We are coming up to a very interesting anniversary period in the history of terrorism which I thought I might share with you.  The dates of interest are June11, June 25, July 2, July 8, July 16/17, and July 22.

June 11
On June 11, 2001 Timothy McVeigh was executed. On May 7, 2002 The O'Reilly Factor interviewed Larry Johnson, who was a former CIA officer, deputy director of the U.S. State Department Office of Counterterrorism,1989-1993.  He revealed that the identity of John Doe #2 in the Oklahoma City bombing to be Hussain Al-Hussaini, a former member of the Iraqi Republican Guard Guard.  Hussain Al-Hussaini worked for Samir Khalil who was linked to the 'charitable organization' "The Holy Land Foundation" which was declared by the Bush administration to be sending funds to terrorists. John Doe # 2 was seen with Timothy McVeigh three days before the OKC bombing, the morning of the bombing, getting out of the Ryder truck after it pulled up in front of the Murrah building, and he was seen driving away from the building. In
1996/1997 when he left Oklahoma City Al-Hussaini went to work at Logan airport in Boston from which several of the September 11, 2001 hijackers left. McVeigh's accomplice, Terry Nichols, an unemployed guy, made several trips to the Phillipines with unexplained sources of cash (See the book 'Others Unknown' by Stephen Jones, McVeigh's original attorney) where he was
associated with Osama bin Laden's Al Quaeda organization, Abu Sayyaf. Additionally, the owner of the motel in which McVeigh stayed prior to the bombing of the Murrah building reported to the FBI that three of the September 11, 2001 hijackers attempted to book rooms at the motel in late
July or early August 2001 telling him they were taking flight training. These were Mohammed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi and Zacarias Moussaoui, who is presently in Federal Custody as the possible 20th hijacker. When told they could not have rooms they then asked if they could look around the motel and proceeded to do so examining the building as if it was "some sort of a shrine". 

If the FBI wish to convict Moussaoui as the 20th hijacker they have an excellent connecting witness in the motel in OKC. But then things will lead to Osama bin Laden and one would have to be a conspiracy theorist to think about something like that.

June 25
June 25, 2002 this year in the Islamic calendar will be the anniversary (14 Raby` al-THaany 1423 A.H.) of the African embassies' bombings in Kenya and Tanzania which occurred on August 7, 1998 (14 Raby` al-THaany 1419 A.H.)  

Also, On June 25, 1996 19 Americans were killed in the Khobar Towers bombing in Dharan. Three weeks to the day before TWA 800 crashed, and in approximately the same location as TWA 800, within hours of the Khobar Towers bombing, the Coast Guard received reports of "three red flares" launched 25 miles south of Shinnicock Inlet.  An air and surface search was carried out which found nothing out of ordinary. There were no boats in distress. 

However, TWA Flight 848 (New York to Rome) blocked out of JFK at exactly 10:00 pm on June 26, 1996 and assuming normal handling, it would have passed about 11 NM South of Shinnecock Inlet at 10:29 p.m. EDT.  TWA Flight 884 (New York to Tel Aviv) was scheduled to depart before FL 800 but blocked out late at 10:19 p.m. EDT.  Four months after TWA 800 crashed (at which time jurors at the trial of Ramsey Yousef for the original World Trade Centre bombing were told to ignore reports about the TWA 800 crash) TWA Flight 884 was flying behind PIA 712 which reported that "some kind of large firecracker rocket" had just come up from Long Island Sound and passed over the aircraft at 16,000 feet. The TWA captain flying behind commented ironically "firecrackers" don't go past 16,000 feet.

He must have been a conspiracy theorist to think about something like that.

July 2
July 2, 2002 (21 Raby` al-THaany 1423 A.H.) is the anniversary on which Ramsey Yousef was convicted for plotting to blow up 12 US airliners over the pacific (21 Raby` al-THaany 1417 A.H. - September 5, 1996 ).  The crash of AA 587, on November 12, 2001, occurred on the fourth anniversary of the conviction of Ramzi Yousef for bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. 

Now this is conspiracy theory run amok!

