© Jack Cashill

July 17, 2003 - WorldNetDaily.com

Editor's note: Today marks the seventh anniversary of the downing of TWA Flight 800. Author Jack Cashill, whose book with James Sanders, "First Strike," presents a compelling case for terrorist involvement in the tragedy, today presents an index of facts surrounding the event and its aftermath.

7
Come July 17, the number of years this crime has gone unsolved.

270
The number of eyewitnesses that the FBI admitted saw what appeared to be ascending streaks of light.

34
The number of eyewitnesses interviewed by analysts from the Defense Intelligence Agency's Missile and Space Intelligence Center whose descriptions "were very consistent with the characteristics of the flight of [surface to air] missiles."

1
The number of eyewitnesses the New York Times interviewed.

0
The number of eyewitnesses that the New York Times interviewed who had seen an ascending streak.

1
The number of witnesses, according to the CIA, who saw the crippled and ascending TWA 800 that merely looked like a missile ("the man on the bridge").

1
The number of interviews the CIA fully fabricated ("the man on the bridge").

3,200
The number of feet the CIA claimed the noseless plane climbed.

1,700
The number of feet the NTSB claimed the noseless plane climbed.

750
Of the roughly 750 total FBI eyewitnesses the number who did not see the noseless plane climb at all, including other airline pilots.

12
"Or less." The number of total eyewitnesses that, a year later, the New York Times was reporting had seen the crash.

0
The number of Freedom of Information Act requests to which the NTSB has responded to show its climb calculations.

0
The number of ships or subs the Navy claimed were within 185 miles of the disaster.

4
The number of Navy ships or subs the FBI, in its final report, admitted were in "the immediate vicinity" of the disaster.

7
The number of days it allegedly took the Navy to find the black boxes in 130 feet of calm water off the Hamptons.

7
The number of hours it actually took the Navy to find the black boxes of a crashed Turkish airplane in 7,200 feet of water earlier in that year off the Dominican Republic.

4
The number of seconds missing at the end of both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.

3
The number of satellites in position to record the disaster.

3
The number of satellites reportedly broken at that very moment.

0
The number of times the New York Times used the word "military" or "satellite" in the first two months of reporting on TWA 800.

5
The number of minutes it took the Department of Defense to alert Russia that one of our satellites had spotted a Ukranian missile accidentally downing one of its aircraft in October 2001.

5
The number of different official explanations authorities gave for what the FAA radar technicians had seen "merge" with TWA Flight 800 on the night of July 17.

116
The number of pieces of "suspicious" debris, many of which had tested positive for explosive residue in Long Island, that were sent to the notorious FBI lab in Washington.

116
The number of pieces of suspicious debris that were never heard of again.

150
Roughly the number of airline pilots I have communicated with since the book came out.

3
The number who believed that mechanical failure had destroyed the airplane.

200
The number of (local) TV and radio interviews I have done since the book came out.

190
The number of interviewers who were largely or completely supportive.

100
The number, roughly, that had actually read the book.

27
The number of mainstream media reporters and producers I have talked to since the book came out.

1
The number who were largely or completely supportive.

1
The number who had read the book.

3
The number who said, "Clinton would never do anything like that."

3
The number of pages Michael Isikoff of Newsweek volunteered to read.

3
The number of whistleblowers arrested for trying to undo the cover-up.

2
The book's highest spike on Amazon.com.

0
The number of mainstream articles, reviews or interviews on the book.

2
The number of times Sen. John Kerry referred to the destruction of TWA 800 as a terrorist act on national TV.

0
The number of references to TWA Flight 800 in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligent Report in 1996 and 1997, on which committee Kerry sat.

230
The number of good souls whose memories deserve much better than seven years of deceit.