Rachel Maddow whittles away the unsubstantiated reports in the Malaysia Airlines plane crash investigation and points out that NATO warned the world on June 30th that Russia was training Ukrainian separatists on vehicle-borne anti-aircraft capability.
Rachel Maddow reports on the spate of conspiracy theories floated in the wake of the shooting down of flight MH17, spread by people with an interest in making accountability more difficult, some of whom are in control of the crash site and evidence.
Seems 'certain' the Russian rebels shot the plane down. Maybe Robert Parry wrote that one too early. Michael Collins, in the OpEdNews one, did say "We'll see."
Obama: MH17 disaster 'an outrage of unspeakable proportions' – as it happened
It's possible a missile system "automatically fired, or some aggressive, itchy operator fired, not wanting to miss an opportunity", a US military expert tells the Guardian in a report by Ewen MacAskill (@ewenmacaskill) and Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman).
Ukrainian intelligence has published a tape claimed to be a recording between rebels and Russian intelligence in which they realised there had been a catastrophic blunder.
Retired major general Bob Latiff, a former US weapons developer for the air force and the CIA and now a professor at Notre Dame University, said he leaned towards a belief that it was a case of mistaken identity on the part of those who pressed the button.
"A radar return from an airplane like this would look very similar to that from a cargo plane, as was initially claimed by the separatists. … All airliners emit identification signals which identify the aircraft and provide other information like altitude and speed. They also operate on known communications frequencies. It doesn't sound like the separatists were using any of this, or tried for that matter."
A recording which the Ukrainian government alleges constitutes proof of separatists' culpability.
Latiff says "My guess is the system's radar saw a return from a big 'cargo' plane flying at 30,000 feet or so and either automatically fired, or some aggressive, itchy operator fired, not wanting to miss an opportunity."
Igor Sutyagin, a Russian military specialist at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said he regarded as genuine the tape recordings as well as postings on social media pointing the finger at Russian separatists or Russia itself.
He said it might prove difficult to get the necessary evidence. "It is very hard. A decision has been made on the Russian side to hide their tracks. It will be hard to find the battery." Satellites might have been able to catch something, but the trail from the missile would have been very short, Sutyagin said.
The London Telegraph reports that a Russian-language Wikipedia page about civil aviation accidents was edited from within the government-run All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company.
The user wrote that "the plane [flight MH17] was shot down by Ukrainian soldiers".
[...]
4:39am: Yesterday the Ukraine government issued a press statement blaming pro-Russian rebels for shooting down MH17 with an anti-aircraft missile as well as a sound clip to YouTube as evidence.
"A few hours after the terrorist act Security Service of Ukraine received and published the unquestionable proofs (sic) of the fact that the airplane was shot down by pro-Russian terrorists from Russia-made arms. Telephone conversations (intercepted by SSU of Ukraine) you can find here http://youtu.be/BbyZYgSXdyw.";
The following has not been verified.
[...]
Obviously, i hope, this comment is not posted here to suggest in any way President Obama was talking about the above video .. it's just down a bit below the one above, is all ..
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