Flight MH17

In a political situation that could just end up as World War Three, Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott has been barging about like a frightening drunk with his atrociously prejudiced and premature statements assuming Vladimir Putin and Russia’s guilt in the MH17 airline tragedy. Even more alarming that his pathetic bids to make world stage on the matter have been reported with such hokum gravitas by the Australian mass media.

Appendix video: MH17 Crash: Ukrainian media stories about looting of toy and wedding ring proven FAKE!

The Australian mass media have jumped on the anti-Putin bandwagon like dogs attacking a [politically] chained bear on command, after showing almost no interest in the Odessa Massacre and other world-class atrocities carried out by the Ukraine regime they all back. Added to this, Bill Shorten’s remarks about uninviting Putin make him seem like some shadowy ape jealously mimicking Abbott’s hysterical antics on the world Punch and Judy stage. The remarks of the British Prime Minister have been similarly ill-judged and Hilary Strangelove-Clinton’s were sinister. “To put Putin on notice that he has gone too far and we are not going to stand idly by.” (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/mh17-hillary-clinton-says-russian-backed-rebels-likely-shot-down-plane) In fact, the anti-Russian side has still not produced evidence that Russia has been supplying any help to the separatists in Eastern Ukraine over the past few months and it has not produced evidence that Russia or the East Ukrainian rebels had anything to do with the shooting down of MH17.

We have been collecting a few headlines over the past few days and shaking our heads with dismay at the hopeless obedience to their masters and the political ignorance of Australian journalists. We wonder, are they all just syndicated real-estate ad writers in their day jobs?

Here are some examples of apparently uninformed and prejudicial reporting:

Australian Financial Review, 20-22 July 2014 (Weekend edition): Jamie Walker, “Furious Abbott demands Putin account for ‘unspeakable crime’.

So, no need for an investigation, apparently?

Weekend Australian, July 20-22, 2014. “A crime against humanity”. In this article, the author proceeds as if they have hard evidence against Russia, whereas there was none: ”The nation has been plunged into mourning over the deaths of 28 Australians in a missile attack by Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine on a packed Malaysia Airlines flight, an attack that Tony Abbott condemned as a crime against Australia and the world.” Well, it was a crime against Australia and the World but we still don’t know who did it or why, although early evidence points more at the Kiev regime.

ABC, 22/7/2014: “Obama increases pressure on Putin to influence rebels at MH17 site,” www.abc.net.au/news/world.

What would Obama have the rebels and Putin do that they are not already doing, other than surrender the evidence to the Ukrainian government so that it can hide it?

“Stay away Mr Putin”, Sunday Mail, July 20, 2014 by Jason Tin, Stephen Drill and Samantha Maiden. It continues, “Australia doesn’t want Russian President Vladimir Putin in Brisbane for November’s G20 summit, unless he co-operates fully with the manhunt for the terrorists who blew MH17 out of the sky.”

We might just as well call for the United States and Australia to cooperate and yield to the international investigators the evidence they have that proves their allegations against Russia and Putin or stay away from the jolly G20.

The Australian, 21 July 2014, front page:”Irate West demands Putin’s help”, by Brendan Nicholson and Stefanie Balogh. […]The international community is outraged over Mr Putin’s denial of any Russian involvement and his refusal to support an investigation or to exert influence over pro-Russian militia controlling the crash site.”

In fact, the pro-Russian militia is fully cooperating and there is no reported obstruction by these anti-Kiev Eastern Ukrainians (pro-Russian is a bit of a misnomer), however there is evidence that Kiev has prevented an international team from joining international observers in East Ukraine, where they are awaited.

The Australian, 21 July 2014,page 4, “Sad truth is the ability to pressure Moscow is limited.” Greg Sheridan, Foreign Editor, Washington: “The growing worldwide condemnation of Vladimir Putin over Russia’s involvement in the downing of MH17 has been effectively led by Tony Abbott, but may yet yield little in concrete results.”

Sheridan shamelessly flatters Australian PM Abbott for his reprehensible behaviour, predictably jumping on the anti-Russian bandwagon.

The Australian, 22 July 2014, front page: “Putin backs recovery of bodies,” by Jamie Walker and Brendan Nicholson. This is another ‘when did Putin stop beating his wife’ kind of article. It begins by pretending that Putin was recalcitrant about cooperating with an international investigation into the MH17 tragedy, implying that he is now responding to pressure: “Vadimir Putin has bowed to international pressure and pledged Russian support to recover bodies and key evidence…” […]

The article goes on to imply, without any evidence at all, that Russia is obviously responsible for the downed airliner, but not admitting to it: “Despite fresh buck-passing over who was responsible for shooting down the Malaysia Airlines plane[…], the Russian President promised ‘full co-operation’ to end an impasse with Russian-backed rebels and enable the dead and the crucial black box recorders to be handed over.”

