MH-17: Politics over The Truth

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(Newswire.net — July 10, 2015) — Ever since Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was shot down, it has been unlike any other airline tragedy. Instead of a transparent investigation seeking justice, the case became a propaganda game of finger-pointing, with the CIA withholding key evidence to help better to blame Russia, journalist and author Robert Parry claims.

Parry was one of many journalists who followed MH-17 story. He said he was fed by various reports claiming that the pro-Russian side in Ukraine, armed with surface-to-air missiles were the ones who shot down flight MH-17. However, every time Parry made an inquiry in pursuit for truth, along with many other journalists he was rebuffed.

Meanwhile, the eyes of the victim’s friends and family were steered towards Putin and the tragedy has been used as an excuse to launch an embargo against the Russian Federation. Somewhere amid the political games, almost a year after MH-17 was shot down, the pubic still don’t know what had really happened. According to Parry, the CIA and other western intelligence agencies knew exactly who wass responsible, however, it is not in NATO’s interests to disclose the information.

“Throughout the Ukraine crisis, propaganda and “information warfare” have overridden any honest   presentation of reality – and the mystery around the MH-17 disaster has now slipped into that haze of charge and counter-charge,” Parry stated in his article, published in the ‘consortium news’ webpage which supports independent investigative journalism.

Parry wondered why the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper would now decide to keep the US public in the dark, after releasing unverified information about the shoot-down only five days after the event? Furthermore, the story is that Kiev’s military jet shot down the civilian aircraft allegedly mistaking it for the Russian. Though Russia presented clear evidence Ukraine’s SU-27 military jet was active in the area, Kiev denies any air activities in the region.

Of course, “admitting to an erroneous rush to judgment would have embarrassed the administration and undermined the “public diplomacy” campaign around the MH-17 case,” Parry stated.  

“By blaming Russia and its President Vladimir Putin last summer, the Obama administration whipped Europe into an anti-Russian frenzy and helped win the European Union’s support for economic sanctions against Russia,” Parry wrote, adding that the top US priority is to keep Putin on the defensive.”

According to Parry, an unnamed senior US government official explained to him “information warfare was the only area in the Ukraine crisis where Washington felt it had an edge over Moscow.”

In all preliminary reports, there is claim that MH-17 was shot down by the Buk surface-to-air missile fired from territory controlled by pro-Russian “terrorists”. However, in his report Parry emphasized the word “preliminary” since all the reports are still in its preliminary phase.

Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s