Washington - The self-styled "libertarian" who used the Internet to accuse the US navy of shooting down TWA flight 800 in July 1996, and who enlisted the former White House press secretary, Mr Pierre Salinger, in his campaign, has admitted that the whole thing was a hoax. Mr Ian Goddard has told the CNN television network that he just wanted "to give the government a black eye by any means that looked opportune".
In March, Mr Goddard released a 69-page report on his Internet website claiming that the US government was covering up the fact that a navy missile had mistakenly brought down the Paris-bound Boeing 747 shortly after it took off from New York last year, killing 230 people.
However, last night Mr Salinger reaffirmed his belief that a navy missile brought down the flight. "My position has not changed," he told AFP.