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I got reports that Saudi Arabia has dropped troops in to defend the Iraqi border:
Also:Quote:
Saudi Arabia ‘Deploys Troops To Iraq Border’ https://newdaystarts.files.wordpress...730b.jpg?w=584
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King Abdullah orders “all necessary measures” to protect the kingdom, as 2,500 Iraqi soldiers pull back from the border.Source: news.sky.com
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Iran has sent aircraft:
Russia dropped in planes yesterday:Quote:
Iranian fighter jets deployed to fight ISIL in Iraq: Report
There have been reports in the UK that Iranian fighter jets have been deployed to help Iraq in its offensive against Islamist group ISIS.
Russia has already supplied Baghdad with aircraft.
This latest development means that the United States, which has also sent drones and helicopters to Iraq, is operating alongside Iran in the conflict.
Washington has so far pledged 300 mainly special forces advisers to help in the battle against the spread of the Islamist militants in the country. On Monday they said they would send a further 300 troops to help secure the embassy and Baghdad Airport.
Fighting has been reported in several areas including in the city of Tikrit.
In the Kurdish autonomous region displaced civilians have started to depart for Turkey.
The bus terminals in the city of Erbil and other towns have been full with people trying to leave the region.
It’s also been reported that hotels in the area are full.
Euronews
The US has sent about 1000 troops, mostly Specials Forces troops to protect the US Embassy in Baghdad, and others for unknown purposes. A handful of Apache choppers are now on the ground there.Quote:
From the BBC
By Jonathan Marcus BBC diplomatic correspondent
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...et_capture.jpg
A video posted online appeared to show the fighter jets in Iraq
Struggle for Iraq
Iran has supplied Iraq with attack jets to help it counter an offensive by Sunni rebels led by the Islamist group Isis, strong evidence suggests.
Russia supplied an initial delivery of the aircraft just a few days ago.
But analysts at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London say that a further delivery, on 1 July, originates from Iran.
This means that the US – which has also sent aircraft to Iraq – is operating alongside Iran in this conflict.
The US has deployed drones and helicopters to Iraq and is actively gathering intelligence on the advance by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis). Washington is also supplying Iraq’s existing air force with Hellfire missiles.
In this case adversity has made for strange bed-fellows.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image..._jets_iiss.jpg
The IISS says that the serial numbers on the aircraft seen in a video posted online by the Iraqi Ministry of Defence correspond with known serial numbers of aircraft in the Iranian fleet.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...hterjets_2.jpg
Mr Dempsey of the IISS notes that “the camouflage scheme visible on the three aircraft is also identical to that currently applied to Iranian Su-25s; a scheme not adopted by any other operators.” He says there appear to have been attempts to conceal the original markings “with evidence of key positions being painted over. This includes the location of Iranian roundels on the side of the air intakes along with a large proportion of the tail fin normally occupied by a full serial number, the Iranian flag and the IRGC insignia.”
Joseph Dempsey, an analyst for the IISS’s Military Balance publication, has carefully studied video of the aircraft released by the Iraqi authorities.
He told the BBC that he believes that some of the aircraft – Sukhoi Su-25 “Frogfoot” ground attack jets – operating in Iraq are indeed Iranian.
“Imagery analysis,” he says, “makes this the most logical conclusion. The markings, serial numbers and camouflage all fit with what we know of the Iranian fleet.”
Iran maintains a small number of Su-25 aircraft, operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Ironically, the majority of these aircraft used to be part of the Iraqi Air Force – seven Su-25s sought refuge in Iran during the First Gulf War.
Contrary to Iraqi wishes, these aircraft were retained and later brought into Iranian service.
Of course it is much harder to determine who is actually flying the aircraft.
Mr Dempsey says that “while Iraq may retain some capability, having operated the aircraft in the past, any pilots would not have had any flying experience for at least 11 years.
“So it would strongly suggest that some level of external support is required,” he says.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28125687
Airport security has been tightened in the UK due to a threat - coming out of Africa. Especially on electronic items coming into Heathrow. The threats are very specific, and today's date: In a statement the embassy said the threat was apparently aimed for "today, July 3rd, between the hours of 2100-2300".
As I write this, Baghdad security forces are trying desperately to locate sleeper cells known to be in the region. "Zero Hour" approaches for the siege of Baghdad.... and those cells will cause major problems in the city when the siege begins. Iraqis speak of a "Zero Hour" as the moment a previously-prepared attack plan would start to unfold.
It's beginning to look like America will side with Assad in Syrian and the Iranian leaders shortly.
Whether this will prevent the Russians and Americans from becoming embroiled in even more shenanigans, I don't know.
But, in my opinion, Iraq is the trigger point. When the right for Baghdad starts, all bets are off on who is on whose side(s) and the "Enemy of my enemy is my friend" crap is right out the window.
The 'Islamic State' of 'Caliph Ibrahim' is in my opinion an existential threat to the entire planet, or soon will be, much as the Third Reich of Nazi Germany was. Once more, America and Russia will have to destroy a monsterous and antihuman foe, and this time it will be at a cost at least as great as World War Two was. Again, in my opinion. We will have to drop our rivalries in the face of this new threat, which is the REAL 'Trans-Asian Axis'. Militant Salafist/Wahabbai Islam.
Not to be contradictory just for the sake of contradiction...
