by James Corbett
TheInternationalForecaster.com
October 13, 2015
The Dutch Safety Board just released their investigation into the MH17 crash last summer and they concluded that the Malaysia Airlines 777 was brought down by the Ukrainian government.
Just kidding. They blamed it all on those dastardly Russians, of course. Or at least that’s what every MSM headline west of Donbass will tell you. The reality, as always, is somewhat less propagandistically perfect.
The report, titled simply “Crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17” was released by the Dutch Safety Board this morning, along with supplementary materials like “About the Investigation” and even a Brochure synopsis of the report’s findings.
The headline story is that the investigation has concluded that the plane was brought down by the detonation of a warhead to the left and above the cockpit of the plane. According to the report:
“As a result of the explosion and the impact, the aeroplane broke up in mid air: the cockpit and the floor of the business class tore away from the fuselage almost instantly and crashed. The rest of the aeroplane continued to fly for approximately 8.5 kilometres in an easterly direction. Sections of the upper side of the aeroplane were torn off as air currents, moving at a speed of approximate 900 kilometres per hour (480 knots), took hold of the damaged aeroplane. Both wingtips broke away and the rear section of the fuselage fractured, causing the tail section to detach itself from the centre section.”
Interestingly, the Russian delegation to the Dutch Safety Board investigation did not contest that the airplane was brought down by a warhead detonation. Even more interestingly, the Russians strongly contested the DSB’s placement of that detonation. The technical details of this disagreement are covered in Appendix L of the report, but the upshot of the wrangling is that the investigation pins the blame on a 9N314M warhead delivered by a BUK missile system from rebel-held territory whereas the Russians believe the culprit to be an outdated 9M38 warhead fired from government-held land. Or, in plain English, the Dutch are pointing the finger at the Russians and the Russians are pinning the blame on the Ukrainians. No surprises there.
The Russians, for their part, have an intriguing video of an experiment carried out by Almaz-Antey to back up their claims about the nature of the damage and its implications for determining the type of warhead that brought down the plane. The video shows two experiments, one conducted in July and one in October, in which BUK missiles are detonated near the cockpits of decommissioned Ilyushin Il-86 passenger airliners. According to the Russians, there is no indication that the DSB took these tests or their findings into account in their determination of the likely cause of MH17’s downing.
Although the finger-pointing is obviously going to dominate the headlines in the coming days, assigning blame for the crash is not even part of the DSB investigation’s purview. Instead, the actual criminal investigation into the crash is being conducted by a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) consisting of investigators from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium and Ukraine, with Malaysia as a “participant.” As Julie Levesque pointed out in a thorough article for Global Research last year, that JIT is not only under a “gag order,” whereby the results of its investigation will be classified unless all members agree to its findings, but in that scheme Malaysia is not even entitled to the classified report if the other nations do not agree to it. Essentially, the Ukrainians are the co-investigators of an event that they are suspects in, and the Malaysians are junior partners who aren’t even worthy of full disclosure.
The actual point of the DSB investigation was to make recommendations on how to avoid a repeat of this event in the future. On that count, they raise an interesting point:
“In the months before the crash, at least 16 military airplanes and helicopters were shot down in the eastern part of Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities were aware of this. They stated that, occasionally, weapon systems were used that could reach the cruising altitude of civil airliners. Yet, despite of all this, Ukraine did not close its airspace.”
Indeed, why wasn’t the airspace over Eastern Ukraine closed to civilian air traffic at the time? Why were 160 commercial flights passing over that region on the day of the MH17 shootdown alone? Unsurprisingly, answers to these questions are not forthcoming from Kiev.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole report, however, is that its release comes at a time when blatant propaganda against the big, bad Ruskies is hitting a fever pitch. With the West’s hypocrisy in Syria being laid bare for the world to see by the latest Russian air strikes, can there be any doubt that the hyperventilating war hawks of the establishment press will jump on this report as another chance to blame the evils of the world on Moscow? Just as the original MH17 crash itself was immediately blamed on Putin (literally), kicking off the “new Cold War” in earnest, so this report will be used to whip the public into the next stage of Russophobia . . . despite the fact that almost no one will actually bother to read it.
As a simple outsider – my question( which is also the answer) is – who pulled/pushed the trigger.
All the rest is blablablablabla…
An aircraft can carry a munition that can detonate outside close to a target, and make indentations in the outside as it destroys its target. I do not believe the whole scenario is represented only with such a consideration.
