Altered Evidence [Paperback]

James D. Sanders (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 1999

How the Justice Department Framed a Journalist & His Wife.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It has it all: political villains, a lawless "Justice" Department and government shills masquerading as major media journalists. . . . Altered Evidence gives the reader an inside view of what happens in America today when a journalist takes on a hopelessly corrupt government." -- NewsMax.com, January 11, 2000

From the Publisher

What happens in America today when an investigative journalist uncovers compelling evidence of criminal activity at the highest levels of the Clinton administration? When the evidence includes witness statements, government documents and forensic evidence telling a story of political corruption, cover-up and abuse of power by those who rule the United States, what happens when one investigative journalist reveals this evidence that could lead to the imprisonment of the mighty?

James Sanders' new book, Altered Evidence, answers these questions. It is not a book about what will theoretically happen when a lawless administration is imperiled. It is a case study of what happened when Sanders ripped the national security cover off the biggest government scandal since Watergate.

Altered Evidence is an inside look at the current institutional deviancy in the federal bureaucracy and political structure. It is also the shameful story of major media's inability to pursue a story that might topple an administration with which they are politically enamored.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 375 pages
• Publisher: Accuracy in Media (a I M) (November 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967665809
• ISBN-13: 978-0967665801
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,757,012 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Altered Evidence - well worth reading, February 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Altered Evidence (Paperback)

Compared to his "The Downing of TWA Flight 800", this new book by James Sanders,"Altered Evidence" provides a lot more information about the tragedy and its aftermath. There is much more information concerning the "friendly fire" thesis, a considerable quantity of information concerning the legal case and trial of James and Elizabeth Sanders, and relevant analysis of the author's concerns about the current state of America's news media.

A reader may approach "Altered Evidence" with the question as to whether James Sanders has retreated from the "friendly fire" scenario he was advocating in print almost three years ago. The answer to that question is clearly a loud and definitive "No!". In examining how "Altered Evidence" approaches the "friendly fire" missile scenario, it immediately becomes apparent that the topic displays two major divisions: evidence suggestive of an exterior hit upon TWA Flight 800 by one or more U.S. missiles, and efforts of the government to conceal that possibility.

In analyzing the federal reaction to the destruction of TWA flight 800, author Sanders discusses some of the strategic milestones in what he considers the government's concealment of the true nature of the tragedy. According to this view, the knowledge that TWA Flight 800 had been struck by one or more missiles was known by officials almost immediately. Another key development was the formation and execution of a investigative strategy to allow the FBI to control the flow of TWA Flight 800-related information and to permit it to maintain a tightly controlled investigation. Sanders calls this technique the "crime scene scheme", and it results in a condition he calls the "sanctity of the crime scene facade"."Altered Evidence" explains how those strategies were constructed and carried out.

The book examines a great many other topics in addition to those referred to above. For example, there is more on the mysterious "red residue" subject...more on the dubious "canine explosives exercise" story...more on the Navy and its exotic CEC program...much more on the radar data...more on eyewitnesses to the disaster....and lots more on official behind-the-scenes conduct.

Chapters 17 through 41 tell the story of the pursuit of James and Elizabeth Sanders by the FBI and their prosecution by the Justice Department after it had become known that James had acquired and tested residues which had been found by official investigators in a small, well-defined, and crucial part of the TWA Flight 800 reconstruction. The legal issues involved are important and interesting, and from these pages it is not difficult to appreciate why the Sanderses are appealing the convictions the government achieved against them. Persons who followed the trial in the media should read these chapters carefully to survey the issues from the point of view of the defendants before arriving at their own personal verdicts on the case.

I think one of the most interesting chapters in the entire book is Chapter 42. It carries the title "Propaganda or Journalism?" In general, it is an energetic philippic against the American news media, which author Sanders believes has grown fat feeding at the trough of official sources and no longer has the ethics, heart or legs for energetic and independent investigative reporting. Dan Rather takes a hit as well...as does "Good Morning America"...."Dateline" (that's three networks already!)...the "New York Times"...and other journalists who have echoed the official line on TWA Flight 800.