It is my opinion that the primary threat, that which terrorizes all on a global scale, is the country, countries or entities responsible for training, financing, supplying and motivating the ISIS group. This group did not come to being in a vacuum.
And, as far as the 480 million dollar bank job to finance their cause, that's about as phony as... well you fill in the rest.
It doesn't take an intelligence analyst to review ISIS's seemingly instant timing on the Middle East stage, the fact that much of their equipment is very similar to that used by our own military and the fact that we drew down to virtually zero presence in the theater just in time for their inveiling. Oh, and by the way, where were those analysts when the fanatics were arming and organizing? So we can spot a freighter coming from the east relocating to somewhere in the world, stop it and discover contraband military equipment in the hold out of all the innocuous freighters in the world, and we can't recognize the buildup of a major military force in a region where we keep a constant eye? Nonsense.
I don't think it will be.Quote:
Not to be contradictory just for the sake of contradiction...
Which is why I had earlier identified what I called the 'real Trans-Asian Axis' as being Saudi Arabia and the other Oil Sheikdoms and their servants. Maybe not the 'official' governments, but a network of well-funded and powerful individuals wanting to see a Salafist/Wahhabai Caliphate instead of the corrupt Gerontocracy they presently have.Quote:
It is my opinion that the primary threat, that which terrorizes all on a global scale, is the country, countries or entities responsible for training, financing, supplying and motivating the ISIS group. This group did not come to being in a vacuum.
I agree, and I suspect that this new Caliphate has much, much more money than that.Quote:
And, as far as the 480 million dollar bank job to finance their cause, that's about as phony as... well you fill in the rest.
Makes one think that the Global Elite WANT this kind of Islam to prevail, as long as they can keep their riches into the New Order. Bill Gates and his liberal plutocratic kind can thrive under Salafism just as well or even better than under the current economic order.Quote:
It doesn't take an intelligence analyst to review ISIS's seemingly instant timing on the Middle East stage, the fact that much of their equipment is very similar to that used by our own military and the fact that we drew down to virtually zero presence in the theater just in time for their inveiling.
Cheering their attacks on regimes that held back the Islamist tidal wave.Quote:
Oh, and by the way, where were those analysts when the fanatics were arming and organizing?
Exactly. Our power elite want militant Islam to win, as militant Islam favors their social/economic order and has done so for 1500 years. And, it will control the masses even as it blesses their gaining of more and more wealth.Quote:
So we can spot a freighter coming from the east relocating to somewhere in the world, stop it and discover contraband military equipment in the hold out of all the innocuous freighters in the world, and we can't recognize the buildup of a major military force in a region where we keep a constant eye? Nonsense.
I agree with MMCO. This group came not into existence in a vacuum, they were given money. By the way, the Saudis are sending military forces to defend their own borders. That doesn't strike me as being in league with ISIS.
The money came from somewhere - and I would almost guarantee it was from Russia and/or China. The Iranians weren't in on this deal or they wouldn't be so keen to help the US suddenly (unless John F-ing Kerry is giving the Ayatollah a blowjob in the back rooms, which surprisingly, I wouldn't put past him and the other Neo-European scum inhabiting the White House).
By the way, no one has "favored" the Islamic idiots ever. Do you not recall multiple (something like six of them) Crusades against the Muslims? And the various Muslim invasions into Europe, Rome, even into China? I think these people truly believe they are going to take over the world, but they can't do it from their third world hell holes alone. Someone has to be helping this shit storm along.
Japan objects as Chinese paper prints mushroom clouds on map
Posted by The Butcher ⋅ ⋅ 1 Comment
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http://chinadailymail.files.wordpres...apan.jpg?w=750Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida gives a speech during a seminar in Tokyo
TOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) – Japan on Tuesday vowed to make a stern protest to China after a regional Chinese newspaper printed a map of the country with mushroom clouds hovering over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and accused the Japanese of wanting war again.
The neighbours have a long history of tense relations. Beijing bristles at Japan’s inability to properly atone for its invasion of China before and during World War Two, and its occupation of large parts of the country.
The newspaper, the weekly Chongqing Youth News from the southwestern city of Chongqing, printed the picture in its latest edition, Chinese media reported, though it appeared later to have been removed from the paper’s website version.
The picture showed a map of Japan with mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki – both of which were hit by nuclear bombs at the end of World War Two – and the words in Chinese and English, “Japan wants a war again”.
A picture of the page was carried on the website of the Global Times, a widely-read tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily.
“As the butcher of World War Two, the blood on Japan’s hands has yet to dry,” the Chongqing Youth News wrote in an accompanying article that remains available on its website.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said the paper’s comment and the accompanying map were regrettable.
“As foreign minister of the only country that has suffered nuclear attacks, and as a politician from Hiroshima, I cannot tolerate this,” he told reporters.
“I issued an instruction to check the facts with the paper in question speedily through the consulate in Chongqing and, if it turns out to be true, to lodge a stern protest.”
Calls to the newspaper seeking comment went unanswered. Its website says the newspaper is published by the Chongqing branch of the party’s Youth League.
Japanese leaders have repeatedly apologised for suffering caused by the country’s wartime actions, including a landmark 1995 apology by then prime minister Tomiichi Murayama. Japan’s government, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has repeatedly said that Japan has faced up to its past sincerely.
But contradictory remarks from conservative politicians have cast doubt on that sincerity.
