Re: Into the Buzzsaw, by Kristina Borjesson
Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2017 5:01 am
TOURING CALVERTON WITH CHIEF OF STAFF KELLY O'MEARA
A seventeen-year veteran of Capitol Hill, Kelly O'Meara was just recovering from a decade-long investigation of the suspicious "suicide" of a young US Marine in El Salvador when TWA 800 exploded in the sky. Years of fighting with the military to get to the truth of what really happened to the young soldier had finally culminated in the government changing the cause of death from "suicide" to "undeterminable." Then suddenly, Congressman Forbes (R-NY) charged Chief of Staff O'Meara with looking into the crash.
Way before we met, she was raising the same questions I'd been asking. After a long conversation on the phone, we decided to meet to compare notes. We invited The Press-Enterprise's David Hendrix to join us. O'Meara, Hendrix, and I spent many hours in Congressman Forbes's office pouring over the hundreds of documents we'd gathered in the course of our respective investigations. While we had documented evidence of official lies being disseminated to the general public about the investigation, the "smoking gun" remained elusive.
Although deeply shaken by my experience at CBS, I had been sucked right back into TWA 800. When O'Meara invited me to accompany her and Diana Weir (Forbes's chief of staff on Long Island) to visit some of the areas that were key to the investigation, I agreed to go along. After visiting the Moriches Coast Guard Station, we went to the Calverton hangar. O'Meara told me to wait in the car while she and Weir went inside for a tour. But then Weir suggested that we ask if it would be all right for me to go along. I walked in, presented my passport, signed in as Weir's guest, and off I went. I had no press credentials at the time.
Inside the hangar, the FBI's Ken Maxwell met us and took us to a small room for a briefing before the tour. As he spoke, both O'Meara and I noticed something interesting on the wall behind us. There on a triangulation map of the area where the jetliner exploded, was a spot identified as "possible missile launch site."
Calverton hangar is enormous. One area, called the "bone yard," was a huge hallway containing pile after pile of debris. Looking at this seemingly endless line of stacked-up metal, my thought was that it must have taken a very powerful force to fragment the plane into so many small pieces. While examining the reconstructed interior with its rows and rows of mangled seats, O'Meara and I noticed another interesting thing: some rows were missing. Among them was row seventeen. According to "Hangarman," or NTSB investigator Terrell Stacey, the seats in that row were covered with the mysterious red residue that he'd sent to Sanders.
During the tour, I tried to keep my mouth shut, but my curiosity got the better of me, and I asked a few questions. While examining the reconstruction, I made a comment about the center wing tank that, I think, made Maxwell realize that I had more than just a passing interest in the mock-up. Right then, he excused himself. When he came back, the tour was cut short.
Two days later, FBI agent Joe Valiquette called O'Meara. "You know," He said, "Mr. Kallstrom is very upset that that woman was in the hangar and he is going to be calling the Congressman about this incident." Kallstrom told Deadly Departure author Christine Negroni, "I was furious. Here we were trying to cooperate with the congressional people and one of the staff members would bring someone from a news organization into the hangar."
I guess Kallstrom forgot that I wasn't from a news organization. According to Diana Weir, when Kallstrom spoke to Forbes, the FBI task force chief mentioned that he had a "huge file" on me. I sent FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests to the FBI, CIA, navy, and everyone else I could think of to get my own copy of that voluminous file. I was curious to know just how evil I was in Mr. Kallstrom's eyes. Everyone, including the FBI, wrote back saying they had nothing on me.
Kallstrom's talk with Forbes triggered the end of O'Meara's seventeen-year career on Capitol Hill. She'd become a political liability while doing the job he'd asked her to do. O'Meara, who knows the ins and outs of government like the back of her hand, who possesses investigative skills superior to those of most veteran reporters, is now an investigative journalist.
A seventeen-year veteran of Capitol Hill, Kelly O'Meara was just recovering from a decade-long investigation of the suspicious "suicide" of a young US Marine in El Salvador when TWA 800 exploded in the sky. Years of fighting with the military to get to the truth of what really happened to the young soldier had finally culminated in the government changing the cause of death from "suicide" to "undeterminable." Then suddenly, Congressman Forbes (R-NY) charged Chief of Staff O'Meara with looking into the crash.
Way before we met, she was raising the same questions I'd been asking. After a long conversation on the phone, we decided to meet to compare notes. We invited The Press-Enterprise's David Hendrix to join us. O'Meara, Hendrix, and I spent many hours in Congressman Forbes's office pouring over the hundreds of documents we'd gathered in the course of our respective investigations. While we had documented evidence of official lies being disseminated to the general public about the investigation, the "smoking gun" remained elusive.
Although deeply shaken by my experience at CBS, I had been sucked right back into TWA 800. When O'Meara invited me to accompany her and Diana Weir (Forbes's chief of staff on Long Island) to visit some of the areas that were key to the investigation, I agreed to go along. After visiting the Moriches Coast Guard Station, we went to the Calverton hangar. O'Meara told me to wait in the car while she and Weir went inside for a tour. But then Weir suggested that we ask if it would be all right for me to go along. I walked in, presented my passport, signed in as Weir's guest, and off I went. I had no press credentials at the time.
Inside the hangar, the FBI's Ken Maxwell met us and took us to a small room for a briefing before the tour. As he spoke, both O'Meara and I noticed something interesting on the wall behind us. There on a triangulation map of the area where the jetliner exploded, was a spot identified as "possible missile launch site."
Calverton hangar is enormous. One area, called the "bone yard," was a huge hallway containing pile after pile of debris. Looking at this seemingly endless line of stacked-up metal, my thought was that it must have taken a very powerful force to fragment the plane into so many small pieces. While examining the reconstructed interior with its rows and rows of mangled seats, O'Meara and I noticed another interesting thing: some rows were missing. Among them was row seventeen. According to "Hangarman," or NTSB investigator Terrell Stacey, the seats in that row were covered with the mysterious red residue that he'd sent to Sanders.
During the tour, I tried to keep my mouth shut, but my curiosity got the better of me, and I asked a few questions. While examining the reconstruction, I made a comment about the center wing tank that, I think, made Maxwell realize that I had more than just a passing interest in the mock-up. Right then, he excused himself. When he came back, the tour was cut short.
Two days later, FBI agent Joe Valiquette called O'Meara. "You know," He said, "Mr. Kallstrom is very upset that that woman was in the hangar and he is going to be calling the Congressman about this incident." Kallstrom told Deadly Departure author Christine Negroni, "I was furious. Here we were trying to cooperate with the congressional people and one of the staff members would bring someone from a news organization into the hangar."
I guess Kallstrom forgot that I wasn't from a news organization. According to Diana Weir, when Kallstrom spoke to Forbes, the FBI task force chief mentioned that he had a "huge file" on me. I sent FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests to the FBI, CIA, navy, and everyone else I could think of to get my own copy of that voluminous file. I was curious to know just how evil I was in Mr. Kallstrom's eyes. Everyone, including the FBI, wrote back saying they had nothing on me.
Kallstrom's talk with Forbes triggered the end of O'Meara's seventeen-year career on Capitol Hill. She'd become a political liability while doing the job he'd asked her to do. O'Meara, who knows the ins and outs of government like the back of her hand, who possesses investigative skills superior to those of most veteran reporters, is now an investigative journalist.