BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — An Indiana University student was among the people who were killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed in eastern Ukraine Thursday. Karlijn Keijzer, 25, was a doctoral student in the chemistry department. http://localtvwtvr.files.wordpress.c...pg?w=770&h=434
“On behalf of the entire Indiana University community, I want to express my deepest sympathies to Karlijn’s family and friends over her tragic death,” Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie said in a statement. “Karlijn was an outstanding student and a talented athlete, and her passing is a loss to the campus and the university. Our hearts also go out to the families of all the victims of this senseless act.”
Keijzer also earned her master’s degree from Indiana and was on the school’s women’s rowing team in 2011. http://localtvwtvr.files.wordpress.c...pg?w=770&h=434
“The Indiana Rowing family is deeply saddened by the news of Karlijn’s sudden passing,” Indiana head rowing coach Steve Peterson said. “She came to us for one year as a graduate student and truly wanted to pursue rowing. That year was the first year we really started to make a mark with the First Varsity 8 boat, and she was a huge reason for it. She was a phenomenal student and loved IU so much that she stayed here after she earned her master’s degree. Our condolences go out to her family and friends in this very tough time.” U.S. diplomat points finger at pro-Russian rebels over Flight 17
A senior U.S. diplomat pointed the finger Friday at pro-Russian rebels in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine, an act that killed 298 people.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the plane was “likely downed by a surface-to-air missile … operated from a separatist-held location in eastern Ukraine.”
If pro-Russian separatists are responsible for shooting down the plane with a missile, investigators can’t rule out the possibility that Russia offered help to operate the system, she said.
Power also said Russia should take steps to cool tensions in Ukraine.
“Russia can end this war,” she said. “Russia must end this war.”
The United States and Ukraine are committed to a diplomatic solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine, she said, but if Russia continues to choose escalation, additional sanctions will follow.
Separatist leaders also boasted on social media about shooting down the plane and later deleted those references, she said.
On board were 298 people, none of whom survived the crash, she said. Three were infants.
A preliminary classified U.S. intelligence analysis has concluded that the missile that hit Flight 17 most likely was fired by pro-Russian separatists inside eastern Ukraine, according to a U.S. defense official with direct access to the latest information.
The official declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the information.
Power had tough words for Russia, saying it had not lived up to its commitments to ease tensions and halt the flow of weapons over the border to the rebels in Ukraine.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk earlier blasted the “terrorists” he blamed for shooting down Flight 17 over Ukraine a day earlier, with 298 people aboard.
He called on all governments to back the investigation and “to support the Ukrainian government to bring to justice all these bastards who committed this international crime.” Russia, Ukraine trade accusations
Since the Malaysia Airlines jet fell from the sky above eastern Ukraine on Thursday, Russia and Ukraine — which routinely uses the word “terrorists” to describe pro-Russian rebels — have traded blame and accusations.
“Terrorists have killed almost 300 persons with one shot,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Thursday. “Among them are women, children, citizens of different countries of the world.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed the finger back at Ukraine, blaming its recent tough military operations against separatists for the volatility in the region.
But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin rejected that claim, telling CNN it was up to Russia to stop the flow of heavy weaponry across Ukraine’s eastern border and push the separatists to embrace a cease-fire.
He also dismissed any suggestion that Ukrainian forces may have been involved in Thursday’s tragedy.
“There was no way our forces could be engaged in any way in this incident,” Klimkin said, adding that Ukraine did not have any military assets in the area that could have shot down MH17.
Klimkin says Ukraine intercepted telephone calls between “terrorists” at the time the plane was shot down.
Yatsenyuk called for a U.N. Security Council meeting to be held and for all nations to do everything they could to stop what he said was not now just a war in Ukraine or Europe, but a “war against the world.”
Meanwhile, international inspectors headed to the crash site Friday tasked with finding the plane’s flight data recorders, which may lie amid the human remains and debris strewn across fields near the town of Torez.
Ukrainian government officials said 181 bodies had been found.
The latest information from Malaysia Airlines indicates that the Netherlands has suffered the harshest blow, with at least 189 of its citizens among those killed.
Experts have voiced concern that the crash site has not been properly secured, making the recovery of bodies and collection of evidence difficult. Monitors head to crash site
A group of monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is on its way to the crash site near Torez, in rebel territory in the Donetsk region.
Michael Bociurkiw, who was traveling with about 30 colleagues, told CNN the OSCE had been given assurances by separatist leaders that they would be able to pass through rebel-held checkpoints.
OSCE monitors in eastern Ukraine to observe the civil conflict have previously been taken hostage by separatist groups.
There have been conflicting reports over whether the plane’s data recorders have already been recovered by rescue workers or separatists. Ukrainian officials have suggested separatists may seek to take them to Moscow.
An adviser to Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Geraschenko was quoted by Ukraine’s Interfax news agency Friday as saying that the missile launcher used to down the Malaysian plane is already in Russia and will be destroyed.
The “Buk” launcher, as well as the flight data recorders from MH17, were handed over to Russian agents across the border at a checkpoint in the Luhansk area overnight, Geraschenko claimed, citing Ukrainian intelligence sources.
Ukraine’s state security chief has also accused two Russian military intelligence officers of involvement in Thursday’s events. Valentyn Nalyvaichenko said he based his allegation on intercepts of phone conversations between Russian officers, saying the conversation implicates the pro-Russian side.
CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the recording.
Ukrainian officials reported earlier this week that two Ukrainian military aircraft had been shot down in the country’s east. They accused a Russian fighter of shooting down a Ukrainian jet Wednesday and said Russian weapons had been used against an An-26 military transport plane Monday.
In an exclusive interview with the state-run Russia 24 TV channel, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia would “insist on the most objective, most open and independent investigation” into what happened to Flight 17.
“We’re ready to make our own contribution, but certainly we believe the initiative must be undertaken by the authorities of the country on which territory this tragedy occurred,” he said.
“With regard to the claims raised by Kiev, that it was almost us who did it: In fact I haven’t heard any truthful statements from Kiev over the past few months.”
‘Outrage against human decency’
If the pro-Russian separatists did shoot down Flight 17, headed to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, the jet’s passengers and crew are innocent casualties in Ukraine’s separatist armed crisis.
The passengers and crew hailed from all over the world, including Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Germany and Canada. No survivors have been found.
Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai offered his condolences Friday to the families affected and said Malaysia would support them. The full passenger list will be released once all the next-of-kin have been contacted, he said.
If reports that the jet was shot down are confirmed, “it would contravene international law and be an outrage against human decency,” the minister said, speaking to reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
He defended the routing of the Malaysia Airlines plane over a conflict area, saying other carriers were sending their aircraft through the same airspace above Ukraine in the hours before MH17 came down.
“Following this incident, Malaysia Airlines now avoids Ukrainian airspace entirely, flying farther south over Turkey,” a statement from the airline said.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure announced Friday that the airspace over Donetsk, Luhansk and part of Kharkiv where separatists are operating had been closed indefinitely.
Three months ago, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration prohibited U.S. airlines from flying in areas some way south of where Flight 17 crashed Thursday.
The Boeing 777 jet had a “clean maintenance record,” and its last maintenance check was on July 11, Malaysia Airlines Regional Senior Vice President Huib Gorter told reporters at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam on Friday. The plane was manufactured in 1997, and it had 17 years of service, he said.
Malaysia’s transport minister said Ukraine would lead the investigation. Who was on the plane?
The 15 crew members on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were all Malaysian nationals, officials said.
Malaysia Airlines also gave a breakdown of the known nationalities of the 283 passengers: 189 were Dutch, 29 were Malaysian, 27 were Australian, 12 were Indonesian, nine were from the United Kingdom, four were from Germany, four were from Belgium, three were from the Philippines, one was Canadian and one was from New Zealand.
