Tyler Durden
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Via Zerohedge…
In unexpected statements Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has questioned the methodology behind Dutch investigators who produced what the West considers the authoritative report on the tragic shoot down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 while flying over war-torn eastern Ukraine. He criticized that the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) seems “to be concentrated on trying to pin it on the Russians”.
The Malaysian leader told reporters at the Japanese Foreign Correspondents Club (FCCJ) in Tokyo on Thursday “They are accusing Russia but where is the evidence?” Mahathir said his country accepted that a “Russian-made missile” shot down its civilian airliner, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board, but that “You need strong evidence to show it was fired by the Russians.”
He ultimately questioned the objectivity of the investigators in what major regional media described as a “jaw dropping speech”.
A total of 38 Australians were killed in the Boeing-777 shoot down and crash, and the majority were Dutch nationals. The ABC report summarized of the “bombshell” charges leveled by PM Mahathir:
“Based on these findings, the only conclusion we can reasonably now draw is that Russia was directly involved in the downing of MH17,” Australia’s then-prime minister and foreign minister Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop said in a joint statement.
“The Russian Federation must be held to account for its conduct in the downing of MH17 over eastern Ukraine, which resulted in the tragic deaths of 298 passengers and crew, including 38 people who called Australia home.”
But in a bombshell speech to the Japanese Foreign Correspondents Club (JFCC) on Thursday, Dr Mahathir was having none of it, accusing those who blamed Russia of scapegoating the nation for “political” reasons.
The Malaysian PM further went so far as to point to Ukrainian pro-government forces as being prime suspects: “It could be by the rebels in Ukraine; it could be Ukrainian government because they too have the same missile,” he said.
Interestingly, this has been Russia’s position all along, which has already led some international media sources to suggest of the deeply contrarian Friday speech, “Dr Mahathir is known to enjoy a good conspiracy theory.”
Mahathir further slammed the decision to exclude Malaysian investigators from the black box examination: “We may not have the expertise but we can buy the expertise. For some reason, Malaysia was not allowed to check the black box to see what happened,” he said.
“We don’t know why we are excluded from the examination but from the very beginning, we see too much politics in it and the idea was to find out how this happened but seems to be concentrated on trying to pin it to the Russians.”
The Malaysian PM’s headline grabbing comments were made in English in response to a reporter’s question.
He concluded that, “This is not a neutral kind of examination” — again questioning the basis on which suspicions of pro-Kiev forces appeared to have been superficially ruled out from the start.
“I don’t think a very highly disciplined party is responsible for launching the missile,” he added, according to Australia’s ABC.
Russia has also rejected the conclusions of the European JIT report, saying the missile that struck the civilian airliner was manufactured in the Soviet Union in 1986, and was part of the Ukrainian army arsenal at the time of the shoot down.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
FINALLY! The tuth is coming out.
Not yet. Graciously we have someone with the sense to ask the right question. Now we’re gonna get a regime change in Malaysia
Or an “accident”.
You underestimate the power that mainstream media has to bury or misrepresent anything not to its liking. If they can inject their version of events into 90% of the population, do they really care about the other, relatively easily suppressed 10%?.
Only in Ukraine and other such soft targets of opportunity can less than 10% of a population inflict their will upon the majority, when of course bolstered and unholstered by foreign forces.
My wife is Malaysian and she and so many Malaysians were ecstatic when the last corrupt government was voted out. I’ve read a lot about Mahathir in the past several months and he’s made news with his stance about Israel and its move to Jerusalem, this position on MH 117 and just this week being accused by the US of trying to subvert the dollar currency.
In the US we have no leaders that are even worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Mahathir. What an articulate and insightful person!
In the US, we have an ample supply of leaders who are worthy…………..of much that’s best left unmentioned.
LOL
Washington’s chock full of unmentionable dirty laundry. It piles up faster than Manhattan’s sidewalk garbage on a sweltering August afternoon. Smells about the same too.