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takanaka and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Source: Yahoo News - “Japan upset as Chinese paper prints mushroom clouds on map”
Close Call As China Scrambles Fighter Jets On Japanese Aircraft In Disputed Territory
July 10, 2014 · by Fortuna's Corner · in Asia/Pacific Pivot, China, CIA, DIA, foreign policy, Intelligence Community, Japan, military history, national security, US Military · Leave a comment
Close Call As China Scrambles Fighter Jets on Japanese Aircraft In Disputed Territory
By Tim Hume, CNN
updated 3:23 PM EDT, Mon May 26, 2014
This disputed islands in the East China Sea are known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
Hong Kong (CNN) — Territorial tensions between China and Japan have flared after a close encounter between their military jets in disputed airspace over the East China Sea.
The neighboring rivals accused each other of potentially triggering a dangerous incident, after two pairs of Chinese fighter jets were scrambled and flew unprecedentedly close to a Japanese OP-3C surveillance plane and a YS-11EB electronic intelligence aircraft Saturday.
The fly-bys occurred in airspace claimed by both countries as part of their “air defense identification zones,” while China carried out joint maritime exercises with Russia at the weekend.
Japan claims the flights were part of a routine reconnaissance mission near a group of uninhabited islands claimed by both nations, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.
Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of National Defense described the move as a justified enforcement of the country’s air defense zone.
Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said it was the closest that Chinese jets had come to Japanese aircraft — passing about 30 meters from one plane and 50 meters from another.
“We believe this proximity and behavior does not follow common sense,” he said.
He said the flight crews reported the Chinese planes were armed with missiles. “The crews were on edge as they responded.”
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters Monday that Japan had lodged a protest to China through diplomatic channels over the incident.
“This should never happen,” he said.
Beyond meeting the Japanese aircraft, the Chinese jets took no further action, and the Japanese pilots returned to base.
In response, a statement from China’s Ministry of National Defense blamed Japan for the incident, saying that the Chinese and Russian navies had issued “no-fly” notices in the area ahead of the maritime drill.
According to the statement, carried by Chinese state media, the ministry had since lodged a complaint with Japan and called on it to “stop all surveillance and interference activities.” “Otherwise, all the consequences that might be caused will be borne by the Japanese side,” read the statement.
An image of a Chinese fighter jet released by Japan\’s Defense Ministry after the incident.
An image of a Chinese fighter jet released by Japan’s Defense Ministry after the incident.
Tensions in recent years over China’s increasingly assertive stance towards territorial claims escalated in November when it unilaterally declared an “air defense identification zone,” or ADIZ, that included stretches of disputed territory.
An ADIZ is essentially a buffer zone outside a country’s sovereign airspace, in which nations request that approaching aircraft identify themselves. The United States and Japan have both declared such zones around their territories.
Both countries immediately challenged China’s declaration of its ADIZ in November, with the United States sending two unarmed B-52 bombers through the airspace without notifying Chinese authorities.
The disputed island standoff regularly sees the coast guards of China and Japan tail each other around the island chain.
While the islands are uninhabited, their ownership would allow for exclusive oil, mineral, and fishing rights in surrounding waters, and their status has been a regular flashpoint in Sino-Japanese relations.
Japan protests China fighter jets’ close brush over East China Sea
By Nobuhiro Kubo
TOKYO Wed Jun 11, 2014 6:23am EDT
Japan’s Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera speaks at a news conference at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo December 17, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Yuya Shino/Files
(Reuters) – Japan protested after Chinese fighter jets flew “abnormally close” to Japanese military aircraft over the East China Sea on Wednesday, Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said.
The newest flare up in a long-running territorial dispute between Asia’s largest economies follows a similar incident on May 24, when Japan said Chinese aircraft had come within a few dozen meters of its warplanes.
The Chinese Su-27s “flew so recklessly that the Self-Defense Forces pilot felt in danger,” Onodera told visiting Australian Defense Minister David Johnston.
“I would like the Chinese military authorities who allow this kind of dangerous behavior to take place to behave morally.”
China’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China lays claim to Japanese-administered islets in the East China Sea, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. It is also pressing its claim to almost all the South China Sea, brushing aside claims by several southeast Asian states.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said the Chinese fighters came “abnormally close” to a Japanese OP-3C surveillance plane and a YS-11EB electronic intelligence aircraft between 11 a.m. and 12 a.m.
The ministry’s statement did not say how close the planes came to each other but added that neither the planes nor the Japanese pilots suffered damage or injury.
China’s proclamation last November of an air defense zone covering disputed islands and areas in the South China Sea has fuelled concerns that a minor incident could quickly escalate.
Sino-Japanese ties have long been strained by allegations in China that Japan has not properly atoned for its wartime aggression and by the spat over the uninhabited islands.
Japan scrambled fighter jets against Chinese planes 415 times in the year ended in March, up 36 percent on the year, while in waters near the disputed islands, patrol ships from both countries have been playing cat-and-mouse, raising fears of an accidental clash.
Japanese land, sea and air forces joined last month to simulate the recapture of a remote island, underscoring Tokyo’s concerns about the security of the islets.
Tensions between China and its neighbours have also risen sharply in the South China Sea in recent weeks, following the deployment of a Chinese oil rig in waters also claimed by Vietnam. The deployment sparked anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam.
