He's one of those people, that when you first see him in person, you do not mistake him for someone else. It's James Kallstrom, former FBI assistant director.

I know him as a fellow U.S. Marine, a veteran of Khe Sanh, America's almost second Alamo.  I introduced myself, and as I was shaking his hand, it felt large and heavy.  I remember thinking a blow from a Kallstrom right hand would be like getting hit with a canned ham.

It was a sunny day in Greenville, a tony suburb just west of Wilmington, Delaware.  The spot was almost exactly between Joe Biden's house and the gunpowder mills on the Brandywine Creek where the DuPont dynasty started in 1799.  I was standing a post at a high-end jewelry store, working as an armed, uniformed security guard.

I made sure Mr. Kallstrom knew we shared some common ground.  Both were Marines, and both had federal service after the military, me a 20-year air traffic controller, 16 with the Federal Aviation Administration.  "Great to meet you.  Semper Fi!" he said, while pumping my hand.  I made sure my grip was firm; I didn't want to be mistaken for a sailor.

Kallstrom was friendly, even jovial.  He had a big smile, did not seem phony, nor did he give any hint that he was annoyed or inconvenienced in any way.  That changed abruptly.

My question went like this: "Hey Jim – why did you not allow any of the eyewitnesses to openly testify at the TWA 800 hearing?"

Some background.  As a former FAA air traffic controller, I had previously worked a stint at the New York TRACON, and once briefly in the JFK departure sector.  I have previously communicated these words: "TWA 800 Heavy, RADAR contact."  Not for the final flight of TWA 800 – I often wonder who the Boston Center Controller was who had to say, "TWA 800 Heavy, RADAR contact lost."

Since that July night in 1996, few other events have troubled me as much.  Any veteran air traffic controller knows that FAA managers break rules more often than they break wind, but watching the FBI steer the public toward such an absurd conclusion (a fuel explosion) was like being forced to equate hara-kiri with gall bladder surgery.

First, I watched the FBI assume control of the TWA 800 investigation, wresting it from its lawful owner, the National Transportation Safety Board.  The NTSB, by law, investigates all aviation accidents until it is determined that a crime is the probable cause; then the FBI becomes the lead investigation body.  Knowing this, I assumed that when the FBI took over, its agents knew or believed that a bomb or a missile was the culprit.  I came to believe, after watching events unfold, that the FBI (and James Kallstrom) was there to cover it all up for Bill Clinton, who was up for re-election.  An accident can't be easily blamed on a president, but a terrorist attack is a failure of government, and a fish rots from the head, right?  Ninety-nine days 'til the election.  Send in the K Man.

Now, I can recount for this essay a ton of FBI malfeasance.  I can write of witness statements made up from whole cloth.  Lies, not just put in witnesses' mouths, but written on FBI 302 statement forms and placed in the file as the official record, smearing good people for posterity.  (Somewhere, Lee Harvey Oswald is laughing.)  I can write about FBI agents sledgehammering sheet metal fuselage material to make a hole appear to be blown outward instead of inward.

Instead, I recommend Jack Cashill's book, TWA 800: The Crash, the Cover-Up, the Conspiracy.  In it you will learn everything you wanted to know about one of the biggest political cover-ups in history.  You will understand why and how the FBI operates, whom it comprises, and why those people are in the news today in similar fashion.

So how did James Kallstrom react when I asked about the eyewitnesses?  He backed away angrily and called me a conspiracy nut.  Hurrying to his car, he turned and shouted, "Don't believe everything you read in the papers!"  Thanks for the advice, Jim.  I'll try to remember that.

William A. Shields is the author of EXIT 13A – A Control Tower Diary.  He is a former U.S. Marine, a veteran air traffic controller, and a radio talk show host.  He is a graduate of Widener University and resides in Wilmington, Delaware.  Twitter: @WILLIEONRADIO.