The Baton Rouge Cop Killer Terrorist, Legally Changed his Name

Posted on July 19, 2016July 19, 2016 by Denise Simon

The probability is high that the FBI cultivated this information but due to the saturation point of agents working higher radical and militant people across the country had to prioritize cases. If true and this assessment is accurate, we have a real problem in America and worse a resource problem. Even law enforcement is overwhelmed and data from Fusion Centers may be in question. Nonetheless….here are new facts:

Courtesy of Heavy

Baton Rouge Gunman Created Alternate Identity Prior to Shooting

WSJ: Gavin Eugene Long, the gunman who killed three Baton Rouge, La., police officers Sunday, had legally changed his name to Cosmo Setepenra after pledging allegiance to a group of black Americans who claim to be part of a sovereign nation.

Long filed a notice on May 16, 2015, stating that he had joined Washitaw Nation and would change his name to Cosmo Augur Setepenra, according to court documents filed with the Jackson County, Mo., recorder of deeds office.

The declaration that he joined the separatist group had no legal force, but it is evidence that he sympathized with the sovereign-citizens movement, which law-enforcement officials consider to be an extremist threat.

Cosmo is a name that he had also used as his online persona in recent years, according to his tweets and other social-media posts. In a series of rants connected to Cosmo in the weeks before the shooting, Long, who was black, talked of his willingness to die for what he believed was an injustice aimed at him.

Long, 29 years old, was killed by police following Sunday’s shooting.

Police concerns about the sovereign-citizens movement have intensified over the past decade. Law-enforcement officers perceive the sovereign-citizens movement as the top threat, ahead of jihadists, among extremist groups in the U.S., according to a 2013-2014 survey by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.

Officers had ranked the movement as the seventh biggest threat in a similar survey published in 2009.

Adherents to the antigovernment sovereign-citizens movement believe the federal government underwent a secret transformation that made slaves of all Americans, according the Southern Law Poverty Center, which has tracked the movement.

The Washitaw Nation is a related group that believes the Louisiana Purchase, in which the U.S. acquired land from France in 1803, was fraudulent. Its members claim to be part of an indigenous culture that rightfully owns the land, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

To join Washitaw Nation, a person needs to file a series of written documents with a local court, or county clerk’s office. Long submitted eight pages of documents into the official record three days after his May 2015 filing. Washitaw Nation isn’t a Native American tribe.

Long argued that, under a United Nations statute granting rights to indigenous people, he was giving up his birth name and his allegiance to the U.S., including his Social Security number, to join the group.

The man who fatally shot three police officers in Baton Rouge on Sunday before being killed has been identified as a former Marine sergeant. Mark Kelly reports. Image: AFP

The link between Long and Cosmo is also shown by a website that tracks internet-domain registration. A Gavin Long from Kansas City registered a website called “Convos With Cosmo,” which is very similar to others used for his business dealings and audio and video posts. The website was registered in April.

On July 4, in an audio file posted to one of these sites, “Cosmo” tells the story of joining the Marines in 2005 and then being stationed in Japan and California before an attempt to deploy him to Iraq in 2008. Cosmo said he was a data-network specialist, which he said made him responsible for his group’s network.

The Pentagon said Long joined the Marines in 2005 and said he had a similar rotation to the one described above.

Cosmo said the military tried to deploy him to Iraq before all of his gear had arrived from Japan, and he fought the order.

Sovereign citizens deny they are subject to most taxes and many laws. Members of the movement have harassed government officials by filing liens against officials’ property. They have been prosecuted in dozens of tax-avoidance and other financial schemes, according to a research brief by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.

People associated with the sovereign-citizens movement have also been linked to the deaths of several law-enforcement officers, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation describing them as part of “domestic terrorist movement.”

Two police officers in West Memphis, Ark., were shot and killed during a 2010 traffic stop by a father and son identified by the Southern Law Poverty Center and the Anti-Defamation League as sovereign citizens. Suspects in the 2012 shooting deaths of two sheriff’s deputies in St. John the Baptist Parish, La., also described themselves as members of the movement.