The Philippine foreign ministry in May accused China of reclaiming land on a disputed reef in the South China Sea and said it appeared to be building an airstrip.
(This story was refiled to delete extraneous word in headline)
(Reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo in Tokyo and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Writing by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by William Mallard and Clarence Fernandez)
#AceNewsGroup 06:37 on July 10, 2014 Reply | Follow
‘ Barack Obama’s Administration Opposes the Adoption of Bill That Would Suspend Nuclear Non-Proliferation Co-Operation with Russia ‘
#AceWorldNews – UNITED STATES (Washington) – July 10. /ITAR-TASS/. Barack Obama’s administration opposed the adoption of a bill that would suspend nuclear non-proliferation cooperation with Russia.
The document approved by the House of Representatives "unduly restricts" the US Department of Energy interaction with Russia.
In fact, the bill passed recently by the lower house of Congress not only limits but bans the use of budget funds on joint projects with Russian Ministry of Energy.
The reasons for this decision are not listed in the document.
But all restrictions on cooperation with Russia set by the US lawmakers were related to the situation around Ukraine.
At the same time, the bill contains a provision allowing to continue contacts with Russia, if the Minister of Energy finds that "such activities in the interest of US national security."
However, even with this amendment the Obama administration regarded the document as unacceptable.
#ANS2014
Taiwan Diplomat Fears China-Japan ‘Explosive’ Incident
July 10, 2014 · by Fortuna's Corner · in China, CIA, DIA, foreign policy, Intelligence Community, Japan, military history, national security, US Military · Leave a comment
Taiwan Diplomat Fears China-Japan ‘Explosive’ Incident
Owen Ullmann, USATODAY 7:38 p.m. EDT July 9, 2014
(Photo: AP)
China’s territorial dispute with Japan over a chain of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea could lead to an “explosive” confrontation, Taiwan’s top diplomat in the United States warned Wednesday.
“These little islands could trigger something,” Lyushun Shen, ambassador of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States, said in an interview with USA TODAY. “A small collision of patrol boats could trigger a major incident. It could be explosive.”
Both countries claim a group of tiny, remote islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Taiwan calls them Diaoyutai. The United States has not taken sides as to which country owns the islands, but it recently reiterated its mutual defense pact with Japan and has criticized China’s aggressive efforts to protect the waters.
Shen said the dispute has roots in the deep animosity China still feels from the Japanese brutality and occupation it suffered during the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945. China used Monday’s anniversary of the start of the war to raise nationalistic feelings and arouse public opinion against Japan, Shen said. “There is a ‘Hate Japan’ campaign going on,” he said.
China has provoked conflicts with several nations in the South China Sea, including Vietnam and the Philippines, over territorial rights to islands there. Shen noted Taiwan originally categorized and named the disputed islands.
The communist Chinese regime has ruled the mainland since winning a civil war in 1949, when the losing nationalists fled to Taiwan and claimed to be the real Chinese government in exile. The island continues to operate as a politically independent democracy, even as it has fostered closer economic and social ties with the mainland. The communist regime in Beijing is recognized by virtually all other nations as the only legitimate government of China.
Shen said he hoped continued economic, social and cultural integration of the two systems would lead to a “peaceful” political solution in the future. He noted Taiwan is visited by nearly 3 million mainland Chinese tourists each year, and marriages between island and mainland residents continue to grow.
07.10.14
by darcprynce
Terrorists In Iraq Seize 88 Pounds Of Uranium Iraq tells U.N. That ‘Terrorist Groups’ Seized Nuclear Materials – Reuters
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http://rt.com/files/news/28/8c/c0/00/000_nic6338857.jpg
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Insurgents in Iraq have seized nuclear materials used for scientific research at a university in the country’s north, Iraq told the United Nations in a letter appealing for help to “stave off the threat of their use by terrorists in Iraq or abroad.”
Nearly 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of uranium compounds were kept at Mosul University, Iraq’s U.N. Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the July 8 letter obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.
“Terrorist groups have seized control of nuclear material at the sites that came out of the control of the state,” Alhakim wrote, adding that such materials “can be used in manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.”
“These nuclear materials, despite the limited amounts mentioned, can enable terrorist groups, with the availability of the required expertise, to use it separate or in combination with other materials in its terrorist acts,” said Alhakim.
He warned that they could also be smuggled out of Iraq.
A U.S. government source familiar with the matter said the materials were not believed to be enriched uranium and therefore would be difficult to use to manufacture into a weapon. Another U.S. official familiar with security matters said he was unaware of this development raising any alarm among U.S. authorities.
A Sunni Muslim group known as the Islamic State is spearheading a patchwork of insurgents who have taken over large swaths of Syria and Iraq. The al Qaeda offshoot until recently called itself the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
“The Republic of Iraq is notifying the international community of these dangerous developments and asking for help and the needed support to stave off the threat of their use by terrorists in Iraq or abroad,” Alhakim wrote.
Iraq acceded to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material on Monday, said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The convention requires states to protect nuclear facilities and material in peaceful domestic use, storage and transport.
“It also provides for expanded cooperation between and among states regarding rapid measures to locate and recover stolen or smuggled nuclear material, mitigate any radiological consequences of sabotage, and prevent and combat related offences,” according to the IAEA.
