censorship

RT TV service terminated in NYC and Washington DC, SANA, Syrian State channels terminated by YouTube

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From Global Research

First They Came for Alex Jones, Then for Russian Cable News RT and Syrian TV. Going to War with Russia, Syria, Iran

By Ann Garrison

September 13, 2018

Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibibi calls Alex Jones “the media equivalent of a trench-coated stalker who jumps out from behind a mailbox and starts whacking it in an intersection.” Good description but he rightly warned that “Censorship Does Not End We.”

Shortly after Alex Jones was kicked off Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, New York City residents let me know via email and Twitter that the Russian cable news outlet RT was gone in their area. They all reported the screen message, “Programming on this network is no longer available.” One said that he had called Spectrum customer service, where a representative confirmed that RT was no longer available, but with no further information. He complained and the rep said she’d pass it upstairs.

The RT website confirmed that Charter Spectrum covers the entire NYC area and northern New Jersey. ( Actually, their website still says Time Warner, although Time Warner has been subsumed by Charter Spectrum.)

I submitted a press inquiry as to whether or not RT is still available to Charter Spectrum subscribers in Los Angeles, but had not received a response as of September 11, aka 09/11. I couldn’t help noting that I found myself reporting this on the 17th anniversary of the day that hijacked planes crashed into NYC’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon, creating an excuse for mass surveillance, the legalization of domestic psyops, and every US war since, whatever your theory as to what really happened. Trump and his administration now waffle about whether they’re fighting Syria, Russia, or terrorists, but Russia is clearly the ascendant bogeyman.

RT was taken off cable in Washington, DC on April 1st, though the Kremlin had said the move looked “illegal and discriminatory” according to US law. At the same time Bloomberg News reported the decision and the legal complexity facing cable companies who want to drop RT. That report began by citing US intelligence agencies who describe RT “as part of Moscow’s ‘state-run propaganda machine.’”

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Reuters’ alleges “censorship, legal prosecution, visa denials and even physical threats to our journalists” in Russia; the Foreign Ministry responds

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On January 31, 2017, Reuters’ Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler sent a message to reporters “Covering Trump the Reuters Way”. In it, he also said:

Reuters is a global news organization that reports independently and fairly in more than 100 countries, including many in which the media is unwelcome and frequently under attack. I am perpetually proud of our work in places such as Turkey, the Philippines, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Thailand, China, Zimbabwe, and Russia, nations in which we sometimes encounter some combination of censorship, legal prosecution, visa denials, and even physical threats to our journalists. We respond to all of these by doing our best to protect our journalists, by recommitting ourselves to reporting fairly and honestly, by doggedly gathering hard-to-get information – and by remaining impartial. We write very rarely about ourselves and our troubles and very often about the issues that will make a difference in the businesses and lives of our readers and viewers. [1]

He also published his message on Reuters’ website for the public to read

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova responded to Adler’s statements in her briefing on February 3, 2017 [2]:

Reuters’ allegations regarding Russia

We have taken note of Reuters Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler’s message to the agency’s staff about covering President Trump and his administration. We wouldn’t have taken note of this had not the agency itself drawn attention to this message by publishing it on the agency’s website. I want to stress that the way Reuters operates is not our concern, and the way it covers President Trump does not fall within the competence of the Russian Foreign Ministry. This message is designed for the staff but its open publication has made it a manifesto available to millions of readers. Wed have no doubt that it was a deliberate action on the part of Reuters. Again, I want to stress that we do not comment on the internal recommendations of editorial offices, but we could not leave the following part of the Reuters message unanswered.

According to Mr Adler’s message, Russia is a nation “in which we [Reuters staff] sometimes encounter some combination of censorship, legal prosecution, visa denials, and even physical threats to our journalists.” How can we ignore this? All of this concerns Reuters staff in Russia, Mr Adler writes. Are you serious? Can you tell me exactly when all of this simultaneously, or at least one of these attacks, was directed at your journalists?

We have asked Reuters for a comment. Nobody there could tell us what this means. We asked if any Reuters staff have had any problems in Russia. They attend our briefings and other events held by the Foreign Ministry and other Russian government agencies. A party was recently held for foreign journalists where Reuters leaders could directly approach Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to ask questions of concern to them. Why are you here if the working conditions are so bad? And why don’t we know about the above attacks, if they really happened? This is masochistic behaviour.

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Russia to take tit-for-tat measures if MSM acts to limit RT broadcast in US – telecom watchdog

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From RT

January 31, 2017
Russia to take tit-for-tat measures if MSM acts to limit RT broadcast in US – telecom watchdog
Russia Today newsroom during a live program in English. © Evgeny Biyatov / Sputnik
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Moscow has warned it will take relevant reciprocal measures should the US MSM attempt to limit RT’s broadcasting; emphasizing US media pressure on RT’s partners will not be tolerated, the head of Russia’s media watchdog, Roskomnadzor has said.

“The US mainstream [media] are trying to bring pressure on those, who cooperate with the Russian RT Channel,” Aleksandr Zharov, told Russian journalists, stressing that “it is cynical and immoral” practice.

Zharov’s angry reaction was provoked by a series of articles that appeared in the US media in late January.

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© Mikhail Voskresenskiy
RT UK’s bank accounts to remain open after NatWest backs down

He particularly singled out the Wall Street Journal which “throws sand in the wheels” of RT in the US, where the Russian channel already regularly faces “immense pressure.”

On January 25, the Wall Street Journal published a piece titled ‘RT Channel’s Unique Carriage Deals Make It Difficult to Drop in US’, in which it claimed US “federal law prevents many [operators] from ceasing to carry the channel, even if they want to,” implying this situation should be changed.

