Jun 202019
 
 June 20, 2019  Posted by at 6:42 pm Finance, Primers Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


Caravaggio I musici 1595-96

 

The investigation into the crash of the MH17 Malaysia Airlines plane in East Ukraine was always compromised, right from the start. The crash on July 17 2014 came shortly after the “Euromaidan revolution” in Kiev – which first began in November 2013 and culminated in the ousting of elected president Yanukovich on 23 February 2014, happily helped along by John McCain, Victoria Nuland and then-US ambassador to Ukraine (now ambassador to Greece) Geoffrey Pyatt for the USA, as well as various EU actors.

Russia reacted by “annexing” Crimea – a large majority of whose people had voted for Yanukovich, thereby safeguarding its access to its only warm water port. Not a shot was fired there, but it was very different in East Ukraine (Donbass), where people -of Russian origin- also didn’t want to be subjected to a new regime under Nuland’s puppet Yatsenyuk -and later Poroshenko. They started a civil war which continues to this day.

It was in that heated political climate that the MH17 came down, killing all its 298 passengers, 196 of whom had the Dutch nationality. 3 weeks later, on August 8, a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was formed, which was to be led by Holland, and to also include representatives from Australia, Belgium and Ukraine. Which is odd, since at that time, Ukraine certainly was a potential perpetrator of the downing.

Malaysia joined only in December, allegedly because only then did it finally agree to allow Ukraine, a nation that was a suspect, a veto over any conclusions that the team would publish. Malaysia had already been handed the black boxes by pro-Russian rebels in the area, and passed them on to the team in August. Summarized, the way the JIT was formed was highly curious. The countries even signed a secret agreement.

 

Immediately after the crash, people like then-US VP Joe Biden, as well as Frans Timmermans, then-Dutch Foreign Minister and today candidate for the EU top job, pointed the finger at Russia as the party responsible for shooting down the plane. Also curious, since there had been no investigation and the plane crashed in a civil war zone where access was almost impossible. There was talk at the time of the US having satellite images, but none have ever been produced.

In that atmosphere, the JIT yesterday, June 19 2019, held another press conference, in which it accused four men, three from Russia and one from Ukraine, of being “involved” in shooting down the plane. But again, almost 5 years after the incident, the team produced no evidence for its accusations, saying it will only be presented 9 months from now when a trial will start in the Netherlands.

It also again accused Russia of refusing to cooperate, though Russia has offered its help ever since the MH17 came down. It’s just not the help the people want who have accused the Russians since before there was any hint of evidence it was involved. And there still is no evidence. Russia has filed long and detailed reports on the incident despite being ignored, but these reports have been … ignored.

 

The trial will take place starting March 9 2020 without the accused, since Russia doesn’t extradite its citizens, and neither does Ukraine. Moreover, the one Ukrainian who is accused is thought to be in the Donbass, where the government has no access.

So this will be a show trial. And one must wonder why it is staged. What’s the use of a trial where defendants don’t defend themselves? Sure, the official line is they would love to have the men provide a defense, but that smells a bit too much like what has happened to Julian Assange. What are the odds of a fair trial when so many conclusions have been drawn at such early times?

There is not a soul in Europe west of the Russian border who doesn’t believe the Russians did it. The media take care of that. Nor is there in the US. But the Malaysian PM himself yesterday, again, said the team has proven nothing, and only provided hearsay. I kid you not, I read a piece on the BBC today that asked if the 93-year-old who lost 43 of his countrymen only said that because he wanted to sell palm oil to Russia.

And in the meantime, the evidence is not there, and won’t be for another 9 months, if ever, and the EU today added another year to its Russia sanctions over Crimea, and 4 men can deny their involvement all they want, but they can make their case only in March 2020, and only at a show trial, with international search warrants hanging over their heads.

 

The four men in question, by the way, are not accused of firing the BUK missile that supposedly downed the MH17. They are only accused of facilitating the transport of the missile and launcher from Russia to Ukraine -and back. The JIT Ukrainian team bases the entire story of that transport on serial numbers it says it has found.

On September 17 2018, the Russian Ministry of Defense in a YouTube response to a May 24 2018 JIT exhibition, said it had tracked down those serial numbers, 8868720, and 1318869032, and 9M38, and said both the launcher and missile corresponding to the numbers were purchased by Ukraine from Russia as far back as 1986, transferred there, and had never left the country since.

I get that information from a lengthy, deep-digging and highly recommended essay by Eric Zuesse, from December 2018, MH17 Turnabout: Ukraine’s Guilt Now Proven, which I’ve been reading the past few days, in which Eric says: “…if the JIT’s supplied evidence is authentic — which the Ukrainian team asserts it to be — then it outright convicts Ukraine. This is an evidentiary checkmate, against the Ukrainian side.”

Zuesse also details, in that article, contentions from multiple sources that, while the MH17 may have been hit with a BUK missile, it certainly wasn’t the only thing that hit it. There was at least one fighter jet seen close to the plane before it came down, as multiple eye-witness reports claim, and it is alleged that they fired on the cockpit for sure and perhaps other parts of the plane. It is an excellent article that is very well researched and chock-full of links to prove its points.

 

There are many things wrong with the MH17 investigation. Having the PM of one of your member investigative countries complain that after 5 years you produce only hearsay and no evidence may be the least of the worries. The Netherlands, as main victim, leading the investigation, is strange. How neutral could they be? Their Foreign Minister blamed Russia way before any investigating was done. And Holland was a main sponsor in the “Euromaidan revolution”, i.e. the ousting of an elected president.