Malaysia Jet Brought Down in Ukraine by Missile, U.S. Officials Say
By ERIC SCHMITT, MARCUS MABRY, NEIL MacFARQUHAR and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
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WASHINGTON — A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with 295 people aboard was shot down on Thursday by a surface-to-air missile, American officials have confirmed. The plane was traveling at about 30,000 feet, according to tracking information from a military spy satellite. The satellite was unable to detect where exactly the missile was fired.
Military and intelligence analysts are using mathematical formulas, high-speed computers and other sensors to try to pin down the missile’s point of origin. Other analysts will work with the Ukrainian authorities to recover and analyze pieces of the missile and the aircraft to help determine what kind of missile was fired, the officials said.
The plane — Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — was carrying nearly 300 passengers and crew when it crashed and burned in an eastern Ukraine wheat field near the Russian border, in an area roiled by fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces. There were no known survivors. Ukrainian officials immediately called the crash an act of terrorism.
The furiously unfolding investigation centered on Ukrainian separatists or Russian troops as the missile operators. But the reason for the attack — whether it was a deliberate strike or a tragic accident — was unknown.
“What we still don’t know is what were they thinking,” one official said.
“This is truly a grave situation,” said Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. of the United States, speaking in Detroit. “It’s important we get to the bottom of this sooner than later because of the possible repercussions that can flow beyond from this, beyond the tragic loss of life.”
Ukraine’s president, Petro O. Poroshenko, called for an immediate investigation and asked the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, to send Dutch experts to assist. “I would like to note that we are calling this not an incident, not a catastrophe, but a terrorist act,” Mr. Poroshenko said.
Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, said, “If it transpires that the plane was, indeed, shot down, we insist that the perpetrators must be brought to justice.”
Forensics evidence from the site, as well as the satellite data and any intercepted communications, would help analysts and investigators determine who fired the lethal missile.
Defense Department officials said late Thursday that they were examining the possibility that Ukrainian separatists with Russian advisers had fired a captured Ukrainian Army Buk missile system. The separatists do not otherwise have the technology to shoot down an airliner at such a high altitude, the officials said.
Another possibility, a senior Pentagon official said, was that Russian troops just across the border from eastern Ukraine may have fired the missile. In both scenarios, the senior official said, the missile operator most likely mistook the Malaysian airliner for a Ukrainian military transport plane. A third possibility, the official said, was that the Russians supplied the rebels with the missile.
Two senior Pentagon officials said military analysts suspected that the missile was either an SA-11 or an SA-20.
Reporters arriving at the scene near the town of Grabovo described dozens of lifeless bodies strewn about, mostly intact, in a field dotted with purple flowers, with remnants of the plane scattered across a road lined with fire engines and emergency vehicles. “It fell down in pieces,” said one rescue worker as tents were set up to gather the dead.
One passenger in a black sweater lay on her back, with blood streaming down her face and her left arm raised. The carcass of the plane was still smoldering, and rescue workers moved through the dark field with flashlights. Dogs barked in the distance, and the air was filled with a bitter smell.
A regional airline official said the plane had been flying at about 33,000 feet when radar lost track of it.
For months, eastern Ukraine has been the scene of a violent pro-Russian separatist uprising in which a number of military aircraft have been downed. But this would be the first commercial airline disaster to result from the hostilities.
Despite the turmoil in eastern Ukraine, the commercial airspace over that part of the country is heavily trafficked and has remained open. Aeroflot, Russia’s national carrier, announced that it had suspended all flights to Ukraine for at least three days.
Malaysia Airlines, still reeling from the mysterious loss of another Boeing 777 flight in March, said it had lost contact with Thursday’s flight, MH17, over Ukraine but offered no further details immediately. Mr. Razak said initially in a Twitter post that he was “shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed. We are launching an immediate investigation.”
President Obama, who one day earlier had announced strengthened sanctions against Russia over its support for the eastern Ukraine separatists, spoke by telephone with Mr. Putin, who raised the issue of the reports of the downed plane, White House officials said. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Obama had been briefed about the plane crash.
Later Mr. Obama said the United States government was working to determine whether any Americans had been aboard the flight. Russia’s Interfax news agency said there had been no Russians aboard.
There was no immediate word from the Kremlin about the substance of the Obama-Putin telephone call. The Kremlin put out a short statement saying that Mr. Putin had a previously scheduled telephone conversation with Mr. Obama.
“The parties had a detailed discussion about the crisis in Ukraine,” the statement said. Mr. Putin repeated the need for an immediate cease-fire and objected to what he said was Ukrainian army fire striking inside Russia.
Russian news agencies said Mr. Putin also spoke by telephone to the president of Malaysia and offered his condolences.
According to Mark Levin, 29 Americans were aboard that aircraft.
Right now, 27 Aussies, 7 Britons, and according to Levin, 29 Americans. Not sure of the rest of the dead yet
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 passenger Cor Pan’s last Facebook post proves tragically prophetic
http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/80cc7...171e?s=34&d=mm Republish Reprint
Gordon Rayner, Martin Evans, The Telegraph | July 17, 2014 6:53 PM ET
More from The Telegraph
http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com...ook1.jpg?w=620FacebookIn a reference to the disappearance of flight MH370 in March, Cor Pan, believed to be shown in this profile picture, posted a picture, right, on his Facebook page with the message: "If the plane disappears, this is what it looks like."