He also said The Atlantic came up with the idea of “suppressing the circulation of links to the news stories” provided by “state-sponsored outlets like RT.”

“If such pressure leads to the restriction of RT’s broadcasting in the US, we will have to take tit-for-tat measures,” Zharov told the RIA news agency.

The Atlantic went even further in its article, “Kremlin-Sponsored News Does Really Well on Google”, and suggested tech companies such as Google and Facebook should rank or even suppress the circulation of links to news stories provided by RT, as the Russian “state-sponsored outlet” allegedly belongs to a “category of often-misleading news sources that seems to have escaped the notice of tech companies.”

The US media also complained that “RT stories regularly appear toward the top of Google search results” while “Google searches for … political issues also turn up plenty of RT content.”

The US media also continue to claim that RT is something totally insignificant as they whip up hysteria about the Russian channel swallowing up significant chunks of the western news landscape.

The Atlantic particularly drew from a piece published by the Economist, in which the British-based media outlet claimed RT “routinely inflates the size of its TV audience.” This Economist article has already been exposed as inaccurate by RT.

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Facebook lifts RT page block after almost 24-hour blackout

The pressure the west exerts on RT is not limited to smear campaigns in the media, however. In October last year, NatWest, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS), gave notice it would close the broadcaster’s accounts by December following a 10-year relationship.

No explanation was provided. The letter said the decision was final and that it was “not prepared to enter into any discussion in relation to it.” The decision ignited a social media storm from outraged readers, viewers, members of the public and prominent public figures who questioned Britain’s “freedom of the press.”

The bank eventually scrapped its plan and agreed to continue the relationship with RT in January.

RT has also been denied access to the Twitter-based news-breaking service Dataminr – following another US media campaign – during which RT was accused of somehow passing on information from Twitter to Russian special services.

Facebook also briefly stripped RT of its right to share content such as as live streams, images and videos, apparently linked to what it claimed a ‘live-streaming rights violation’ following RT’s broadcast of Barack Obama’s final press conference as president.

Facebook restored RT’s ability to post content to its page some 20 hours later. The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman dubbed Facebook’s actions “unacceptable.” It might have been either a form of censorship or an “instrument of competitive struggle,” Maria Zakharova said at that time.

https://www.rt.com/news/375839-us-pressure-msm-rt/

Project Censored: News media cover-up of reason for war on Syria — a natural gas pipeline route

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Project Censored publishes a book annually of the top 25 unreported or under-reported news stories for the year. This year, the story of a major reason for the Syrian conflict was #8.

8. Syria’s War Spurred by Contest for Gas Delivery to Europe, Not Muslim Sectarianism

October 4, 2016

At least four years into the crisis in Syria, “most people have no idea how this war even got started,” Mnar Muhawesh reported for MintPress News in September 2015.

In 2011–12, after Syrian president Bashar al-Assad refused to cooperate with Turkey’s proposal to create a natural gas pipeline between Qatar and Turkey through Syria, Turkey and its allies became “the major architects of Syria’s ‘civil war.’” The proposed pipeline would have bypassed Russia to reach European markets currently dominated by Russian gas giant Gazprom. As a result, Muhawesh wrote, “The Middle East is being torn to shreds by manipulative plans to gain oil and gas access by pitting people against one another based on religion. The ensuing chaos provides ample cover to install a new regime that’s more amenable to opening up oil pipelines and ensuring favorable routes for the highest bidders.”

In 2012, the US, UK, France, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, along with Turkey, began to organize, arm, and finance rebels to form the Free Syrian Army, consistent with long-standing US plans to destabilize Syria. These nations formed a pact, “The Group of Friends of the Syrian People,” that implemented a sectarian divide and conquer strategy to overthrow President Assad. “It’s important to note the timing,” Muhawesh wrote. “This coalition and meddling in Syria came about immediately on the heels of discussions of an Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline that was to be built between 2014 and 2016 from Iran’s giant South Pars field through Iraq and Syria. With a possible extension to Lebanon, it would eventually reach Europe, the target export market.” As MintPress News reported, access to oil and gas—not sectarian differences—is the underlying cause of the violent conflict and humanitarian disaster in Syria. “The war is being sold to the public as a Sunni-Shiite conflict” by the Friends of Syria because, if the public understood the economic interests at stake, “most people would not support any covert funding and arming of rebels or direct intervention.”

Based on secret US cables revealed by WikiLeaks, Muhawesh reported that “foreign meddling in Syria began several years before the Syrian revolt erupted.” US State Department cables from 2006 documented plans to instigate civil strife that would lead to the overthrow of Assad’s government. The leaks revealed the United States partnering with nations including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt to fuel Sunni-Shiite sectarianism to divide Syria.

Although there is plenty of coverage in US corporate media about the violence in Syria and the refugee crisis that is sweeping Europe and reaching North America, this coverage has failed to address the economic interests, including control of potentially lucrative gas pipelines, that motivate the US and its allies.  (US corporate news coverage of the Ukraine crisis was comparable in that it too downplayed geopolitical oil interests as a source of tension among Russia, the US, and their respective allies, as Nafeez Ahmed has reported. See “US Media Hypocrisy in Covering Ukraine Crisis,”Censored story #9 from Censored 2015.) Instead, corporate news coverage has characterized the conflict in Syria as a battle for democracy that has been hijacked by Sunni-Shiite interests. For example, Oren Dorell of USA Today identified “a mind-boggling and dangerous stew of shifting and competing alliances” involved in the Syrian conflict—including groups categorized as progovernment, antigovernment, anti-Islamic State, and “other fighters”—but he did not address the gas interests that, according to Muhawesh’s reporting, ultimately underpin the conflict. Instead, much of what passes for news coverage in the corporate press adheres to a pattern that Muhawesh identified and critiqued as simplistic and “Orientalist,” framing conflict in the Middle East and especially Syria as sectarian in order “to paint the region and its people as barbaric.”

