Question is, do we believe them?
Germany’s
intel agency says MH17 downed by Ukraine militia – report
RT,
19
October, 2014
Germany's
BND foreign intelligence agency says a local militia shot down
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine in July, Der Spiegel
reports. The BND is said to possess “ample evidence," though
none of it has been made public.
The statement was made on October 8, when Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) president Gerhard Schindler was holding a secret meeting with members of the parliamentary control committee, the German daily reported on Sunday.
He
claimed the militia fired a rocket from a BUK defense missile system
which it had captured from a Ukrainian base. It then exploded next to
the plane, according to the report.
“Schindler
provided ample evidence to back up his case, including satellite
images and diverse photo evidence,”
the report added.
However,
no “evidence”
has yet been made public, and the BND has not made any official
statements on the matter.
At
the same meeting, Schindler reportedly said that certain intelligence
on the crash provided by the Ukrainian side was false, adding that
“this can be explained in
detail.”
However, he did not give much credit to Russia’s evidence either.
The
German Federal Prosecutor's Office told the newspaper that an
investigation has been launched into unknown perpetrators under the
possibility that the downing had been a war crime.
First
deputy prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Andrey
Purgin, refuted claims made by the German intelligence agency. He
told Interfax that Kiev forces could have downed the plane, mistaking
it for a spy jet.
Malaysia
Airlines flight MH17 was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when
it was downed over eastern Ukraine on July 17, killing all 298
passengers and crew. Nearly two-thirds of the passengers were from
the Netherlands.
The
ongoing international probe led by the Dutch has not yet established
who the perpetrators were. A preliminary report issued in September
said only that the plane crashed as a result of structural damage
caused by a “large number of
high-energy objects"
that struck from outside.
Political
analyst Aleksandar Pavic told RT that he believes Berlin is trying to
influence the Dutch investigation – the results of which are to be
released next year.
“Germany
has now the obligation to show the evidence to the official
investigation,”
he said. “This is like
during trial: if you release bits and pieces of evidence before while
the trial is still ongoing, you are trying to influence the outcome
of the trial.”
Russia
has been repeatedly denied accusations, mostly from the US, which
claim that Moscow was connected to the tragedy in some way or
another. The Russian Foreign Ministry has called Washington’s
accusations “unsubstantiated
innuendos."
The
US State Department has accused Russia of firing artillery across the
border into Ukrainian territory after the plane crash.
“We
have new evidence that the Russians intend to deliver heavier and
more powerful rocket launchers to the separatist forces in Ukraine,
and have evidence that Russia is firing artillery from within Russia
to attack Ukrainian military positions,”
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters during a
briefing in July. But she refused to provide any evidence when
grilled by an Associated Press reporter.
Meanwhile,
Moscow has posed a series of questions to the US that have been left
unanswered. Russian military officials urged their US colleagues to
release satellite images that prove their claims.
"If
our US colleagues have imagery from this satellite, they should
release it for the international community to examine it in detail.
This may be a coincidence, but the US satellite flew over Ukraine at
exactly the same time when the Malaysian airliner crashed,”
a ministry spokesman said in a July statement.
The
US has accused local militia forces of shooting down the plane.
However, it has provided little to no evidence in support of such
claims.
Following
the crash, Harf was asked at a press briefing if the US could back up
its claims regarding the role of such militias in the tragedy. Harf
responded that she “can’t
get into the sources and methods behind it”
and “can’t tell you what
the information is based on.”
In
late July, the US State Department released satellite images via
email, claiming the pictures acted as “evidence” that Russia was
firing rockets at Ukrainian troops across the border. The images were
posted on Twitter by the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the authenticity of the images was
impossible to prove.
Meanwhile,
Russia has said that its military detected a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter
jet gaining height towards the MH17 Boeing on the day of the
catastrophe. No explanation was given by Kiev as to why the military
plane was flying so close to a passenger aircraft.
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