Long began using the Twitter account “Convos with Cosmo” in October 2015. The account was used primarily for motivational messages, boasts about himself or links to some of his ideas on issues like sex. They took a more militaristic turn in recent weeks, though, following recent police shootings that killed two black men, one in Baton Rouge and another in Minnesota.

On July 8, one day after Micah Johnson killed five law-enforcement officers in Dallas, Cosmo posted a video suggesting that he could do something that would make people speculate about his motivations.

That same day, Long sent an email to 13 people whom he described as his “Peace Family” and told them “that if anything may happen to me or with me, I am NOT affiliated with anybody, any group, nationality, association, religion, corporation, business, etc.”

He said that for him “as a Man (Protector and Provider) (And Spiritual Being) and me knowing my role as a Man, my duties as a Man, and that I determine my destiny and no one else, I am taking this Earth Plane existence day by day and even hour by hour because anything is possible from here on out.”

The email was sent less than 24 hours after the Dallas shooting that killed five law enforcement officers.

The day after the Dallas law-enforcement officials were shot, Cosmo tweeted: “The Shooter was NOT WHITE, He was one of us!”

In his most recent video posted on his YouTube page Thursday, he is in his car, promoting a book and talking about “wanting my people to succeed.” It isn’t clear where the video is set, but he mentions the protests in Baton Rouge and says he wasn’t able to participate.

“I just got here. I came for my people I am not really into the protesting. I do education,” he said, arguing that the protesters will be gone in the next month.

By Sunday night the video had been viewed more than 11,000 times and was filled with hundreds of comments condemning the shootings.

Cosmo claimed that he dropped out of school, sold his cars, gave away his material possessions and packed two suitcases and headed to Africa, a place he called his “ancestral home.”

He posted videos of his journey, including a stay at what he called a “mid-level” guesthouse in Accra, Ghana, in a clip titled “African-Americans this is what Africa really looks like.”

On July 13, six days after the Dallas shooting, he tweeted: “Violence is not THE answer (its a answer), but at what point do you stand up so that your people dont become the Native Americans…EXTINCT?”

His final tweet, sent just hours before the Baton Rouge police officers were killed, suggested he knew that he was about to die as well: “Just bc you wake up every morning doesn’t mean that you’re living. And just bc you shed your physical body doesn’t mean that you’re dead.”

—Jim Oberman contributed to this article

Hey Obama, Kerry, Rhodes, Explain this Secret on Iran Deal

Posted on July 18, 2016July 18, 2016 by Denise Simon

Related reading: Banking & Money Laundering Risk

Iranian financial institutions remain locked out of the U.S. financial system, and therefore cut off from much of the global financial system. International banks have been hit with $14 billion in fines since 2009 for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. The U.S. continues to designate the entire Iranian financial sector as a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act and the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act.

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Iran urged to avoid further ballistic missile launches, to preserve deal July 18, 2016

Iran has been urged not to carry out further ballistic missile tests, which might be deemed inconsistent with the “constructive spirit” of the nuclear deal struck with world powers a year ago.

The call came from UN Under Secretary-General Jeffrey Feltman, briefing the Security Council on the implementation of the resolution which endorsed the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

AP Exclusive: Confidential text eases Iran nuke constraints

VIENNA (AP) — Key restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program imposed under an internationally negotiated deal will start to ease years before the 15-year accord expires, advancing Tehran’s ability to build a bomb even before the end the pact, according to a document obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

The document is the only text linked to last year’s deal between Iran and six foreign powers that hasn’t been made public, although U.S. officials say members of Congress have been able to see it. It was given to the AP by a diplomat whose work has focused on Iran’s nuclear program for more than a decade, and its authenticity was confirmed by another diplomat who possesses the same document.

The diplomat who shared the document with the AP described it as an add-on agreement to the nuclear deal. But while formally separate from that accord, he said that it was in effect an integral part of the deal and had been approved both by Iran and the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, the six powers that negotiated the deal with Tehran.

Details published earlier outline most restraints on Iran’s nuclear program meant to reduce the threat that Tehran will turn nuclear activities it says are peaceful to making weapons.

But while some of the constraints extend for 15 years, documents in the public domain are short on details of what happens with Iran’s most proliferation-prone nuclear activity – its uranium enrichment – beyond the first 10 years of the agreement.

