The MH17 blame game | The Jackal

23 Jul 2014

The MH17 blame game

No matter who's side you're on, it's a terrible day when innocent lives are lost in another countries conflict. As questions still need to be answered as to why exactly flight MH17 was flying in controlled airspace in the first place, many headlines were reporting that Russia supplied the missile system that shot down the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777, claiming nearly 300 lives.

On Monday, the United States claimed to have robust evidence of Russian involvement, with The Week reporting:

The US secretary of state John Kerry has said that the US has "overwhelming evidence" that Russia played a role in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

In a series of interviews on Sunday, Kerry said that Russia must take responsibility for actions that led to the suspected shooting down of the Boeing 777 on Thursday.

However, John Kerry's "overwhelming evidence" appears to be flawed if it exists at all. Today, RT reported:

US intelligence: No link to Russia in Malaysia plane downing 
Unnamed US officials are telling Associated Press that their intelligence suggests Malaysia plane shot down by separatist, no link to Russia found.

Officials believe that the passenger aircraft was intercepted by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile, which was fired by Ukrainian militia members. One official said the likeliest explanation was the aircraft was shot down in error, an assertion that seem to be bolstered by the previous downing of 12 Ukrainian military aircraft by militants in the region.

Intelligence suggests that, although the US maintains that Russia "created the conditions" that led to the incident, officials were not aware of the presence of any Russians during the missile launch, and would not confirm that the missile crew was trained in Russia.

The mainstream media has been extensively reporting on a BUK missile system that was reportedly returning into Russian territory with a missing missile after the incident. So-called journalists were all but demanding that America and its allies attack Russia over this "evidence" that they claimed was irrefutable proof of Putin's involvement. However, new information now suggests that such evidence is nothing more than a beat up:

Officials noted that their inquiry relied partly on social media postings, citing specifically video of a missile launcher purported to be a Buk system battery crossing into Russian territory, and appearing to be missing a missile. Following questions, intel officials admitted they had not verified the video’s origin or content.

Clearly the missile system in the video could have been traveling anywhere at any time and has simply been used to try and pin the blame on Russia.

Unfortunately anti-Putin sentiment has taken over our western news services that, despite a lack of any clear evidence, are putting the blame entirely on Mother Russia. The United States is also using this disaster as an excuse to implement further economic sanctions against its old adversary, something that has annoyed Russia immensely.

However with new information coming to light concerning a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jet that was detected in close proximity to flight MH17 before the crash, the evidence showing exactly who is to blame and what system was used to destroy the airliner is even more difficult to decipher.

All this is no consolation to the families who've lost loved ones. Their grief is caught up in and made all the worse because of an international blame game when all they and the world really want is answers.

The politicking of the situation isn't helping to solve the crime either. Neither are the limited resources available in the area where the plane went down. Whether by accident or intent, unfortunately the scene being contaminated and the black boxes only providing limited information, the exact culprits may never be found.

However the change in tune by US intelligence personnel suggests that the mainstream media's first assertions that it's all Russia's fault were entirely incorrect. Let's see if they'll come clean and provide all the information they and intelligence operatives have available on this terrible disaster that has claimed the lives of 298 innocent people.