From The Archive: MH-17

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Not long ago I wrote that every American institution, public and private, is corrupt. And every week Robert Parry's reports prove the truth of my statement.

In his latest, Parry says that "Power -- far more than fact -- determines what is defined as true in America, a nation that has become dangerously disconnected from reality in matters both trivial and important." To illustrate, he uses the orchestrated "Deflategate" scandal and the orchestrated MH-17 storyline.

Parry reports how NFL team owners used NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to frame the New England Patriots and the team's quarterback, Tom Brady. It is a scientific fact that cold air and moisture reduce a football's internal air pressure. This scientific fact was ignored, and Brady was successfully smeared for running a scheme to slightly deflate footballs. He and the Patriots were sanctioned.

It was nearly three years ago that the Malaysian airliner MH-17 was shot down over the Ukraine. US Secretary of State John Kerry immediately declared that the US had complete proof that the Russians were involved. Kerry has never released the "proof," which tells us that a US Secretary of State again lied to the world.

The black boxes were recovered undamaged. However, the investigation was taken out of the hands of the independent international body, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and given, at Washington's insistence, to the Dutch, with the rationale that so many of the victims were Dutch.

The real reason is that it is easy for Washington to control the Dutch. After three years there is still no conclusive report. During this time Washington has succeeded via propaganda in placing the blame on the Russian separatists and Putin.

I addressed the issue contemporaneously:

July 19, 2014
What Happened to the Malaysian Airliner?
Paul Craig Roberts

Washington's propaganda machine is in such high gear that we are in danger of losing the facts that we do have.

One fact is that the separatists do not have the expensive Buk anti-aircraft missile system or the trained personnel to operate it.

Another fact is that the separatists have no incentive to shoot down an airliner and neither does Russia. Anyone can tell the difference between low-flying attack aircraft and an airliner at 33,000 feet.

The Ukrainians do have Buk anti-aircraft missile systems, and a Buk battery was operational in the region and deployed at a site from which it could have fired a missile at the airliner.

Just as the separatists and the Russian government have no incentive to shoot down an airliner, neither does the Ukrainian government nor, one would think, even the crazed extreme Ukrainian nationalists who have formed militias to take the fight against the separatists that the Ukrainian army is not keen to undertake -- unless there was a plan to frame Russia.

One Russian general familiar with the weapon system offered his opinion that it was a mistake made by the Ukrainian military untrained in the weapon's use. The general said that although Ukraine has a few of the weapons, Ukrainians have had no training in their use in the 23 years since Ukraine separated from Russia. The general thinks it was an accident due to incompetence.

This explanation makes a certain amount of sense and far more sense than Washington's propaganda. The problem with the general's explanation is that it does not explain why the Buk anti-aircraft missile system was deployed near or in a separatist territory. The separatists have no aircraft. It seems odd for Ukraine to have an expensive missile system in an area in which it is of no military use and where the position could be overrun and captured by separatists.