Authorities were still trying to determine the nationalities of the other four people on board, it said.
The International AIDS Society said in a statement that “a number” of its members were on the plane on the way to a conference in Melbourne, Australia.
“At this incredibly sad and sensitive time, the IAS stands with our international family and sends condolences to the loved ones of those who have been lost to this tragedy,” the statement said.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who knew some of those on board through the work of his foundation, told CNN that news of the crash was “awful.” ‘Blown out of the sky’
Leaders and diplomats from around the world have called for investigators to be given unobstructed access to the disputed region.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Ukraine’s President had accepted an offer of U.S. experts to help investigate the crash.
The plane was apparently shot down,”not an accident, blown out of the sky,” Biden said Thursday.
“It is critical that there be a full, credible, and unimpeded international investigation as quickly as possible,” the White House said in a statement.
The Obama administration believes Ukraine did not have the capability in the region — let alone the motivation — to shoot down the plane, a U.S. official told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
But the White House placed some blame on Russia and warned that evidence must not be tampered with.
“While we do not yet have all the facts, we do know that this incident occurred in the context of a crisis in Ukraine that is fueled by Russian support for the separatists, including through arms, materiel and training,” it said in a statement.
But defense expert and retired Brig. Gen. Kevin Ryan said Ukraine and Russia both have the missile capability to shoot down such an aircraft at such an altitude. Russia-Ukraine dispute
Tensions have been high between Ukraine and Russia since street protests forced former pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych from power in February. Russia subsequently annexed Ukraine’s southeastern Crimea region, and a pro-Russian separatist rebellion has been raging in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
Ukraine’s government has accused Russia of allowing weapons and military equipment, including tanks, to cross the border illegally into the hands of pro-Russian separatists.
Merkel stressed Friday that Russia must do more to ease the crisis in Ukraine.
“Russia is largely responsible for what’s happening in the Ukraine now, and I would make an appeal — that the Russian President and the Russian government should make a contribution so that a political solution can be found,” she said.
European Union leaders agreed this week to expand sanctions against individuals and entities in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine, with details to be decided by the end of the month. Expanded U.S. sanctions were also announced in Washington. Airline’s troubles
Thursday’s crash marks the second time this year that Malaysia Airlines has faced an incident involving a downed plane.
On March 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared with 239 people on board. Searchers have found no trace of the Boeing 777 or its passengers despite extensive search efforts.
Flight 370 probably flew into the southern Indian Ocean on autopilot with an unresponsive crew, Australian authorities said last month.
A new underwater search is expected to begin in August. It will be broadly in an area where planes and vessels had already looked for debris on the surface of the water.
July 18th, 2014, 15:12
American Patriot
Re: World War Three Thread....
UN envoy Power: US can't rule out help from Russian personnel in downing plane in Ukraine
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power says the United States cannot rule out help from Russia in the launch of the surface-to-air missile that shot down a Malaysian airlines jet killing all 298 people on board.
Power said the U.S. believes the SA-11 missile was fired from an area controlled by pro-Russian separatists who previously boasted about obtaining such missiles. She said Russia has provided SA-11s and other heavy weapons to the separatists.
"If indeed Russian-backed separatists were behind this attack on a civilian airliner, they and their backers would have good reason to cover up evidence of their crime," Power told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. "Thus it is extremely important than an investigation be commenced immediately."
The Security Council called for "a full, thorough and independent international investigation."
An expert believes that MH17 was downed by a missile fired from rebel-held Torez in eastern Ukraine - and a BUK anti-aircraft launcher has been pictured rumbling into the town just two hours before the crash, leading to speculation that it was this piece of equipment that was used to bring about the tragedy.
On Friday a missile launcher with two rockets missing was then filmed by Ukrainian intelligence services being smuggled on the back of a truck to Russia.
Anton Gerashchenko, from Ukraine's interior ministry, said of the missing missiles that 'it's not hard to guess why'.
'It was exactly these missiles which brought death to almost 300 innocent passengers of the ill-fated Malaysian Boeing,' he said, according to the Telegraph.
He continued: 'International terrorist Igor Strelkov, aka Girkin, last night visited Snizhne to settle the situation with the downed Malaysian Boeing.
'In the night the Buk system, from which the missile was launched, was removed to Russia, where it is likely to be destroyed.'
He claimed that the 'direct performers of the terrorist attack' are also likely to have been killed to avoid any witnesses.
The rebels 'happily announced that they had downed the Ukrainian AN-26' when in fact they had shot the Boeing, he said.
Dr Igor Sutyagin, Research Fellow in Russian Studies from the Royal United Services Institute, believes that MH17 was shot down by rebels based in the 3rd District of Torez.
Dr Sutyagin said the evidence that Russian separatists were responsible was very strong - and that there's even a suggestion the BUK missile launcher was being manned by soldiers from Russia.
A pro-Russian militant passes by the wreckage of a Boeing 777, of Malaysia Arilines flight MH17 debris
He said: ‘These separatists boasted on Twitter about capturing an BUK SA11 missile launcher [capable of downing high-flying airliners] on June 29, and several hours before the downing of the plane locals in Torez reported seeing BUK missile launchers and separatist flags around the city.
‘Later, there was lots of video posted of the plane falling down and rebels saying that “it was not pointless moving it [the BUK] there”.'
Dr Sutyagin then underscored the emerging Russian link to the tragedy.
He said: 'The military leader of the Donetsk Republic, Igor Strelkov, real name Girkin, a Muscovite, a Russian citizen, posts a video of the intercept.'
This video was taken down once it was discovered that the downed plane was civilian.
The expert implicated Russia further, revealing that the former commander of Russian Air Force Special Operations Command, a Colonel-General, stated recently in an interview that the separatists did not have the expertise to operate the BUK launchers, that only Russian personnel could do so.
It's also suspicious, Dr Sutyagin said, that Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported the crash at 16.13 Moscow time, several minutes before the crash actually happened - at 16.20.
'The plane is safely in the sky, and RIA Novosti publishes information that it has been shot down,' he said.
Dr Sutyagin also told MailOnline that information had been leaked from a source he was unwilling to name that the pilot of MH17 'felt bad' about his course over Ukranian airspace, so turned south.
Little did he know, according to Dr Sutyagin, that his plane would then be mistaken by rebels for a Ukrainian government resupply flight.
He said: 'There is a Ukrainian mechanised brigade blocked by separatists near the Russian border. It's blocked on three sides by separatists and behind the brigade is the Russian boarder, so they can't get out. The Ukrainians try to resupply them from the air by transport aircraft.
'Now, the pilot of MH17 said that he "felt bad" and wanted to change course to get out of the danger zone. But several kilometers to the south is a Ukrainian Army heavy transport plane, an IL76, or Candid, which has the same echo as a 777 on a radar screen.
'The two planes came close. They tried to shoot down the transport delivering supplies to the brigade. They believed that they had been firing at a military plane, but they mistakenly shoot down a civilian airliner.'
Doomed: Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 takes off at 12.31pm from Schiphol airport near Amsterdam on Thursday
Interpol announced today it would fully assist the investigation of the horror.
Separatist rebels who control the crash site issued conflicting reports Friday about whether they had found the plane's black boxes or not.
'No black boxes have been found ... we hope that experts will track them down and create a picture of what has happened,' said Donetsk separatist leader Aleksandr Borodai.
Yet earlier Friday, an aide to the military leader of Borodai's group said authorities had recovered eight out of 12 recording devices.
Since planes usually have two black boxes - one for recording flight data and the other for recording cockpit voices - it was not clear what the number 12 referred to.
Earlier Ukrainian security services claim to have intercepted two phone conversations in which pro-Russian separatists appear to admit to shooting down Flight MH17, railing, 'They shouldn’t be f*****g flying. There is a war going on.'
