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<h1><big><big>After Plane Shot Down, Escalation Of Bombing In E.
Ukraine</big></big></h1>
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<div class="cat-date-line"><big><big><span class="cat-date-line2"><a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/category/educate/" title="View
all posts in Educate!" rel="category tag">Educate!</a></span>
<span class="cat-date-line3"> <a
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rel="tag">Russia</a>, <a
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<span class="cat-date-line4">By Roger Annis, <a
href="http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/roger-annis/2014/07/escalation-shelling-eastern-ukraine-kyiv-govt-after-tragic-crash-"
target="_blank">www.rabble.ca</a><br>
July 21st, 2014</span><br>
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<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big><em>Above: <span style="color:
#595959;">An Emergencies Ministry member walks at the site
of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash near the
settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17,
2014. The Malaysian airliner Flight MH17 was brought down
over eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing all 298 people
aboard. (Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters).</span></em></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big><em>As we publish this article
events are developing rapidly in Ukraine. The international
investigatory team has now had full access to the crash area
and the black boxes have been found and given to them. There
is no word yet on whether Kiev will release the air traffic
control record. The Kiev attack on Eastern Ukraine is
continuing, indeed escalating as the investigation moves
forward. We are publishing views different from the dominant
corporate media narrative which is echoing the voices of
people in the government because we believe that accusations
should not be made until the evidence has been reviewed.
There should not be a rush to judgment based on virtually no
evidence. KZ</em></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>July 19, 2014–I learned of the
crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 when my plane landed in
Montreal the same day, July 17, on my way home from Moscow.
The Moscow-Munich leg of my flight departed one hour before
the (delayed) departure of Flight MH17 from Amsterdam at 12:30
pm local time. I reckon the respective flight paths crossed
each other somewhere just west of Ukraine.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Flight MH17 <a
style="font-weight: bold; color: #000000;"
href="http://www.salon.com/2014/07/17/heres_what_we_know_about_todays_ukraine_disaster/"
rel="nofollow">went down</a> over territory controlled by
self defense forces of the autonomous regions of southeast
Ukraine, near the village of Grabovo (Hrabove), halfway
between Donetsk and Luhansk cities, 50 km north and 100 km
west of the Russian border. There are 298 reported victims.
Here is the fateful flight’s <a style="font-weight: bold;
color: #000000;"
href="http://flightaware.com/live/flight/MAS17/history/20140717/1000Z/EHAM/WMKK"
rel="nofollow">route map</a>.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>A typical western media
headline graced the front page of the Vancouver Sun the day
after. It read, ‘Malaysian plane shot down by rebels’. Case
closed. Guilty as charged.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Paul Koring of the Globe and
Mail writes, “What brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is
already known. A Soviet-era surface-to-air missile fired from
separatist held territory in eastern Ukraine tore the Boeing
777 apart as it cruised more than 10 kilometers above the
Donetsk region.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>The Guardian headlines a July
19 story with, ‘MH17: rebels block access to part of site of
crash as evidence against them grows’. But the article doesn’t
contain a word of the claimed evidence.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Toronto Star columnist Mitch
Potter blames what he calls “nihilistic rebels” and “Putin’s
monster” in eastern Ukraine, then proceeds to acknowledge that
evidence they downed the aircraft is “circumstantial”. He
cites a Washington Post writer who says the disaster is all a
result of “Putin’s messy disaster he created in Ukraine”.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>In an editorial today, Toronto
Star editors cite Stephen Harper in fixing blame: “Russia’s
military aggression and illegal occupation of Ukraine (sic) .
. . is at the root of the ongoing conflict in the region.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, say the editors, should
“shackle his dogs of war”.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>CBC radio and television
reporters have rushed to the scene for yet another stint of
fly in, fly out disaster reporting à la the 2010 Haiti
earthquake and the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) that struck
the Philippines. They already know the story. Their questions
are not, ‘Who shot down the plane and why?’, but, “How did
Russia provide the rebels in eastern Ukraine with the know-how
to shoot down the plane, and why would it do that?”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>British tabloids are universal
is blaring on their front pages that ‘Putin’ or his hirelings
in Ukraine are mass murderers</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Ukraine’s president knows.
