Life Imitates Art: The assasination of JFK Jr.

When I heard of two hijacked airplanes being flown into commercial buildings in New York City, and another into the Pentagon, my first thought was that events foreshadowed in Tom Clancy's novel Debt of Honor were actually coming to pass. Imagine my surprise when the U.S. National Security Advisor assured the press that there had been no way whatsoever for the US intelligence apparatus to foresee an airline jet being flown into a building! As it turns out, this was a bald lie, as the subsequently released Memo of August 6 showed.

In an interesting turn of events, Clancy emerged in the aftermath as a defender of Islamic polity, but neither for this, nor for allegedly inciting the murderous airline attack on the Pentagon through his fictitious depiction, were Clancy or his ex-wife subject to a heavy-handed investigation by the BATFX [UPDATE Dec. 2014: but he did die under suspicious circumstances in 2013].

In Act of Treason, writer Vince Flynn depicts a scenario in which the vice-presidential candidate arranges for an attack on the campaign motorcade, resulting in the deaths of several Secret Service agents, along with the future First Lady, an event which propels his running-mate into the presidency on a sympathy vote.

Now, why is it that so many readers will find this plot line perfectly believable, but be unwilling to entertain the possibility that presidential candidate George W. Bush was instrumental in the 2000 assassination of JFK Jr. ?

That's apparently part of the scenario depicted in a new book announced today: Pilot Error or Political Terror? by an anonymous Texan aviation expert.

Oh, by the way--it's not fiction.

Update Cinco de Mayo, Twenty Ten: The book was apparently never published, but the story is far from dead; it's just been hard to keep an active link on this post. Click on the title for the latest one.