Mnar Muhawesh, “Refugee Crisis & Syria War Fueled by Competing Gas Pipelines,” MintPress News, September 9, 2015, http://www.mintpressnews.com/migrant-crisis-syria-war-fueled-by-competing-gas-pipelines/209294/.

Student Researcher: Salah Mouazen (Citrus College)

Faculty Evaluators: Andy Lee Roth and Lanette Granger (Citrus College)

8. Syria’s War Spurred by Contest for Gas Delivery to Europe, Not Muslim Sectarianism

To find out more information on this year’s stories and order the book: http://www.projectcensored.org

Russia prepares for war, plans to move thermonuclear ICBMs to border

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“The crazed American government drowning in its own hubris has set us on a course to nuclear war. Can America produce a leader who can reverse course?”
The real question is: Are ordinary Americans willing to be leaders in their own communities to reverse this national course? Are they willing to stand up and speak out? Are they willing to openly oppose this aggression against Syria and against Russia? 
Only that will change the present course. 
by Kurt Nimmo
Global Research, September 27, 2016
Another Day in the Empire 25 September 2016

Last week TASS reported Russia’s western-most ICBM division will be rearmed with the RS-24 Yars missile system. Yars is a MIRV-equipped, thermonuclear, intercontinental ballistic missile that can reportedly carry up to 10 independently targetable warheads. The ICBM RS-24 Yars constitutes the backbone of Russia’s strategic missile force.

“The westernmost strategic missile force division in the Tver region will soon begin to be rearmed with the missile system Yars. It will be a sixth strategic missile division where the newest mobile ground-based missile complexes will replace the intercontinental ballistic missile Topol,” Sergey Karakayev, the commander of Russia’s Strategic Missile Force told the news agency.

The Russians claim the deployment is in response to NATO installing a US anti-missile system in Eastern Europe in violation of previous Russian-US arms treaties. The United States has made the outrageous claim its missile system is designed to respond to threats from Iran.

“Now, after the deployment of those anti-missile system elements, we’ll be forced to think about neutralizing developing threats to Russia’s security,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in May.

Putin added that the US anti-missile systems currently in place in Romania and soon in Poland can be easily repurposed to fire short and mid-range missiles.

Russia announced it would modernize a launch detection system in response to the threat along its border. It has also discussed stationing its state-of-the art Iskander missiles at its westernmost Baltic outpost of Kaliningrad which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania. The Iskander travels at hypersonic speed and is capable of evading anti-ballistic missiles.

In addition to missiles and nuclear warheads, NATO and Russia have engaged in massive war games this year. NATO’s Anakonda 2016 exercise involved more than 30,000 troops, about half of them Americans, and thousands of combat vehicles from 24 nations. The huge exercise simulated battle maneuvers across Poland. A simultaneous naval exercise, BALTOPS 16, simulated “high-end maritime warfighting” in the Baltic Sea. Exercises were conducted in the waters near Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania. The maritime exercise represented a clear provocation.

“All of this—the aggressive exercises, the NATO buildup, the added US troop deployments—reflects a new and dangerous strategic outlook in Washington. Whereas previously the strategic focus had been on terrorism and counterinsurgency, it has now shifted to conventional warfare among the major powers,” Michael T. Klare wrote for The Nation in July.

“Washington might intend the military buildup as pressure on President Putin to reduce Russian opposition to Washington’s unilateralism. However, it reminds some outspoken Russians such as Vladimir Zhirinovsky of Hitler’s troops on Russia’s border in 1941,” notes Paul Craig Roberts.

“To make the crisis clear for my readers and for all peoples, Washington is surrounding Russia with nuclear missile sites that can be silently converted from ABMs to first strike nuclear missiles that can reach Russian targets in a mere few minutes. Washington attempted to disguise this first strike capability with the explanation that the missiles were there to protect against an Iranian ICBM attack on Europe. This explanation was given by the US government despite the fact that everyone knows that Iran has neither ICBMs nor nuclear weapons,” he writes on his website.

Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, is not optimistic about what such frenzied military activity portends.

He believes it is futile for Americans to plan for retirement.

“The crazed American government drowning in its own hubris has set us on a course to nuclear war. Can America produce a leader who can reverse course?”

Hillary Clinton will undoubtedly continue along this suicidal path. Donald Trump has said repeatedly he will not confront Russia. However, he has announced if elected the United States will expand its already massively inflated military budget.

The original source of this article is Another Day in the Empire
Copyright © Kurt Nimmo, Another Day in the Empire, 2016
http://www.globalresearch.ca/russia-prepares-for-war-plans-to-move-thermonuclear-icbms-to-border/5548056

France moves to make “conspiracy theories” illegal by government decree

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Posted on Global Research
Originally from 21st Century Wire, March 19, 2015

Political elites and super-bureaucrats are worried. It’s becoming harder to control consensus reality. 

A history stitched together by lies and cover-ups, political assassinations, slight-of-hand false flag deceptions, secret societies, dual loyalties and stolen fortunes – this has been the exclusive privilege of organized crime and the ruling elite for centuries.

