Rating: 
Summary: Garbage in Garbage out.
Review: This is another attempt to try and profit from tragedy.First it was the Navy who supposedly shot down TWA Flight 800 and tried to cover it up. Now with our fighting men and women held in somewhat higher esteem that theory seems almost unpatriotic.
The authors now try and slightly shift the blame---but in the end no matter how you slice it, it's still all baloney. Save your money
Rating: 
Summary: TWA 800 BOMC (Book of the Month Club)
Review: This is the 14th, at least, TWA 800 book. The reason is the American people back their government on this issue 1.68 percent.* I bought two solid 5-star books from Sanders plus a 5-star video teamed up with Cashill.
Everyone seems to love this book but the 1.68%, of course, but nearly all disagree with the ending, including me. I preferred Sanders' earlier books' ending. There are enough endings promoted to start a TWA 800 BOMC for the next several years. If it's ever safe to go back into the water, people that know what happened and can back it up anonymously for self-preservation purposes (whistleblowers) will do a DEEPTHROAT for us. Meanwhile, there's no one to even blow a whistle to on TWA 800. Many have allegedly tried.
I think the navy CEC/SM2 Data Link Test Goof from the USS Fleeing Crime Scene (30kt target) will prevail. Petty thieves always run straight home when scared they were caught redhanded. As a former navy reliability engineer (and Executive Whistleblower), it's the only ending that makes sense to me.
My comments only apply to those concerned about leaving the next plane they get on through the same door they came in on. The accused CEC weapon system is to be deployed within the year to protect the NYC area from terrorists. And the anti-terrorism Czar there is TWA 800's "FBI designated liar." When the TWA 800 tragedy repeats (MTBF = 3 years) all I can mutter is Howard Cossell's famous quote, "They all deserved it!" Better buy the book or take Greyhound (and loan it to me to read).
* By the time Aviation Week got around to doing a poll, NTSB
credibility fell to 33% (1 in 3 still believed them). A TV later poll measured NTSB credibility at 20% (1 in 5). The most recent 24 hour poll measured it at (100 of 5962 votes) or 1.68% (1 in 60) of
Americans now believe the NTSB. NTSB Spokesman Peter Goelz needs help. LOL "You can trust CNN." CNN
Rating:
Summary: Recommended Without Hesitation
Review: This meticulously researched and well-written book is an absolutely essential purchase, even for casual reader. In fact, anybody with even a remote interest in the American government should purchase this book. It might seem unusual to recommend on a political level a book that is ostensibly about a plane crash, however, one comes away from this book thoroughly convinced that the American government did not want the truth about the TWA 800 tragedy to be discovered.Cashill's no-nonsense prose reads as a very cohesive work - he breaks down his arguments into separate chapters that deal with a particular aspect of the investigation. This includes a thorough dissection of the FBI's official explanations, most noticeably, the incongruous Saint Louis "dog-training" exercise - an explanation that signified mainstream journalism's loss of interest in the crash. It is incredible to note how mainstream journalists unequivocally accepted the official explanations, seemingly without even bothering to check the elementary facts involved. In fact, Cashill laments the death of investigative journalism in America on a number of occasions throughout the book. Well, if there were more journalists like him, there would not be a problem. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Near Miss?
Review: What's most fascinating about FIRST STRIKE is the way that the authors (Cashill and Sanders) effortlessly weave speculation and fact so seamlessly together. By the outcome, the reader might not be entirely sure of what to believe, but there's no doubt that all of the facts -- on either side of the argument (was it an act of terrorism or unprecedented mechanical failure never before seen in aviation history) -- don't exactly add up neatly. In this investigation of the downing of Flight 800,Cashill and Sanders dramatically reconstruct the event through the use of the unheard of participants -- parents and friends of those who died so tragically, mechanical engineers who tested materials recovered in the crash, even former police and NTSB investigators who played no role other than to enforce how askew the entire handling of the event played out. Therein lies the greatest fascination of the work; the book works best when it spends time indulging in the thought-processes behind the theories, and it skips along unevently when trying to recount fact after fact after fact. While the data here largely supports the authors' conclusions, it could've been dissected less succinctly so that it mixed more cohesively with the story of those along for the ride. FIRST STRIKE paints a very vivid picture of the unfortunate politics associated to handling criminal investigations (who's to gain politically, emotionally, and professionally, as well as who's to lose), and the authors deserve much credit for keeping a reader's interest throughout what appears to be 250+ pages of a foregone conclusion. A masterful job, FIRST STRIKE's only shortcoming is the fact that I personally felt that the last few chapters culminated an impression for a follow-up book; however, by the last paragraph, I could only wonder, "What more could there be?"
Rating:
Summary: Near Miss?
