Cherchez la Verite: Here two reporters with the same last name have published their columns on the same day. Most of Steve Watson's sources appear to have been individuals who believe -- or deliberately abet -- U.S. propaganda alleging without proof that the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was the work of pro-Russian separatists. However, Steve's video is a must-see: The whereabouts of all aircraft over Ukraine on that fateful day is recited by Lieutenant-General Igor Makushev of Russia’s Air Forces with an English translator (at the 12.30 minute mark he begins to illustrate airport radar views). This open-to-the-press session also claimed that satellite views showed that all Buk anti-aircraft batteries at the moment of the shoot-down were in Ukrainian-held territory. In Steve's last paragraph, he cites Paul Joseph Watson's conversation with a well trusted American reporter who was shown strong evidence that Washington is lying about who is responsible for the downing of MH17. Paul Joseph's column is re-posted here just below Steve's byline.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Here two reporters with the same last name have published their columns on the same day. Most of Steve Watson's sources appear to have been individuals who believe -- or deliberately abet -- U.S. propaganda alleging without proof that the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was the work of pro-Russian separatists. However, Steve's video is a must-see: The whereabouts of all aircraft over Ukraine on that fateful day is recited by Lieutenant-General Igor Makushev of Russia’s Air Forces with an English translator (at the 12.30 minute mark he begins to illustrate airport radar views). This open-to-the-press session also claimed that satellite views showed that all Buk anti-aircraft batteries at the moment of the shoot-down were in Ukrainian-held territory. In Steve's last paragraph, he cites Paul Joseph Watson's conversation with a well trusted American reporter who was shown strong evidence that Washington is lying about who is responsible for the downing of MH17. Paul Joseph's column is re-posted here just below Steve's byline.

Claim: MH17 Was Being Flanked By Ukrainian Fighter Jets
Russia wants explanation for warplane flying within three miles of downed airliner

Image Credits: ronmacphotos, Flickr

by Steve Watson | Infowars.com | July 21, 2014 Original here

Amid the confusion surrounding the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17 comes a claim from an Iranian defense expert that could explain why the airliner was targeted by pro-Russian separatists.

Many have questioned how operators inside the Buk missile TELAR (transporter erector launcher and radar) could have possibly mistaken MH17′s radar signal as anything other than a civilian plane, given the Boeing 777′s altitude and transponder type.

Thus the notion that the missile operators believed they were firing at a Ukrainian Air Force surveillance plane has been rubbished by commentators.

Babak Taghvaee, described by The Aviationist as “very well informed and an extremely reliable source,” believes, however, that the airliner attracted attention because it was being escorted over eastern Ukraine by two Su-27 Fighter Jets.

“When the Crimea crisis began, the Ukrainian Air Force air command center quickly forward deployed six Su-27s to the Kulbakino AB. Since beginning of the crisis and the Russia intervention, the 831st TAB has the important task to provide air defense as well as security of whole country. Six fully armed Flankers have always been in the sky especially when the other Ukrainian Air Force airplanes such as transporters and attackers like Fulcrums and Rooks were in the East of Ukraine,” explains Taghvaee.

Indeed, in the days immediately preceding the shoot down of MH17, an-26 cargo plane and a Su-25 attack jet were downed by surface to air missiles in the same region.

“But when the Su-25M1 was shot down by the Russia Air Force 6969th AB’s MiG-29 on Jul. 16, the situation and condition became more critical than previous days and more Su-27 sorties were conducted to confront Russian MiG-29s.” Taghvaee adds.

“I believe those two Su-27s were not in sky just for standard practice in that day [Jul. 17], I believe they were involved in HAVCAP (High Asset Value Combat Air Patrol) mission sortie in that day.” the aviation expert continues, suggesting that all military and civilian flights over eastern Ukraine were being escorted by Ukrainian fighter jets.

“During the UEFA 2012 [football championships], the 831st TAB and its Flankers had same role, during those competitions they had duty to escort the airliners in FL330 and other routes in case emergency.” Taghvaee adds.

