Who Shot Down Flight MH17 over Eastern Ukraine in 2014?

Well of course it was the Evil Russians!  Didn’t Russians also shoot Roger Rabbit?  We’d been discussing this 2014 interview MDNC interview with Tulsi Gabbard on my cross-posted diary ‘analyses of the leaked ‘Deal of the Century’ I/P peace plan’ that I’d found that day and posted in comments, mainly wanting to feature her anti-Palestinian Hasbara.  As I remember it, this ‘blame’ started the horrific sanctions on Russia.

“While I agree that Russia is both directly and indirectly responsible for this downed plane shot down by the separatists, we’ve got to look at this in the bigger picture.  We’ve got to look at Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, Ukraine’s sovereignty…”

TravelerXXX had bookmarked this Eric Zuesse exposé that I’d vaguely recalled and brought it in:

‘MH17 Turnabout: Ukraine’s Guilt Now Proven’, December 31, 2018, strategic-culture.org

It’s about nine yards long with zillions of hyperlinks, so long I don’t even guess I’d ever finished it, which makes it hard to figure out what, if any, nuggets to feature, but he did link to this:

‘MH-17: the untold story’, 22 Oct, 2014, RT.com, including a 27-minute video documentary.

“Three months after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was brought down over Ukraine, there are still no definitive answers about what caused the tragedy. Civil conflict in the area prevented international experts from conducting a full and thorough investigation. The wreckage should have been collected and scrupulously re-assembled to identify all the damage, but this standard investigative procedure was never carried out. Until that’s done, evidence can only be gleaned from pictures of the debris, the flight recorders (black boxes) and eye-witnesses testimonies. This may be enough to help build a picture of what really happened to the aircraft, whether a rocket fired from the ground or a military jet fired on the doomed plane.”

I’d later added to that thread, including some photos of a beaming Netanyahu holding a map of the Golan Heights that Herr Trump had signed with his approval (indicating the leaked plan just may be The Real Deal) when Up Jumped the Devil:

‘Where is the evidence?’ Malaysian PM says attempts to pin MH17 downing on Russia lack proof’, 30 May, 2019, RT.com

“Malaysia has accepted the Dutch report that a ‘Russian-made’ missile shot down its civilian airliner MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, but has yet to see evidence it was fired by Russia, said Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

“They are accusing Russia but where is the evidence?” Mahathir told reporters at the Japanese Foreign Correspondents Club (FCCJ) in Tokyo on Thursday.
“You need strong evidence to show it was fired by the Russians,” the prime minister went on, according to the Malaysian state news agency Bernama. “It could be by the rebels in Ukraine; it could be Ukrainian government because they too have the same missile.”

“Mahathir was skeptical that anyone involved with the Russian military could have launched the missile that struck the plane, however, arguing that it would have been clear to professionals that the target was a civilian airliner.
“I don’t think a very highly disciplined party is responsible for launching the missile,” he said.

The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT), whose report last year blamed Moscow for shooting down MH17, barred Russia from participating in the investigation, but involved the government of Ukraine. Although Malaysia is also a member of JIT, Mahathir revealed that his country’s officials have been blocked from examining the plane’s flight recorders.
“For some reason, Malaysia was not allowed to check the black box to see what happened,” he said. “We don’t know why we are excluded from the examination but from the very beginning, we see too much politics in it.”

“This is not a neutral kind of examination,” Mahathir added.
Rejecting the JIT accusations, Russia made public the evidence the Dutch-led researchers refused to look into, including the serial number of the missile that allegedly struck MH17, showing that it was manufactured in the Soviet Union in 1986 and was in the arsenal of the Ukrainian army at the time of the tragedy.”

b of Moon of Alabama offered this whopping 55 minute press conference video with Malaysian PM Mahathir on Twitter on May 31.

But aha!  RT had later provided on the left sidebar:

May 24, 2018: ‘No Russian missile system ever crossed into Ukraine: MoD rejects Dutch MH17 claims’, RT.com

“The Russian Defense Ministry has rejected new claims that flight MH17 over Ukraine was downed by a missile from a Russian unit, urging the Dutch-led probe to focus on studying hard facts instead of social media images.

“Not a single anti-aircraft missile system of the Russian Armed Forces has ever crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border,” the defense ministry said in statement.

The Russian military raised eyebrows over “the determination of the Dutch-led investigation to justifying its conclusions by solely using images from social networks that have been expertly altered with computer graphic editing tools.”

The ministry pointed out that the images used in the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) press conference on Thursday were provided by the Ukrainian special services and had been previously displayed by the infamous British online investigative activist group, Bellingcat.

The Dutch-led probe announced that the missile that downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014 came from a Russian military Buk system that crossed into Ukraine and then returned to its base in western Russia.

Investigators claim the missile system involved came from “the 53rd Anti-aircraft Missile Brigade based in Kursk in Russia”. The JIT essentially just repeated the conclusion made by Bellingcat a year ago.