The document obtained by the AP fills in the gap. It says that as of January 2027 – 11 years after the deal was implemented – Iran can start replacing its mainstay centrifuges with thousands of advanced machines.

Centrifuges churn out uranium to levels that can range from use as reactor fuel and for medical and research purposes to much higher levels for the core of a nuclear warhead. From year 11 to 13, says the document, Iran can install centrifuges up to five times as efficient as the 5,060 machines it is now restricted to using.

Those new models will number less than those being used now, ranging between 2,500 and 3,500, depending on their efficiency, according to the document. But because they are more effective, they will allow Iran to enrich at more than twice the rate it is doing now.

The U.S. says the Iran nuclear agreement is tailored to ensure that Iran would need at least 12 months to “break out” and make enough weapons grade uranium for at least one weapon.

But based on a comparison of outputs between the old and newer machines, if the enrichment rate doubles, that breakout time would be reduced to six months, or even less if the efficiency is more than double, a possibility the document allows for.

The document also allows Iran to greatly expand its work with centrifuges that are even more advanced, including large-scale testing in preparation for the deal’s expiry 15 years after its implementation on Jan. 18.

A U.S. official noted, however, that the limit on the amount of enriched uranium Iran will be allowed to store will remain at 300 kilograms (660 pounds) for the full 15 years, significantly below the amount needed for a bomb. As well, it will remain restricted to a level used for reactor fuel that is well below weapons grade. Like the diplomats, the official demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing the document.

“We have ensured that Iran’s breakout time comes down gradually after year 10 in large part because of restrictions on its uranium stockpile until year 15,” the official said. “As for breakout times after the initial 10 years of the deal, the breakout time does not go off a cliff nor do we believe that it would be immediately cut in half, to six months.”

Still the easing of restrictions on the number and kind of centrifuges means that once the deal expires, Tehran will be positioned to quickly make enough highly enriched uranium to bring up its stockpile to a level that would allow it to make a bomb in half a year, should it choose to do so.

The document doesn’t say what happens with enrichment past year 13. That indicates a possible end to all restrictions on the number and kind of centrifuges even while constraints on other, less-proliferation prone nuclear activities remain until year 15.

Iran insists it is not interested in nuclear weapons, and the pact is being closely monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA says Tehran has essentially kept to its commitments since the agreement was implemented, a little more than six months after Iran and the six powers finalized it on July 14, 2015.

Marking the agreement’s anniversary Thursday, President Barack Obama said it has succeeded in rolling back Iran’s nuclear program, “avoiding further conflict and making us safer.” But opposition from U.S. Republicans could increase with the revelation that Iran’s potential breakout time would be more than halved over the last few years of the pact.

Also opposed is Israel, which in the past has threatened to strike Iran if it deems that Tehran is close to making a nuclear weapon. Alluding to that possibility, David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security is a U.S. government go-to resource on Iran’s nuclear program, said the plan outlined in the document “will create a great deal of instability and possibly even lead to war, if regional tensions have not subsided.”

The deal provides Iran with sanctions relief in exchange for its nuclear constraints. But before going into recess, U.S. Congress last week approved a bill to impose new sanctions for Tehran’s continuing development and testing of ballistic missiles, a program the White House says is meant to carry atomic warheads even if it is not part of the nuclear agreement.

It also approved a measure that calls for prohibiting the Obama administration from buying more of Iran’s heavy water, a key component in certain nuclear reactors.

The White House has said removing the country’s surplus heavy water denies Tehran access to a material that may be stored for potential nuclear weapons production. But critics note that the purchase was made only after Iran exceeded heavy water limits proscribed by the nuclear deal and assert it rewarded Tehran for violating the agreement.

Hillary’s Newest Legal Machinery at Work on Depositions

Posted on July 18, 2016July 18, 2016 by Denise Simon

Lawyers from several government agencies have rallied to Hillary’s defense, including those from the State Department and from the Justice Department. Likely, lawyers from the White House have also been consulted while Hillary herself has a team of lawyers. So, if she does prevail in the general election, does that mean she will provide a very late deposition and even pardon herself?

