Arrow Air Flight 1285 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63CF jetliner, registered N950JW, which operated as an international charter flight carrying U.S. troops from Cairo, Egypt, to their home base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, via Cologne, Germany and Gander, Newfoundland.
On the morning of Thursday, 12 December 1985, shortly after takeoff from Gander en route to Fort Campbell, the aircraft stalled, crashed, and burned about half a mile from the runway, killing all 256 passengers and crew on board.
On the morning of Thursday, 12 December 1985, shortly after takeoff from Gander en route to Fort Campbell, the aircraft stalled, crashed, and burned about half a mile from the runway, killing all 256 passengers and crew on board.
President Reagan's Remarks at a Service for the 256 Victims of the Arrow Air Flight 1285 Bombing from Paul Coker on Vimeo.
On December 12, hours after the crash, an anonymous caller telephoned a French international news agency in Beirut stating that the Islamic Jihad, the Shiite Moslem extremist group was claiming responsibility for the crash at Gander. The caller asserted that the group had planted a bomb on board the aircraft to prove "our ability to strike at the Americans anywhere" (see Exhibit 4).
Dismissals came instantly, beginning with the Pentagon's chief spokesman Robert Sims: "We have no indications of explosions prior to the crash or of hostile action" (see Exhibit 5). Other rapid dismissals followed from the White House's spokesman Larry Speakes, the RCMP and Transport Minister Don Mazankowski -- all on the day of the crash only moments after the Islamic Jihad' s claim for responsibility (see Exhibits 5 and 6).
How was it learned so quickly that the call was a hoax? Is it possible to verify the validity of an anonymous call so quickly? This very fast dismissal on the part of the U.S. government, without explanation or valid grounds raises serious questions. If the dismissal was not done on solid grounds why was it ever done in the first place?
The possibility of terrorism was discounted instantly even though 10 months earlier, on February 14, 1984 the Director-General of the same American Multinational Force and observers unit based in the Sinai, Leamon Hunt was ambushed and gunned down by terrorists in the streets of Rome (see Exhibit 7). Knowing full well that the MFO was a terrorist target, it is curious to say the least, that American intelligence would instantly dismiss the Islamic Jihad's claim. A politically motivated response evidently comes to mind but logical grounds based strictly on normal intelligence gathering and procedure are completely absent.
If indeed there was a cover up in this affair, much would be revealed in the strategy developed by U.S. officials in the first few hours following the tragedy. It was during these delicate moments that a decision was taken at high levels as to what the official U.S. government response would be. The only problem with the response was that it was categorically impossible to discount sabotage or a pre-impact fire in those early stages because no investigators had even begun to examine one square inch of the wreckage on the other hand, such a rapid dismissal of the Islamic Jihad claim from an area where news travels comparatively slowly could and should not have been publicly discounted so quickly.
It may have been decided as such because U.S. officials knew from the very first communication they received about the crash in the early morning hours of December 12, 1985 that the aircraft was engulfed in flames and that in all probability any evidence of wrongdoing, if there was any, would be destroyed by powerful flames being fed by some 45,000 litres of jet fuel poured into the aircraft moments earlier at Gander airport. The wreckage was in fact completely destroyed by fire which was still raging up to 20 hours after the crash.
Completely destroyed apart from these bits, of course:
Prelude: Soldiers in the Sinai
Annex I to the Treaty of Peace between Egypt and Israel of 1979 provided for U.N. forces to occupy a portion of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, as observers, between Egypt and Israel. (7:345) The 101st Airborne division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky was one of four divisions that constituted the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO). The sole purpose of the MFO was to "operate checkpoints, reconnaissance patrols and observation posts along the international boundary." (7:345)
Although the MFO was designated solely as a peacekeeping force, many times they were targets of hostile acts by the Islamic Jihad, or Islamic "Holy War," a religious fundamentalist group responsible for various terrorist acts against the United States, such as the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, and the hijacking of TWA flight 847 in June of 1985. In February of 1984, the MFO's director, Leamon "Ray" Hunt was gunned down in his car in the streets of Rome, Italy. Officials investigating Hunt's murder pointed the finger of guilt at Lebanese terrorists. (2:12-20)
As a result of the Marine barracks bombing, the U.S. began withdrawing its troops from Lebanon, leaving the largest collection of United States troops in the Middle East, concentrated in the Sinai. (2:20) The rotation of these troops every six months involved a massive, cooperative effort between the Egyptians and the U.S.
The movement of these troops around the region would require that the utmost of security precautions be taken, or would it?
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