Airline Horror Spurs New Rush to Judgment

[jakeXT]

Exclusive: President Obama and the State Department’s “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 Obama’s 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, I’m 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]

1. WTF is this?

[The Magistrate]

3. It Is Mr. Parry's Self-Immolation, Sir

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]

2. "But the source added that the information was still incomplete..."

"...and the analysts did not rule out the possibility of rebel responsibility."

Ya think????

Parry's way off base with this...

[jakeXT]

4. Using a government assessment like it was done in the case of Syria, proves his point

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014850943

[Helen Borg]

5. I'm sure that some defense-linked companies

Are already spinning anti-missile defense systems for commercial aircrafts as we speak. Because, you know, that is the world of the future.

[jakeXT]

6. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill is pressing the FAA

Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., told the Washington Post Friday that, in the aftermath of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 disaster and with shoulder-fired missiles proliferating in places like Libya in Iraq, he would press the Federal Aviation Administration to install anti-missile defenses on commercial airliners.

It probably won’t 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]

7. Parry is a joke.

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]

8. I guess Robert has been hanging around with Ron Paul. n/t

[jakeXT]

9. No principles this man, either you vote with your conscience or not

In a statement released on Monday, a 16-year former aide to Texas Rep. Ron Paul writes that the presidential candidate “was opposed to the war in Afghanistan, and to any military reaction to the attacks of 9/11,” but ultimately voted “Yay” [sic] in the face of a threatened staff rebellion and near-certain political suicide.

Fmr staffer: Ron Paul planned ‘No’ vote for Afghanistan invasion, staff threatened mutiny


Eric Dondero, the statement’s 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 Paul’s opposition to the Iraq War. (RELATED: Wash. Post’s 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/