All through these disinformative articles the idea has been promoted that East Ukrainian separatists who do not approve of the US-backed oligarchy in Kiev are in favour of becoming Russian and are supported and backed by the Russian Government. In fact, they are primarily seeking independence from the Kiev regime, which would like Russia to close its border against hundreds of thousands of women and children refugees who are fleeing it. Those remaining have been fighting with few weapons against heavy aerial bombardment from the Kiev-regime military and para-military who have committed many atrocities which have not been reported by the media and which do not seem to bother Mr Abbott or Mr Shorten or the various ‘journalists’ employed to pen propaganda in the Australian mainstream press.

#MH17video" id="MH17video">Appendix video: MH17 Crash: Ukrainian media stories about looting of toy and wedding ring proven FAKE!

See also: Who shot down the Malaysian jet over Ukraine? on VoltaireNet, Sanctions and Airliners by Paul Craig Roberts, Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane crash in Ukraine LIVE UPDATES on RT.
Appendix: links to mainstream media disinformation about Flight MH17.

July 18, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - With Kiev's forces being encircled and decimated in eastern Ukraine, western Ukrainians in Kiev protesting the war, and US sanctions receiving global ridicule as feckless - the downing of a Malaysian Boeing 777 airliner with over 280 on board in eastern Ukraine - allegedly shot down over a conflict zone - will undoubtedly be exploited by NATO to vilify Kiev's opponents, particularly fighters in the east and Russia who NATO accuses of "destabilizing eastern Ukraine."

Originally published at Landdestroyer.blogspot.com by Tony Cartalucci: Kiev Losing, Sanctions Flopped, Airliner Down, War Back On?

Preceding the downing of Malaysian flight MH17, just hours beforehand, Ukraine claimed Russia had shot down one of its SU-25 ground attack aircraft. The BBC's article, "Ukraine conflict: Russia accused of shooting down jet," stated that:

A Ukrainian security spokesman has accused Russia's air force of shooting down one of its jets while it was on a mission over Ukrainian territory. 

Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, said an Su-25 ground attack plane was downed on Wednesday evening. 

Russia's defence ministry called the accusation "absurd", Russian state media reported. 

Rebels in eastern Ukraine say they shot down two Su-25 jets on Wednesday. 

Ukraine also alleges rockets were fired at its forces from Russian territory.

While the weapon systems used to down the Ukrainian SU-25's were not mentioned, previous aircraft lost to separatists in eastern Ukraine were most likely hit by Igla man-portable anti-air systems. The downed 777 was flying at an altitude of 33,000 feet - unreachable by the Igla system. To down it would require a sophisticated weapon system most likely inaccessible to eastern Ukrainian fighters. This was confirmed by the regime in Kiev itself. New York Daily News reported in an article titled, "Malaysia Airlines plane feared shot down in Ukraine near Russian border," that:

Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister, said on Facebook that the plane was flying at an altitude of 33,000 feet when it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher, reported Interfax, a Ukranian news agency.

The Buk system is maintained by both Russia and Ukraine. Russia would most likely not supply the sophisticated weapon system to fighters in Ukraine even if it were backing them militarily, because it would be nearly impossible to prevent its use or abuse from being traced directly back to Moscow. Ukrainian Buk systems, had the regime in Kiev lost control of one or more, should have been reported missing and international precautions taken to divert vulnerable aircraft around the conflict zone.
Western Reaction

US Senator John McCain, who had been standing in Kiev on stage with Neo-Nazis of the Svoboda Party shortly before they overthrew the elected government of President Viktor Yanukovych, stated in an NBC interview:

"To leap to conclusions could be very embarrassing and really inappropriate until we have more information," he told NBC's Andrea Mitchell. "But there have been, as you mentioned, previous incidents of shot down of Ukrainian aircraft. This was an airliner headed towards Russian air space. And it has the earmarks, and I'm not concluding, but it has the earmarks of a mistaken identification of an aircraft that they may have believed was Ukrainian. 

"If that's true, this is a horrible tragedy event which was certainly unanticipated by anybody, no matter who they are," he said. "And there will be incredible repercussions if this is the case. Exactly what those will be will have to be determined by how we find out who was responsible."

McCain added, "If it is a result of either separatists or Russian actions mistakingly believing that this was a Ukrainian warplane, I think there's going to be hell to pay and there should be."

McCain never mentioned what should or could happen if it was the regime he helped put into power that was responsible for downing the airliner.

With the most likely weapon system responsible being the Buk launcher, and the regime in Kiev ascertaining so quickly how the plane was downed and who was responsible, it is now up to Kiev to explain how a Buk system ended up in the hands of separatists and why they would have fired at a plane flying at 33,000 feet heading toward the Russian border at speeds consistent with an airliner.

Cui Bono?