Review: What's most fascinating about FIRST STRIKE is the way that the authors (Cashill and Sanders) effortlessly weave speculation and fact so seamlessly together. By the outcome, the reader might not be entirely sure of what to believe, but there's no doubt that all of the facts -- on either side of the argument (was it an act of terrorism or unprecedented mechanical failure never before seen in aviation history) -- don't exactly add up neatly. In this investigation of the downing of Flight 800,Cashill and Sanders dramatically reconstruct the event through the use of the unheard of participants -- parents and friends of those who died so tragically, mechanical engineers who tested materials recovered in the crash, even former police and NTSB investigators who played no role other than to enforce how askew the entire handling of the event played out. Therein lies the greatest fascination of the work; the book works best when it spends time indulging in the thought-processes behind the theories, and it skips along unevently when trying to recount fact after fact after fact. While the data here largely supports the authors' conclusions, it could've been dissected less succinctly so that it mixed more cohesively with the story of those along for the ride. FIRST STRIKE paints a very vivid picture of the unfortunate politics associated to handling criminal investigations (who's to gain politically, emotionally, and professionally, as well as who's to lose), and the authors deserve much credit for keeping a reader's interest throughout what appears to be 250+ pages of a foregone conclusion. A masterful job, FIRST STRIKE's only shortcoming is the fact that I personally felt that the last few chapters culminated an impression for a follow-up book; however, by the last paragraph, I could only wonder, "What more could there be?"
Rating:
Summary: For Everyone Interested in the Truth About TWA 800
Review: When one considers the lies, deceit, and treasonous behavior of the Clinton administration and Janet Reno's Injustice Department from 1993 through 2000, there is no doubt that 'First Strike' is a non-fiction book. It is a bold stroke to keep the tragedy of TWA 800 from going the way of obscurity at the hands of FBI, CIA and NTSB lies and coverups. Sanders and Cashill pull no punches in bringing to light the stinging truth of the efforts of the government to hide the truth about what really happened on July 17, 1996 from the American public. Hopefully this book will cause honest Americans to demand that our government come clean about this and other coverups that were the hallmark of the corrupt Clinton administration. I highly recommend this book to all Americans who refuse to buy the government line about this tragedy. And, when you finish 'First Strike', get your politics overhauled by reading 'The Savage Nation' by Michael Savage.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: While hundreds of Long Island residents prepared for their evening cookout with friends, and some were enjoying those last few hours out on the water before dark, the passengers and crew of TWA Flight 800 were boarding for a routine flight to Paris. Little did the residents of Long Island or the passengers and crew of Flight 800 know that their lives would become inexorably entwined on the evening of July 17, 1996.
Their story and the case against the federal investigatory process are the subjects of a new book, First Strike. For the record, First Strike is not a conspiracy book. It is, first and foremost, a book about people: What they saw, what they did and what they didn't do. In a perfect world - where everyone does the right thing - this book would not have needed to be written. But, because of the people involved, it had to be written. Authors Jack Cashill and James Sanders expertly fill in the blanks of the massive disaster that befell the passengers and crew of Flight 800. The evidence presented against the Clinton administration and the federal authorities- whose job it was to find and then tell the truth to the American people -is factually detailed in a dispassionate orderly fashion. Important as well is the authors skill in placing the reader into the lives of the defenseless: the victims and their surviving families, the eye witnesses, and the technical experts that - still to this day - challenge the government's conclusions. Without question, airplane disasters are not pretty. They are grisly, painstakingly detailed work that should have one goal in mind: to find out what happened. But in the case of Flight 800, the investigation (and the investigators) and the subsequent government conclusions were missing a key element - the truth. Moreover, they went out of their way to invent new ones to explain away what was obvious to most. For example, a FAA radar tape is usually a useful tool in the investigatory process of airline crashes. Usually. "When Ron Schleede of the NTSB first saw the data, he exclaimed, 'Holy Christ, this looks bad.' He added later, 'It showed this track that suggested something fast made the turn and took the airplane.'" That was Schleede's reaction on the night of July 17, 1996. On July 18, the New York Times reported that an "unnamed government official revealed that air traffic controllers did pick up a mysterious blip that appeared to move rapidly toward the plane just before the explosion. The officials and the Times linked the radar to eye-witness sightings to a missile attack. However, "By July 19, the government had gotten its story straight." In the end, what was obvious to everyone (radar experts, eye-witnesses and even the New York Times) was explained away. Throughout the book the authors use of federal investigator's own words, official reports, and the curious behavior of administration operatives draws the reader into the political maze of the Clinton administration's refusal to publicly acknowledge what it knew about the demise of Flight 800. Equally important, the book brings home the message that qualified experts (decorated war pilots, honest law enforcement personnel and experienced mariners) are not to be trusted where politics and approval ratings reign supreme. In the end, the politics of the day dictated how an airplane disaster of this magnitude was to be investigated. The truth about Flight 800 was secondary to expediency, and the surviving families derived little comfort from the far-fetched explanations of the federal government. The authors come to the entirely damning conclusion that had Clinton told the truth on July 17, 1996, September 11, 2001 would have been just another day. First Strike is the tale of the people who perished, of the people who watched them perish and of the people who refused to acknowledge the truth.
It was, after all, an election year.
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