For Cor Pan, a Dutch holidaymaker heading for Kuala Lumpur with his girlfriend Neeltje Tol, boarding a Malaysia Airlines flight was an irresistible opportunity for black humour.
As he made his way down the sky bridge from gate G03 at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport, he paused to take a picture of the Boeing 777-200 that he and Ms Tol were about to board.
In a reference to the disappearance of flight MH370 in March, Mr Pan posted the picture on his Facebook page with the message: “If the plane disappears, this is what it looks like.”
His friends responded by wishing him a good holiday and reminding him to send back lots of photos, but within hours their messages would turn to fear, and then despair.
Flight MH17 pushed back from the gate at 11.14 a.m. BST, 14 minutes behind schedule, and took off at 11.30 a.m. for a flight that was scheduled to land at 10.50 p.m. A local plane spotter, Fred Neeleman, photographed the aircraft as it took off, as did another man, Tom Warners.
For the next 110 minutes, the flight was entirely uneventful. With a complement of 280 passengers and 15 crew, MH17 made its way over Germany, Poland and Ukraine, reaching its cruising altitude of 33,000 feet and flying straight and level, but at 1.21 p.m. radar contact was suddenly lost.
On the ground, Igor Strelkov – also known as Igor Girkin – the leader of the pro-Russian separatists fighting the Ukrainian government forces for control of eastern Ukraine, used his page on the social networking site Vkontakte to boast that his men had just shot down an aircraft. In a message posted at 2.50 p.m. BST, he wrote: “In the district of Torez an An-26 was just shot down. It crashed somewhere near the Progress mine.
“We warned them not to fly in ‘our skies.’ Here is video confirmation of the latest ‘fallen bird.’ The bird landed outside the residential zone, no peaceful civilians were injured.”
His post was accompanied by a video of a plume of black smoke rising from the ground, one of several videos that were posted online within two hours of MH17 going missing. It quickly became clear that an aircraft had indeed come down near the village of Grabovo in the Torez area, 25 miles from the Russian border, but the wreckage bore the distinctive white, red and blue livery of Malaysian Airlines.
Emergency crews who raced to the scene found wreckage and bodies strewn over a nine-mile area. Part of the aircraft, including at least one engine, had exploded when it hit the ground, leaving an area of blackened debris once the fires had been put out.
Other parts of the aircraft, and some of its passengers, had landed intact.
The fully dressed, unbloodied bodies of more than 100 passengers lay next to the broken seats in which they had hit the ground still strapped in by their seat belts. Passports and other personal effects were picked out by emergency workers identifying the dead passengers.
http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com...pg?w=620&h=572
A large section of wing had come down within yards of two buildings, though all those living near the crash site appeared unharmed. Elsewhere, a section of the fuselage, its windows undamaged by the impact, lay in the middle of a field.
“I was working in the field on my tractor when I heard the sound of a plane and then a bang and shots. Then I saw the plane hit the ground and break in two. There was thick black smoke,” said an witness who gave his name only as Vladimir.
A separatist rebel from nearby Krasnyi Luch, who gave his name only as Sergei, said: “From my balcony I saw a plane begin to descend from a great height and then heard two explosions.”
The first confirmation that a passenger jet had come down came at 4.04 p.m., when the Reuters news agency reported that a Malaysian airliner had crashed in Ukraine.
Malaysia Airlines said on its Twitter feed that it “has lost contact of MH-17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace.”
By 4.29 p.m. the Russian Interfax news agency was reporting that the aircraft was “shot down.”
The finger of blame quickly pointed at the pro-Russian rebels, largely because of the earlier claim of shooting down an aircraft but also because a Ukrainian cargo aircraft had been shot down days before by a surface-to-air missile.
Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko described the incident as a “terrorist act,” having earlier said: “We do not exclude that the plane was shot down and confirm that the Ukraine armed forces did not fire at any targets in the sky.”
Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said the aircraft was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher, which can hit targets up to an altitude of 72,000 ft.
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Two weeks ago, pro-Russian fighters from the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) boasted that they had captured Buk missiles and launchers when they overran a Ukrainian army garrison on June 29. The DPR posted a Twitter picture at the time of the vehicle-mounted missile system, but last night deleted the picture and denied they possessed such a weapon.
Andrei Purgin, the self-declared deputy prime minister of the DPR, said: “Of course, we do not have such systems. These arms are too heavy and too powerful, we simply have nowhere to get them.”
Meanwhile, another faction, the Lugansk People’s Republic, blamed Ukraine, saying in a statement: “Witnesses watching the flight of the Boeing 777 passenger plane saw it being attacked by a battle plane of the Ukrainian forces.
“After that the passenger plane split in two in the air and fell on the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic.”
http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com...pg?w=620&h=464Alexander KHUDOTEPLY/AFP/Getty ImagesA firefighter sprays water to extinguish a fire, on July 17, 2014, amongst the wreckages of the malaysian airliner carrying 295 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur after it crashed, near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine.
President Barack Obama, who had scheduled a call to the Russian president Vladimir Putin to discuss ongoing sanctions against Russia, briefly discussed the plane crash, though news had only reached Putin minutes before the call.
Later in the evening, as word filtered through that 23 Americans and up to nine Britons were believed to be among the dead, the scale of the diplomatic crisis facing both President Obama and David Cameron was becoming clear.
Andrii Kuzmenko, the Ukrainian charge d’affairs, called on Britain to give his country military support to defeat the “terrorists”.