The remote possibility that separatists obtained a sophisticated Buk anti-air missile system, was able to maintain and operate it, failed to identify the Malaysian 777, and exercised the poor judgement to fire on it - would make the tragedy a catastrophic case of mistaken identify - for the separatists have no conceivable reason to fire on a Malaysian passenger liner - and absolutely nothing to gain by doing so.

However, for the regime in Kiev facing decimated and unraveling military forces in the east, growing dissent in the west, and Western sponsors who are unable to materialize any form of meaningful aid militarily, economically, or politically - shooting down a civilian airliner and blaming it on the separatists could unite public opinion and the leadership of European nations behind NATO and the US for a more direct intervention on behalf of Kiev and change the tide of what is now a battle they will otherwise inevitably lose.

The West is already working hard to set the stage for such a scenario. The BBC in an article titled, "Malaysia airliner crashes in east Ukraine conflict zone," stated that:

Sir Tony Brenton, a former UK ambassador to Russia, told BBC News it would not be a huge surprise if suspicion initially fell on the rebels. 

"That would be very damaging both for them and for their Russian supporters," he said.

"The Russians have undoubtedly been supplying them with weapons, almost certainly with anti-aircraft weapons, so Russia would very likely be implicated and that would raise the volume of international criticism of Russia."

Only the West and their proxies in Kiev would stand to benefit from this - and commentators like Tony Brenton and the BBC intentionally prey on the ignorance of their audience in hopes that they don't know the difference between the Igla systems separatists most likely have, and the Buk system they most likely don't have or are unable to operate.

This is the second Malaysian 777 to be lost under extraordinary circumstances this year. Malaysian flight MH370 disappeared in March, 2014, and has yet to be found despite unprecedented international search efforts.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

#disinfo" id="disinfo">Appendix: Links to Disinformationabout about Flight MH17

Malaysian airlines flight MH17: Tony Abbott says 'Russian-backed rebels' likely to blame on 'grim day' for Australia (ABC), Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17: 'Terrible tragedy', Tony Abbott offers condolences to families for what would be 'unspeakable crime' (smh), Tony Abbott criticises Russia's response to MH17 tragedy as 'deeply unsatisfactory', Tony Abbott says Moscow must not protect Russian-backed rebels accused of downing MH17 (The Australian).

Flying over warzone Ukraine, the probable & convenient happens. July 18, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci - LD) - At no juncture during the Ukrainian crisis could the downing of Malaysian Boeing 777 flight MH17 have been more convenient for NATO and its proxy regime in Kiev. Kiev's forces were being picked apart in eastern Ukraine with several units encircled and destroyed. In the west of the country, dissent was growing by Ukrainians unwilling to march off to fight in the east. NATO's attempts to bait Russia into moving into Ukrainian territory and shift global opinion against Moscow had repeatedly failed.

Originally published here:Flight MH17 Down Over Ukraine

Yet another Malaysia Boeing 777 is lost under extraordinary circumstances this year.

The final card to be played by the US was another round of sanctions that almost immediately was ridiculed as ineffective and impotent. Even US corporate-financier interests condemned the latest round of sanctions claiming they were "unilateral" in nature and thus limited US enterprise from interacting with Russia while leaving European competitors free to move into the void.  An effective US policy of confronting, containing, and undermining Russia would require multilateral sanctions with almost universal support - but the impetus for such sweeping sanctions did not exist - until now.

The US FAA Declared Ukrainian Airspace Off-Limits 3 Months Ago 

Indeed, the stars have aligned for NATO. While the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) declared Ukrainian airspace off limits to all aircraft under its jurisdiction, it appears other airlines continued flying over what has been a warzone for months. The Atlantic in a report titled, "The FAA's Notice Prohibiting Airline Flights Over Ukraine," stated clearly that:

Did aviation authorities know that this was a dangerous area? 

Yes, they most certainly did. Nearly three months ago, on the "Special Rules" section of its site, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration put out an order prohibiting American pilots, airlines, charter carriers, and everyone else over whom the FAA has direct jurisdiction, from flying over parts of Ukraine.

Fighters Use Man-Portable Air Defense Systems That Can't Reach 33,000 Feet

Image: Igla man-portable air defense missiles.

For months fighters in eastern Ukraine have been downing Ukrainian military helicopters, warplanes, and even a military transport aircraft - all using various forms of man-portable anti-air missiles - all of which are incapable of downing the Malaysian 777 which was flying at approximately 33,000 feet - well above the effective range of man-portable air defense systems.

The system cited as responsible for the downing of flight MH17, was the sophisticated Buk radar guided, tracked-vehicle mounted, anti-aircraft missile system. The New York Daily News reported in an article titled, "Malaysia Airlines plane feared shot down in Ukraine near Russian border," that:

Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister, said on Facebook that the plane was flying at an altitude of 33,000 feet when it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher, reported Interfax, a Ukranian news agency.