSB Chairman James Hall."
6 is used ever so subtly by only mentioning Donaldson, in addition to Scarry, among the critics, and that, with a reminder that his group, Associated Retired Aviation Professionals, is receiving financial support from Accuracy in Media, which everyone knows can be dismissed as a blindly partisan right-wing outfit financed, in turn, by the head of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" himself, Richard Mellon Scaife.
David Martin
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