Within hours of the disaster, he declared, “Today, terrorists
killed three hundred people with one shot. Among them innocent
children, people of many countries of the world.” When the
Kyiv regime speaks of eastern Ukraine, the term “terrorists”
is synonymous with “the people who live there”.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big><strong>Airplane disaster as
pretext for war</strong></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Never mind that assertions of
what happened to Flight MH17 are speculative and an
investigation has hardly begun. The post-crash political
assessment is all about something entirely different than
finding truth—it is being seized as an opening for a political
witch-hunt and more violent war against the people of eastern
Ukraine. For months, they have been refusing and resisting a
brutal, economic austerity turn to Europe and accompanying
military violence by the governing regime in Kyiv and its NATO
backers. Kyiv’s ground war against them has stalled because
its foot soldiers are unconvinced of the cause or ill-prepared
for what is required of them.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>In the two days since the
crash, the regime’s violence has reached new heights of
brutality. Artillery and mortars are raining death and
destruction upon people and communities throughout the
rebellious region. In Luhansk, a city of 425,000, <a
style="font-weight: bold; color: #000000;"
href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28363086"
rel="nofollow">at least 20 people died</a> from shelling on
the day of the crash. The shells have cut electricity and
water supply. Much of communication is also cut.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>The press service of the
Luhansk People’s Republic said on July 18, “The shells are
bombarding practically all the residential districts of the
city, including its centre. The number of killed and wounded
is not immediately known.” (See videos <a style="font-weight:
bold; color: #000000;"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKZ_S6w7-B0&list=UUdnB82ob_V7EXwwcCtB1vUg&index=9&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DWKZ_S6w7-B0%26list%3DUUdnB82ob_V7EXwwcCtB1vUg%26index%3D9&has_verified=1"
rel="nofollow">here</a> and <a style="font-weight: bold;
color: #000000;"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXGcdQqbntk&index=8&list=UUdnB82ob_V7EXwwcCtB1vUg&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DAXGcdQqbntk%26index%3D8%26list%3DUUdnB82ob_V7EXwwcCtB1vUg&has_verified=1"
rel="nofollow">here</a> of the aftermaths of inner city
shelling on July 18–warning, shocking images.)</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>The Lisichansk oil refinery in
the city, owned by Russia’s Rosneft conglomerate, has been
targeted and is burning fiercely (videos <a
style="font-weight: bold; color: #000000;"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOHUbvUB1cU"
rel="nofollow">here</a> and <a style="font-weight: bold;
color: #000000;"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTBPJycf-LU"
rel="nofollow">here</a>).</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Already on July 16, an observer
with the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reported that one
third of the buildings in the center of Luhansk were damaged
by shelling and the proportions of damage are higher on the
city outskirts (ten minute video interview <a
style="font-weight: bold; color: #000000;"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q7F8P15eF0&app=desktop"
rel="nofollow">here</a>). A <a style="font-weight: bold;
color: #000000;"
href="http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/121431" rel="nofollow">July
18 bulletin</a> of the monitoring mission cites reports from
local doctors that in June and July, 250 civilians in the
Luhansk region were killed by bombings and shellings and 850
are injured.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big><strong>Investigation needed</strong></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>The accusations against
self-defense fighters in eastern Ukraine are not only
unproven, they are circumstantial. Did rebels in southeastern
Ukraine capture at some time a battery of the advanced missile
system alleged to have shot down the plane? We do not know. If
they did, analysts say, they lacked the very sophisticated
training required to operate it.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>From where was the missile
fired? We don’t know. The lengthy debris field of the crash
(six kilometers long, according to one report) and its
west-to-east direction may raise doubts about the claims of a
missile hit from the east (ie from Russia or its border
region).</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Flight MH17 was hundreds of
kilometers <a style="font-weight: bold; color: #000000;"
href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10975524/Crashed-MH17-flight-was-300-miles-off-typical-course.html"
rel="nofollow">north of its normal course</a>. Why did
flight controllers in Ukraine direct the plane there, across a
war zone over which many warplanes have been shot down by
self-defense forces (at much lower altitudes) in the past
several months and which airlines have been avoiding? Way back
in April, for example, the U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration prohibited U.S. airlines from flying where
Flight 17 went down. Its directive said, “Due to the potential
for conflicting air traffic control instructions from
Ukrainian and Russian authorities and for the related
potential misidentification of civil aircraft, United States
flight operations are prohibited until further notice in the
airspace over Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov”.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Answers are needed as to who in
the chaotic command structure of the Ukraine armed forces
possesses the authority to fire missiles and how tightly this
is controlled. What role and access to missiles might
commanders of fascist and rightist militias have? The militias
are playing leading roles in the murderous shellings and
attempted ground assaults in the east of the country.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Self-defense forces deny firing
a missile at the plane. <a style="font-weight: bold; color:
#000000;"
href="http://www.vox.com/2014/7/17/5913089/did-this-ukrainian-rebel-commander-take-credit-for-shooting-down-the/in/5677250"
rel="nofollow">This article</a> in Vox details the internet
hoax by which the rebels were said to have made such an
admission. Lazy or biased news editors in mainstream media
have widely reported the hoax, and U.S. government officials