Putting all other suspicions of the JITs investigation of MH17 aside, there’s one solitary event that clinches the JIT’s untrustworthiness for me…and that’s when they themselves revealed the serial number of the missile. Russia (eventually) located the factory log showing that it was sent to Ukraine 30 years ago. Any honest agency would immediately have requested to do a forensic ink aging/dating on the log’s entries. None was requested. The evidence was simply ignored. Tells the whole story right there to me. PS: How often do we see such behavior? OPCW anyone? Ink aging/dating is a well established science, 100%… Read more »
Good morning PID yes and not to forget the phone number on the side of the 2 of 5 trucks that so called carried the launcher. When this first happened all one had to do was ring the nice lady on the other end and she was willing to tell the whole story. Of course she vanished very quickly. The owner of the trucks is in hiding fearing the same thing that happened to those involved in the downing.This was an organised US/ Ukraine plot no doubt about it. There is a lot more evidence but of course well hidden… Read more »
So many he said/she said events. The simple fact is that, with a multitude of western media ready to jump (as they did) on any ‘proof’ that substantiates what they want to believe, it would be foolish not to entertain that the owner of this Volvo truck, if he found himself in Ukraine’s tender graces, would not (voluntarily or otherwise) be inclined to bear false witness. Besides, the images presented are themselves not worth much, due to their ease of manipulation/fabrication. Far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing that even approaches conclusive evidence other than that missile log IF the JIT… Read more »
Another such fact: By now it should be clear that Ukraine ATC UkSATSE bears the primary responsibility for MH17 flying there because UkSATSE failed to close that airspace after an AN-24 was downed from 6500m on July 14th 2014. UkSATSE being a joint military/civilian ATC has been fully aware of the risks but still failed to close that airspace completely. http://uksatse.ua/index.php?act=Part&CODE=247&id=272&lang=en NOTE – For assigning this responsibility you need NO investigation of wreckage, crash site, black box or radar data. – UkSATSE is a joint civil/military Air Traffic Control authority. Simply ICAO rules assign UkSATSE the primary responsibility for restricting… Read more »
I agree. And what of MH17 anyway, what of it – EVEN IF the insurgents had shot it down in error. Ukraine was bombing and slaughtering civilians from the air and shelling them from the ground non-stop. Who does NOT have the right to protect their civilians from such war crimes? All the hooplah Washington makes over civilian casualties in Syria. Are not Donbass’ civilians human? Do they not bleed? Where are THEIR White Helmets, Washington? Are you not a blood-drenched hypocrite yourself? Lay the blame where it belongs….in your own lap. Inna Kukuruza, may she and all like her… Read more »
It’s obvious that the Ukronazis were responsible. I’ve been arguing that from the start. No one else had the BUKs in the area. Also, they are entirely responsible for routing a commercial flight over a war zone.
If you seriously consider the behavior of Ukraine as a whole over the past five years, it’s absolutely essential that you start from the premise that they must be the first to suspect, if not be clearly guilty, of every nefarious act over that time. That this western mania of turning everything on its head by accusing Russia of, what is to any reasonable person with an ability to extract clear patterns from human behavior, that which Ukraine is guilty of tells me even more so that they’re so deathly afraid of people perceiving the obvious, which would bring their… Read more »
I’m now reading that Kurt Volker has urged Ukraine not to do anything further(?) to implement UNSCR 2202 (recognizing the MINSK accord), which the US itself signed off on. Yet another veiled threat no doubt to Zelensky, to placate Ukraine’s ‘patriotic front’, like C14 and the rest. Obviously, Ukraine wouldn’t be so successful at doing what it does best if not for a little help from its friends.
(PS: keeping track of Ukraine’s constantly morphing ‘patriotic parties’ is as difficult as following al Qaeda’s perpetually morphing namesakes. Maybe there’s something that meets the eye, if not the eye-deology there.)
Reminds me of BClinton signing off on UNSCR 1244, then tossing it in the garbage.
Then Dutch foreign minister Timmermans is one of the architects of this propaganda exploitation by the Dutch. His UN speech with by now debunked ‘facts’ definitely helped him score the job of Vice chair of the EU Commission. That ’emotional’ speech was designed imply Russian involvement. Together with Australia’s Bishop he had the investigation split into a public technical part under the UN mandate executed by the Dutch Safety board an a ‘criminal’ part covered by secret agreements by Ukraine, Australia and the Dutch. Timmermans is now one of the candidates for Chair of the EU Commission. Prime minister Rutte… Read more »
PM is a politic or specialist of weaponology and plane crash investigator? There is all the facts pointing at Russia and if somebody dont want to see them, it doesnt mean he is right.
What facts?
Oh, you know – that very fuzzy image of a BUK sitting on top of a high resolution Volvo semi. You know, those sorts of facts. LOL
Don’t forget 2 different Volvo’s one is white and the orange now it gets tricky the phone numbers are different but the same company I rang them both . What was supposed to happen the orange truck carried the missile to the site the white truck carried it away.What is confusing a military truck owned by a private person also carried the launcher,the surrounds say Kiev or there abouts ,the only thing i can think of the military truck carried it to Kiev loaded it onto the orange truck and carried it away to the launch site,then after the deed… Read more »
These stories always change. It’s a tried and true technique to obfuscate unwelcome suspicions, even hard facts. We’ve seen it time and time again. I watch Law & Order reruns now and actually laugh at the illusion they’ve created of American jurisprudence, it being so far removed from the realities of America’s footprints on the world stage..
This link has a joint report by Netherlands and Holland’s 2 top military and intelligence organisations. After viewing all the evidence in the lead up to MH17, they both conclude on page 27 that Russia and/or the rebels did NOT shoot down MH17.
You can down load and read this yourself. How can the Dutch lead JIT into MH17 ignore their own top intelligence and military specialists by accusing Russia of responsibility?
https://english.ctivd.nl/documents/reports/2015/10/13/index?fbclid=IwAR2JAlkcbncMxZNNcXGOk62X7qZBpKevMoK0HIx_hlfs4j-Jg0e3MZF1fyo