Discussion: US: No Evidence Of Direct Russian Link To Plane Crash

Discussion for article #225402

No link? So, the Russian rebels built this S-A missile system all by themselves?

Just the U.S. has blood on it’s hands every time a Palestinian dies, the Russians were soaked with the downing of that plane.

“Senior U.S. intelligence officials: Russia ‘created the conditions’ for the downing [of MH 17].”

I guess by “created the conditions” they mean Russian special ops tracked the target; established the radar lock; interpreted the velocity and altitude telemetry; encoded the targeting information; precisely calculated the onboard fuse timer; and radioed the Russian word for “Fire!” to the drunken, illiterate SAMbillies in the Bukmobile.

But, other than that, there’s no evidence of direct Russian involvement.

4 Likes

I think Donald Rumsfeld used to call these “known unknowns” or “unknown knowns”, I can’t remember. Don’t quote me or you’re lying.

2 Likes

“didn’t know if any Russians were present” except for the radio intercept between the warlord and the ground crew, which is like saying drone pilots in Sierra Vista, have no responsibility for crashing weddings in Waziriistan.

3 Likes

You are soaking in it :wink:

1 Like

This is the second news source I’ve seen refer to the shooting down of the plane as a “crash.” The plane didn’t crash, it was, as your article notes, shot down (in the air).

5 Likes

Sounds about right. It would be extremely surprising if the actual, professional Russian military shot down a third-nation aircraft flying in an ordinary international corridor.

As opposed to some vodka-swilling militia type with ninety minutes of training.

2 Likes

I’m certainly no apologist for the Russians or the separatists, but I’m not 100% confident in those “intercepts” the Ukrainian government released.

1 Like

It’s AP, what do you expect?

1 Like

Different standard.

Had to walk it back, we are not going to war with Russia

http://consortiumnews.com/2014/07/22/the-mystery-of-a-ukrainian-army-defector/

On Tuesday, mainstream journalists, including for the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, were given a briefing about the U.S. intelligence information that supposedly points the finger of blame at the rebels and Russia. While much of this circumstantial case was derived from postings on “social media,” the briefings also addressed the key issue of who fired the Buk anti-aircraft missile that is believed to have downed the airliner killing all 298 people onboard.

After last Thursday’s shoot-down, I was told that U.S. intelligence analysts were examining satellite imagery that showed the crew manning the suspected missile battery wearing what looked like Ukrainian army uniforms, but my source said the analysts were still struggling with whether that essentially destroyed the U.S. government’s case blaming the rebels.

The Los Angeles Times article on Tuesday’s briefing seemed to address the same information this way: “U.S. intelligence agencies have so far been unable to determine the nationalities or identities of the crew that launched the missile. U.S. officials said it was possible the SA-11 [anti-aircraft missile] was launched by a defector from the Ukrainian military who was trained to use similar missile systems.”

That statement about a possible “defector” might explain why some analysts thought they saw soldiers in Ukrainian army uniforms tending to the missile battery in eastern Ukraine. But there is another obvious explanation that the U.S. intelligence community seems unwilling to accept: that the missile may have been launched by someone working for the Ukrainian military.

This briefing corroborates Parry’s source.

Once again intelligence is being contorted to fit a narrative.

Go read the comment sections under any German news article about this. Your browser can auto-translate for you, depending on which you have.

Germans aren’t buying this. We’ve lied to them too many times before. We’ve been lied to too many times before, too, but we’re slower on the uptake I guess.