Putting aside history’s ‘big ticket’ items though, the real reason for this authoritarian trend is much more fundamental. By knocking out their intellectual competition, political elites and their media moguls hope to minimalize, and thus eliminate any alternative analysis and opinion by applying the completely open-ended and arbitrary label of “extremist” to speech. They want to wind back the clock, where a pre-internet, monolithic corporate media cartel held a monopoly on ideas.

Although France has taken the lead in this inter-governmental effort (see below), the preliminary assault began this past fall with British Prime Minster David Cameron publicly announcing on two separate occasions, that all of these so-called ‘conspiracy theories’ (anything which challenges the official orthodoxy) should be deemed as “extremist” and equivalent to “terrorist” and should be purged from society on the grounds of ‘national security’. The first came with Cameron’s warped speech at the UN, and afterwards, a similar charge was made by the UK leader against anyone who dares press the issue of institutional paedophilia and child abuse.

Watch this UN speech by Cameron where he clearly claims that ‘conspiracy theorists’ are the ‘root cause’ and indeed, an equal threat to national security as ISIS terrorists currently running amok in Syria and Iraq (start 4:26)…

As yet, few are aware of how in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings, French Prime Minster, Francois Hollande delivered an official declaration (see full report and text from his speech below). However, Hollande takes it beyond the usual hyperbole and focuses on giving the state an administrative and legal foothold for policing both speech and thought crimes in France. If this can be accomplished in France, then a European roll-out would soon follow.

Ironically, in order to achieve this fascist leap forward, Hollande has equated “conspiracy theories” to Nazism, and is calling for government regulations to prevent any sharing or publishing of any views deemed as ‘dangerous thought’ by the state. Specifically, Hollande is citing “Anti-Semitism” and also anything which could inspire ‘acts terrorism’ – as the chief vehicles for what the state will be designating as ‘dangerous thoughts’. With the thumb of Hebdo still pressing down, this may just sound like politics writ large by the French leader, but in reality it’s full-blown fascism.

Worse yet, with all of the world leaders gathered togther in Paris in January supposedly marching solidarity for ‘free speech’ and proudly chanting “Je Suis Charlie” (image above), that Hollande would use this as political cover to restrict free speech in Europe should shock even.

RINF reports how the new censorship regime has already been implemented this week:

“Earlier this week, the Interior Minister of France — with no court review or adversarial process — ordered five websites to not only be blocked in France, but that anyone who visits any of the sites get redirected to a scary looking government website, saying:

While it could be argued that the four websites initially listed by the government for ‘blocking’ were exclusively for ISIS/ISIL-related activity and thus, should be kept hidden, the government has made no caveat in its reams of policy literature, other than some vague language as to what it defines as ‘extremist’, as to where this growing list will stop, or indeed, if it has any limits at all. Because this process is extrajudicial, then there will be no warning to gov’t targets of this new regime. In fact, as RINF reports, this has already happened:

“In that first batch was a site called “islamic-news.info.” The owner of that site not only notes that he was never first contacted to “remove” whatever material was deemed terrorist supporting (as required by the law), but that nothing in what he had posted was supporting terrorism.”

Will French gov’t censors also block this website – because it is challenging the government’s new public filtering program? Are we entering a new intolerant, Chinese-style policing culture in Europe, and throughout the west? Certainly they have the ability and the legal clearance to do just that right now.

Fear of losing control over manipulative narratives has always been a primary obsession with those in power, and clearly, based on what we’ve seen here – governments are making an aggressive move on free speech now. Skeptics will no doubt argue that this 21WIRE article itself constitutes a conspiracy theory. If that was the case, then why have western governments, particularly those in the US and Britain, already spent millions, if not billions in state funds in order to infiltrate, disrupt, and occupy forum websites, and social networking groups of so-called ‘conspiracy theorist and even creating entirely new groups just to contradict them? Does that not already prove what the government modus operandi is?

As if that wasn’t enough already, now France wants to take it to a whole new authoritarian level. It may sound ridiculous, but this is exactly what is taking place in government as we speak.

History shows that once this new regime is in place, they will not relinquish any new powers of censorship, and so a long, intellectual dark age is certain to follow…

http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/03/19/france-moves-to-make-conspiracy-theories-illegal-by-government-decree/

http://www.globalresearch.ca/france-moves-to-make-conspiracy-theories-illegal-by-government-decree/5438970

On-duty Ukraine air traffic controller refuted Kiev-U.S. claims about MH17 (parte en español )

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From Strategic Culture Foundation Journal, August 28, 2014:
Looking Who Is Talking! MH17 and the US Role in Downing Passenger Airplanes
By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya

[CHRONOLOGY OF TWITTER COMMENTS BY AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER CARLOS ON JULY 17, 2014 ARE BELOW — ORIGINAL SPANISH COMMENTS AND ENGLISH TRANSLATION]

Approximately four months after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) disappeared in March 2014, while en route from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur to the Chinese capital of Beijing, another incident took place with a Malaysian passenger plane. This time Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), en route from the Dutch capital of Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down on July 17, 2014 over the contested airspace of the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic. The incident took place over Torez near the Russian-Ukrainian border while the authorities in Kiev were busy militarily assaulting the separatist armed forces of Novorossiya, that is the soldiers of the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic and Donetsk’s sister-breakaway republic in East Ukraine, the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic.

Blaming Russia and the Donetsk People’s Republic for the MH17 Crash

The downing of MH17 in East Ukraine was quickly blamed on the Donetsk People’s Republic. One way or another, the Russian Federation was also blamed by the puppet authorities in Kiev and its supporters in the US and the European Union. Salivating with another opportunity to demonize Russia and justify its existence, NATO also pointed the finger in the same direction towards Moscow. As part of the continuous anti-Russian hysteria, NATO governments and media networks lined up to blame Russia for the downing of the Malaysian passenger plane over Donetsk.