I find the Top Rated responses of the BBC news website an interesting barometer.
I’m well aware that noisy minorities can seem far bigger than silent majorities, but I’m always glad to see that many aren’t completely fooled by this ridiculously blunt and unimaginative propaganda.
I’m not quite sure it matters so much how the plane was brought down at this point, more the question of who benefited…that is, the usual suspects.
I’m amazed some genius hasn’t managed to find a link back to the Russians for the Turkish peace rally bombing yet.
“We are being run by people who appear to be have very limited brainpower. Are they able to project legitimacy because they’ve tried–and managed—to make almost everyone out there even stupider than they are?”
I think they’re exceptionally smart. Just seemingly lacking in any kind of humanity.
As to the rest of us…
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” – George Carlin
Psychopathy, whether inborn or inculcated, tends to make one extraordinarily clever/devious in some ways and deeply, profoundly stupid in others, even in furthering one’s own agendas.
Absolutely. The lack of empathy that makes a psychopath also impacts on their ability to invent plausible narratives that can be truly convincing. They are plagued by god-delusions and “if I say it everyone will believe it, because I am amazing” type of thinking. It also seems to impact on their ability to make longterm coherent plans or strategies. Their thinking tend to be short term, often self-contradictory and can become increasingly disorganised over time as the desire for vengeance and the joy of control obliterate the survival instinct and self-interest.
Once we know that an awful lot of western foreign and domestic policy suddenly makes so much more sense doesn’t it. 🙂
Of all the totalizing narratives that people toss around trying to explain How The World Really Works, psychopathocracy / kakistocracy is definitely the one that resonates with me, having seen more of psychopathy on the micro scale than I’d like. Certainly kicks the hell out of “The Jews, the Jews!”
It also explains how people get so confused and disturbed trying to take it all in. Trying to think like a psychopath is next to impossible, and not the sort of thing likely to improve one’s own mental state.
Hi James,
My comment is meant to draw your attention some new developments in the MH17-case. The case is not over yet.
I hope you can give some kind of response to this, however brief that response may be, since I imagine & respect it is difficult for you to respond to every comment. But it is an open source investigation after all.
First, thank you for your excellent work regarding the information you have compiled regarding MH17.
Second, bereaved family-members of flight MH17 are writing letters to US Secretary of State John Kerry, Prime Minister Rutte in the Netherlands, President Putin in Russia and President Porosjenko in Ukraine, in which they ask/demand help in releasing the radar-images concerning the downing of flight MH17. These radar-images are not only important for the investigation of the Dutch Safety Board, but also for the investigation of the Public Prosecution Service, which is still pending.
Third, several experts testified regarding the MH17-case in a hearing in the Dutch House of Representatives: at least four civilian (3 Ukrainian and 1 Russian) radars should have made images of the attack on MH17, in addition to military radar systems. Ukraine says all radars were defect. Radar expert Piet van Genderen from the Technical University in Delft finds this ‘strange’. He also said that the video images provided by Russia – but no primary radar images – are totally inadequate for further investigation in finding the purpetrators.
Fourth, the MSM reports that the until recently held belief that the US did not transfer all radar data, turns out to be false. In a letter, the government revealed that both the Dutch Safety Board and the Public Prosecution Service are in possession of that data. US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has already indicated that the secret information can become public at a trial. Both the DSB and the researchers of the Public Prosecution Service therefore say that they have sufficient information to draw conclusions about the attack on the MH17. Additional Russian and Ukrainian data would not be strictly necessary.
Fifth, members of the opposition Omzigt (CDA) and Sjoerdsma (D66) in the House of Representatives have posed new ‘Parliamentary Questions’ to Prime Minister Rutte regarding the missing radar-images.
While these new developments are being reported in Dutch mainstream media, I am simultaneously getting this subtle “move along, nothing to see here”-feeling from the official responses to the reports in the press.
I think it might be warranted that some additional independent research needs to be done to find out what’s really going on, and I think the Corbettreport.com-community is one of the best places to start.
In the next comment, I’ll give the relevant links.
To conclude:
James (and others), what is your take on these new developments? And what should the bereaved family members of the MH17 flight focus on to crack this case open if they read this?