Clinton preserves option to stall deposition

Politico: Hillary Clinton’s lawyers are expected to appear before a federal judge Monday morning in a bid to keep her from being forced into videotaped, sworn testimony about her email system, but they’re keeping their options open if things don’t go their way.

In a little-noticed passage in a court filing last week, Clinton’s legal team laid the groundwork for a potential appeal that could allow the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to delay any deposition for weeks or months, perhaps even until after the November election.

“For the sake of preserving any and all rights, counsel to Secretary Clinton respectfully submit that discovery is unwarranted in this case as a general matter,” longtime Clinton lawyer David Kendall and colleagues wrote in a filing submitted to U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan.

Legal experts say the language is aimed at keeping the door open for Clinton to try to block a deposition at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit if Sullivan decides to order one.

Kendall “is preserving that position for ultimately raising it on appeal, if necessary….It’s safe lawyering,” said Dan Metcalfe, former co-director of the Justice Department’s Office of Information and Privacy, now with American University’s law school. “It’s a wise thing to do, but one could infer from that that he’s not 100 percent confident that the argument….would prevail.”

It’s difficult to predict whether Sullivan will grant the request he’s set to take up Monday from the conservative group Judicial Watch, which is demanding to put Clinton under oath in connection with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit exploring aspects of her private email set-up.

The judge—an appointee of President Bill Clinton—has been sharply critical of the former secretary of state for her handling of her emails. At a hearing last August, Sullivan said Clinton’s “violation of government policy” was responsible for the email imbroglio. And in May, the judge approved depositions for several of Clinton’s aides and issued an order explicitly leaving open the possibility Clinton herself might be required to testify.

But Sullivan has also seemed concerned about the litigation becoming a football in the presidential campaign. In May, he not only acceded to a request from a close Clinton aide to put videos of the depositions off limits to the public, he expanded the court-ordered restriction to the videos of all depositions conducted in the case.

If Sullivan approves a deposition for Clinton and the Clinton camp goes to the D.C. Circuit to try to block such testimony, Clinton appears to have a decent chance of succeeding at least in winning a delay, in part because that court has been very deferential to cabinet members in similar circumstances.

In 2014, the D.C. Circuit blocked a court-ordered deposition of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a defamation lawsuit former Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod brought against late conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart over a video he published. The appeals court said it was “well-established” that c members should not be deposed in civil suits absent “extraordinary circumstances.”

Clinton is a former cabinet official, not a sitting one. However, her court filings last week mention that her status as a former cabinet official more than half a dozen times.

The D.C. Circuit may be more politically fertile territory for Clinton than it was a few years ago. The court is now split between Democratic and Republican appointees, 7-4. Four of the court’s Democratic appointees have joined the court since 2013.

Another reason Clinton’s legal team got directly involved in the case for the first time last week: while State is opposing a deposition for Clinton, the agency and its lawyers at the Justice Department might not try to appeal to block Clinton’s deposition if it is ordered.

In May, when Sullivan ordered depositions of about half a dozen former State officials—including a couple of close aides to Clinton—State did not try to seek relief from the D.C. Circuit, even though State argued against allowing the depositions in the first place.

The hearing Monday before Sullivan is likely to focus on whether Clinton’s use of a private email server could bring Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit within an exception to a 1980 Supreme Court case involving the papers of another former secretary of state, Henry Kissinger. The high court ruled that Kissinger’s papers were not obtainable under FOIA because they were not in the State Department’s control at the time of the request, but in a footnote the court suggested its ruling might be different if an employee intentionally placed outside an agency’s possession.

“We need not decide whether this standard might be displaced in the event that it was shown that an agency official purposefully routed a document out of agency possession in order to circumvent a FOIA request. No such issue is presented here. We also express no opinion as to whether an agency withholds documents which have been wrongfully removed by an individual after a request is filed,” Justice William Rehnquist wrote for the court’s majority.

In filings last week, Clinton’s lawyers argued that because the Judicial Watch request involved in the suit came after Clinton left office in February 2013, the Kissinger case controls and State has no obligation to provide records that Clinton possessed at that time.