Still, Ukraine’s position in all this must be the biggest warning sign. They stood a lot to gain from committing atrocities and then blaming Russia for them. Plus, Yatsenyuk and Nuland and the US and the EU were mightily angry that Russia had outsmarted them all over Crimea.

But instead of keeping Ukraine out of the investigation, they became a major contributor, and were even given veto rights on anything that came out of it, as far as we know the only party with such rights. If you present a crime novel or movie with ingredients like that, nobody would believe you. Such things don’t happen in real life.

 

 

 

 

Home Forums MH17: Compromised From The Start

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  • #48071

    Caravaggio I musici 1595-96   The investigation into the crash of the MH17 Malaysia Airlines plane in East Ukraine was always compromised, right
    [See the full post at: MH17: Compromised From The Start]

    #48074

    It’s funny, and that won’t cease; I think this is a good essay, concise, precise, all of that. But not one comment so far. The interwebs are hard to grab.

    But maybe it’s the publishing time: evening in Greece, late aft in US EDT, nighttime in OZ… I’m trying to find a work rhythm, my longtime afternoon working space sort of got cut off. Working on it.

    #48075

    Meanwhile, through my old buddy Jesse Colombo and the finance world in general, plenty exposure on Twitter for yesterday’s Square Minus Zero and today’s Debt Rattle that features Jesse’s work. I don’t write much on finance lately, because as I said, there are no markets left, but I do follow the people who do.

    #48076
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    The Eric Zuesse December 2018 article was indeed excellent and deep, and thorough.
    It seems the U.S. must politically weaponize every tragedy against Russia and/or its allies.
    I’m not convinced the U.S. didn’t have a hand in this shootdown…
    Tragic doesn’t begin to describe what that does to justice (which barely exists in today’s world) with the result the guilty go free, the innocent are punished, and the victims are raped of their dignity and justice to play fools on the world stage orchestrated by the west..

    As to posting comments? I’ve noticed it is not consistent. We’re Zulu +7 and DLST is in there as well; but not everywhere.
    This MH-17 piece of yours was posted after I went to bed; early to bed; early to rise, blah, blah, blah…
    😉

    #48077
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    The MH-17 (Boeing 777) shoot down and investigation are integral to Joe Biden’s legacy. He flew to Kiev and green-lighted Ukraine’s invasion of the rebel Donbass region in Russia’s borderland which reignited the Cold War 2.0. The investigation was compromised from the start. Its intent was to support war spending and destabilize Russia not the truth. Similarly, a recent Atlantic article stated that the corrupt Malaysian government was incapable of investigating the fate of MH-370 (Boeing 777) that disappeared into southern Indian Ocean. The two 737 MAX crashes and Boeing’s cover up of the causes along with the FAA’s incompetence indicates a pattern. A Multi-national corporation bought corrupt governments in order to increase defense spending, avoid inconvenient truths, and keep their CEOs out of jail.

    The restart of the Cold War 2.0 was the reason why China broke the ring of corruption and grounded the 737 Max after the second crash. With Iran’s shot down today of the Navy RQ-4N Spy Drone in the Straits of Hormuz, unless Donald Trump backs down, the Iranian War is about to start which will likely turn the Cold War into World War III.

    #48078
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    With Iran’s shot down today of the Navy RQ-4N Spy Drone in the Straits of Hormuz, unless Donald Trump backs down, the Iranian War is about to start which will likely turn the Cold War into World War III.

    A $176 million dollar drone; no wonder the U.S. is pissed.
    Trump is already backpeddling on retaliation for the shootdown.
    An interesting aside; the U.S. didn’t think Iran had the capability to shoot the drone down, as it operates at an altitude of 60,000 feet.
    Good reason to pause and think things through…

    #48092
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    MH17

    The questions that come to mind are :

    One expert said a BUK missile would leave a contrail which would be visible for 50 miles. If true why was there not a single photograph.

    The US say they can detect any missile being fired on the face of the planet, but failed to detect a surface missile from Ukraine soil.

    Why and how was MH17 redirected from its normal route over southern Ukraine to fly over a warzone. Dreamliners can be flown by the CIA [in case of a hijack] so were the pilots guided there or were they flown there. The voice recording should give the answer.

    Why was the voice recording taken from Kiev ATC by security forces and why does the UK refuse to release the black box voice recording and other black box data.

    Minutes before the event a Spanish air traffic controller working in Kiev started tweeting about them going to bring down a plane. He disappeared and has not been heard of since. What happened to him?

    Why do so many people who see the wreckage without prejudice talk about bullet holes?

    Looking at the evidence and expert opinions it seems like a classic false flag operation : MH17 was directed from its normal route to fly over a rebel area. A Ukrainian SU25 fired an air-to-air missile which failed to destroy the plane so they finished it off with cannon fire.

    Kiev immediately claimed it was destroyed by rebels, Kiev knew they knew had a BUK launcher – but they did not have the radar and other essential equipment to bring down the plane. I assume this is why they had to invent a story where the Russians were involved – who would have to know in advance that the airliner would be flying over the area!?

    All evidence to disprove this has been withheld.

    It is unfortunate for the relatives of the deceased that Holland is a US vassal state and their government is forced to lie to them.

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