Anderson Cooper - 360

Transcript

COOPER: All this week we're taking a close look at conspiracy theories,
stories which may be out of the headlines but on the Internet and elsewhere
are still at the center of controversy. Tonight, TWA flight 800. Eight years
ago, after the plane blew up in mid-air off the coast of Long Island, New
York, killing all 230 people aboard, the questions still linger. The
government says it was an accident, probably caused by a spark in the center
fuel tank. But to this day there are many who believe otherwise, including a
former TWA pilot who tonight in an exclusive interview talks for the first
time about what he thinks really happened to flight 800. CNN's Gary Tuchman
reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Terrell Stacey was a pilot
for TWA, occasionally flying the very same Boeing 747 that exploded in
mid-air on July 17, 1996. TWA flight 800's fate was probably the result of
an explosion in the center wing fuel tank, says the National Transportation
Safety Board. But Captain Stacey doesn't buy it.

TERRELL STACEY, FORMER TWA PILOT: I certainly do not believe it was the
center wing tank.

TUCHMAN: Stacey was one of TWA's representatives in the NTSB investigation.

STACEY: The FBI and NTSB are political animals. They will do whatever it
takes to cover their political rear ends.

TUCHMAN: More than eight years after this tragedy, many still believe a
real cause is being covered up.

MIKE WIRE, TWA FLIGHT 800 EYEWITNESS: I think it was a missile that went
up.

TUCHMAN: Mike Wire was interviewed by the FBI after he said he saw a
flame-like object streak up in the sky and strike the plane. Sixteen months
after the disaster the government produced this video explaining its
findings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the flare-like object he saw almost certainly was
flight 800 just after it exploded. Not a missile.

TUCHMAN: But the 747 was said to be flying at 13,000 feet. Witness Mike
Wire says he saw the streak at...

WIRE: 45 feet.

TUCHMAN: There have been books and documentaries about an alleged
conspiracy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All leads pointed in one direction. But for reasons
still uncertain, no one in official Washington wanted to go there. TUCHMAN:
The late Pierre Salinger made a claim the U.S. Navy accidentally shot down
the plane.

PIERRE SALINGER, FMR. JOURNALIST: Did it show the missile reaching the
plane? Yes, it did.

TUCHMAN: The man who led the NTSB investigation says the facts do not
support what the skeptics say.

ROBERT FRANCIS, FMR. NTSB VICE CHAIRMAN: A missile doesn't hit an airplane
and you recover 98 percent of the airplane and still not see a single
scratch or indication on the airplane that a missile hit it.

TUCHMAN: But the NTSB and the FBI do say the investigation can be reopened
at any time if there is new evidence. Gary Tuchman, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, we wanted to make sure we cover all the angles on this story.
So tonight joining me from Washington is Jim Hall, the former chairman of
the National Transportation Safety Board at the time of the TWA disaster.
Thanks for joining us, Jim. And from Agoura Hills, California, investigative
journalist Peter Lance, author of the book "Cover Up: What The Government is
Still Hiding About The War on Terror."

Jim, I want to start with the missile conspiracy theory. Some witnesses
claim they saw streaks of light rising from the surface to the sky. We just
saw that in the piece. How do you explain that?

JIM HALL, FMR. NTSB CHAIRMAN: Well, I think the explanation obviously was
what came out in the work of the CIA and the NTSB in terms of the streak
being the fuel from the airplane that had exploded in mid-air as it streaked
higher in the air after the explosion.

COOPER: And Peter, you also -- you believe there was a conspiracy there,
but you don't think it was a missile. You believe a terrorist bomb in the
fuel tank caused the explosion. What proof do you have of that?

PETER LANCE, AUTHOR, "COVER UP": Well, we have new evidence and evidence I
think that merits reopening this case, and I'm sure Mr. Hall has never seen
this, that Ramzi Yousef (ph), the original World Trade Center bomber who
with his uncle Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the architect of 9/11, while
awaiting trial in New York passed information to an FBI informant, and this
information in the form of FBI 302 memos is on my website, Peterlance.com,
said we want to put a bomb on the plane to get a mistrial. He was about to
be tried, Anderson, for what was called...

COOPER: Where do you come up with this?

LANCE: I got it from a forensic investigator, Angela Clemente (ph), who got
it from the actual FBI informant, who's now serving time in federal prison.
And these are actual FBI 302s in which Yousef says...

COOPER: Have you told the FBI about this?

LANCE: Have I told them? I interviewed James Calstrom (ph) for the book.
But here's the thing. Not only do we have evidence of a bomb on board in the
area of the center fuel tank. It mirrors forensically the precise bomb that
Yousef set off in...

COOPER: Wait a minute. You say you have evidence of a bomb on board. And
Jim, let me bring you in here. Trace amounts of explosives residue were
found on I think three pieces of the wreckage, and I think in issuing the
final crash report NTSB concluded, I want to get this right, quote, "we
don't know exactly how the explosive residue got there but we do know from
the physical evidence that the residues were not the result of the
detonation of a bomb." Jim, how comfortable are you with that?

LANCE: Anderson, one of the main reasons that this was the longest
investigation in NTSB history, took almost five years, and was the most
expensive investigation, was we went over every possibility that there had
been any type of bomb, missile, et cetera, that caused this particular
accident. The reason that the FBI got involved so actively at the beginning
of this investigation was because Ramzi Yousef was in prison for trying to
blow up ten planes in the Pacific and this had occurred also at the time
right near the Atlanta Olympics.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: In the airport the other day I was told I had bomb residue on a bag
of mine which was probably from the time I was in Iraq. So you can have bomb
residue and it not really mean anything.

LANCE: Well, no, Anderson frankly, the bomb that Yousef set on an identical
747 as a test bomb in The Philippines that he was about to be tried for
involved nitroglycerin. He also passed notes to this informant saying RDX
was an alternative. Both RDX and nitroglycerin were found in the area of the
center wing fuel tank. And the only explanation of the FBI and the NTSB was
that a bomb-sniffing dog test was conducted five weeks earlier in St. Louis
and that somehow the officer had spilled the explosive test aids. Well, I
got to that officer. He did the test on a different plane. And I would ask
Mr. Hall right now, were you aware that the FBI had 302 memos in which Ramzi
Yousef was predicting he was going to put a bomb on board a plane?

COOPER: I've got to let you answer and then we've got to go.

HALL: I am not aware of what the FBI did during their investigation. But I
assure you that the people in official Washington are honorable men and
women that serve our country well.

COOPER: Jim Hall, appreciate you joining us. Peter Lance as well. Thank you
very much.