Each of these instances is interesting support for the Sanders view that the media is not a part of a vast and active government/communications conspiracy, but that the media has developed a world-view in which government spokespersons and their minions are given every benefit of the doubt while "outsiders" with contrary information and opinions are subjected to mass media hostility, ridicule, or the cold shoulder.

I enjoyed reading "Altered Evidence" by James Sanders, and I think this is a very useful book. I recommend it to anyone who has any interest whatever in the TWA Flight 800 case, for the current status of the American legal system or of the American news media. There is disquieting information in this book, and I am sure portions of it will spark debate among persons having an interest in what happened on July 17, 1996.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very important for history and free speech, February 13, 2000

By 

David Neal (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Altered Evidence (Paperback)

I first picked up Sanders' Downing of TWAFlight 800 in 1997 in a grocery store and was astounded at the suggestion that a missile took down Flight 800 off Long Island in the summer of 1996. I then began to research the issue myself and discovered that there was classified military activity out there, nitrates were found on debris, fist-sized holes were found in steel seat backs. The story that explosive residue found in the plane was from a dog-training exercise was not true. Later, to my amazement I learned that the government had indicted Jim Sanders for conspiracy to remove evidence from a crash site. A TWA pilot, Terrell Stacey, who questioned the investigation and was a part of it, gave Sanders a worthless piece of fabric from a seat back to have tested, since the FBI had refused to let the investigators know the results of their test of the fabric. Sanders' testing showed chemicals which could have been from solid fuel missile exhaust, something certainly deserving of further inquiry by the NTSB. Instead the FBI indicted Sanders and his wife, who had trained most of the flight crew on the plane: they lost 18 friends. Sanders, a conservative Republican retired cop and accident investigator was demonized by the FBI and NTSB to the families of the victims and convicted last Spring. He was sentenced to 20 hours community service even though the Chairman of the NTSB, Jim Hall, had written a letter to Judge Seybert recommending she make an example of him. He was facing ten years in prison for essentially questioning the government's version of the crash where the official position is that no missiles were involved. Sanders' new book, Altered Evidence, is the story of this First Amendment case and presents much evidence (including photos) to buttress the suggestion that a missile, and possibly two, hit TWA Flight 800 during classified military maneuvers. The evidence? New radar data showing a virtual flotilla of objects ten miles south of the crash site heading into W105, a military restricted area, admission of classified activity by official documents and even former FBI head Jim Kallstrom in a taped phone call, not to mention the 96 eyewitnesses who the NTSB even admits saw something rise from the surface and go up toward the plane. These eyewitnesses were purposely left out, kept out, of the public NTSB hearings in Dec 1997. Many people think terrorists missiles were involved, but the overwhelming evidence points toward military activity beyond what a few terrorists in a speed boat could possibly do with small shoulder-fired missiles. This was a tragic accident which we need to own up to and compensate the families accordingly rather than persecute the messengers and make a mockery of the Constitution. Everyone should read this book and decide for themselves.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This time, the Justice Department has gone too far., February 13, 2000

By 

Tom Stalcup (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Altered Evidence (Paperback)

A real-life X-files episode unfolds within the pages of Altered-Evidence. Investigative journalist James Sanders writes about how he AND his wife were targeted by the justice department for uncovering evidence of a severely flawed investigation into the TWA Flight 800 tragedy. Those he criticized reacted by prosecuting him, rather than cleaning up their act.

The FBI illegally obtained his phone records and seized his computer's hard drive. By intimidating friends and sources, while carefully manipulating the press, the Justice Department successfully indicted a journalist and his wife.

Altered Evidence tells this story in detail and presents evidence the mainstream media chooses to ignore. Evidence: the nearest surface vessel to the tragedy remains "unidentified" by the FBI; this ship did not assist in search and rescue, but steamed away at 30 knots into an armada of similar targets; most (~30) of these were traveling into a military warning zone; suspicious activity at the border of the warning zone has not been explained by government investigators--in fact it, the area was not included in the government exhibits.

This and much more can be found within the pages of Altered Evidence. Anyone who enjoys and wishes to maintain the freedoms promised in the 1st Amendment should read this book.