“They played same role during the Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia. They were airborne and they even escorted a hijacked airplane. They were also ready to provide security of all passenger airplanes over Ukraine. They are now following same procedure and they could protect all of the airplanes over Ukraine in-front of Russians since Jul 16.”

As the Aviationist report notes, Taghvaee suggests that the pro-Russian missile operators inside the Buk may have concluded that a plane shadowed by Ukrainian jets was a high-value Ukrainian Air Force plane, and therefore a legitimate target.

In addition, Russia’s Defense Ministry has claimed that a Ukrainian warplane flew within three miles of the Malaysian airliner before it was downed.

Coupled with the facts that the airliner was diverted into a war zone it needn’t have flew over, and also ordered to fly at a lower altitude, this new information very much leaves open the possibility that the US backed Ukrainian military was inviting a Russian attack in order to exploit it for political ends, or even conducting a false flag attack, as some have suggested.

“Russian air space control systems detected a Ukrainian Air Force plane, presumably an SU-25 (fighter jet), scrambling in the direction of the Malaysian Boeing,” Lieutenant-General Igor Makushev of Russia’s Air Forces told a news briefing Monday.

Makushev also invited the US to share satellite images that prove US State Department claims that a Russian sophisticated SA-11 missile system, transferred to pro-Russian militants was used to down the airliner.

Meanwhile, former Associated Press reporter Robert Parry has been told by an intelligence source that the US is in possession of satellite imagery which could prove that Ukrainian troops were actually responsible for the shoot down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17.

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Steve Watson is a London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.

Whistleblower: U.S. Satellite Images Show Ukrainian Troops Shooting Down MH17

Source tells award winning reporter Washington lying about responsibility for tragedy

by Paul Joseph Watson | July 21, 2014 Original Here

Award winning former Associated Press reporter Robert Parry has been told by an intelligence source that the United States is in possession of satellite imagery which shows that Ukrainian troops were responsible for the shoot down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17.

In the absence of any proper investigation, media rhetoric over the last few days has firmly pointed the finger of blame for the downing of the aircraft on Russian-backed Ukrainian rebels, but Parry’s source tells a different story.

What I’ve been told by one source, who has provided accurate information on similar matters in the past, is that U.S. intelligence agencies do have detailed satellite images of the likely missile battery that launched the fateful missile, but the battery appears to have been under the control of Ukrainian government troops dressed in what look like Ukrainian uniforms.

The source said CIA analysts were still not ruling out the possibility that the troops were actually eastern Ukrainian rebels in similar uniforms but the initial assessment was that the troops were Ukrainian soldiers. There also was the suggestion that the soldiers involved were undisciplined and possibly drunk, since the imagery showed what looked like beer bottles scattered around the site, the source said.

Although the establishment press has attempted to deride any questioning of the official narrative that Ukrainian rebels were responsible for the incident by invoking the tired “conspiracy theory” pejorative, Parry can hardly be dismissed as a crank given his key role in covering the Iran-Contra scandal for the Associated Press and Newsweek. Indeed, Parry’s investigative work on intelligence matters, for which he was awarded the George Polk Award, suggests that the information provided by his source is worthy of serious attention.

U.S. and Ukrainian authorities continue to insist that Moscow-backed separatists were responsible for the tragedy, asserting that a BUK missile system was used to bring down the airliner. However, this was contradicted by Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema, who stated, “The military told the president after the passenger plane had been shot down that the terrorists did not possess our Buk missile systems.”

In a related development, audio experts who conducted a study into the authenticity of a recording released by Ukrainian authorities which implicated Russian-backed rebels as being responsible for the missile attack on MH17 concluded that the tape was fabricated.

“The tape’s second fragment consists of three pieces but was presented as a single audio recording. However, a spectral and time analysis has showed that the dialog was cut into pieces and then assembled. Short pauses in the tape are very indicative: the audio file has preserved time marks which show that the dialog was assembled from various episodes, the expert said,” reports ITAR-TASS.