July 8
July 8, 2002 (27 Raby` al-THaany 1423 A.H.) is a very bad day in the terrorist's calendar because on March 26, 1979 (27 Raby` al-THaany 1399 A.H.) Egypt and Israel signed a formal peace treaty and on the 20 August 1998 (27 Raby` al-THaany 1419 A.H.) the US launched cruise missiles at Osama bin Laden's bases in Afghanistan.  However, less than a year later ......

July 16
On July 16, 1999 J.F. Kennedy Jr. was killed and immediately cremated with his wife and his wife's sister after a mysterious crash within hours of the TWA 800 anniversary.  It was not widely reported that the United States Defense Secretary had to cancel a trip to Albania earlier in that week because of fears that supporters of Osama bin Laden would try to kill him. American intelligence sources had monitored radio conversations which hinted at an attempt on the life of a major U.S. personality.

Sorry, but one does have to be a 'card carrying' conspiracy theorist to think about something like that.

July 17
July 17, 1996   TWA 800
Eyewitness William Gallagher, a commercial fisherman, had just finished trolling for squid. "I'll lay my ass on the table and tell the president or the FBI, and someone can hypnotize me: There was no way that red light was descending. It was ascending. It made contact with what turned out to be that airplane and made a white bright light and then split in two. If I were in a courtroom and the prosecutor says I've got an eyewitness, then I become a trump card. We're not just one witness but 135 or more strong. I saw something hit the right side of the plane. My opinion was it blew the wing off on impact. I assumed something went through the airplane, like behind first class and into the wing." Gallagher, of New Jersey, has worked the ocean waters near the crash for more than 15 years. "My honest opinion, my gut feeling, is that we have the most brilliant people in the world and the best technology," Gallagher said. "If they've been on scene for a year and they've not come up with something, as a critical thinker I have to ask, could they be covering up something?"  

Mr. Gallagher, we can't accuse you of being a conspiracy theorist but if you invite people to hypnotize you, especially the FBI, you are in danger of being labeled a "psychic" and the FBI will have nothing to do with you.

July 22
July 22, 2002 (11 Jumaada al-awal 1423 A.H.) is the anniversary of the September 2, 1998 crash of Swissair 111 (11 Jumaada al-awal 1419 A.H.) and the December 21, 1988 (11 Jumaada al-awal 1409 A.H.) bombing of Pan Am 103. As mentioned above, following the crash of AA 587 on November 12, 2001, the fourth anniversary of the conviction of Ramzi Yousef for the first bombing of the World Trade Center, a second attempt was made to bomb an American Airlines flight on the anniversary in the Gregorian calendar of the bombing of PA 103 when Richard Reid was denied boarding to AA 63 on December 21, 2001. FBI agents investigated the possibility that shoe bomber Reid was trying to mark the anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing with a suicide
attack. He first tried to board a Paris to Miami flight on Friday, Dec 21, the 13th anniversary of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people in 1988 but it was not until 24 hours later that he managed to get a flight on an American Airlines flight carrying 197 people.

The FBI is now trying to hire people who can understand Arabic.  I have a non-conspiracy theory on this. Maybe those that they hire will explain that Islamic terrorists sometimes prefer to use their own calendar when planning to "mark an anniversary". 

The FAA will never accuse anyone of being either a conspiracy theorist or a psychic. Its approach is simpler - it doesn't bother to reply.

February 21, 2002 'Rockets' reported fired at two jetliners THE WASHINGTON TIMES
An Alexandria woman said she saw a "flare or rocket" ascending toward a US Airways flight landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport last month (January 20, 2002), similar to a report from a Southwest Airlines pilot landing at Baltimore-Washington International Airport Sunday (February 17, 2002).

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a report by the pilot of Southwest Flight 454 that he saw what looked like a model rocket pass on the left side of his aircraft Sunday evening (February 17, 2002).

The FAA says it has no reports of the rocket sighting by the Alexandria resident, Joyce Mucci (on January 20, 2002). The trade association public relations coordinator said she observed the incident while driving home from work January 20 at sunset near Reagan Airport.

