http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/19/us/twa-crash-claim/

(CNN) -- Skeptics who have long theorized that TWA Flight 800 was brought down by sinister forces will get a fresh surge of energy when a new documentary attempts to disprove that the 1996 crash was accidental.

The twist: It includes six members of the large accident investigation team who, publicists say, will "break their silence" on the cause of the explosion.

They will petition the National Transportation Safety Board to reopen its investigation some 17 years after the B-747 fell in pieces into the waters off of Long Island, New York.

They include Hank Hughes, who served as a senior accident investigator with the NTSB and helped reconstruct the aircraft following its destruction. Also included, Bob Young, a top TWA investigator who participated in the investigation, and Jim Speer, an accident investigator for the Airline Pilots Association.

"These investigators were not allowed to speak to the public or refute any comments made by their superiors and/or NTSB and FBI officials about their work at the time of the official investigation," a news release announcing the documentary said.

"They waited until after retirement to reveal how the official conclusion by the (NTSB) was falsified and lay out their case."
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Parhamovich



Andrea Suzanne Parhamovich (June 16, 1978 – January 17, 2007) was a National Democratic Institute employee killed in Baghdad, Iraq when her convoy was ambushed as she was returning from teaching a class on democracy. Parhamovich was a graduate of Marietta College in Ohio. She developed her career in political communication with the Massachusetts Governor's office, and the International Republican Institute in Iraq before joining the NDI staff in 2006. The General Assembly of Vermont passed a resolution commemorating Parhamovich's actions in Iraq. Magdy Martinez, Executive Head, United Nations Democracy Fund in a message of condolences described Parhamovich's legacy: "The murderers who ended her life and the lives of her guards also knew this very well and wanted probably to kill the freedom Andrea represents when using their tools of assassins against her."

The Andi Foundation was established in her honor to provide financial assistance for college scholarships and access to internship opportunities in politics and media. She was the subject of the book I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story, written by her fiancé and Newsweek reporter Michael Hastings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg



Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (September 25, 1915 – June 19, 1953) and Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953) were United States citizens convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war, and executed. Their charges were related to the passing of information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.

In 1995, the U.S. government released a series of decoded Soviet cables, codenamed VENONA, which confirmed that Julius acted as a courier and recruiter for the Soviets but which were ambiguous about Ethel's involvement. The other atomic spies who were caught by the FBI offered confessions and were not executed, including Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, who supplied documents to Julius from Los Alamos and served 10 years of his 15-year sentence; Harry Gold, who identified Greenglass and served 15 years in Federal prison as the courier for Greenglass; and a German scientist, Klaus Fuchs.

Morton Sobell, who was tried with the Rosenbergs, served 17 years and 9 months of a 30-year sentence. In 2008, Sobell admitted he was a spy and confirmed Julius Rosenberg was "in a conspiracy that delivered to the Soviets classified military and industrial information and what the American government described as the secret to the atomic bomb."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Meeropol



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Meeropol

Current position on parents' executions

In 2008, after the Rosenberg co-defendant Morton Sobell admitted that he and Julius Rosenberg had engaged in espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union during World War II, Michael and Robert Meeropol agreed that their father was a Soviet spy. But, they reiterated the failures of the government prosecution: "[W]hatever atomic bomb information their father passed to the Russians was, at best, superfluous; the case was riddled with prosecutorial and judicial misconduct; their mother was convicted on flimsy evidence to place leverage on her husband; and neither deserved the death penalty." A month later, the brothers published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times reminding readers that the Sobell confession reveals nothing about the issue of the theft of the atom bomb secret. They noted that the witness Ruth Greenglass' recently released Grand Jury testimony said nothing about Ethel Rosenberg's alleged typing activities, for which the government convicted her.

The Meeropol brothers have endorsed the conclusions of Walter Schneir in his posthumously published book Final Verdict that the entire Greenglass story of the secret of the Atom Bomb was concocted -- that Julius Rosenberg had been given a "pink slip" by the KGB in early 1945 and thus was out of the espionage loop when the famous cross-section drawing of an implosion-type Atom Bomb (exhibit 8 at the Rosenberg Trial) was passed to the Soviets. With meticulous detective work Schneir determined that David and/or Ruth Greenglass turned that drawing and descriptive material over to a KGB agent in December of 1945 -- not as testified at the trial to Julius Rosenberg in September of 1945.

(CNN) -- Senior State Department and Diplomatic Security officials may have covered up or stopped investigations of inappropriate or even criminal misconduct by staff, according to an internal memo from the department's Office of the Inspector General.

The timeline surrounding the allegations places the incidents during former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's tenure, opening the possibility that a widening scandal might taint both her record and her possible political aspirations. Clinton has also taken heat for the department's response to the September 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Regarding the latest allegations, CNN was provided the documents by a lawyer for a whistle-blower who is a former senior inspector general investigator.

They include:

• An active U.S. ambassador "routinely ditched his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children," the memo says. The ambassador's protective detail and others "were well aware of the behavior," the memo asserts. When a diplomatic security officer tried to investigate, undersecretary of state for management Patrick Kennedy allegedly ordered the investigator "not to open a formal investigation."
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http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/26/showbiz/ed-shaughnessy-dies/index.html



(CNN) -- Ed Shaughnessy, the longtime drummer for "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," has died, a close friend said Sunday. He was 84.

Robyn Flans, a close friend of 30 years and the co-writer of his memoir, "Lucky Drummer," said the iconic musician suffered a fatal heart attack at his home in Calabasas, California, Friday morning.

During Shaughnessy's 30 years with Carson, he became known for his drum battles with frequent guest Buddy Rich. Those battles can still be seen in clips on YouTube.

He also played with such jazz greats as Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett and showed his versatility by accompanying sitar master Ravi Shankar. On "The Tonight Show," Shaughnessy even played with Jimi Hendrix.

"Every drummer has his story to tell of how kind and generous of spirit he was," Flans said. "He influenced so many people. He was the guy. He was on television every night reaching all those people. You always saw the smile behind the kit. That was my Eddie."