Don't parrot the US version on Flight MH17
Songdej Pradidsmanont, in his letter on Wednesday, parrots the acrimonious US State Department accusations that Russia is to blame for the Malaysian Airlines tragedy. This before the investigation has started and before the fight-recorder details have bee
Songdej needs to listen again to the half-hour Russian Defence Ministry briefing, then answer some of the questions posed, such as: What was a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet (or lookalike) doing gaining height toward MH17 on the day of the catastrophe?
Why was the jet flying so near a civil airliner, as seen on the radar tape produced by the Russian Air Force?
This was also witnessed by people on the ground, who told BBC (in a clip now deleted from the BBC site but available elsewhere online) they saw the fighter actually fire on MH17. Importantly, they saw not the thick, black smoke-trail of the sort a BUK missile produces.
Photos of the wreckage show holes in the fuselage.
The Western press immediately claimed shrapnel from an exploding device such as a BUK caused them, whereas they may have been bullet holes caused by the fighter jet.
Is this why Ukraine refuses to stop military activity near the crash site – to grab this evidence before lab analysis of these holes?
Thomas Turk
Phuket
