On July 22nd, U.S. intelligence admitted that it had no evidence directly linking Russia to the plane crash, notwithstanding such incessant claims by Kiev's coup regime. Why, then, if it takes time to sift for evidence, did western reporters treat the almost instantaneous assertions of evidence made by the Kiev's coup regime as actual evidence?
Kiev routinely attempts to "frame" world opinion by publicly calling the separatists in eastern Ukraine "terrorists." It's pure propaganda. Real "terrorists" would be attempting to blow up people and buildings in Kiev and Lviv (the bastion of the neo-Nazi Svoboda party) -- rather than simply taking up arms to defend themselves in their home towns.
Moreover, the coup regime in Kiev routinely lies when it denies that their military is responsible for the aerial assaults and artillery bombardments that dismember and kill innocent civilians, including women and children in eastern Ukraine. Even the New York Times, which competes with the Washington Post to be the strongest anti-Russia propaganda bullhorn outside of the Oval Office, admits, "The government in Kiev is prosecuting a war here, and civilians are suffering as a result, their minds hardening." (July 22, 2014) Nevertheless, western reporters and commentators continue to treat assertions of evidence by Kiev's coup regime as actual evidence.
Apparently, these reporters had failed to read their Walter Lippmann: "The function of news is to signalize an event, the function of truth is to bring to light the hidden facts, to set them in relation with each other, and make a picture of reality on which men can act." (Public Opinion, p 226). To this day, there has been little bringing to light the hidden facts and almost no setting them in relation with each other.
Consider the case of Anna Applebaum, a writer for the neo-conservative editorial board of the Washington Post. On July 20th she wrote a column titled, "Look at what Russia has done. Its proxy war in Ukraine has become a real war."
As she states at the outset: "Before there is any further discussion of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, it's important that one point be made absolutely clear: This plane crash is a result of the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine, an operation deliberately designed to create legal, political and military chaos. Without this chaos, a surface-to-air missile would not have been fired at a passenger plane""
"With the help of local thugs, these Russian security men besieged police stations, government offices and other symbols of political authority to delegitimize the Ukrainian state."
"Delegitimize the Ukrainian State?" Why, the bulk of the government, as it now exists in Kiev, came to power as the result of a coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of corrupt President Viktor Yanukovych! That is why I sent her the following email:
"Dear Ms. Applebaum:
I like your logic: "This plane crash is a result of the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine." Unfortunately, you failed to extend the logic far enough: "This plane crash is a result of an American-inspired and Pravy Sektor led anti-Russia coup in Kiev that toppled a democratically elected government and prompted citizens in Crimea and eastern Ukraine to bid adieu.
How does that sound?
Sincerely,
Walter C. Uhler"
Ms. Applebaum also asserted: "Just for the record: There weren't any Ukrainian government-controlled anti-aircraft missiles in eastern Ukraine because the separatists were not flying airplanes." But, how could she possibly know? Where's her actual evidence? Especially now that Russia's Ministry of Defense has offered satellite photos to support allegations that "on the day of the accident the Ukrainian Armed Forces deployed 3 to 4 artillery battalions of Buk-M1 missile system not far from Donetsk."
Like Ms. Applebaum at the Post, the "philosopher" Bernard-Henri Levy and the "scholar" Timothy Garton Ash have recently and further defiled the pages of the New York Times with their hysterical rubbish. Professor Ash even stooped to mention the "rather ratlike face" of President Putin. But, just as we can get a fix on Ms. Applebaum's objectivity by noting that she's married to Poland's foreign minister, we also can get a fix on Professor Ash, by noting his ties to the far right-wing Hoover Institution.
On July 20th, Trudy Rubin, the "Worldview" columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote a column titled, "After plane horror, Europe must stand up to Putin." A true believer like Ms. Applebaum and most group-think western journalists, Ms. Rubin asserted: "More than 200 European civilians, along with dozens of Aussies, Asians, and North Americans, lie dead because of Putin's determination to force Ukraine to join a new Russian empire."
Conveniently, she had forgotten that it was European Union, not Russia, that initially told Ukraine it must choose between Europe's economic organization and Russia's. Conveniently, she had forgotten that, when President Yanukovych violated his earlier pledge to join the EU and chose Russia -- largely because its short term economic deal was significantly better -- American government officials violated Ukraine's sovereignty by joining protesters who opposed Yanukovych's volte-face. Conveniently, she had forgotten that the American-inspired and neo-Nazi Pravyi Sektor-led coup spurred a backlash in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Having forgotten all those intermediate events, Ms. Rubin then remembered that Russia was allowing, if not actually providing, assistance to the separatists, who shot down the airliner.
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