Starting in late-February 2014 with the EuroMaidan coup, for the last six months or half a year, all types of accusations have been made and directed towards Russia and its federal government in Moscow. Blaming the Kremlin for the attack on MH17 was just a continuation of the Russophobic trend that Washington and its European Union allies had unleashed with the simmering crisis in Ukraine.

Valentyn Oleksandrovych Nalyvaichenko, the post-EuroMaidan head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU/SBU) and an Orangist that left Viktor Yushchenko to join Vitali Klitschko in 2012, claimed that the attack MH17 was a Russian-linked false flag that went wrong. Interfax Information Service Group’s branch in Ukraine reported on August 9, 2014 that the SSU/SBU chief claimed that the Donetsk People’s Republic was planning on bombing a Russian airliner from Aeroflot that was suppose to fly south to the Mediterranean Sea from Moscow to the Greek Cypriot city of Larnaca. The SSU/SBU released an official statement on August 7, 2014 claiming that the plan was to give the Russian Federation a pretext for invading and occupying Ukraine.

The US government and its high-ranking officials joined their puppets in Kiev in trying to ultimately lay the blame on Russia for the downing of MH17. US officials made numerous public statements that were designed to pin the blame on the Russian Federation for the MH17’s crash. The US government launched an international information campaign in this regard that utilized its diplomatic missions, the internet, social media, and the mainstream media networks.

When Washington was challenged for proof about Russian involvement and the source of the attack on MH17, in the tradition of US Secretary of State Colin Powel’s weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq presentation at the United Nations the US government presented doctored evidence which was debunked immediately. The US government released doctored satellite images that from an examination of location of physical objects and atmospheric conditions were clearly taken days after MH17 was shot down. After embarrassingly being exposed for presenting false evidence to support its claims, Washington refused to provide anymore of its so-called evidence under the justification of not revealing data sources. In reality, there Washington was lying again and had no evidence to support the ridiculous claims that Moscow had masterminded the downing of MH17. Not long after this, US officials admitted that they had no tangible evidence against Russia. Then they and their NATO allies began to look like they were losing interest in even investigation the MH17 crash in Donetsk.

The Facts Come into View: What were Kiev’s Fighter Jets Doing?

The narrative of the US and the puppet authorities in Kiev was feeble and horribly put together from the start. Not only was there an absence of evidence that the Donetsk People’s Republic or Russia were behind the attack on Mh17, which killed all two hundred and eighty-three passengers and fifteen crew members on board (a total of two hundred and ninety-eight people), but the evidence indicated the US-supported puppet Ukrainian authorities in Kiev as the culprits responsible for the downing of the Malaysian passenger jet.

Within moments before the MH17 crash, a Spaniard employee working as an air traffic controller at Ukraine’s largest airport, Borispol (Boryspil) International Airport (not to be confused with Kiev International Airport in Zhulyany, southwest Kiev), using his Twitter account (Carlos @spainbuca), refuted the claims of the Ukrainian puppet authorities in Kiev and their backers in Washington. Carlos would write at 11:48 am on July 17, 2014 that MH17 was «escorted by 2 fighters of Ukraine until minutes before disappearing from the radar» screen at the air traffic control tower. What Carlos meant by fighters was Ukrainian fighter jets. Carlos also wrote, at 1:29 pm, that the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, which is heavily politicized and under the control of the ultra-nationalist forces behind the EuroMaidan coup, knew what the Ukrainian fighter jets were doing next to MH17 whereas the Ukrainian military knew very little and, at 1:36 pm, that the Ukrainian military confirmed that Kiev had downed the Malaysian passenger jet (please see the annex for what was exactly written). It would only be at 3:17 pm that the air traffic control tower would be told officially that a missile had shot MH17 down over Donetsk. Carlos wrote at 4:06 pm that Ukrainian military air control officials had said that it the missile was one of their own. Because of his revelations, eventually the Spaniard’s Tweeter account would be blocked and deleted.

Contradicting the rhetorical claims of Washington and its puppets in Kiev, the federal government of Russia provided valid data that could be analyzed with a high level of confidence. Among the data that Moscow produced, was information that a Ukrainian Sukhoi SU-25 fighter jet had intercepted MH17. The puppet authorities in Ukraine declined to explain why a Ukrainian military jet had been sent to intercept MH17. While calling for an international investigation to be conducted by an impartial team from the United Nations, Moscow also called for the puppet authorities in Kiev to publicly release the communication records that took place between MH17 and Ukrainian air traffic control.

Even the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has been negatively biased towards Russia during the entire crisis in Ukraine, contradicts the allegations of the US government. Michael Bociurkiw, a Canadian citizen of Ukrainian descent, investigating the crash as an OSCE monitor contradicted the claims made by the US-supported puppet authorities in Kiev. The OSCE monitor reported that no missile was used against MH17 from the OSCE’s initial studies. Not only was no missile used, Bociurkiw mentions that it looks like MH17 looked like it was downed by bullets. In Michael Bociurkiw’s own words, he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) the following on July 29, 2014: «There have been two or three pieces of fuselage that have been really pockmarked with what almost looks like machine-gun fire, very very strong machine-gun fire».

As soon as photographs of the crash became available, it was noticed by many people that it looked like the Malaysian jet has been fired on (in addition to any possible missile penetration). Specifically, the MH17’s cockpit looks like it was fired at from both sides with both entry and exit bullet holes. This means that the MH17 was either shot at from two different angels or that the ammunition that was fired on it ricocheted outwards. Taken that the ammunition of the Ukrainian Sukhoi SU-25 is cannon ammunition is armor-piercing and made to destroy heavy armored military vehicles, this makes a lot of sense.