“Kissinger squarely covers this case,” Kendall wrote, noting that Judicial Watch’s request for records about Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s employment arrangement came several months after Clinton left State.

Clinton’s lawyers went even further, arguing that “a general intent to ‘thwart’ FOIA” isn’t enough to upend the general rule that records outside an agency’s possession are lost to FOIA requesters.

In a statement last week, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton called it “both significant and disturbing” that Clinton was asserting her private email account was her private property, just as Kissinger asserted about the records he took and deposited in a restricted collection at the Library of Congress.

Sullivan might choose to shut down or delay the request for Clinton testimony given that it’s unclear what the court could do at this point to recover more of Clinton’s emails. She already turned over about 30,000 messages her lawyers deemed work-related. Those records have been searched by State, processed under FOIA, and released with the exception of a few messages deemed to contain “Top Secret” information.

The FBI currently has possession of several servers used by Clinton, as well as some messages recovered from other sources. After FBI Director James Comey announced he wasn’t recommending criminal charges against Clinton or others over the emails, the law enforcement agency said it plans to provide emails that might qualify as official records to the State Department.

Clinton has said she has no emails from that period in her possession at this point, beyond the equipment transferred to the FBI. However, it remains unclear how long it will take for State to obtain those records and just who will decide which of Clinton’s emails might qualify as official State records.

In addition, some of the records and equipment in the FBI’s possession might still be Clinton’s property, leaving open some prospect of Judicial Watch winning some court-supervised process to examine that material for government records.

On the other hand, it’s also possible Sullivan might decide the lawsuit under discussion Monday isn’t the right vehicle to pursue questions about Clinton’s handling of her email. There are dozens of other FOIA suits pending against State, including some relating to requests filed before Clinton stepped down as secretary.

Those other cases might be stronger ones to press the issue, but it’s unclear whether judges in those case would demand Clinton submit to deposition, how quickly they would do so, and whether a higher court would intervene over an order for such testimony issued in the months or weeks before Clinton is expected to face presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump in the November election.

Russia Makes Olympic Athletes with Proven Doping Program

Posted on July 18, 2016July 18, 2016 by Denise Simon

Wada Report is here.

WADA Calls For Russian Ban From Rio Olympics After Report Confirms ‘Unprecedented’ Doping Scheme

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Russia ‘Directed’ Athlete Doping For Years

A report says that Russia’s government and secret service directed systematic cheating in sports since 2011.

SkyNews: Russia has systematically covered up doping in “all sporting disciplines” since 2011, an official report has found.

The sports ministry and secret service “directed and oversaw” the manipulation of urine samples, the World Anti-Doping Agency said.

It resulted in at least 312 falsified results up until at least last year’s world swimming championships, WADA said.

The state-sponsored cheating happened after an “abysmal” medal count at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, according to the report.

The cheating involved clean urine being frozen and switched for doped urine, often passed through secret holes in laboratories.

As well as the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, Russia’s cheating also included the 2013 track world championships in Moscow.

The doping continued in the 2015 swimming world championships in Kazan, chief investigator Richard McLaren said.

Russia’s track and field athletes are already banned from the Olympic Games in Rio, beginning this summer.

The independent findings will increase pressure for all Russians – not just those in track and field events – to be banned from the games.

The report was commissioned following claims made by a Russian whistleblower, former director of anti-doping Dr Grigory Rodchenkov.

He claimed that dozens of athletes, including at least 15 medalists in Sochi, were part of an extensive state-run doping programme.

Reuters:

An independent commission report, led by Canadian law professor and sports lawyer Richard McLaren, published on Monday revealed evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

McLaren, who was a member of WADA’s independent commission which last year exposed widespread doping and corruption in Russian athletics, said the Russian Ministry of Sport oversaw the manipulation of athletes’ analytical results and sample swapping.

Here are some reactions from the world of sport:

TRAVIS TYGART (CEO of USADA)

“The McLaren Report has concluded, beyond a reasonable doubt, a mind-blowing level of corruption within both Russian sport and government that goes right to the field of play… and most importantly, our hearts go out to athletes from all over the world who were robbed of their Olympic dreams.

