Malaysian plane crashes on Ukraine-Russia border - live

[Drew Phipps]

From news 8/11/14:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/10...d%3D513432

Ron Paul Says U.S. 'Likely Hiding Truth' About MH17 Crash

The U.S. government "knows a lot more" than it's letting on about the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash and is "likely hiding [the] truth," according to former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). In an Aug. 7 post on his news site, Voices of Liberty, Paul said he believes the U.S., with all its intelligence-gathering capabilities, should have a clear idea of what happened on July 17 when MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. But much of that information, he says, has likely been withheld from the public. "The U.S. government has grown strangely quite on the accusation that it was Russia or her allies that brought down the Malaysian airliner with a buck anti-aircraft missile [sic]," the former GOP presidential candidate wrote. "The little that we have heard from U.S. intelligence is that it has no evidence that Russia was involved. Yet the war propaganda were successful in convincing the American public that it was all Russia's fault."


"It's hard to believe that the U.S., with all of its spy satellites available for monitoring everything in Ukraine that precise proof of who did what and when is not available," he added. The Obama administration has said that pro-Russian separatists who have been trained and equipped by Moscow likely shot down MH17. "We do think President Putin and the Russian government bears responsibility for the support they provided to the separatists, the arms they have provided to the separatists, the training that they provided as well and the general unstable environment in eastern Ukraine," White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told CNN last month. Russia, however, has denied involvement in the attack and has blamed the Ukrainian government for downing the plane.

"Questions do remain regarding the serious international incident," Paul wrote last week of the MH17 crash. "Too bad we can't count on our government to just tell us the truth and show us the evidence. I'm convinced that it knows a lot more than it's telling us." This isn't the first time that Paul has accused the government of spreading "propaganda" following the MH17 crash. As The Hill points out, Paul -- in the days after the tragedy -- accused the Obama administration and the Western media of "join[ing] together to gain the maximum propaganda value from the disaster." He also suggested at the time that the U.S. might be partly to blame for the crash.

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And also from the AP (same link)

AP Journalists Saw Rebels With BUK Missiles Hours Before MH17 Crashed
Associated Press journalists in Ukraine saw a BUK missile system -- the type that the US says downed Flight MH17 -- in rebel hands just hours before the plane was shot down, the news agency says in detailed account of the day's events. AP says that while the rebels officially deny responsibility, "the denials are increasingly challenged by accounts of residents, the observations of journalists on the ground, and the statements of one rebel official." Further, one rebel official told AP that they were behind the plane tragedy.
More from the AP story:

A highly placed rebel, speaking to the AP this week, admitted that rebels were responsible. He said a unit based in the hometown of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, made up of both Russians and Ukrainians, was involved in the firing of an SA-11 from near Snizhne. The rebel, who has direct access to the inner circle of the insurgent leadership in Donetsk, said that he could not be named because he was contradicting the rebels' official line. The rebels believed they were targeting a Ukrainian military plane, this person said. Instead, they hit the passenger jet flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 people aboard were killed.

Read the full account here.