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reportedly released recordings of the intercepted phone calls between Russian military intelligence officers and Russian-backed Cossack militants to the Kiev Post.
The phone calls, which could prove damning to Vladimir Putin, are allegedly from minutes after the Boeing 777-200 crashed and were apparently made near the village of Chornukhine, which is 50 miles north-west of Donetsk, near to the border with Russia, where the aircraft came down.
The first phone call was reportedly made at 4.40pm local time, or 20 minutes after the crash. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...48_470x423.jpg
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Admission of guilt or not? In a recording of an intercept, played to journalists, a Russian (military intelligence officer) called Igor Bezler (left and right) is heard reporting on the downing of the Boeing 777-200 to his superior in Russian military intelligence, Colonel Vasily Geranin (not pictured here)
On the line allegedly is Igor Bezler, who according to the SBU is a Russian military intelligence officer and commander of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
He is apparently on the phone to a colonel in the Russian Federation armed forces named Vasili Geranin, explaining that the plane has gone down.
The SBU also released to the Kiev Post another telephone conversation between two militants identified only as 'Major' and 'Grek' who have apparently returned from the crash site.
This phone call takes place 40 minutes after the phone call which allegedly took place between Bezler and Geranin.
Airliner downed: Assault rifles in hand, four pro-Russian separatists survey the smouldering wreckage of a passenger jet destryoed by a missile in war-torn Ukraine
A third part of the conversation that involves the 'Major' and 'Grek' seems to bring in Cossack commander Nikolay Kozitsin, who suggests that the Malaysian Airlines plane must have been carrying spies, otherwise it had no business flying in that airspace.
During the phone call between 'Grek' and the 'Major' they exclaim, 'holy s***' when they realize their error in shooting down a passenger jet.
Indeed, Reuters reported that Ukraine's state security chief accused two Russian military intelligence officers of involvement with pro-Russian rebels in the downing of a Malaysian airliner on Thursday, releasing chilling testimony of what he called an 'inhuman crime.'
SBU chief Valentyn Nalivaychenko based his allegation on intercepted telephone conversations between the two officers and pro-Russian fighters, one of whom referred to seeing 'a sea of women and children' in the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...80_964x683.jpg
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Crash site: Rescue workers inspect the wreckage of a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane which was shot down today above Ukraine, killed all 298 people on board
'We will do everything for the Russian military who carried out this crime to be punished,' Nalivaychenko told journalists, who were shown video and audio transcripts of the recordings. 'The terrorists will not go on dancing on corpses.'
In a recording played to journalists of a conversation said to have taken place at 4.33 pm Kiev time, a rebel fighter going by the nom de guerre of 'Major' is heard telling another comrade called 'Grek' that a group of fighters had brought the airliner down.
'The plane broke up in the air, near the Petropavlovskaya mines. The first (casualty) has been found. It was a woman. A civilian,' he says.
At 5.42 pm 'Major' acknowledges the plane was civilian: 'Hell. It's almost 100 percent certain that it's a civilian plane.' http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...41_964x654.jpg
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Destruction: The Boeing 777 aircraft was hit by a sophisticated surface-to-air missile over territory near Donetsk held by pro-Russian rebels who the Ukrainian government says are backed by the Kremlin
Laying the blame: The Ukrainian authorities laid the blame for the attack on the rebels by denying any responsibility for the missile launch, with President Petro Poroshenko called the downing an act of terrorism
Arrival: The self-proclaimed Prime Minister of the pro-Russian separatist 'Donetsk People's Republic' Alexander Borodai (centre) arrives on the site of the crash
Asked if there were many people on board, he replies in the affirmative with a swearword, adding: 'The bits (of the plane) were falling down in the streets ... There were the bits of couches, chairs, bodies.'
Asked if any weapons were found on board, 'Major' says: 'No - Civilian things, medical things, towels, toilet paper.'
He says ID documents of an Indonesian student had been found.
In another recording of an intercept, played to journalists, a Russian (military intelligence officer) called Igor Bezler is heard reporting on the downing to his superior in Russian military intelligence, Colonel Vasily Geranin.
'A plane has just been shot down. It was the 'Mine-laying' group ... They've gone to search and photograph the plane. It is smoking,' Bezler tells Gernanin at 4.40 p.m.
Asked 'How long ago?' he replies: 'About 30 minutes ago.'
THE FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE ALLEGED REBEL CONVERSATION THAT COULD PROVE DAMNING TO PUTIN AND RUSSIA
A phone call between rebels where they are heard to say ‘holy s***’ when they realized their error was intercepted by Ukraine’s security services, according to a Ukrainian newspaper.
Militants nicknamed ‘Major’ and ‘Greek’ were recorded speaking as ‘Major’ inspected the crash site and found only ‘civilian items’.
Also on the line were Igor Bezler, who authorities says is a Russian military intelligence officer and leading commander of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, and a colonel in the main intelligence department of the general headquarters of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, Vasili Geranin.
The unverified transcript was posted online by the Kiev Post newspaper:
Igor Bezler: We have just shot down a plane. Group Minera. It fell down beyond Yenakievo (Donetsk Oblast).
Vasili Geranin: Pilots. Where are the pilots?
IB: Gone to search for and photograph the plane. Its smoking.
VG: How many minutes ago?
IB: About 30 minutes ago.
Allegations: This is a grab from the video provided to the Kiev Post. Pictured are Igor Bezler and Vasili Geranin. While (right) are likenesses of 'Major' and 'Grek'
SBU comment: After examining the site of the plane the terrorists come to the conclusion that they have shot down a civilian plane. The next part of the conversation took place about 40 minutes later.
'Major': These are Chernukhin folks who shot down the plane. From the Chernukhin check point. Those cossacks who are based in Chernukhino.
'Grek': Yes, Major.
'Major': The plane fell apart in the air. In the area of Petropavlovskaya mine. The first '200'. We have found the first '200' - which is code for a civilian.
'Grek': Well, what do you have there?
'Major': In short, it was 100 percent a passenger (civilian) aircraft.
'Grek': Are many people there?
'Major': Holy sh__t! The debris fell right into the yards (of homes).
'Grek': What kind of aircraft?
Official: A third part of the conversation that involves the 'Major' and 'Greek' seems to bring in Cossack commander Nikolay Kozitsin, who suggests that the Malaysian Airlines plane must have been carrying spies
'Major': I haven’t ascertained this. I haven’t been to the main sight. I am only surveying the scene where the first bodies fell. There are the remains of internal brackets, seats and bodies.
'Grek': Is there anything left of the weapon?
'Major': Absolutely nothing. Civilian items, medicinal stuff, towels, toilet paper.
'Grek': Are there documents?
'Major': Yes, of one Indonesian student. From a university in Thompson.
Militant: Regarding the plane shot down in the area of Snizhne-Torez. It’s a civilian one. Fell down near Grabove. There are lots of corpses of women and children. The Cossacks are out there looking at all this.
They say on TV it’s AN-26 transport plane, but they say it’s written Malaysia Airlines on the plane. What was it doing on Ukraine’s territory?
Nikolay Kozitsin: That means they were carrying spies. They shouldn’t be f…cking flying. There is a war going on.
The pilot of MH17 radioed that he 'felt uncomfortable' about the route he was flying while over Ukraine and tragically altered his course to hostile territory, where Russian separatist missile operators mistook his plane for a government military transport aircraft, according to an expert.
Dr Igor Sutyagin, Research Fellow in Russian Studies from the Royal United Services Institute, believes that MH17 was shot down by rebels based in the 3rd District of Torez, in eastern Ukraine, using a ground-to-air SA11 missile system .
He told MailOnline that information had been leaked from a source he was unwilling to name that the pilot of MH17 'felt bad' about his course over Ukrainian airspace, so turned south.
Little did he know, according to Dr Sutyagin, that his plane would then be mistaken by rebels for a Ukrainian government resupply flight.