are repeating it as good coin, including U.S. Ambassador
Samantha Power before the UN Security Council on July 18.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Self-defense forces are <a
style="font-weight: bold; color: #000000;"
href="http://en.itar-tass.com/world/741225" rel="nofollow">cooperating
in bringing an investigative team</a> of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe to the site. Local
residents, including coal miners, are taking part in the
search for wreckage and bodies.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Both the Ukraine government in
Kyiv and the Russian government deny that their forces fired
missiles. U.S. Professor Stephen Cohen told Democracy Now in
a <a style="font-weight: bold; color: #000000;"
href="http://www.democracynow.org/2014/7/18/stephen_cohen_downed_malaysian_plane_raises"
rel="nofollow">June 18 interview</a>, “There’s the
possibility that the Russians aided and abetted them
[self-defense forces], possibly from Russian territory, but I
rule that out because, in the end, when you don’t know who has
committed a crime, the first question a professional
investigator asks is, “Did anybody have a motive?” and the
Russians certainly had no motive here.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Cohen calls the people who died
in the plane, “the first victims of the new Cold War”,
referring to the longstanding military threats against Russia
by NATO countries that have escalated since last year over
Ukraine. He has written frequently about the escalation,
including in this June 30 article, ‘<a style="font-weight:
bold; color: #000000;"
href="http://www.thenation.com/article/180466/silence-american-hawks-about-kievs-atrocities"
rel="nofollow">The silence of American hawks about Kiev’s
atrocities</a>’.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Maybe, just maybe, an official
investigation will reveal the truth, or enough of the truth to
make decision makers in NATO pause before upping their
military intervention. But there are serious reasons to doubt
that. The stakes for NATO countries in the war being
prosecuted in eastern Ukraine by the government and its
allied, fascist militias are just too high to let an
inconvenient investigation get in the way.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>The degree to which Canadian
and international mainstream media are ignoring the rampaging
and war of the Kyiv regime and militias in eastern Ukraine is
scandalous. It gets little more than brief mention as
undefined “fighting”. The Guardian has 14 articles on its
Ukraine news page today dealing with the aftermath of the air
disaster; not a single one reports on the shellings by the
Ukraine army. A member of the self-defense forces tells the
BBC at the crash site, “You are only here because foreigners
are dead”.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Ominously, while the media
broadcasts tears for the victims of the crash, it has none for
the victims of shelling and bombing. Indeed, it seems even
more war is required because “something” must apparently be
done to save defenseless air travelers from the likes of
“Putin” and unkempt self defense fighters in eastern Ukraine.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>It all sets the stage for an
escalation of the military intervention that NATO is already
providing to Kyiv. It is so scripted that it tempts the
observer to believe that people in Washington and Brussels
pushed buttons to unleash it all. But no, that would be
speculation, and that’s the last thing needed right now.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>Here are some additional
excerpts from the July 18 interview with Professor Stephen
Cohen on Democracy Now:</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<blockquote style="color: #3f3f3f;">
<p><big><big>By the way, the Ukrainian government shot down a
Russian passenger jet, I think in 2001 [Siberia Airlines
Flight 1812, Oct 4, 2001, 76 dead]. It was flying from Tel
Aviv to Siberia [actually, Siberia to Tel Aviv]. It was an
accident. Competence is always a factor when you have these
weapons…</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Another possibility is that the rebels—we call them
separatists, but they weren’t separatists in the beginning,
they just wanted home rule in Ukraine—had the capability.
But there’s a debate, because this plane was flying at
commercial levels, normally beyond the reach of what they
can carry on their shoulders.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Let me mention, because I think it’s relevant to what
you’re covering here, your very, very powerful segments
before I came on today about what’s going on in Gaza, the
pounding of these cities, the defenselessness of ordinary
people. The same thing has been happening in East Ukrainian
cities—bombing, shelling, mortaring by the Kiev
government—whatever we think of that government. But that
government is backed 150 percent by the White House.</big></big></p>
</blockquote>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big>The statement issued by the <a
style="font-weight: bold; color: #000000;"
href="http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/roger-annis/2014/07/no-to-war-eastern-ukraine-declaration-yalta-crimea-anti-war-confe">antiwar
conference held in Yalta, Crimea</a> earlier this month
makes a nine-point call for an end to Kyiv’s war in eastern
Ukraine. One of the points is “For an international inquiry
headed by jurists and human rights advocates into the human
rights violations and war crimes that have been committed in
the course of this war”. Campaigns and solidarity
mobilizations around these points are now more urgent than
ever.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p style="color: #3f3f3f;"><big><big><em>Roger Annis recently
returned to Canada from a two-week visit to Crimea and
Moscow. He attended the antiwar conference that took place
in Yalta, Crimea on July 6, 7. He can be reached at <a
style="font-weight: bold; color: #000000;"
href="mailto:rogerannis@hotmail.com" rel="nofollow">rogerannis@hotmail.com</a>.
You can sign onto the conference statement at <a
style="font-weight: bold; color: #000000;"
href="http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/yalta-declaration"
rel="nofollow">this online petition website</a>. <em>Background
of the conflict in Ukraine is contained in the </em><a
style="font-weight: bold; color: #000000;"
href="http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/roger-annis/2014/07/its-war-eastern-ukraine-kyiv-govt-bombards-cities-and-towns">July
16 article</a><em> by Roger Annis, ‘It’s war in eastern
Ukraine as Kyiv gov’t bombards cities and towns’</em></em></big></big></p>
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