Airline Horror Spurs New Rush to Judgment
Exclusive: President Obama and the State Departments anti-diplomats are fanning flames of anger against Russia after the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine. But some U.S. intelligence analysts doubt the popular blame-the-Russians scenario, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
Despite doubts within the U.S. intelligence community, the Obama administration and the mainstream U.S. news media are charging off toward another rush to judgment blaming Ukrainian rebels and the Russian government for the shoot-down of a Malaysia Airlines plane, much as occurred last summer regarding a still-mysterious sarin gas attack in Syria.
In both cases, rather than let independent investigators sort out the facts, President Barack Obamas ever-aggressive State Department and the major U.S. media simply accepted that the designated villains of those two crises Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine were the guilty parties. Yet, some U.S. intelligence analysts dissented from both snap conventional wisdoms.
Regarding the shoot-down of the Malaysian jetliner on Thursday, Im told that some CIA analysts cite U.S. satellite reconnaissance photos suggesting that the anti-aircraft missile that brought down Flight 17 was fired by Ukrainian troops from a government battery, not by ethnic Russian rebels who have been resisting the regime in Kiev since elected President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown on Feb. 22.
According to a source briefed on the tentative findings, the soldiers manning the battery appeared to be wearing Ukrainian uniforms and may have been drinking, since what looked like beer bottles were scattered around the site. But the source added that the information was still incomplete and the analysts did not rule out the possibility of rebel responsibility.
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/07/19/airline-horror-spurs-new-rush-to-judgment/
randys1
(16,286 posts)The Magistrate
(95,257 posts)It is his final surrender of any claim to be a serious journalist, and his acceptance of status as a pedlar of conspiracist woo.
He is through.
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)"...and the analysts did not rule out the possibility of rebel responsibility."
Ya think????
Parry's way off base with this...
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Helen Borg
(3,963 posts)Are already spinning anti-missile defense systems for commercial aircrafts as we speak. Because, you know, that is the world of the future.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)It probably wont be an easy sell. Right after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the idea had some real momentum. But it eventually suffered a long, slow death over cost, reliability and need.
The focus back then was on shoulder-fired missiles, known as Man-Portable Air Defense Systems or the unfortunate acronym of MANPADS. Evidence points to MH17 being shot down by a more advanced missile system.
A Department of Homeland Security program got $60 million in fiscal 2004 for a program to outfit commercial airliners with defenses against those missiles, then $61 million in fiscal 2005 and $108.9 million in fiscal 2006. But by fiscal 2007, then-President George W. Bush requested only $4.9 million.
http://blogs.rollcall.com/five-by-five/after-mh17-mark-kirk-revives-long-dead-commercial-airliner-anti-missile-defense-idea/?dcz=
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)The only question is whether he's just making this up or regurgitating what some hack in the ministry of information is feeding him.
Satellites that can differentiate between Russian and Ukrainian uniforms. And diagnose intoxication. Neat.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Fmr staffer: Ron Paul planned No vote for Afghanistan invasion, staff threatened mutiny
Eric Dondero, the statements author, served closely with Paul from 1987 through 2003, beginning as his travel aide and personal assistant when he ran for president on the Libertarian ticket, and ending as a senior aide in Congress from 1997 through 2003. Dondero wrote that he resigned after becoming disillusioned with the congressman, ultimately citing personal and policy differences, including Pauls opposition to the Iraq War. (RELATED: Wash. Posts Lane: Ron Paul has the foreign policy views of Jeremiah Wright)
Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Paul engaged in conspiracy theories including, perhaps, [that] the attacks were coordinated with the CIA, and that the Bush administration might have known about the attacks ahead of time, Dondero wrote. He expressed no sympathies whatsoever for those who died on 9/11, and pretty much forbade us staffers from engaging in any sort of memorial expressions, or openly asserting pro-military statements in support of the Bush administration.
On the eve of the vote, the former Paul staffer continued, Ron Paul was still telling us staffers that he was planning to vote No on the resolution, and to be prepared for a seriously negative reaction in [his Texas] district. [Current District Case Director] Jackie Gloor and I, along with quiet nods of agreement from the other staffers in the district, declared our intentions to Tom Lizardo, our chief of staff, and to each other, that if Ron voted No, we would immediately resign.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/26/fmr-staffer-ron-paul-planned-no-vote-for-afghanistan-invasion-staff-threatened-mutiny/