He said: 'There is a Ukrainian mechanised brigade blocked by separatists near the Russian boarder. It's blocked on three sides by separatists and behind the brigade is the Russian boarder, so they can't get out. The Ukrainians try to resupply them from the air by transport aircraft.
'Now, the pilot of MH17 said that he "felt bad" and wanted to change course to get out of the danger zone. But several kilometers to the south is a Ukrainian Army heavy transport plane, an IL76, or Candid, which has the same echo as a 777 on a radar screen.
'The two planes came close. They tried to shoot down the transport delivering supplies to the brigade. They believed that they had been firing at a military plane, but they mistakenly shoot down a civilian airliner.'
In a third conversation, a rebel fighter says: 'It turned out to be a passenger plane. It fell in Hrabove area. There's a sea of women and children ...'
He adds: 'But what was it (the Malaysian airlines flight) doing over Ukraine?'
The man he is talking to replies: 'That means they've called up spies. No way to flights. This is war.'
'Okay, understood,' he replies.
'They discuss Russian saboteurs bringing down a passenger plane. They discuss the number of victims. We have fixed this conversation as taking place at 4.20. Now you know who carried out this inhuman crime against humanity,' Nalivaychenko said.
'We will open up to all possible channels, the means of this crime being objectively investigated, and the officers of the Russian Federation who carried out this crime being punished.'
Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Donetsk rebel spokesman Sergey Kavtaradze as denying that the intercepted phone conversations were genuine.
Yesterday it emerged that rebels laughed as they filmed the plane crashing, gleefully bragging ‘that was a blast – look at the smoke!’ while a fireball rose from the debris.
One of the voices is believed to be Strelkov, who then penned a triumphant war cry on Twitter, saying: ‘We warned you – do not fly in 'our sky'.’
A sickening mobile phone video posted online shows a pall of black smoke billowing over the crash site as three rebels provide an excited commentary.
The extraordinary footage – apparently filmed by the shooters themselves – charts the terrible final moments of the doomed airliner.
Their camera does not zoom in enough to see the plummeting plane in the sky, but the rebels’ voices can be heard talking happily of ‘black spots – these are the parts flying’, suggesting it fell to earth in several pieces.
A voice believed to be that of Strelkov – dubbed ‘Igor the Terrible’ – announces: ‘The plane was hit!’ He adds: ‘Look at those black spots, these are the parts, flying … it was a blast … look, look, black smoke!’
Another rebel, possibly referring to the missile system, laughs and says: ‘It was worth bringing this thing, wasn't it?’
None of the rebels can be seen in their horrific film, but it appears to be genuine because at the time only they seemed to know what was happening. Ordinary life carries on in the village where they are standing. A bus trundles by and an unsuspecting villager is seen wandering past the camera.
Shortly after the passenger plane was downed, Strelkov – seen smirking in propaganda photos – tweeted a boastful message claiming responsibility.
At the time, he apparently believed he had shot down an Antonov-26 military plane of the Ukrainian Air Force, saying it landed near a mine named Progress.
His chilling message read: ‘In the area Torez we just hit down An-26, it’s lying somewhere in the mine 'Progress'.
‘We warned you – do not fly in 'our sky'. And here is the video confirmation of the 'bird dropping'.
‘Bird fell near the mine, the residential sector was not disturbed. Civilians are not injured.’
Later as the horror became clear, the tweet was deleted.
Boast: Ukraine separatist Igor Strelkov said on Twitter ‘We warned you – do not fly in 'our sky'. And here is the video confirmation of the 'bird dropping'
Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said European leaders should put more pressure on Mr Putin if Russia was involved in the incident.
She told PBS's Charlie Rose there should be 'outrage in European capitals' over Russian aggression in the region but ultimately it was up to Europe to take the lead.
She said: 'The questions I'd be asking is, number one, who could have shot it down? Who had the equipment? It's obviously an anti-aircraft missile. Who could have had the expertise to do that? Because commercial airlines are big targets, but by the time they got over that part of Ukraine they should have been high, so it takes some planning.
'And the Ukrainian government has been quick to blame it on terrorists, which is their name for the Russian insurgents. And there does seem to be some growing awareness that it probably had to be Russian insurgents.
'Now, how we determine that will require some forensics, but then if there is evidence pointing in that direction, the equipment had to have come from Russia. What more the Russians may or may not have done, we don't know.
'Europeans have to be the ones to take the lead on this. It was a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over European territory. There should be outrage in European capitals.'
Mrs Clinton endorsed stepped-up US sanctions against Russia but said they would not 'necessarily restrain' Mr Putin or change his calculations. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...79_964x643.jpg
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Struggle: A firefighter sprays water on the flames in an attempt to extinguish the fire
Sophisticated American satellites tracked missile that took down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine: report
A U.S. satellite over Ukraine picked up on the heat of the missile, experts said. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for launching the Soviet-era Buk, which crashed the plane and killed all 298 people on board.
BY Meg Wagner
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, July 18, 2014, 9:33 AM
American spying satellites could help solve the mystery of what — and who — shot down Malaysia Airlines flight 17.
The plane crashed in war-torn Eastern Ukraine Thursday, killing all of the 298 people on board. Reports quickly blamed the disaster on a missile launch, and a high-tech, infrared U.S. satellite confirmed the news, and missile analysts told the Los Angeles Times.
Fleets of the spying satellites, called measurement and signature intelligence, or MASINT, orbit the Earth to track electronic signals. That means they picked up the heat of the missile launch when it shot 33,000 feet up and struck the Boeing 777.
"They would have known exactly where it was launched, where it was headed, and the rate at which it was traveling," Riki Ellison, founder of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, told the Los Angeles Times.
The U.S. also operates the Space Based Infrared (SBIR) satellite system, which picks up on missiles plumes with ultra-sophisticated sensors. The technology is so sensitive it can pick up on small arms fire, NBC News explained.
The crash killed all 298 passengers on board.
Those satellites might help determine what kind of missile brought down the plane.
Both Russia and the Ukraine said a Soviet-era Buk missile struck the plane, Reuters reported. The current debate is who launched it: Each party has blamed the other.
Russia, Ukraine and Russian rebels in Ukraine all say they own a Buk missile.
By the way, does FNC realize that they are showing video footage of the crash site with, what looks like to me, mangled bodies and body parts pretty clearly visible?
It doesn't make me squeamish but that doesn't seem like something they'd normally do lest the outragers be outraged.
July 18th, 2014, 15:31
American Patriot
Re: World War Three Thread....
UPDATE: US: Can’t rule out Russian role in plane downing
Dmitry Lovetsky
Ukrainian coal miners search the site of a crashed Malaysia Airlines passenger plane near the village of Rozsypne, Ukraine, eastern Ukraine, today. Rescue workers, policemen and off-duty coal miners were combing a sprawling area in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border where the Malaysian plane ended up in burning pieces Thursday, killing all 298 aboard.
Posted: Friday, July 18, 2014 10:15 am | Updated: 10:17 am, Fri Jul 18, 2014.
Associated Press |
UPDATE
UNITED NATIONS — U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said today the United States cannot rule out help from Russia in the launch of the surface-to-air missile that shot down a Malaysian airlines jet killing all 298 people on board.
Power said the U.S. believes the SA-11 missile was fired from an area controlled by pro-Russian separatists who previously boasted about obtaining such missiles. She said Russia has provided SA-11s and other heavy weapons to the separatists.
“If indeed Russian-backed separatists were behind this attack on a civilian airliner, they and their backers would have good reason to cover up evidence of their crime,” Power told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. “Thus it is extremely important than an investigation be commenced immediately.”
The Security Council approved a statement calling for “a full, thorough and independent international investigation.”
The press statement expresses the council’s “deepest sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims, and to the people and governments of all those killed in the crash.”
