TWA Missile Theory Has a Champion

 PARIS: Call Oliver Stone. Former ABC foreign correspondent Pierre
Salinger claims he has a document proving that TWA Flight 800 was
accidentally shot down by a U.S. Navy P-3. He said that the Navy was
testing missiles off the coast of Long Island on July 17, and had been
told that all planes would be flying higher than 21,000 feet. He added
that the Navy was unaware that because another commercial plane was
flying above it, Flight 800 was flying at 13,000 feet. Salinger said
the document came from "a person who got it from a person in the
Secret Service." FBI Assistant Director James Kallstrom, who is
heading the criminal investigation, heatedly denied the charge. "We
have looked at this thoroughly and we have absolutely not one shred of
evidence that it happened or it could have happened."  At the time of
the crash, the FBI received dozens of calls from people claiming to
have seen a missile at the time of the explosion. Lieutenant Commander
Rob Newell, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon, confirmed that there was
indeed a P-3 Orion anti-submarine plane a stationed in the area, but
said it does not carry missiles. The charge may cause a ripple in
France, reports TIME's Bruce Crumley because there is frustration --
and some suspicion -- about how tightly wrapped the FBI has kept the
case. But a source within the French government says there is nary a
nibble at the official level. "The French were in on the case at the
beginning," Crumley says, "and they figure that the report, while it
may be real, is probably a remnant from the period of the
investigation when absolutely nothing was ruled out. They're not going
to worry about it." As for the idea of a conspiracy, Crumley is
skeptical. "Naturally, with the government, you have to assume a
morality level somewhere near the center of the earth," he said. "So a
cover-up is always believable. But a huge, huge, cover-up, with the
sheer numbers that would have to be involved -- that seems to be too
much." Salinger, meanwhile, says "the truth must come out," and
promises to make the document available to the FBI. He should probably
stash a copy away in a safe place -- just in case.