He said: “We would like to hear from the British government comprehensive support of Ukraine at the economical dimension, and at the military and technical dimensions. The support could help us to respond properly to the aggression we are facing.”
http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com...pg?w=620&h=464Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images A man wearing military fatigues stands next to the wreckage of the Malaysian airliner.
Meanwhile, the friends and family of Mr Pan and Ms Tol had accepted the worst. Messages on his Facebook page, which hours earlier had been so joyful, spoke only of grief.
One wrote: “There are too many things that go wrong … am afraid it is indeed your plane. Rest in peace Cor and Neel. To the family, a lot of strength with this incredible loss.”
Another added: “I don’t want to believe this is true because this is too awful for words.”
In Malaysia, with the loss of another airliner so soon after MH370, there were familiar sentiments of denial. A close family friend of Captain Eugene Choo Jin Leong, the captain of MH17, said: “We are still holding on to hope because, up till now, no official has contacted us to let us know what has happened. All that we know about what happened is from the television.”
http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com...pg?w=620&h=464AP Photo/Dmitry LovetskyPeople inspect the crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Grabovo, Ukraine, Thursday, July 17, 2014. Ukraine said a passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down Thursday as it flew over the country, and both the government and the pro-Russia separatists fighting in the region denied any responsibility for downing the plane.
http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com...pg?w=620&h=413Zurab Dzhavakhadze/AFP/Getty ImagesA picture taken near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine, on July 17, 2014 shows the wreckage of the Malaysian airliner.
http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com...pg?w=620&h=412Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty ImagesWreckage of the Malaysian airliner carrying 295 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur after it crashed, near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine.
AP source: Missile took down jet in Ukraine
By By Julie Pace And Lolita C. Baldor July 17, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) — American intelligence authorities believe a surface-to-air missile took down a passenger jet in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, a U.S. official said, but the Obama administration was still scrambling to confirm who launched the strike and whether there were American citizens killed in the crash.
Vice President Joe Biden said the incident was "not an accident" and described the Malaysia Airlines plane as having been "blown out of the sky."
Among the unanswered questions was whether the missile was launched from the Russian or Ukrainian side of the border they share, according to the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly by name and insisted on anonymity. But the official said U.S. intelligence assessments suggest it is more likely pro-Russian separatists or the Russians rather than Ukrainian government forces shot down the plane.
Video: Obama Informed of Malaysia Jet Downing Over Ukraine
The U.S. has sophisticated technologies that can detect missile launches, including the identification of heat from a rocket engine.
President Barack Obama, speaking during a trip to Delaware, made no mention of who might be responsible for the crash of the plane carrying 295 people, and called the incident a "terrible tragedy."
Following the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration said U.S. airlines voluntarily agreed not to operate near the Ukraine-Russia border. The agency said it was monitoring the situation to determine whether further guidance was necessary.
Video: Ukraine: Malaysian Jet Shot Down by Rebels
A global air safety group said an international coalition of countries should lead the investigation of the crash. Safety experts say they're concerned that because the plane crashed in area of Ukraine that is in dispute, political considerations could affect the investigation.
Kenneth Quinn of the Flight Safety Foundation said only "an independent, multinational investigation can truly get to the bottom of it without political interference."
The incident came one day after Obama levied broad economic sanctions on Russia as punishment for its threatening moves in Ukraine. Moscow is widely believed to be supporting pro-Russian separatists fomenting instability near the border, though the Kremlin denies those assertions.
Video: Ukraine Pres.: Ukraine Army Didn’t Shoot Plane
Obama discussed the new sanctions by phone Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White House said reports of the downed plane surfaced during that call and Putin mentioned the incident to his American counterpart.
Speaking later during a trip to Delaware, Obama said "the world is watching" the deadly incident.
"It looks like it might be a terrible tragedy," he said. "Right now we're working to determine whether there were American citizens on board. That is our first priority."
Video: Who’s Responsible for Shootdown of MH17 in Ukraine?
White House officials said Obama still planned to go ahead with an evening of fundraising in New York.
Officials said Obama called both Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak from Air Force One as he traveled to the events. The White House said Obama and Poroshenko agreed that all evidence from the crash site must remain in Ukraine until international investigators were able to examine it.
The U.S. planned to send a team of experts to Ukraine to assist with the investigation.
Video: Ukraine Rebels Reportedly Shot Down Malaysian 777
Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said on his Facebook page that the plane was flying at an altitude of 33,000 feet when it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher.
U.S. officials said Russia has sent a wide range of heavy weaponry into eastern Ukraine in recent months, although it is uncertain whether that includes the Buk air defense system, which is operated by a tracked vehicle. The U.S. suspects that Russian shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons have been provided to the separatists.
According to a Ukrainian state-owned import-export firm that specializes in military technology and weaponry, known as Ukroboronservice, the Ukrainian military operates the Buk-M1 system, which is designated by NATO as the SA-11 Gadfly. It is designed to shoot down military aircraft, including helicopters, as well as cruise missiles.
The Russians also are believed by U.S. officials to have provided the separatists in eastern Ukraine with other heavy weaponry such as artillery, multiple-launch rocket systems, tanks and armored personnel carriers.
The Federal Aviation Administration had previously warned U.S. pilots earlier this year not to fly over portions of the Ukraine in the Crimea region, according to notices posted on the agency's website.