Council members stood in a moment of silent tribute to the 298 victims at the start of the emergency council meeting, called by Jordan.
The council called for an investigation “in accordance with international civil aviation guidelines and for appropriate accountability.” It stressed the need for “immediate access by investigators to the crash site to determine the cause of the incident.”
The jetliner was shot down Thursday as it flew high above separatist-held territory.
ORIGINAL STORY
ROZSYPNE, Ukraine — Emergency workers, police officers and even off-duty coal miners spread out today across the sunflower fields and villages of eastern Ukraine, searching the wreckage of a jetliner shot down as it flew miles above the country’s battlefield.
The attack Thursday afternoon killed 298 people from nearly a dozen nations — including vacationers, students and a large contingent of scientists heading to an AIDS conference in Australia.
U.S. intelligence authorities said a surface-to-air missile brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, but could not say who fired it. The Ukraine government in Kiev, the separatist pro-Russia rebels they are fighting and the Russia government that Ukraine accuses of supporting the rebels all deny shooting the passenger plane down. Moscow also denies backing the rebels.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a cease-fire Friday in eastern Ukraine and urged the two sides to hold peace talks as soon as possible. A day earlier, Putin had blamed Ukraine for the crash, saying the government in Kiev was responsible for the unrest in its Russian-speaking eastern regions. But he did not accuse Ukraine of shooting the plane down and did not address the key question of whether Russia gave the rebels such a powerful missile.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry released a video purporting to show a truck carrying the Buk missile launcher it said was used to fire on the plane with one of its four missiles apparently missing. The ministry said the footage was filmed by a police surveillance squad at dawn Friday as the truck was heading to the city of Krasnodon toward the Russian border.
There was no way to independently verify the video.
Ukraine has called for an international probe to determine who attacked the plane and the Unites States has offered to help. But access to the sprawling crash site remained difficult and dangerous. The road from Donetsk, the largest city in the region, to the crash site was marked by five rebel checkpoints Friday, with document checks at each.
By midday, 181 bodies had been located, according to emergency workers in contact with officials in Kiev. Malaysia Airlines said the passengers included 189 Dutch, 29 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, nine Britons, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos and one person each from Canada and New Zealand.
Still Nataliya Bystro, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s emergency services, said rebel militiamen were interfering with the recovery operation.
Separatist rebels who control the crash site issued conflicting reports Friday about whether they had found the plane’s black boxes or not.
“No black boxes have been found ... we hope that experts will track them down and create a picture of what has happened,” said Donetsk separatist leader Aleksandr Borodai.
Yet earlier Friday, an aide to the military leader of Borodai’s group said authorities had recovered eight out of 12 recording devices.
Since planes usually have two black boxes — one for recording flight data and the other for recording cockpit voices — it was not clear what the number 12 referred to.
Borodai said 17 representatives from the Organization for Security and Cooperation and four Ukrainian experts had traveled into rebel-controlled areas to begin an investigation into the attack.
Ukraine’s state aviation service closed the airspace Friday over two border regions gripped by separatist fighting — Donetsk and Luhansk — and Russian airlines suspended all flights over Ukraine.
An angry Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott demanded an independent inquiry into the downing.
“The initial response of the Russian ambassador was to blame Ukraine for this and I have to say that is deeply, deeply unsatisfactory,” he said. “It’s very important that we don’t allow Russia to prevent an absolutely comprehensive investigation so that we can find out exactly what happened here.”
“This is not an accident, it’s a crime,” he added.
For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed Kiev’s accusations that Moscow could be behind the attack.
“Regarding those claims from Kiev that we allegedly did it ourselves: I have not heard a truthful statement from Kiev for months,” he told the Rossiya 24 television channel.
He also said Russia has no intention of getting ahold of the plane’s black boxes and added that they should be given to international aviation organizations.
The crash site was spread out over fields between two villages in eastern Ukraine — Rozsypne and Hrabove — and fighting apparently still continued nearby. In the distance, the thud of Grad missile launchers being fired could be heard Friday morning.
In the sunflower fields around Rozsypne, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Russian border, lines of men disappeared into the thick, tall growth that was over their heads. One fainted after finding a body. Another body was covered in a coat.
In Hrabove, several miles away, huge numbers of simple sticks, some made from tree branches, were affixed with red or white rags to mark spots where body parts were found.
Ukraine Foreign Ministry representative Andriy Sybiga said the bodies will be taken to Kharkiv, a government-controlled city 270 kilometers (170 miles) to the north, for identification.
Among the debris were watches and smashed mobile phones, charred boarding passes and passports. An “I (heart) Amsterdam” T-shirt and a guidebook to Bali hinted at holiday plans.
Large chunks of the Boeing 777 that bore the airline’s red, white and blue markings lay strewn over one field. The cockpit and one turbine lay a kilometer (a half-mile) apart, and the tail landed 10 kilometers (six miles) away. One rebel militiaman in Rozsypne told The Associated Press that the plane’s fuselage showed signs of being struck by a projectile.
The area has seen heavy fighting between government troops and pro-Russia separatists, and rebels had bragged about shooting down two Ukrainian military jets in the region Wednesday.
Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said the plane was flying at about 10,000 meters (33,000 feet) when it was hit by a missile from a Buk launcher, which can fire up to an altitude of 22,000 meters (72,000 feet). Malaysia’s prime minister said there was no distress call before the plane went down.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk described the attack as an “international crime” whose perpetrators would have to be punished in an international tribunal.
“Yesterday’s terrible tragedy will change our lives. The Russians have done it now,” he was cited as saying by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lay repeatedly insisted that the airline’s path was an internationally approved route and denied accusations that Malaysia Airlines was trying to save fuel and money by taking a more direct flight path across Ukraine.
“I want to stress that this route is an approved path that is used by many airlines including 15 Asia-Pacific airlines. We have not been informed that the path cannot be used,” he said.
Aviation authorities in several countries, including the FAA in the United States, had issued previous warnings not to fly over parts of Ukraine after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in March. Within hours of the crash Thursday, several airlines announced they were avoiding parts of Ukrainian airspace.
Passengers on the plane included a large contingent of world-renowned AIDS researchers and activists headed to an international AIDS conference in Melbourne, Australia. News of their deaths sparked an outpouring of grief across the global scientific community.
In the Netherlands, flags were flying at half-staff across the country as residents mourned the victims.
At the Tour de France cycling race, all riders observed a minute of silence for the victims before the start of the day’s stage in Saint-Etienne. The Dutch team Belkin wore black armbands.
Several relatives of victims met with counselors at Kuala Lumpur’s international airport. A distraught Akmar Mohamad Noor, 67, said her older sister was coming to visit for the first time in five years.
“She called me just before she boarded the plane and said, ‘See you soon,’” Akmar said.
July 18th, 2014, 15:32
American Patriot
Re: World War Three Thread....
Just in.
Malaysian plane crash: Putin calls for ceasefire in Ukraine
AP Moscow, July 18, 2014 | UPDATED 20:58 IST
Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a cease-fire Friday in eastern Ukraine and urged the two sides to hold peace talks as soon as possible.
A day earlier, Putin had blamed Ukraine for the crash, saying the government in Kiev was responsible for the unrest in its Russian-speaking eastern regions. But he did not accuse Ukraine of shooting the plane down and did not address the key question of whether Russia gave the rebels such a powerful missile.
Emergency workers, police officers and even off-duty coal miners spread out Friday across the sunflower fields and villages of eastern Ukraine, searching the wreckage of a jetliner shot down as it flew miles above the country's battlefield.
The attack Thursday afternoon killed 298 people from nearly a dozen nations - including vacationers, students and a large contingent of scientists heading to an AIDS conference in Australia.
