Do you think any American official is going to tell you the truth?
by William Blum
During Cold War One those of us in the left were often placed in the position where we had to defend the Soviet Union because the US government was using that country as a battering ram against us. Now we sometimes have to defend Russia because it may be the last best hope of stopping TETATW (The Empire That Ate The World). Yes, during Cold War One we knew about Stalin, the show trials, and the gulags. But we also knew about US foreign policy.
I’ve been reading the Washington Post for 25 years – six years during Vietnam (1964-1970) and the last 19 years – usually about three hours each day very carefully. When it comes to US foreign policy the newspaper is worse now than I can remember it ever was during those 25 years. It’s reached the point where I don’t take at face value a word the Post has to say about Ukraine. Same with the State Department, which makes one accusation after another about Russian military actions in Eastern Ukraine without presenting any kind of satellite imagery or other visual or documentary evidence; what we’re left with is often no more than just an accusation. [1]
My personal breath of fresh air has been RT (formerly Russia Today). Daily, many progressives are interviewed and out come facts and analyses rarely heard on CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, NPR, PBS, Fox, BBC, etc. Words heard on RT are labeled by the mainstream media as “Russian propaganda.”
As for Russia being responsible for “creating the conditions” that led to the shooting down of Flight 17, we should keep in mind that events in Ukraine w[ere] sparked in February when a US-supported coup overthrew the democratically-elected government and replaced it with one more receptive to the market-fundamentalism dictates of the World Bank, IMF and the European Union. [If] not for the coup there would’ve been no eastern rebellion and no dangerous war zone for Flight 17 in the first place.
The new regime has another feature: outspoken neo-Nazis in high and low positions, embarrassing enough for the US government and mainstream media to turn it into a non-event. Senator McCain met and posed for photos with the leader of the neo-Nazi Svoboda Party, Oleh Tyahnybok. Ukraine – whose ties to Nazism go back to WW II when their homegrown fascists supported Germany and opposed the Soviet Union – is on track to becoming part of the US-NATO encirclement of Russia and home of the region’s newest missile base, target Moscow.
It’s possible Flight 17 was shot down by pro-Russian rebels in Eastern Ukraine in the mistaken belief that it was the Ukrainian air force returning to carry out another attack. But other explanations are suggested in questions posed by Russia to the UN General Assembly, accompanied by radar, satellite images, and other technical displays: “Why was a military aircraft flying in a civil aviation airway at almost the same time and altitude as a civilian passenger aircraft? Earlier, Ukrainian officials stated that on the day of the accident no Ukrainian military aircraft were flying in that area. As you can see, that’s not true.”
“We also have a question for our American colleagues. According to a statement by American officials, the US has satellite images which show the missile aimed at the Malaysian aircraft was launched by the militants. But no one has seen these images.” [2]
A published analysis by a retired Lufthansa pilot points out that Flight 17 looked similar in its tricolor design to that of Russian President Putin’s plane, whose plane with him on board was at the same time “near” Flight 17.[3] Could Putin’s plane have been the real target?
There is plausible questioning of the official story of Russia and/or Ukrainian anti-Kiev militias being responsible for the shoot-down. Will the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and the Syrian chemical weapons be joined by the Russian anti-aircraft missile? Stay tuned.
Notes:
[1] See various examples at RT.com, such as “Jen Psaki’s most embarrassing fails, most entertaining grillings”, or simply search the site for “Ukraine Jen Psaki”;
[2] “Letter dated 22 July 2014 from the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General”, released by the UN 24 July, Document No. A/68/954-S/2014/524;
[3] “Pre-WWIII German Pilot Shocker, MH17 ‘Not Hit By Missile’,” Before It’s News, July 31, 2014.
Excerpted from the Anti-Empire Report #131. Any part of this report may be disseminated without permission, provided attribution to William Blum as author and a link to his website (www.williamblum.org) are given. Send comments, typos found, money, love notes or hate mail to <bblum6@aol.com>.
