- On December 12, 2000--more than four years after the
tragic crash of TWA 800-- Jim Hall, chairman of the NTSB, sat uncomfortably
across from Don and Donna Nibert. There was good reason for his discomfort.
The Niberts, from Montoursville, PA, had lost their sixteen-year-old daughter
in the crash and had journeyed to Hall's DC office to find out why. Hall,
arguably the least qualified and most political Chair in NTSB history,
surrounded himself with his director of research and engineering, legal
advisor and two flight data recorder specialists.
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- At the request of Don Nibert, Glen Schulze, a Flight
Data Recorder (FDR) expert, joined this group as well. For the record,
the FDR is a device that records precisely what the plane is doing, microsecond
by microsecond. If a mechanical problem had begun to unfold within the
center wing tank, the Flight Data Recorder would have picked up clues as
the event spread throughout the 747. The same holds true if the plane
had been blasted by a missile warhead explosion. Clues would begin to appear
on the Flight Data Recorder.
-
- As the meeting unfolded, Schulze made a lengthy, highly
technical presentation to the NTSB's top FDR experts. He paused briefly
after explaining the first four of his five explanatory flip charts, looked
the NTSB experts in the eye and challenged them boldly:
-
- "Hard evidence extracted from the NTSB's own reports
is consistent with the FBI and NTSB withholding the last 4 FL 800 FDR one
second data blocks and over 3,000 data bits from the public."
-
- In a world with more honor, these would have been fighting
words. Schultze had presented factual evidence, all of which originated
within the NTSB laboratories, that its final Flight 800 FDR report was
missing the last four seconds and 3136 digital bits of flight parameter
information. He also charged that in response to at least three FOIA (Freedom
of Information Act) petitioners, the NTSB had provided highly edited CD
copies of the Flight 800 Cockpit Voice Recorder tape that were also missing
those four seconds. .
-
- By the year 2000, however, at least at the top rungs
of the NTSB, "honor" was only a memory. If the science here
is complex and not easily transcribed, the reaction of the accused needs
no explanation. As Schulze notes reveal, "No NTSB staff member commented
on or objected to the 4 missing second claim."
-
- Instead, incredibly, Jim Hall made a petty complaint
about the wording used by Schulze in a letter to the Nibert's. In the letter
Schulze had asserted that the characteristics and properties of the (NTSB)
CD waveforms were "consistent with this CD being a crudely manufactured
and bungled forgery of the actual TWA FL 800 FDR tape." Hall had little
stomach for straight talk.
-
- Brushing Hall's complaint aside, Schulze presented more
hard evidence to back up his charge that the CDs were crude forgeries.
As he asserted, each CD released under FOIA should provide one consistent
set of FDR information. This was not the case. Instead, each CD presented
highly inconsistent data at the precise location on the tape 4-seconds
of data appear to have been removed.
-
- Schulze contended that the NTSB withhheld from the public
the fact that the FDR has the precise time, to the second, that the FDR
ceased recording data. But instead of sharing that data--"too accurate"
in the damning words of one NTSB expert-- the NTSB used FAA and Navy radar
data to manipulate the numbers and regain the four seconds missing from
the FDR.
-
- In fact, the embedded code shows that the FDR stopped
recording at 00:31:08 Greenwich Mean Time, almost four seconds earlier
than the cockpit voice recorder and radar data indicate. The implications
of this discrepancy are huge. These four missing seconds would provide
evidence as to what did happen to TWA 800 and may very well conflict with
the official government theory that Flight 800 exploded due to mechanical
failure..
-
- The NTSB experts presented no information to refute Schulze
factual presentation. They lamely offered the excuse that the "transient
pulse" or spike marking the end point of altered data on the FDR was
"normal and is the result of the erase head losing AC power."
The experts could not, however, explain why this spike was removed from
one of the three FDR versions the NTSB has fobbed off on the public.
-
- The only means by which scientific testing and analysis
can confirm or deny NTSB/FBI tampering with the FDR is to release the original
FDR tape to an independent laboratory. Don Nibert asked Jim Hall to approve
such an independent test. Hall asked for the request to be put in writing.
It was.
-
- More than six months have now passed since Jim Hall and
senior NTSB officials were presented with evidence that data they were
releasing had been altered. A week after this meeting, with two years
left on his tenure as Chairman, Hall apruptly quit the NTSB.
-
- The NTSB has been given ample opportunity to turn the
original FDR tape over to an independent testing facility for analysis.
This testing would either disprove criminal conduct on the part of senior
government officials or provide the basis for felony indictments on a conspiracy
to obstruct justice.
-
- The NTSB has "completely ignored and failed to respond
to Mr. Nibert's perfectly legal and proper request as a FL 800 Family Member,"
Schulze recently revealed.
-
- Based on the evidence, including the NTSB refusal to
place its own critical evidence to the test, Schulze unabashedly concludes,
"It is my strong belief that the NTSB cannot release the FDR accident
tape from FL 800 for the purpose of independent read-out and analysis without
revealing their complicity in tampering with this most important piece
of TWA FL 800 accident investigation."
-
- Last week WND readers were presented compelling evidence
that the FBI created a fictional witness report to enable the production
of the CIA Flight 800 animation-a criminal act, conspiracy to obstruct
justice. Now WND readers are presented with compelling evidence that the
Flight 800 FDR was tampered with, quite possibly to remove any evidence
contrary to the NTSB's claim that a mechanical failure doomed TWA Flight
800.
-
- Only two agencies exist within the federal power structure
that can deal with such specific criminal allegations: the Justice Department
and the House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform.
-
- In that some senior career Justice Department officials
may well have placed themselves criminally at risk by their conduct during
the TWA Flight 800 investigation, Attorney General John Ashcroft would
need almost superhuman political ability to force the department to investigate
the system itself. But he must be encouraged to try. Please mail this
article and last week's WND article on Mike Wire and how the cover-up unraveled
to: Attorney General John Ashcroft, U. S. Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania
Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 20530-0001.
-
- Congressman Dan Burton's Committee on Government Reform
operates under no such handicap. He must be encouraged to investigate
the prima facie conspiracy to obstruct justice. Please mail these same
two articles to: Congressman Dan Burton, Committee on Government Reform,
2157 Rayburn Building, Washington, D.C. 20515.
-
- Ask the Attorney General and Congressman to act now to
protect and defend the Constitution. If you don't ask, they have no reason
to act and you have no right to complain.
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