U.S. intelligence authorities said a surface-to-air missile brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, but could not say who fired it. The Ukraine government in Kiev, the separatist pro-Russia rebels they are fighting and the Russia government that Ukraine accuses of supporting the rebels all deny shooting the passenger plane down. Moscow also denies backing the rebels.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry released a video purporting to show a truck carrying the Buk missile launcher it said was used to fire on the plane with one of its four missiles apparently missing. The ministry said the footage was filmed by a police surveillance squad at dawn Friday as the truck was heading to the city of Krasnodon toward the Russian border.
There was no way to independently verify the video.
Ukraine has called for an international probe to determine who attacked the plane and the Unites States has offered to help. But access to the sprawling crash site remained difficult and dangerous. The road from Donetsk, the largest city in the region, to the crash site was marked by five rebel checkpoints Friday, with document checks at each.
By midday, 181 bodies had been located, according to emergency workers in contact with officials in Kiev. Malaysia Airlines said the passengers included 189 Dutch, 29 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, nine Britons, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos and one person each from Canada and New Zealand.
July 18th, 2014, 15:34
American Patriot
Re: World War Three Thread....
Quote:
By midday, 181 bodies had been located, according to emergency workers in contact with officials in Kiev. Malaysia Airlines said the passengers included 189 Dutch, 29 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, nine Britons, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos and one person each from Canada and New Zealand.
July 18th, 2014, 15:46
American Patriot
Re: World War Three Thread....
EU Divisions on Russia Sanctions Fester After Plane Downing
By James G. Neuger Jul 18, 2014 9:30 AM MT
European Union divisions over tougher sanctions on Russia were laid bare by the shooting down of a passenger plane over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine.
As Germany sought an impartial probe of the downing of the Malaysian jet, Poland demanded a harder line on the Kremlin while Italy signaled no shift from its opposition to more biting sanctions. EU officials gave priority to enacting penalties that were sketched out at a summit this week before the crash.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel straddled the European divide, telling reporters in Berlin that the region’s response so far is “adequate” and “it is especially Russia’s responsibility for what is going on in Ukraine right now.”
EU governments avoided a rush to judgment in the hours after the killing of 298 passengers and crew, the bulk with European passports, in an incident that hurtled the Ukraine crisis into a potentially cataclysmic new phase.
A key figure in shaping Europe’s response is Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency. Renzi has been loathe to alienate Russia, Italy’s biggest supplier of natural gas. EU sanctions require all 28 member countries to agree. ‘Political Guts’
Renzi “has been among the most resistant to sanctions, so he’s got to show political guts,” said Michael Emerson, a former EU envoy to Russia who is now with the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. He said proof that a rebel missile struck the plane would have to prompt the EU “to get into the sanctions business more seriously.”
So far, the EU has imposed asset freezes and travel bans on 72 people accused of destabilizing Ukraine and engineering Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Two companies in Crimea were also banned from business with the EU.
At their summit, EU leaders announced an intention to go further, by targeting businesspeople close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and making it possible to blacklist Russian companies profiting from the rebellion in eastern Ukraine. They also agreed to cut off credits for Russian infrastructure projects.
Foreign ministers meet July 22 to work on those measures, with a first set of names due by the end of the month. It will take longer to flesh out the list because national governments differ over who to put on it and have been slow to provide intelligence, EU officials told reporters in Brussels. ‘Common Voice’
Poland is spearheading calls for a more aggressive response, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk floating the possibility of an emergency EU summit. The next scheduled summit is on Aug. 30.
“It’s very important that the result of this tragedy should be unmitigated, tough and consistent pressure on the separatists and Russia to stop these actions,” Tusk told reporters in Warsaw today.
Inner-EU tensions over Russia spilled into discussions this week over top appointments for the bloc’s next five-year legislative term. Poland and the Baltic republics balked at naming Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini as EU foreign policy chief, saying she would be too accommodating toward the Kremlin.
“Poland’s goal now is to try and make sure that the EU approach is more assertive,” said Pawel Swieboda, head of the Warsaw-based Center for European Strategy. “But the EU will always remain one step behind the U.S. in that regard -- that’s just the way the bloc operates.” Clinton Criticism
The U.S., geographically and economically further from Russia, has already gone after Kremlin-backed companies and banks. President Barack Obama this week outlawed business with companies including OAO Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil producer. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined in the American criticism of the EU for not facing up to the adversary on its borders.
“Europeans have to be the ones to take the lead on this” if it turns out that Russia was behind the plane attack, Clinton said in an interview with Charlie Rose that aired last night on PBS and on Bloomberg Television. “There should be outrage in European capitals.”
To contact the reporter on this story: James G. Neuger in Brussels at jneuger@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net Leon Mangasarian
July 18th, 2014, 15:57
Ryan Ruck
Re: World War Three Thread....
LMFAO!
Per Zero, NTSB available to send over as though we need to determine how the jet crashed.
News Flash!
It was shot down!
I can see sending the FBI as they may be able to better determine some specifics on the shootdown but even then, the CIA is probably a better option.
July 18th, 2014, 15:59
American Patriot
Re: World War Three Thread....
Obama just verified one American aboard that plane.
Plane is shot down by the Separatists.
Not first time - 3 other aircraft before this.
Steady flow of support from Russia, including training, support, equipment, and heavy weapons.
Must be credible international investigation.
Immediate ceasefire.
No tampering with evidence.
Recovery of bodies.
US standing by with all support, including FBI, NTSB etc
Obama talking to leaders around the world.
Fact finding.
Will likely be "misinformation". (Ass covering there).
blathering now.... this and that... should have shut the fuck up when he made a firm statement....
He has spoken to Putin.....
(Probably trying to get their story together so they both look like leaders)
I figure this is all a conspiracy to make Obama look "strong" again.....
July 18th, 2014, 16:01
American Patriot
Re: World War Three Thread....
NTSB is certainly trained to make a determination about what happened (and verify what we're pretty sure we know).
FBI? FOr what? They are useless.
CIA? No training in downed aircraft. They haven't a clue. Now, they can probably bring in a team to determine the types of explosives used in the warhead..... other than that, they can do as well as I can..."Yep, that's a body, it fell down here... probably out of an airplane of some kind".
July 18th, 2014, 16:13
Ryan Ruck
Re: World War Three Thread....
NTSB just seems redundant at this point. I've always seen NTSB as coming in to figure out why an aircraft has crashed when the cause is unknown. We know it was shot down, the question is by what and by whom.
I figure CIA would be better informed on weapon systems from other nations than the FBI would. I'm sure they've got their specialists but I can't imagine them being as trained on self propelled SAM systems as much as the CIA might. Maybe MANPAD systems but theater air defense systems seems like a stretch. I could be mistaken though...
July 18th, 2014, 16:19
American Patriot
Re: World War Three Thread....
You have a point. They are a "safety board" thus, there's not much they can conclude except that you shouldn't point armed missiles at aircraft flying by.
Fred Thompson on "Outnumbered" right now. Ripping Obabaler up.
July 18th, 2014, 16:33
American Patriot
Re: World War Three Thread....
Obama: Downing of Malaysia Airliner an 'Outrage of Unspeakable Proportions'
U.S. President Barack Obama says the deaths of the 298 people aboard the Malaysia Airlines plane that went down over eastern Ukraine are an "outrage of unspeakable proportions."
Speaking at the White House Friday, Obama said evidence indicates the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile launched from an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
He called for an international investigation into the incident saying Russia and the separatists must adhere to an immediate cease-fire.
The U.S. leader said the event underscores " it is time for peace and security to be restored in Ukraine." OSCE monitors
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has sent about 30 monitors to the Malaysia Airlines wreckage site in eastern Ukraine, saying pro-Russian rebels controlling the region granted them safe passage.
World leaders have called for a full investigation into the incident, which killed all 298 people on board the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. U.S. officials say that the plane was brought down Thursday by a surface-to-air missile, but that it is not clear who fired it.
