“Our assessment is that Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 . . . was likely downed by an SA-11 missile, operated from a separatist-held location in eastern Ukraine,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told the U.N. Security Council on Friday.
She added that “because of the technical complexity of the SA-11,” it was unlikely that the separatists could have effectively operated it on their own. “We cannot rule out Russian technical assistance,” Power said.
I understood the airplane had to deviate its path more to the north due to storms in the area, which probably contributed to the event. Clearly the airline companies weren't expecting amateurs having professional equipment to shoot down airplanes. I hope this will sharpen the protocols and lead to safer flight paths. This is a crime against humanity and the ones responsible should be brought to international court.Astronuc said:Commercial airlines apparently fly over war zones to save fuel at the risk of those on-board. If only they have flown 10, 20 or 50 miles to the west, they may have avoided those who fired the missile.
I found it hard to believe that number and indeed that number now appears to be much lower (seven confirmed): http://m.washingtonpost.com/nationa...a31972-0e85-11e4-8341-b8072b1e7348_story.html Although it is hard to know for sure, without publication of the official passenger list (4 passengers are still of unconfirmed identity).Greg Bernhardt said:Talk about a double whammy. Just tragic for humanity in general.
Malaysia Plane Crash Victims Included About 100 AIDS Conference Attendees, Report Suggests
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/who-malaysia-plane-crash-victims-aids-_n_5597547.html
You missed my post on the previous page:Drakkith said:A sad day for HIV/Aids research.
Over 100 HIV Experts And Advocates May Have Been On Board Crashed Malaysian Plane
http://www.iflscience.com/health-an...s-may-have-been-board-crashed-malaysian-plane
Currently I understand that all passengers have been confirmed, so when all next of kin have been contacted I expect the passenger list will be released.Monique said:I found it hard to believe that number and indeed that number now appears to be much lower (seven confirmed): http://m.washingtonpost.com/nationa...a31972-0e85-11e4-8341-b8072b1e7348_story.html Although it is hard to know for sure, without publication of the official passenger list (4 passengers are still of unconfirmed identity).
Monique said:You missed my post on the previous page:
Drakkith said:Over 100 HIV Experts And Advocates May Have Been On Board Crashed Malaysian Plane
AlephZero said:So medical researchers don't do risk assessments on their travel arrangements?
Working in industry, we would think twice before flying even 5 people across the Atlantic on the same flight. And we were thinking like that for decades before 9-11.
How many decades? These days, plane crashes are so exceedingly rare that if a risk assessment concludes you shouldn't fly together, it should also conclude you shouldn't ever drive together or have dinner together.AlephZero said:So medical researchers don't do risk assessments on their travel arrangements?
Working in industry, we would think twice before flying even 5 people across the Atlantic on the same flight. And we were thinking like that for decades before 9-11.
russ_watters said:if a risk assessment concludes you shouldn't fly together, it should also conclude you shouldn't ever drive together or have dinner together.
russ_watters said:These days, plane crashes are so exceedingly rare that if a risk assessment concludes you shouldn't fly together, it should also conclude you shouldn't ever drive together or have dinner together.
The missile launcher used to down Malaysia Air flight MH17 is probably back in Russia after it was imported into Ukraine a few weeks ago, a well-placed source with access to the latest intelligence told Fox News Friday night.
The same source also said the missile that brought down the plane Thursday killing all 298 on board was fired from Schnidze, a town in eastern Ukraine.
"We are building a case," the senior U.S. official told Fox News. "It is damn near bulletproof at this point."
The U.S. intelligence community used infrared data, measurements and electronic signals, among other methods, to determine the origin of the missile's path.
How far the bloc will go, however, will depend in whether the 28 countries can agree on a position.
The EU, whose sanctions have generally fallen short of the tougher measures imposed by the U.S., has been hampered in part by a disagreement among members. Some southern European nations, led by Italy, and others including Hungary and Bulgaria that depend on Russian energy, have resisted harsher sanctions.
One official said the potential for retaliatory actions by Russia "are weighing quite heavily on member states."
Monique said:It's upsetting how long it takes to get experts to the region to start the recovery of victims and investigation of the attack. People are rummaging through the wreckage and are loading debris into trucks, most evidence must be gone by now.
"There's enormous amount of evidence, even more evidence that I just documented, that points to the involvement of Russia in providing these systems, training the people on them," Mr Kerry said.
Analysts at the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies are continuing to examine information about the crash, but the officials said the intelligence assembled in the five days since the attack points overwhelmingly to Russian-backed separatists in territory they control in eastern Ukraine.
The senior intelligence officials said they have ruled out the possibility that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the attack.
...
Russia has gone to significant lengths to disguise that flow of weaponry, the officials said, by delivering equipment that matches the inventory of Ukraine’s military. In some cases, the officials said, Russia appears to have pulled aging and inactive tanks out of storage because shipping newer ones would make it obvious that Russian arms were flowing into Ukraine.
“We think they’re continuing to do it” in the aftermath of the strike on the Malaysian aircraft, one of the intelligence officials said.
...
The U.S. officials said they have confirmed the authenticity of some of those recordings, including one in which the self-proclaimed defense minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Igor Strelkov, claimed responsibility for shooting down a military transport plane at the time the Malaysian aircraft was struck.
Analysis comparing that audio clip to other confirmed recordings of Strelkov’s voice “confirmed these were authentic conversations,” one of the officials said.
Monique said:... but no-one dares to send troops there in fear of escalation. A reference was even made to 1914.
linkAlexander Solzhenitsyn said:...To defend oneself, one must also be ready to die; there is little such readiness in a society raised in the cult of material well-being. Nothing is left, then, but concessions, attempts to gain time, and betrayal...