“Looking forward, we must come together as an international community — comprised of those who truly believe in the spirit of Olympism — to ensure this unprecedented level of criminality never again threatens the sports we cherish.”

IOC PRESIDENT THOMAS BACH

“The findings of the report show a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport and on the Olympic Games. Therefore, the IOC will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated.”

PHILIP CRAVEN, PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE (IPC)

“We are truly shocked, appalled and deeply saddened at the extent of the state sponsored doping program implemented in Russia ahead of Sochi 2014. The findings of the McLaren report mark a very dark day for sport.

“Once we have the further details we have requested from both parties, the IPC Governing Board will convene for a telephone conference. The Board will discuss the findings of the report and decide what relevant action needs to be taken to protect clean athletes competing in Paralympic sport.

“This may include provisional measures and sanctions with regards to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.”

SCOTT BLACKMAN, UNITED STATES OLYMPIC COMMITTEE CEO

“The McClaren Report confirms what we have stated previously: the current anti-doping system is broken and urgently requires the attention of everyone interested in protecting clean athletes.

“We look forward to working with the IOC, WADA and the entire Olympic family to address the flaws in the current system so that a uniform approach to anti-doping can be implemented and enforced around the world.

“In the meantime, we are focused on preparing Team USA to compete at the upcoming Rio Games and will rely on the IOC, WADA and the international federations to impose sanctions that are appropriate in relation to the magnitude of these offenses, and that give clean athletes some measure of comfort that they will be competing on a level playing field in Rio.”

NICOLE SAPSTEAD, CEO OF UK ANTI-DOPING

“Now is the time for the entire sporting community to come together to find a way forward and ensure that the right processes, legislation and safeguards are in place to protect the rights of all athletes to clean, fair and honest competition.”

Remembering the Cover-Up of TWA 800

Posted on July 18, 2016July 18, 2016 by Denise Simon

Audio of radio interview with Jack Cashill, author of the book TWA800

TWA 800: Twenty Years and Counting [Video]

From NoisyRoom and AIM:

By: Roger Aronoff | Accuracy in Media

Accuracy in Media (AIM) recently held a press conference highlighting Jack Cashill’s latest book, TWA 800: The Crash, the Cover-Up, and the Conspiracy. The July 7th press conference received virtually no news media coverage, a continuation of the complicit media’s role in covering up the truth behind this tragic plane crash in 1996.

Cashill has broken new ground in this outstanding, recently released book. He cites the role of Jamie Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general appointed in 1994 by then-President Bill Clinton, who was the author of “the wall” that former CIA Director George Tenet described in 2004 to the 9/11 commission. That “wall” kept the CIA and FBI from sharing information in the run-up to September 11. Cashill wrote that “a newly unearthed treasure trove of CIA documents proves beyond argument, under Gorelick’s watchful gaze the CIA and FBI worked hand in glove to subvert the TWA 800 investigation.”

I also recently wrote about the TWA 800 crash for the American Thinker, detailing how Accuracy in Media’s investigation helped to expose the government cover-up, and how an AIM documentary demonstrated that the plane could not have simply exploded. We long ago concluded that the plane had to have been brought down by a missile or missiles.

Cashill, an outstanding investigative journalist, credits AIM for opening doors for him that he “could not have opened” himself, and for freely sharing its research. He also argues that TWA Flight 800 did not crash due to mechanical error, but instead due to missiles launched by nearby naval assets. Cashill noted at the press conference that “the FBI finally admitted that there were three submarines and a cruiser in the immediate—[those are] FBI words—in the immediate vicinity of the crash site.”

Although the 20th anniversary of the TWA 800 plane crash is this weekend, July 17th, even the few media organizations that have reported on Cashill’s book have chosen to obscure some key facts and cast him as a conspiracy theorist.

“While Cashill rehashes old conspiracy theories—a US Navy ship, which was in fact in the area, conducted a wartime exercise gone awry, or a terrorist on the ground used a shoulder-mounted surface-to-air missile, or a small plane collided with the 747, or a terrorist smuggled a bomb on board—it’s telling that, 20 years later, these theories still find traction,” writes Maureen Callahan for The New York Post. Similarly, the UK Daily Mailreports that Cashill’s book “takes a look at some of the alternate theories” and relegates the terrorist and naval exercise theories to “conspiracy theorists” and calls these “claims … declared untrue by the FBI a little over a year after the crash.” But at least these two articles reported on the various theories and some of the supporting evidence.