Speaking during an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power said the missile system was likely operated from a "separatist-held location in eastern Ukraine." She also said technical assistance from Russia cannot be ruled out.
Faulting Russia for supplying the separatists with high-powered arms, training and other assistance, Power called for Russia to help de-escalate the fighting between rebels and Ukrainian government forces. She told the U.N. Security Council, “This war can be ended. Russia can end this war. Russia must end this war.”
Ukraine's government has accused the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine of shooting the plane down, while the rebels blamed government forces.
Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations, Yuriy Sergeyev, had said Ukraine would present evidence to the Council showing Russia's military was involved in the crash.
Malaysia Airlines says the route where the incident occurred is commonly used for Europe-to-Asia flights.
Most of the passengers on the Boeing 777 aircraft were Dutch, and many were scientists heading to an international AIDS conference in Australia. Most bodies located
Emergency workers say more than 180 bodies have been located. There are conflicting reports about whether the plane's two black boxes, for audio and video, had been recovered.
The incident sent debris and body parts over a wide area of eastern Ukraine. Bodies fell in fields and inside and outside of village homes.
Malaysia Airlines said people from at least 10 countries were on board the plane, including 189 from the Netherlands, 44 Malaysians and 27 Australians. Another 12 were Indonesian, nine were British and about a dozen others were from Belgium, Germany, the Philippines, Canada or New Zealand. Four passengers' nationalities have not been determined.
A top Malaysia Airlines official said the company will pay $5,000 per passenger to relatives to cover initial expenses.
U.S. intelligence officials said the plane likely was targeted deliberately by someone who may have mistaken it for a Ukrainian military transport plane.
Malaysia Airlines said it no longer will fly planes over Ukrainian airspace, instead routing its aircraft farther south over Turkey. http://gdb.voanews.com/EF60AAB3-149F...9D7FC_w268.jpgMalaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai speaks at a press conference near Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang July 18, 2014.
Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told reporters Friday in Kuala Lumpur that the purposeful downing of a passenger jet violates international law and would be an "outrage against human decency."
He said Malaysia is sending a 62-person disaster team to Amsterdam to assist with support to victims' families.
Many of the passengers were traveling to an international AIDS conference in Melbourne, Australia.
The International AIDS Society, host of the conference scheduled to begin Sunday in Melbourne, has released a statement expressing "sincere sadness" and condolences to the victims' families.
The United States called for a cease-fire to facilitate the investigation, as did German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “There are many indications that the plane was shot down, so we have to take things very seriously,” she said.
The plane had a clean maintenance record, a Malaysia Airlines official said Friday. Huib Gorter, its European vice president, said “all … systems on the aircraft were functioning normally” before it lost contact, the news agency AFP reported Friday. Missile targeted plane
VOA's Defense Department correspondent said that U.S. officials confirmed the plane was hit by a missile, but that it wasn't clear who fired the missile or whether it came from Russian or Ukrainian territory.
An official said the plane likely was targeted by someone who may have mistaken it for a military transport plane.
VOA Southeast Asia correspondent Steve Herman, who is covering the crash, said there is growing consensus that the aircraft was shot down.
"This does appear, according to U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence officials, to be a shootdown of the aircraft, perhaps mistaken for a Ukrainian military aircraft. And there's no indication whatsoever that there was pilot error or some sort of mechanical fault that brought down MH17 over eastern Ukraine at this point," said Herman.
Ukraine has accused pro-Russia militants of shooting down the plane. Putin calls for investigation
Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the incident on Ukraine, citing its offensive against the rebels that began two weeks ago.
In a phone call with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Putin demanded a “thorough and unbiased” investigation into the airliner's downing, the Kremlin said Friday.
“The head of the Russian state underlined that the tragedy yet again highlighted the need for the swiftest peaceful solution to the acute crisis in Ukraine and noted that a thorough and unbiased investigation into all the circumstances of the air catastrophe was needed,” it said.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott also demanded an investigation, calling Russia's response to the crash "deeply, deeply unsatisfactory." He said the idea that Russia can deny any responsibility for the crash because it happened on Ukrainian soil "does not stand up to any serious scrutiny." The crash, he said, "is not an accident, it's a crime."
But former Cuban president Fidel Castro sided with Putin in attributing the crash to the “warmonger” government of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Cuba, Russia's longtime ally and former dependent, "cannot go without expressing its repudiation over the action of such an anti-Russian, anti-Ukrainian and pro-imperialist government," Castro, 87, wrote in a 270-word missive published in official Cuban media Friday, Reuters reported. Obama offers condolences
Late Thursday, President Barack Obama telephoned Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte to offer condolences. White House officials say the two leaders talked about the need to ensure that international investigators have unimpeded and immediate access to the crash site.
Obama also spoke with Poroshenko and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who said that he could not confirm the plane was shot down, but that the pilot did not send out any distress call.
A NATO statement said that much remains unknown about the crash circumstances, but that Russian-backed separatists have created an increasingly dangerous situation.
Various U.S. and international airlines, including Malaysia Airlines, say they will avoid the airspace over the border between Russia and eastern Ukraine. Crisis in eastern Ukraine
Eastern Ukraine has been the scene of fighting between Ukrainian forces and separatists who have declared independence in some regions with the aim of joining Russia.
Separatists say they have shot down Ukrainian military planes in recent weeks, and Kyiv accused Russia of shooting down a Ukrainian military aircraft Wednesday.
The United States imposed fresh sanctions on Russia Wednesday for failing to take steps to de-escalate the crisis in eastern Ukraine and for providing weapons and support to the rebels.
This is the second major tragedy for Malaysia Airlines this year. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 when it disappeared with 239 people on board. It did not send out a distress call and is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean. Searchers have found no trace of the plane.
July 18th, 2014, 16:56
Ryan Ruck
Re: World War Three Thread....
Quote:
Originally Posted by American Patriot
You have a point. They are a "safety board" thus, there's not much they can conclude except that you shouldn't point armed missiles at aircraft flying by.
Fred Thompson on "Outnumbered" right now. Ripping Obabaler up.
What a wasted opportunity. There was a distinct lack of:
VIDEO: The moment flight MH17 disappeared from Flightradar24
Contact was lost with the plane around 15.21 BST, when it was flying at 33,000 feet.
Pól Ó Conghaile
Published 18/07/2014|09:32
This is the moment MH17 disappeared from flightradar24.
Video grabbed from the flight tracking app shows the moment contact was lost with MH17 (shown in red, below). At 15.21 BST, the aircraft was flying at 33,000 feet.
Moments later, all contact was lost.
The airline is reported to have been struck by a surface-to-air missile. It fell from the skies shortly afterwards, leaving a trail of devastation across the fields of Eastern Ukraine.
298 people are reported to have lost their lives in the tragedy.
Flight tracker apps like Flightradar24, FlightTrack and Flight Aware have boomed in popularity in recent years, bringing live flight information - such as location, altitude, speed and routes - into the pockets of smartphone users around the world.
The above screengrab shows empty airspace over Eastern Ukraine, which has been closed until further notice. Airlines from all over the world have altered their flight plans in the wake of the disaster.
The app has also tweeted the final logs of MH17. Last positions of #MH17 directly from Flightradar24 database. Signal was lost around 13:21 UTC at 33,000 feet. pic.twitter.com/6gz8ECoJxI
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) July 17, 2014
July 18th, 2014, 17:20
American Patriot
Re: World War Three Thread....
Looting at jet crash scene may hamper investigation
It’s still unclear who will take the lead on the investigation into Malaysia Airlines flight 17. Meanwhile rescue workers appear unorganized and passenger belongings have been looted. (USA NOW, USA TODAY)
Filip Warwick and Jabeen Bhatti, Special for USA TODAY 1:16 p.m. EDT July 18, 2014
NORTH OF GRABOVO, Ukraine — The black handbag lay on the field turning muddy from the rain. A beige wallet lay next to it, open, near credit cards and photographs carefully lined up next to each other on the wet grass, ordinary pictures of loved ones: son, daughter, father and mother.