OSCE monitor Michael Bociurkiw has been criticized for using non-technical language, specifically referring to thirty millimeter caliber cannon ammunition as «machine-gun fire» while talking about the MH17 attack. The point, however, should not be lost. It looks like a Ukrainian Sukhoi SU-25 fighter jet had fired on the MH17 (in addition to any possible missile penetration of the Malaysian passenger plane). All the evidence about the downing of MH17 points in the direction of the authorities in Kiev.

Hiding the Facts via Information Censorship

The voice of Carlos, contradicting the US and its allies, would be just one of many. The Information Telegraph Agency of Russia (ITAR-TASS) also confirmed his story on July 18, 2014. ITAR-TASS reported as follows: «This information is confirmed by eyewitnesses in the Donetsk region who saw Ukrainian warplanes near the passenger jet. They say they heard sounds of powerful blasts and saw a Ukraine warplane shortly before the crash.» Even the Russian-language service of the state-owned British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News would corroborate the account put forward by Carlos and eyewitnesses in East Ukraine. The BBC’s Olga Ivshina (Ivshyna) interviewed four residence of the area near the crash, which all said that they saw warplanes next to MH17. One eyewitness told Ivshina that the military jet «was flying under it, we could see it. It was going underneath the civilian one».

The BBC would censor Olga Ivshina’s report, because it contradicted the separatist missile attack narrative and it fit perfectly with what the Spanish air traffic controller and the Russian government claimed. After being caught red handed, the BBC responded to deleting its own report and put back a modified version of it on July 25, 2014. Yan Leder, the managing editor for BBC News’s Russian service explained that there was no «self-censorship» and that the report was removed as it contained «mistakes» and was not in «compliance of the editorial values of BBC».

The BBC’s censorship was only the tip of the iceberg. Facebook and Twitter began to block posts linked to articles about MH17 and the claims made by Carlos. Posts involving what happened to MH17 over East Ukraine were becoming unavailable or failing to open on social media. Enough people noticed and complained about this that warnings and explanations were offered about why the posts about MH17 were being blocking.

Tacitly, Matthew Peckham provides the dubious rationale of social media for restricting posts in a Time article titled «Facebook and Twitter Users: Don’t Fall for MH17 ‘Actual Footage’ Scams» on July 22, 2014. Peckham reports the following: «If you run across Facebook pages touting pictures of Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash victims, or tweets linking to reports on the disaster, warning: they may be fakes, harbor malware or redirect you to pornographic websites.» Then his article tacitly explains that such links have been removed from Facebook. In other words, the rationale being presented is that posts covering the MH17 crash can be censored or blocked to protect readers from scammers, malware, and software viruses.

Despite the reasoning behind any possible blocking of articles and posts about MH17, the rationale given does not explain why Carlos was censored or why Tweeter deleted his account (Carlos @spainbuca). The Spaniard would also do an interview with RT en Español (RT Spanish) or RT Actualidad from Madrid on May 8, 2014. Hiding his identity because of death threats he had received in Ukraine, the Spanish air traffic controller would explain that he and his family were deported from Ukraine to Spain by the puppet authorities in Kiev.

The US is the One that Downs Passenger Planes, Not Russia

The US government is the one that attacks and downs civilian passenger planes, either directly with its own military forces or through state-sponsored terrorism. When US Secretary of State John Kerry was pointing the finger at Russia, no one asked him about Cuban (Cubana de Aviación) Flight 455 (CU455) and Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655). While flying from Barbados to Jamaica, CU455 was brought down on October 6, 1976 by a CIA-linked double C-4 bomb attack. IR655, on the other hand, was shot down by a US warship over Iranian territory, while flying on its regular route from Tehran to Dubai in the UAE, on July 3, 1988.

The bombing of the CU455 was carried out by the US-supported and CIA-trained Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU). CORU also worked out of US territory and all its actions were coordinated with the US government. Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada Carriles, and Michael Vernon Townley, the key figures involved are known to have been financed by the CIA and to have worked with it and other US agencies in a terrorist campaign against Cuba aimed at securing regime change in Havana. Townley as a professional assassin for the US helped kill Latin American figures opposing US influence in their countries.

Although the US claims that it was not involved, it has been behind a terrorist campaign that has been attacking Cuban infrastructure after the Cuban Revolution in 1959. The Cubans reacted by reporting the US to the United Nations in 1960 and by providing the United Nations Security Council with detailed records of multiple US-sponsored terrorist attacks, which included the names of registered pilots, plane identification numbers, data on the flight routes coming from the US, and physical evidence. Washington, however, continued to deny that it was involved in the terrorist attacks on the Cubans. Not only did the US continue to lie, but it launched the invasion of the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

The terrorist bombing of CU455 would be a national tragedy for all Cuban society. After winning gold medals for their Cuba at the 1976 Central American and Caribbean Championships, all twenty-four members of the entire Cuban national junior fencing team would be killed in CU455. Most of the Cuban fencers were teenagers. The other passengers were Cuban fishing and sports officials and Guyanese medical students going to Cuba to study medicine.

IR655 was shot down directly by the USS Vincennes in a clear act of aggression against a passenger airliner. The attack on IR655 took place in Iranian territory as the airplane was flying through Iranian airspace towards Dubai. All two hundred and ninety passengers and sixteen crew members were killed.

