http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39449.htm
Why Have the Media and Obama Administration Gone Silent on MH17?
By Niles Williamson
August 18, 2014 "ICH" - "wsws" -- The deafening silence of the US media and government about the investigation into the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 one month ago reeks of a cover-up.
By Niles Williamson
August 18, 2014 "ICH" - "wsws" -- The deafening silence of the US media and government about the investigation into the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 one month ago reeks of a cover-up.
In
the hours and days immediately after the crash, without a single shred
of evidence, US officials alleged that the passenger jet was shot down
by an SA-11 ground-to-air missile fired from pro-Russian separatist-held
territory in eastern Ukraine. They launched a political campaign to
obtain harsh economic sanctions against Russia and strengthen NATO’s
military posture in Eastern Europe.
Picking
up on the scent, the CIA attack dogs in the US and European media
blamed the crash squarely on Russian President Vladimir Putin. The cover
of the July 28 print edition of German news magazine Der Spiegel showed
the images of MH17 victims surrounding bold red text reading “Stoppt
Putin Jetzt!” (Stop Putin Now!). A July 26 editorial in the Economist declared
Putin to be the author of MH17’s destruction, while the magazine
ghoulishly superimposed Putin’s face over a spider web on its front
cover, denouncing Putin’s “web of lies.”
Anyone
comparing the media’s demonization of Putin with their treatment of
Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi had to conclude that Washington was
launching a campaign for regime change in Russia like those it carried
out in Libya and Iraq—this time, recklessly pushing the United States
towards war with a nuclear-armed power, Russia.
Having built up the crash into a casus belli against Russia, however, the US media suddenly dropped the matter completely. The New York Times has not found it fit to print a word on the MH17 crash since August 7.
There
is no innocent explanation for the sudden disappearance of MH17 from
the media and political spotlight. The plane’s black box has been held
in Britain for examination for weeks, and US and Russian spy satellites
and military radar were intensively scanning east Ukraine at the time of
the crash. The claim that Washington does not have detailed knowledge
of the circumstances of the crash and the various forces involved is not
credible.
If
the evidence that is in Washington’s hands incriminated only Russia and
the Russian-backed forces, it would have been released to feed the
media frenzy against Putin. If it has not been released, this is because
the evidence points to the involvement of the Ukrainian regime in Kiev
and its backers in Washington and the European capitals.
From
the outset, the Obama administration presented no evidence to back up
the incendiary charges that Putin was responsible for the MH17 crash. In
his press briefing on July 18, the day after the crash, President Obama
stated that it was still “too early for us to be able to guess what the
intentions of those who might have launched this surface-to-air missile
might have had.”
While
cynically exploiting the crash to pressure and threaten Russia, Obama
warned that “there will likely be misinformation” in the coverage of the
crash. In a backhanded acknowledgment that he had no evidence to
support his claims, he said: “In terms of identifying specifically what
individual or group of individuals or personnel ordered the strike, how
it came about those are things that I think are still going to be
subject to additional information that we’re going to be gathering.”
In
the event, the misinformation on the MH17 crash came from the Obama
administration itself. Secretary of State John Kerry went on a media
blitz on July 20, arguing that the pro-Russian separatists and the
Russian government were responsible for the shoot-down.
The
sole evidence he presented were a few, dubious “social media records”
posted to the Internet. He presented unauthenticated audio recordings of
separatists speaking of a plane crash, edited and released by Ukraine’s
SBU intelligence agency, which works closely with the CIA; YouTube
video clips showing a truck moving unidentified military equipment along
a road; and a retracted social media statement claiming responsibility
for shooting down a plane attributed to separatist leader Igor Strelkov.
Very
quickly, the US government’s story line on MH17 began to collapse. At a
press briefing on July 21, State Department spokesperson and former CIA
Middle East analyst Marie Harf declared that the Obama administration’s
conclusions regarding the downing of the plane were “based on open
information which is basically common sense.” Challenged by reporters to
provide the evidence, she admitted that she could not: “I know it’s
frustrating. Believe me, we try to get as much out there are possible.
And for some reason, sometimes we can’t.”
After
a month during which Washington has failed to release evidence to
support its charges against Putin, it is clear that the political
offensive of the NATO governments and the media frenzy against Putin
were based on lies.
If
pro-Russian separatists had fired a ground-to-air missile, as the US
government claims, the Air Force would have imagery in their possession
confirming it beyond a shadow of a doubt. The US Air Force’s Defense
Support Program utilizes satellites with infrared sensors to detect
missile launches anywhere on the planet, and US radar posts in Europe
would have tracked the missile as it shot through the sky. These
satellite and radar data have not been released, because whatever they
show does not fit the storyline concocted by the US government and
media.
What
has emerged, instead, is a drumbeat of evidence pointing to the
US-backed regime in Kiev’s role in the MH17 shoot-down. The day after
Kerry made his remarks, the Russian military presented radar and
satellite data indicating that a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet was in the
immediate vicinity and ascending towards MH17 as it was shot down. This
claim has not been addressed, let alone refuted by the American
government.
NSA
whistle-blower William Binney and other retired American intelligence
agents issued a statement at the end of July calling into question the
social media data presented by Kerry, and demanding the publication of
satellite imagery of the missile launch. They added, “We are hearing
indirectly from some of our former colleagues that what Secretary Kerry
is peddling does not square with the real intelligence.”
On August 9, the Malaysian New Straits Times published
an article charging the Kiev regime with shooting down MH17. It stated
that evidence from the crash site indicated that the plane was shot down
by a Ukrainian fighter with a missile followed by heavy machine gun
fire.
While
it is too early to say conclusively how MH17 was shot down, the
preponderance of the evidence points directly at the Ukrainian regime
and, behind them, the American government and the European powers. They
created the conditions for the destruction of MH17, backing the
fascist-led coup in Kiev this February that brought the current
pro-Western regime to power. The Western media then supported the Kiev
regime’s war to suppress opposition to the putsch in east Ukraine,
turning the region into a war zone in which MH17 was then shot down.
After
the murder of the 298 people aboard MH17, in which they played an
important if as-yet unexplained role, Western governments and
intelligence agencies seized upon the tragedy in a reckless and sinister
maneuver to escalate war threats against the Putin regime. Silence
denotes consent, and the deafening silence of the Western media on the
issue of Kiev’s involvement in the MH17 crash testifies to the
criminalization not only of the foreign policy establishment, but also
of its media lackeys and the entire ruling class.
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