The scene was replicated across the field – camera holders missing cameras, wallets missing cash, cosmetics and other items scattered in random patterns after a jet disintegrated and fell from the sky.
A day after a Malaysian airliner was shot down by a surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 aboard, twisted wreckage and mangled bodies remained uncollected as emergency personnel searched the site Friday.
In some areas of this field, near the small town of Grabovo in a remote eastern Ukrainian farming region close to the Russian border, backpacks and other carry-on luggage were grouped together. It was clear that looters had opened and rifled through some of them.
As Ukraine and Russia, along with the pro-Russian separatists who have taken control of the region, fight over who gets to manage the scene, the recovery operation has become chaotic, and the typical procedures used to aid the investigation into the crash have been compromised.
Rain fell Friday afternoon over bodies that remained on the field, and they weren't covered up to protect them. Such scenes are normally cordoned off, but men randomly walked the area, finding an item or a limb, then staking the ground to mark the site with a stick that had a white piece of fabric twisted around it.
Absent was the "grid" walk at such scenes, where organized teams in a line walk a grid pattern to make sure nothing is left uncovered. Also missing was any organized way of categorizing the debris — description, location, photo — that is standard procedure for a crime scene.
Nor was there any effort to secure personal items, such as a Winnie the Pooh bear or a Minnie Mouse lunchbox, that belonged to victims so they could be returned to their families.
Many of the dead have been identified through passports found at the scene, where some victims were miraculously intact. Others were too mangled or burned to be identifiable.
Passengers strapped to their seats were found in contorted positions. Next to one young man was a watch separated from its strap. It's display showed 15:54.
Residents said they were in shock over what happened. Some said they cried Thursday as they rushed out to help, only to realize they were helpless to save anyone. Several took photographs of the scene.
Alexander Aleksandrovich and his teenage grandson, Cyril, said a part of the jet's body and the engine just missed their house and landed nearby in a charred pit.
They attributed the miss to a large Orthodox Christian cross they erected on their land last year. "As my wife told me, (the plane) was heading towards (the house),'" Aleksandrovich said. "She came out of the town to see the plane coming. It started to fragment and crashed across the road.
"It was by the grace of God we are still alive – what other kind of power could have pushed it aside so that it didn't fall on peaceful people. The cross protected us – we survived."
Cyril said his father and mother had to be taken to the hospital because of exposure to the jet fuel's fumes, which is highly toxic.
Though the world's focus is on the tragic end for 298 passengers, residents said the separatists' fight for autonomy from the national government in Kiev shouldn't get lost.
"Remember, we are still fighting here," Aleksandrovich said. "Let's not forget about that."
Bhatti reported from Berlin.
July 18th, 2014, 17:24
American Patriot
Re: World War Three Thread....
World calls for Ukraine cease-fire after crash
By By Peter Leonard And Dmitry Lovetsky July 18, 2014
ROZSYPNE, Ukraine (AP) — World leaders called for an immediate cease-fire in eastern Ukraine on Friday and demanded speedy access for international investigators to the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines jetliner shot down over the country's battlefields.
The strong words came amid the contrasting images of emergency workers and off-duty coal miners fanning out across picturesque sunflower fields searching for charred pieces of wreckage from the Boeing 777.
The attack Thursday afternoon killed 298 people from nearly a dozen nations — including vacationers, students and a large contingent of scientists heading to an AIDS conference in Australia.
President Barack Obama called for an immediate cease-fire between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russia separatists. He also called for a credible investigation.
"The eyes of the world are on eastern Ukraine, and we are going to make sure that the truth is out," Obama said at the White House.
U.S. intelligence authorities said a surface-to-air missile brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 as it traveled from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told the U.N. Security Council in New York on Friday the missile was likely fired from a rebel-held area near the Russian border.
The Ukrainian government in Kiev, the separatist pro-Russia rebels they are fighting and the Russia government that Ukraine accuses of supporting the rebels all denied shooting the plane down. Moscow also denies backing the rebels.
After holding an emergency session, the U.N. Security Council called for "a full, thorough and independent international investigation" into the downing of the plane.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said both sides in the Ukrainian conflict should put down their weapons and hold peace talks. On Thursday, Putin blamed Ukraine for the crash, saying Kiev was responsible for the unrest in its Russian-speaking eastern regions. But he didn't accuse Ukraine of shooting the plane down and didn't address the key question of whether Russia gave the rebels such a powerful missile.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry released a video purporting to show a truck carrying the Buk missile launcher it said was used to fire on the plane with one of its four missiles apparently missing. The ministry said the footage was filmed by a police surveillance squad at dawn Friday as the truck was heading to the city of Krasnodon toward the Russian border.
There was no way to independently verify the video.
Ukraine's state aviation service closed the airspace Friday over two border regions gripped by separatist fighting — Donetsk and Luhansk — and Russian airlines suspended all flights over Ukraine.
Access to the sprawling crash site remained difficult and dangerous. The road into it from Donetsk, the largest city in the region, was marked by five rebel checkpoints, with document checks at each.
A commission of around 30 people, mostly officials representing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, traveled to the crash site Friday afternoon in the first such visit there by an international delegation.
"No black boxes have been found ... we hope that experts will track them down and create a picture of what has happened," Donetsk separatist leader Aleksandr Borodai said.
Yet earlier Friday, an aide to the military leader of Borodai's group said authorities had recovered eight out of 12 recording devices. Since planes usually have two black boxes — one for recording flight data and the other for recording cockpit voices — it was not clear what the aide was referring to. It was possible he was referring to a variety of computer systems.
The crash site was spread out over fields between two villages in eastern Ukraine — Rozsypne and Hrabove. In the distance, the thud of Grad missile launchers being fired could be heard Friday morning.
In the sunflower fields around Rozsypne, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Russian border, lines of men disappeared into thick, tall growth that reached over their heads. One fainted after finding a body. Another body was covered in a coat.
About 70 off-duty coal miners joined the search, their faces still sooty from work.
In Hrabove, several miles away, large numbers of sticks, some made from tree branches, were affixed with red or white rags to mark spots where body parts were found.
Andrei Purgin, a leader of the pro-Russian separatists, told The Associated Press that after consultations with international diplomats and a former Ukrainian president, a decision has been reached for bodies to be taken to the government-controlled Black Sea city of Mariupol.
Smashed watches and mobile phones, charred boarding passes and passports were among the debris.
Large chunks of the plane, which bore the airline's red, white and blue markings, lay strewn over one field. The cockpit and one turbine lay a kilometer (a half-mile) apart, and the tail landed 10 kilometers (six miles) away. One rebel militiaman in Rozsypne told the AP the plane's fuselage showed signs of being struck by a projectile.
The area has seen heavy fighting between government troops and pro-Russia separatists, and rebels had bragged about shooting down two Ukrainian military jets Wednesday in the region.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed Kiev's accusations that Moscow could be behind the attack.
"Regarding those claims from Kiev that we allegedly did it ourselves: I have not heard a truthful statement from Kiev for months," he told the Rossiya 24 television channel.
He also said Russia has no intention of getting its hands on the plane's black boxes and added they should be given to international aviation organizations.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk described the attack as an "international crime" whose perpetrators should be punished in an international tribunal.
Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lay insisted again Friday that the airline's path was an internationally approved route and denied accusations the airline was trying to save fuel and money by taking a more direct flight path across Ukraine.
Aviation authorities in several countries, including the FAA in the United States, had issued previous warnings not to fly over parts of Ukraine after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in March. Within hours of the crash Thursday, several airlines announced they were avoiding parts of Ukrainian airspace.