In both cases the US government lied or provided excuses about what happened. Washington’s actions, however, spell its position and intentions out clearly. Despite the US government’s shameless claims not to have supported the bombing of CU455, the US gave asylum and sanctuary to the figures behind the murder of all seventy-eight passengers onboard the Cuban passenger plane. In regards to IR655, the crew of the USS Vincennes was awarded for their ship’s actions and received combat-action ribbons for the tour of the Vincennes in the Persian Gulf. Captain (N) William C. Rogers III was awarded the Legion of Merit for his service as the commanding naval officer of the Vincennes from 1987 to 1989 whereas Lieutenant -Commander Scott Lustig, the warships’ air-warfare coordinator, received the Navy Commendation Medal for «quickly and precisely complete the firing procedure.»

Lie after lie, the modus operandi of the US government is the same. How much credence can people give to John Kerry and the US government when they claimed that the Syrian government was behind the chemical attack on Ghouta in late-2013, but the facts proved that it was the US-supported insurgents that were behind the chemical attack?

Minutes before reporting about the Ukrainian military’s involvement, at 11:13 am on July 17, 2014, Carlos wrote on Twitter that he was wondering why foreign personnel entered his air traffic control tower with Kiev authorities to gather information. The Spaniard later reported at 12:00 pm, interestingly minutes after the military authorities in Kiev had notified his air traffic control tower that MH17 was downed over Donetsk, that the air traffic control tower was filled with foreign personnel. Who were these foreign personal? Most probably they were from NATO countries and, more specifically, from the US. There is no question that the US had a role in the downing of MH17; at the very minimum Washington has knowingly and criminally worked to distort the picture of what happened to MH17. It is also important to note that Carlos described divisions among the Ukrainian soldiers in Kiev through what appeared to be upset and disgusted faces by those soldiers who reported that Kiev was responsible for the downing of MH17 whereas the Ukrainian military personnel and authorities accompanied by foreigners were busy lying and trying to spin the attack on MH17. The downing of MH17 is not the crime of Ukraine, but an act committed by US and EU proxies, embezzlers, and fanatics.

One way or another, the US government and the European Union do not have clean hands. The US accuses others of committing the actions that it itself commits. It is not Russia that bombs civilian passenger airplanes, but the United States. History is a witness to this.

ANNEX CHRONOLOGY OF TWITTER COMMENTS BY CARLOS ON JULY 17, 2014

Source: @spainbuca

• The Tweets (Twitter comments) are in original Spanish followed by translations.

• The time is presumed to be Eastern European Time (EET)

• The time is given in both 24-hour and 12-hour clock formats

10:21/10:21 AM

Autoridades de kiev, intentan hacer que pueda parecer un ataque de los pro-rusos

Kiev Authorities, trying to make seem like an attack by pro-Russians

10:24/10:24 AM

Ojo! Que puede ser un derribo B777 Malaysia Airlines en ukraine, 280 pasajeros

Pay attention! It can be a downing of Malaysia Airlines B777 in Ukraine, 280 passengers

10:25/10:25 AM

Cuidado! Kiev tiene lo que buscaba

Careful! Kiev has what it sought

10:25/10:25 AM

Vuelven a tomar la torre de control en Kiev

They have returned to take the control tower in Kiev

10:27/10:27 AM

El avión B777 de Malaysia Airlines desapareció del radar, no hubo comunicación de ninguna anomalia, confirmado

The Malaysia Airlines B777 airplane disappeared from the radar, there was no communication of any anomaly, confirmed

10:30/10:30 AM

Avión derribado, derribados, derribado no accidente

«Airplane shot down, shot down, shot down, no accident»

10:31/10:31 AM

Kiev, tiene lo que buscaba, lo dije en los primeros tw, kiev es responsable @ActualidadRT

Kiev has what it wanted, I said in the first tw [Tweet], Kiev is responsible @ ActualidadRT

10:35/10:35 AM

Un accidente muy normal no es, no están amenazando en la misma torre del aeropuerto de kiev,

An accident that is not quite normal, they are threatening us in the same tower of Kiev airport»

10:35/10:35 AM

Nos van a quitar, nuestros tlf y demás de un momento a otro

We will take from our tel. [telephones] and others stuff at any moment

10:38/10:35 AM

Antes de que me quiten el tlf o me rompan la cabeza, derribado por Kiev

Before they remove my phone or they break my head, shot down by Kiev

11:12/11:12 AM

Nosotros tenemos la confirmación. Avión derribado, la autoridad de kiev, ya tiene la información, derribado, estamos tranquilos ahora

We have confirmation. Airplane downed, Kiev authorities already got the information, downed, we are calm now

11:13/11:13 AM

Que hace personal extranjero con autoridades de kiev en la torre? Recopilando toda la información

What are doing foreigner personnel doing with Kiev authorities in the tower? Gathering all the information

11:15/11:15 AM

Cuando sea posible sigo escribiendo

When possible I keep writing

11:48/11:48 AM

El avión B 777 voló escoltado por 2 cazas de ukraine hasta minutos antes, de desaparecer de los radares,

The B777 airplane flew escorted by 2 fighter [jets] of Ukraine until minutes before disappearing from the radar, [sic.]

11:54/11:54 AM

Sí las autoridades de kiev, quieren decir la verdad, esta recogido 2 cazas volaron muy cerca minutos antes , no lo derribo un caza

If Kiev authorities, want to tell the truth, it is recorded that 2 jet fighters flew very close minutes before, was not downed by a fighter

12:00/12:00 PM

Nada más desaparecer el avión B 777 de Malaysia Airlines la autoridad military de kiev nos informo del derribo, como lo sabían?

Just as the Malaysia Airlines B777 airplane disappeared the Kiev military authority informed us of the downing, how did they know?