"It was like a rocket, kind of a reddish thing that came up from the river bank," Mrs. Mucci said. "It was aimed toward the back of the jet. Maybe the pilot didn't see it." Mrs. Mucci said she doubted it was a model rocket. "It did not look like any model rocket I've ever seen," she said. Her son used to play with model rockets when he was a child. "When he was a kid, we used to
make model rockets, and they don't look like that. It was right toward the back of the jet, right behind the engine. It went at an angle like it was aimed at the jet." She added, however, that the object did not get close enough that it could have brought down the airplane. "It may be nothing, but it's important for somebody to follow up on this," Mrs. Mucci said. She said the "flare or rocket" rose from a spot down the slope of the Potomac River beyond the jogging trail next to Reagan Airport, halfway between Memorial Bridge and the airport.

She called a Federal Aviation Administration telephone number the next day. She left a message on voice mail but received no reply.

After news accounts of the incident at BWI Sunday, Mrs. Mucci called the FBI.

"The FBI guy said, 'Hold on a minute,'" Mrs. Mucci said. "Then a woman in the background said, 'I don't want to talk to another psychic.'

Then I was put through to somebody's voice mail and I didn't leave a message."  FAA Eastern Region spokesman Jim Peters said he had no information on Mrs. Mucci's January report. "We have no record of receiving a call from Mrs. Mucci on or about that day,"  FBI spokesman Chris Murray said, "Our office is unaware of that incident."

Southwest Flight 454 was on approach 12 to 14 miles southeast of BWI at 3,000 feet at 7:10 p.m. Sunday (February 17) when the pilot said he saw the rocket. The FAA acknowledged the incident at BWI publicly for the first time Tuesday. Mr. Peters said yesterday the agency was looking into it. Fraser Jones, spokesman for the national office of the FAA, said reports of rockets flying toward airplanes are rare. "We don't tally those that I'm aware of," Mr. Jones said. "I have not heard of reports of that kind before." Local airport authorities also said they are unaware of a "flare or rocket" near Reagan Aiirport in January. "I haven't heard anything about that," said Tom
Sullivan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which manages Reagan and Washington Dulles International airports. "If it was reported by our tower, our police would have been alerted." Mrs. Mucci's report was the first time he heard of someone seeing a projectile apparently fired at a commercial airplane in the Washington area.

Occasionally, passers-by mistakenly report "near misses but not rockets," Mr. Sullivan said. The only similar report of a rocket fired at a commercial airplane in the United States followed the explosion and crash of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of New York on July 17, 1996. The National Transportation Safety Board explained the witness' reports by saying that after the front
part of the plane broke off during an electrical fire and fuel-tank explosion, the wings and rear part of the fuselage continued climbing at a sharp angle, creating an upward streak of light.

"I can't believe that", said Alice. "I daresay you haven't had much practice", said the Queen. "Why sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast". (Lewis Carroll)

Bill Gallagher, Joyce Mucci and all of you conspiracy theorists and psychics take heart ......

November 26, 1998   Washington Post
In September 1996, two months after TWA Flight 800 exploded off the Long Island shore, an FBI agent led a woman in cutoff jeans into the high-security hangar where the wreckage was stored. She surveyed the debris, then announced her conclusion: A bomb hidden in a suitcase near the left wing had destroyed the plane. She was wrong: A two-year investigation ultimately concluded that mechanical failure, not sabotage, downed TWA 800. But her error, according to
Senate investigators reviewing the FBI's $20 million probe, was not surprising, considering her area of expertise.

She was a self-described psychic. 

The decision to call in a soothsayer was apparently a one-time mistake by a low-level agent, but according to several National Transportation Safety Board officials and a former high-ranking FBI scientist, it was not the bureau's only error.  NTSB scientists also alleged several FBI procedural
foul-ups. Some were goofy but inconsequential, like the the "military officer" who helped oversee helicopter landings near the hangar until he was exposed as a fraud in a costume.  In one misstep the FBI tried to store bloodstained clothing and other physical evidence in a refrigerated truck.
But the refrigeration unit ran out of fuel over a hot September weekend, and the evidence baked for more than two days in 90-degree heat. By the time the problem was fixed, mold had grown all over it. The witnesses also reported that an FBI agent hammered two pieces of wreckage together in the hangar, and an FBI supervisor ripped metal fragments out of a seat cushion during an argument about their trajectory.

It took the September 11, 2001 screw up for the FBI to reorganize.

Soon everything will be all right.

Meanwhile, Alice, I have finished my practice and now I must go and get some breakfast.

Michael

Michael Hull maintains a TWA 800 website at: http://hometown.aol.com/bardonia

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