The notices were posted on April 23. The U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization and the aviation authorities in most countries issue similar notices for areas where unrest or military conflict creates a risk of being shot down.
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Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Nedra Pickler, Robert Burns, Joan Lowy and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.
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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Lolita C. Baldor at http://twitter.com/lbaldor
Major International Incident.
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn....onal-incident/
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July 17th, 2014
04:52 PM ET
Zakaria: Malaysia Airlines crash a major international incident
CNN speaks with Fareed Zakaria about the crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine on Thursday. This is an edited version of the interview.
Obviously, there's the human horror of this, and that, of course, is primary in our minds. But there are also military implications, political implications, strategic implications, which will largely be determined by who may have fired a missile and why.
If this turns out to be what, frankly, many of us suspect it is – a terrible casualty of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict – then this is huge. What might have happened – and again, there are a lot of caveats – but what might have happened is that the Russian government has been supporting, training, arming rebels, separatists in Ukraine. Essentially teaching them how to do this kind of thing. Those forces have, in the past, shot down helicopters of the Ukrainian army, cargo planes – as has been noted. It wouldn’t be difficult to imagine that they thought this was a Ukrainian cargo plane, because they are poorly trained, ill-equipped. They probably don't have the right kind of radar to figure it out, and they probably don't care. These are not people following safety precautions.
In fact, the separatist group, just shortly before this plane went down, had bragged about, on this day, bringing down what they said was a Ukrainian military plane.
Precisely. Which is why, as I say, all the signs suggest that what happened here was that the Russian government has had this strategy of training these rogue elements within Ukraine to make trouble for the Ukrainian government. This thing then went badly awry as a result of that. But frankly, it was in a perfectly predictable way – when you start using these kinds of forces to do your dirty work for you, something like this is bound to happen because these aren’t disciplined forces that are under tight command and control from the Kremlin.
This produces a major international incident because it suggests that what Russia has been doing has not only been destabilizing Ukraine, but destabilizing it on the cheap, in a dangerous way, largely to preserve a kind of plausible deniability. But now we see the consequences.
Senator John McCain said – and he was very cautious about who was behind this – but he said if, in fact, this is Russia or separatists, it could be a game changer in terms of U.S. involvement and bolster providing military armaments, weaponry to the Ukrainian government in Kiev.
It would absolutely. It would mean that the United States and presumably Europe would be much more involved and invested in helping. I think world opinion will change. But also, however, it will make the situation much more tense, much more dangerous.
More from CNN: Images from crash site
Remember, we were trying to move everybody involved to some kind of negotiated solution here where the Russians would try to stabilize the Ukrainian government because, at the end of the day, they live right next door to them. I think that's going to be impossible. If you think that relations between Russia and Washington are going to get tense, imagine the relations between Russia and Kiev. The Ukrainian government and the Russian government aren’t going to sit down for a negotiation tomorrow if – again, with a big caveat – this turns out to be what some signs suggest it is.
The fact that there are more than 10,000 Russian forces on the border, the fact that Russia has been on the ground in eastern Ukraine, that they have been behind events in eastern Ukraine – there will be a lot of fingers pointed at Russia in this, whether or not it was Russian forces who actually pressed the button.
Absolutely. Because this has been the distinctive signature of Russian policy in this region. That's how they took over Crimea. That's how they destabilized and tried to disrupt the elections in Ukraine. That's how they've been disrupting in Ukraine. In all cases, there have been no Russian uniformed personnel present. So this is a method that has been used. And this comes with a big cost because these boots aren't really completely under your control, under Russia's control. And they are also ill-equipped, poorly trained and, of course, can make mistakes.
And if you are sending advanced weapons systems into an area like this, you bear responsibility for whose hands it ends up in.
You bear responsibility for it, and you bear responsibility for the overall strategy, which has been disrupt, destabilize this government – including shooting down helicopters.
Oh oh.... Bragging
http://www.noosanews.com.au/news/pro...plane/2322619/
Pro-Russian leader boasted about downing plane A DELETED social media post by a separatist militia leader has led to accusations that pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine are to blame for the Malaysia Airlines crash that has left at least 295 people dead.
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18th Jul 2014 8:40 AM
Igor Girkin, who also goes by the nom de guerre Strelkov, is reported to have claimed that his forces shot down a plane in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine at 5.50pm (GMT+4), shortly before reports emerged the passenger jet was missing.
"We have issued warnings not to fly in our airspace. We have video confirming. The bird fell on a waste heap. Residential areas were not hit. Civilians were not injured," he reportedly said.
"The plane has just been taken down somewhere around Torez," he stated on VKontakte, Russia's version of Facebook.
"We did warn you: do not fly in our skies."
An official statement from the Ukrainian government said: "The airplane was shot down by the Russian Buk missile system as the liner was flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters."
Girkin's original post has now been deleted from VKontakte and his subsequent posts appear to deny that the pro-Russian forces within Ukraine have the available weaponry to take down a jet at 10,000m (33,000ft).
MORE on the MH17 tragedy:
>>SPECIAL COVERAGE: 27 Australians believed dead in Malaysia Airlines disaster
>>Why was MH17 flying over Ukranian war zone?
>>International fallout from MH17 attack could be huge
>>How does MH17 crash compare to other disasters?