“The phrase ‘conspiracy theorist’ today is the word that we used to use for reporter a generation ago,” said Cashill at the press conference. “But right now they can just dismiss me as a conspiracy theorist, a nut job, a loose cannon. And that affects also the respectable conservative media: Weekly Standard, National Review. They don’t want to talk about this.”

Cashill was joined by other interested parties including John Clarke, the attorney for the key legal case proving a government cover-up; Mike Wire, an eyewitness to the explosion whoseaccount was said to be the basis for the CIA-produced animation of the event; and former NTSB member Vernon Grose, who talked about how his mind was changed when presented at an AIM press conference with evidence that the government had withheld from the public. Here are some of our findings, in the words of each of the speakers. [We broke the press conference up into four video segments.]

Roger Aronoff:

“So when I arrived at Accuracy in Media in 1997, we were just starting to get into this story. And what happened is there were two people who came to us wanting to investigate this story, and wanted AIM’s help. And [they] believed that AIM is the group that would do it, that was willing to buck the media and the government. And if the evidence was there, that’s what drove us—always has, and always will.”

“And so this case, when these two people came to us. One was Commander Bill Donaldson, former Navy pilot and crash investigator, and he believed that…what happened that night was actually the result of a terrorist missile.”

“The other was the Naval exercise gone wrong theory. There was an area, Whiskey 105, where they were doing Naval exercises, testing missiles and things. Jim Sanders, a retired cop and investigator, came forward believing that this was what happened that day.”

Jack Cashill:

“And the one bit of information they had that I had not seen and did not even know about, and I felt stupid for not knowing because I had presumed there was just a handful of eye witnesses and they all had conflicting reports, were the 750 FBI witness statements, 258 of which were from individuals who had seen an object ascend up off the horizon and attack the airplane.”

“According to the CIA, within two weeks of the disaster FBI agents had interviewed 144 ‘excellent’ eye witnesses—FBI word—to a likely missile strike and found the evidence for such a strike ‘overwhelming,’ FBI word. The CIA analyst then boasted of discouraging the FBI from releasing its missile report.”

“Of the 258 eyewitnesses do you know how many The New York Times interviewed? Zero. None.”

John Clarke:

“Now, if the [TWA] Flight 800 was taken down by missile fire, it wouldn’t be one or two stray pieces of evidence, it would be all the evidence tells us that. And that’s exactly what all the evidence tells us.”

“But I think that the most shocking, the most probative evidence in the case is the CIA zoom climb animation. I mean, they put [this on] national television and told the families that really, essentially, the front third of the aircraft was blown out, was blown off—and, as Jack said, the rear two thirds of the aircraft, a weight and balance of two thirds of the aircraft, shot up the better part of a mile. I mean, it is absolutely ridiculous. It is just absurd. It’s called the zoom climb cartoon, the CIA cartoon.”

“I spoke with all of those [six] witnesses, and not one reporter called one of the witnesses. It’s just amazing.”

Mike Wire:

“But the firework went up from behind the roof line of a house and went out to sea. It wavered in its travel up and down, went out at like a forty-degree angle. And after a while it arced over, disappeared, and out of that [within] a couple seconds an explosion erupted which grew into a huge fireball. And a couple parts blew out of the fireball, but the main fuselage came out of the fireball. It was on fire in the front of the fuselage and it left like a tube of fire going from the fireball as the plane descended behind house number two, which I couldn’t see it hit the water but it went down behind the house.”

“It’s time for people to come out and say what they saw, and for other people to confess what they’ve done.”

Vernon Grose:

“So, I was predisposed, I would say, to the idea that there could have been a wiring arc tracking into the tank, the center wing tank on TWA 800.”

“…at that symposium by Accuracy in Media they had photographs…clearly that the left side of the fuselage had imploded. Now, aircraft do not implode—they explode. … At that moment, after two years of many interviews, I changed my mind, and I knew that it had to be a missile.”