12:00/12:00 PM

A los 7:00 minutos se notificó el derribo, más tarde se tomó la torre nuestra con personal extranjero q siguen aquí

7:00 minutes after crash was reported, our tower was overtaken with foreigner staff, they are still here

12:01/12:01 PM

En los radares esta todo recogido, para los incrédulos, derribado por kiev, aquí lo sabemos y control aéreo militar también

All this is gathered in radars, for unbelievers, shot down by kiev [sic.], here we know it and military air traffic control also [knows]

13:15/1:15 PM

Aquí los mandos militares manejan y admiten que militares a otras órdenes, pudieron ser, pero no, los pro-rusos

Here the military commanders administer and suppose it could be the military following other orders, but could be the pro-Russians

13:29/1:29 PM

El ministro del interior si conocía que, hacían los cazas en la zona, el ministro de defensa no,

Interior minister knew what the fighters were doing in the area, the defence minister did not.

13:31/1:31 PM

Militares confirman que fue ukraine, pero se sigue sin saber de donde vino la orden

Military confirms that it was Ukraine, but still does not know where the order came from

13:36/1:36 PM

Hace dias lo dije aquí, militares de kiev querían alzarse contra el actual presidente, esto puede ser una forma, a las órdenes de timoshenko

Days ago I said here, kiev [sic. ]military wanted to rise against the current president [Petro Poroshenko], this may be a way [to oust him], ordered by [Yulia] Tymoshenko

13:38/1:38 PM

Los cazas volaron cerca del 777, hasta 3 minutos antes de desaparecer de los radares, solo 3 minutos

The fighters flew close to 777, up to 3 minutes before disappearing from the radar, just 3 minutes

13:43/1:43 PM

Se cierra el espacio aéreo

Airspace closed

13:45/1:45 PM

Se cierra el espacio aéreo, por miedo a más derribos

Airspace is closed, more downings feared

15:17/3:17 PM

Control militar entrega ahora mismo de forma oficial que el avión fue derribado por misil

Military control now officially [say] the plane was shot down by missile

15:23/ 3:23 PM

El informe oficial firmado por las autoridades militares de control de kiev ya lo tiene el gobierno,,,, , derribado

«Government has the official report signed by the military control authorities in kiev [sic.],,, , [sic.] [the airplane was] blown»

15:26/3:26 PM

En el informe se indica de donde abría salido el misil, y se especifica que no proviene de las autodefensa en las zonas rebeldes

The report indicates where the missile had originated, and specified it is not self-defence from the rebel areas

15:34/3:35 PM

Los radares militares si recogieron los datos del misil lanzado al avión, los radares civiles no

Military radar collected data from missile fired to the plane, civilian radars did not

15:36/ 3:36 PM

Los altos mandos militares no ordenaron el lanzamiento del misil, alguien se le fue la mano en nombre de ukraine

The military high command did not give the order to fire the missile, someone did it in the name of ukraine [sic.]

15:38/3:38 PM

Para el que no lo sepa, digamos así, hay militares a las órdenes del ministro de defensa y militares a las órdenes del ministro del interior

For those who do not know, let us say, there are soldiers under the orders of the defence minister and soldiers under the orders of the minister of interior

15:38/ 3:38 PM

Los militares a las órdenes del ministro del interior conocían en cada momento lo que sucedió

The soldiers under the orders of minister of interior knew what happened the whole time

16:06/4:06 PM

Mandos militares aquí (ATC) torre de control, confirman que el misil es del ejercito de ukraine,

Military commanders here (ATC) control tower, confirm that the missile is from the army of [sic.] ukraine,

16:07/4:07 PM

Mandos militares que si lo sabían y otros mandos que no,

«[There are] military commanders that knew it and others that did not,

16:08/4:08 PM

290 personas inocentes muertas. Por una guerra inútil, donde el patriotismo se compra con dinero

290 innocent people dead. What a useless war, where patriotism is bought with money

16:09/4:09 PM

La forma de tomar la torre de control minutos después sabiendo todo los detalles, rápido nos hizo pensar que habían sido ellos

The way the control tower was taken minutes after and knowing all the details, quickly made us think that they [did it]

16:10/4:10 PM

La cara de los militares que llegaron más tarde diciendo pero que habéis echo, no dejo dudas

«The faces of the soldiers who came later saying [what you just did], no chance for doubts»

16:12/4:12 PM

Es tal la decadencia que los militares acompañados de extranjeros que llegaron primero nos llegaron a pedir que dijéramos su versión

Such is the decadence that the soldiers who came first accompanied by foreigners came to us asking us to tell their version [of the MH17’s downing]

16:13/4:16 PM

Nuestra respuesta, fue, estos radares no recogen el lanzamiento de misiles, los militares si, ya no quedaban dudas

Our response was, these radars do not collect the launching of missiles, the military ones does, there were no doubts

—————————————————————-

Mahdi Darius NAZEMROAYA

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is a social scientist, award-winning writer, columnist, and researcher. His works have been carried internationally in a broad series of publications and have been translated into more than twenty languages including German, Arabic, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Polish, Armenian, Persian, Dutch and Romanian. His work in geopolitical sciences and strategic studies has been used by various academic and defense establishments in their papers and defense colleges for military officers. He is also a frequent guest on international news networks as a geopolitical analyst and expert on the Middle East.

Source:
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/08/28/looking-who-talking-mh17-and-us-role-downing-passenger-airplanes.html

Reposted at
http://www.globalresearch.ca/looking-who-is-talking-mh17-and-the-us-role-in-downing-passenger-airplanes/5398153