The alarming part in the JIT probe is that “the Dutch investigators completely ignore and reject the testimony of eyewitnesses from the nearby Ukrainian communities”, according to the Defense Ministry. The testimonies, however, provided essential information “indicating the launch of a missile was carried out from a territory controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”

The Russian side said that it provided the international probe with “comprehensive” evidence, including field tests, which “clearly indicate the involvement of the Ukrainian Buk anti-aircraft system units” in the destruction of the plane with 283 passengers and 15 crew members onboard.”

This video that Eric Zuesse had up would be part of the referenced eye witness testimony.

Now I know many readers here at C99 have their favorite candidates among the Ds, and it’s all the same to me which one you choose, as long as you know them for who they are, blemishes and all.  Someone on a recent diary of dkmich’s post had said there was some evidence that Bernie Sanders has evolved on VZ or something like that.  What I did find at his website was this Press Release:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement Thursday on the political situation in Venezuela:

“The Maduro government in Venezuela has been waging a violent crackdown on Venezuelan civil society, violated the constitution by dissolving the National Assembly and was re-elected last year in an election that many observers said was fraudulent. Further, the economy is a disaster and millions are migrating.

“The United States should support the rule of law, fair elections and self-determination for the Venezuelan people. We must condemn the use of violence against unarmed protesters and the suppression of dissent. However, we must learn the lessons of the past and not be in the business of regime change or supporting coups – as we have in Chile, Guatemala, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic. The United States has a long history of inappropriately intervening in Latin American countries; we must not go down that road again.”

It’s close to the same as Ro Khanna’s rubbish:

March 7, 2019

Press Release

Today, Rep. Khanna with fifteen progressive colleagues, sent a letter to Secretary of State Pompeo rejecting threats of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, supporting diplomatic dialogue to resolve the political crisis there and opposing broad economic sanctions that hurt ordinary Venezuelans.

The letter condemns the Maduro government’s anti-democratic actions, human rights abuses and destructive economic policies but strongly expresses concerns that the Trump Administration’s misguided policy could make the situation even worse for the Venezuelan people.

Polls from respected pollster Datanálisis show that the vast majority of Venezuelans are opposed to foreign intervention as a means of removing Maduro and instead want a negotiated solution to the crisis.

The letter urges support for a mediation process advocated by the Pope, and governments of Mexico and Uruguay, to promote dialogue instead of civil war.

“The Administration’s aggressive actions and rhetoric play into the Venezuelan government’s narrative that the country’s problems are the result of U.S. intervention, helping shore up Maduro’s support base and diverting attention from what is fundamentally a domestic problem,” said Rep. Khanna. “We respectfully call Sec. Pompeo to cast off threats of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela and build a dialogue to resolve the political crisis there.”

The 15 co-signers of the letter are: Reps. Pramila Jayapal (WA-17), Mark Pocan (WI-2), Raul Grijalva (AZ-3), Henry C. “Hank” Johnson (GA -4), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Ilhan Omar (MN-5), Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Ayanna Pressley (MA-7), Nydia M. Velázquez (NY-7), José E. Serrano (NY-15), Tulsi Gabbard (HI-2), Karen Bass (CA-37), Danny K. Davis (IL-7) and Jan Schakowsky (IL-9).

Full text of the letter below and a PDF is available here.’

I’m assuming (or hoping) that it’s not necessary for me deconstruct any of that, especially what I’ve bolded.  But all those bald-faced lies followed by ‘No regime change’?  Gimme a break.  Laugh track: Nicolas Marduro had high-fived Bernie, perhaps on Twitter, possibly assuming that Bern’s a ‘Democratic Socialist’ he’d get VZ’s Bolivarism.  I did check Miz Gabbard’s house website, but never could find her FP issues page.  She has one, or had one, yes?

And this morning’s WTF news from RT.com: ‘Clashes between Israeli police & Palestinian protesters as Jews allowed entry to Al-Aqsa Mosque’  2 Jun, 2019 (with tweeted videos)

“Violence erupted at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem as Israeli forces allowed Jewish settlers to enter the compound for Jerusalem Day, sparking protests, arrests and injuries.

Israelis are usually prevented from entering the holy site during the last 10 days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when worshippers stay inside the site. This is the first time in around 30 years that Israelis have been allowed inside the site they call Temple Mount during this period.

Al Jazeera reports that settlers gathered outside the compound and police decided to let them in.

Palestinians inside the mosque protested against the admittance of the Israelis, with some throwing chairs and other items, prompting Israeli forces to enter the mosque and fire tear gas, sound bombs and rubber bullets, and arrest a number of Palestinians.

The Supreme Court rejected a petition filed by Temple Mount activists in May requesting they be allowed access on Jerusalem Day, saying it was up to the police to decide. Meanwhile, the police said the custom was to refuse Jewish access, but that a final decision had not been made.”

And who made that brilliant decision?

(cross-posted at caucus99percent.com)