WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior U.S. intelligence officials say they have no evidence of direct Russian government involvement in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
They say the passenger jet was likely felled by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile fired by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and that Russia “created the conditions” for the downing by arming the separatists.
The officials briefed reporters Tuesday under ground rules that their names not be used in discussing intelligence related to last week’s air disaster, which killed 298 people.
They said they didn’t know if any Russians were present at the missile launch, and they wouldn’t say that the missile crew was trained in Russia.
A senior official said the most likely explanation was the plane was shot down by mistake.
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No link? So, the Russian rebels built this S-A missile system all by themselves?
Just the U.S. has blood on it’s hands every time a Palestinian dies, the Russians were soaked with the downing of that plane.
“Senior U.S. intelligence officials: Russia ‘created the conditions’ for the downing [of MH 17].”
I guess by “created the conditions” they mean Russian special ops tracked the target; established the radar lock; interpreted the velocity and altitude telemetry; encoded the targeting information; precisely calculated the onboard fuse timer; and radioed the Russian word for “Fire!” to the drunken, illiterate SAMbillies in the Bukmobile.
But, other than that, there’s no evidence of direct Russian involvement.
I think Donald Rumsfeld used to call these “known unknowns” or “unknown knowns”, I can’t remember. Don’t quote me or you’re lying.
“didn’t know if any Russians were present” except for the radio intercept between the warlord and the ground crew, which is like saying drone pilots in Sierra Vista, have no responsibility for crashing weddings in Waziriistan.
You are soaking in it