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Israel Helps in Twa Crash Query

July 23, 1996
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As the investigation continues into the causes of the crash of TWA flight 800, the CIA has reportedly asked Israel to help determine whether terrorists were involved.

The CIA gave the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, the list of passengers flying from Athens to New York and asked the Israeli officials to check whether any of the passengers had links to terror groups, the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot reported.

The CIA reportedly submitted similar requests to the intelligence agencies of Jordan and Egypt.

American investigators have yet to say conclusively whether the cause of the crash was sabotage.

The 747 crashed in a ball of flames shortly after taking off July 17 from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.

All 230 passengers and crew members aboard the plane were killed.

The plane, which was bound for Paris, had earlier flown to New York from Athens’ Hellenikon Airport, which was cited by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in March for lax security standards.

Last Friday, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that anti-terrorism experts from Israel are looking for possible links between Islamic militants and the explosion of flight 800.

The daily quoted an unidentified senior security source as saying that the Jewish state was helping U.S. intelligence agencies and the FBI in their investigation of the crash.

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