WAS IRAN BEHIND THE TWA FLIGHT 800 EXPLOSION?

(Washington, D.C.): Scores of investigators are still
scouring the seas near Long Island in search of clues
that will help them determine what brought about the
tragic end of TWA Flight 800 last week. Although
mechanical failure has not yet been officially ruled out
as the cause of the explosion which destroyed the Boeing
747, circumstantial and other evidence seems at this
point to be leading investigators inexorably to the
conclusion that some form of explosive device — a bomb
or even a surface-to-air missile — was deliberately used
to bring down the aircraft.

If such a determination is made, an even more
difficult phase of the investigation will shortly begin: trying
to discover who committed this heinous crime.
One potential clue may have been revealed in the 19 July
editions of the popular Israeli newspaper, Ma’ariv.
According to Ma’ariv:

“Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak two and a
half weeks ago [i.e., 1 July or 16 days before the
TWA explosion] visited French President Jacques
Chirac. During this visit, President Mubarak gave his
host a top secret file. According to the information
inside this file, a secret summit was held in
Teheran of representatives of terror organizations
and Iranian intelligence heads, and they discussed a
plan of attacks to be directed primarily against
U.S. targets.” (Emphasis added.)

‘Uh, Oh’

Was the downing of TWA Flight 800, in fact, a result
of this meeting? Perhaps. Even if it were not, however,
such a meeting raises some troubling concerns. These
include the following:

• As this meeting was not reported widely in the
  United States, was the U.S. government
  aware that it occurred and informed of its deadly
  subject matter? One would certainly hope
  that President Mubarak would have promptly
  delivered a similar file to representatives of
  the United States — even if U.S. intelligence
  had not ferreted out such information on its own.
  This is especially true since this sort of
  intelligence-sharing was one of the supposed
  outcomes of last Spring’s summit on terrorism at
  Sharm el-Sheikh, to say nothing of the
  obligations for such cooperation that one assumes
  Mr. Mubarak accepts along with billions annually
  in American aid.
• Among the targets for Iranian-sponsored terrorism
  could well be American forces in Bosnia — on
  whose territory large numbers of Iranian and
  other Islamic mujahedeen continue to operate. href=”96-D74.html#N_1_”>⁽¹⁾ Such
  troops are likely to become increasingly
  vulnerable to the sorts of attacks that killed
  nineteen of their comrades-in-arms last month in
  Dhahran as the U.S. component of IFOR is stripped
  of heavy armor and other firepower.
• Will the United States insist upon a “beyond
  reasonable doubt” standard of evidence,
  either in connection with TWA Flight 800 or
  concerning the ambitious plan of action adopted
  in Teheran on 1 July, before taking steps to
  punish and disrupt the operation of known
  terrorist organizations — especially those
  closely linked to Iran?

The Bottom Line

The evidence reported in Ma’ariv of Iran’s
ongoing sponsorship of terrorism against American
citizens and interests underscores the wisdom of the
recently adopted legislation designed to force U.S.
allies to choose between doing business with Iran and
Libya on the one hand or doing business with the United
States. The Center applauds the efforts of Sen.
Al D’Amato and Rep. Peter King, both Republicans of New
York, for their leadership in this initiative and urges
President Clinton to sign and implement it — without
waiving or otherwise watering down its terms (as he
recently did with corresponding legislation on Cuba
championed by Sen. Jesse Helms [R-NC] and Rep. Dan Burton
[R-IN]).

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1. See the Center’s Decision
Briefs entitled Train and Arm the
Bosnians — But Ensure That the Islamic ‘Foreign Legion’
is Sent Packing! ( href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=95-D_101″>No. 95-D 101, 7 December
1995), and The Iran-Bosnia Scandal: Where Do
We Go From Here? (No.
96-C 35, 9 April 1996).