Links on new developments regarding MH17:
1)
Date: January 13, 2016
Headline: Father MH17-victim asks for help from John Kerry
Link: http://nos.nl/artikel/2079535-vader-mh17-slachtoffer-vraagt-hulp-van-john-kerry.html
2)
Date: January 13, 2016
Headline: Foundation MH17 anonymously receives prints of radar-images.
Link: http://nos.nl/artikel/2080317-stichting-mh17-krijgt-anoniem-afdrukken-van-radarbeelden-toegestuurd.html
3)
Date: January 13, 2016
Headline: Bereaved family-members of MH17 want Rutte to acquire radar-images
Link: http://nos.nl/artikel/2080253-nabestaanden-mh17-willen-dat-rutte-radarbeelden-opeist.html
4)
Date: January 14, 2016
Headline: Public Prosecution Service already has “new” MH17 radar-images
Link: http://nos.nl/artikel/2080520-om-kent-nieuwe-radarbeelden-mh17-al.html
5)
Date: January 14, 2016
Headline: Dutch Safety Board examines Russian information MH17
Link: http://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/binnenland/onderzoeksraad-buigt-zich-over-russische-informatie-mh17
6)
Date: January 22, 2106
Headline: Bereaved family-members MH17 send letter to Putin and Porosjenko
Link: http://nos.nl/artikel/2082049-nabestaanden-mh17-sturen-brief-aan-poetin-en-porosjenko.html
7)
Date: January 22, 2016
Headline: Controversy continues regarding MH17 radar-images
http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/twist-rond-radarbeelden-mh17-duurt-voort~a4230545/
8)
Date January 22, 2016
Headline: Round-table discussion on MH17 in (Dutch) House of Representatives
Link: http://www.houseofrepresentatives.nl/news/round-table-discussion-mh17
9)
Date: January 27, 2016
Headline: Parliamentary Questions about deleted and secret radar data MH17 and the fact that the air traffic controller has not been heard
Link 1: https://twitter.com/PieterOmtzigt/status/692344209207115776
Link 2: https://t.co/OZPLg3Ydxn
The Dutch links can be translated via google translate (https://translate.google.com/) or by specific request.
Hi James,
Hereby I submit 3 more news-items in the ongoing developments in the MH17-investigation/cover-up. A little more exposure outside of the Dutch language area might help. What kind of games are being played here by the participants?
1)
Headline: Ukraine did not report that radar was deactivated
Date: February 2, 2016
Excerpt: Joe Sultana of the European air traffic control Eurocontrol says that countries have the obligation to report if something is wrong with the radar, but that Ukraine failed to do so.
link:
http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/31544/Rampvlucht-MH17/article/detail/4237035/2016/02/02/Oekraine-meldde-niet-dat-radar-uit-stond.dhtml
2)
Headline: Former Ukrainian Secretary: Dutch Safety Board did not ask for radar-images
Date: February 3, 2016
Excerpt: The Dutch Safety Board (DSB) never asked Ukraine for raw civil radar images of flight MH17, says Vladimir Schulmeister who was Ukrainian Secretary of Transport in an interview with Dutch newspapers ‘AD’ and ‘De Telegraaf’. DSB vehemently denies this in a reaction to the NOS (Nederlandse Omroep Stichting) and says that Kiev has been asked numerous times to supply the data.
………
Former Secretary Schulmeister says he was stunned when he read the Dutch Safety Board report. “I am 100% certain that we have never had a request. I was on the committee (which also included the deputy prime minister, ATC UkSatse and the Ukrainian Reseach Council. All requests for information came on our table. A request for raw data was never between them.
Link:
http://nos.nl/artikel/2084581-oekraiense-ex-staatssecretaris-ovv-vroeg-niet-om-radarbeelden-mh17.html
3)
Headline: Ukraine ambassador: Dutch did in fact request MH17 radar images
Date: February 4, 2016
Excerpt: The Dutch Safety Board did in fact request raw radar images of the flight MH17 disaster from the Ukrainian government, Ukraine ambassador Olexander Horin said to RTL Nieuws
This is in response to former First Deputy Minister of Transport Vladimir Shulmeister statements on Wednesday that the Ukrainian government never received a request for radar images from the Safety Board. According to him, it may be that the Safety Board only asked the Ukraine military for these images.
Link:
http://www.nltimes.nl/2016/02/04/ukraine-ambassador-dutch-did-in-fact-request-mh17-radar-images/