Plenty of time for both sides to fabricate and enhance any 'evidence' that suits their geopolitical and military objectives.
Quite true. So let's go back to July 17, 2014 when I posted on the original thread that I thought the rebels had done it with a BUK launcher that had been seen in the rebel-controlled area earlier that day. I also noted that the rebels had claimed they'd shot down a plane, before removing these claims from the social media accounts -- but after they had been read and disseminated.
Since then, we have learned a bit more of a timeline. All this is verifiable if you wish to do so.
Roughly
précised.
Fact. Three days before MH17 is shot down, rebels claim they have shot down an AN26 Ukrainian transport plane flying at 6,500 meters over rebel-held territory. The claim is true. No-one really picks up on the fact that MANPADS can't do this. Russian (note this,
Russian media) report the rebels have got a BUK system which was used in the destruction of the AN26.
Fact. On the morning of July 17 an Associated Press reporter sees a BUK missile system moving through the town of Snezhnoye, close to where it is later claimed the missile was fired from. Note I say claimed, even though tracks and scorch marks were found in the field. These could have been made after the event, but why would the rebels do that?
Fact. Minutes after MH17 disappears from radar screens, rebel social media sites claim another Ukrainian transport plane has been downed. (Separatist leader Colonel) 'Strelkov’s Dispatches' is one site, Antikvariat.ru is another. "Report from the militia. In the area of Snezhnoye an AN-26 was just shot down, it has fallen somewhere beyond the Progress coal mine." (Google translate from rather ropey screenshot.)
Fact. As it becomes apparent the plane is a civilian airliner, the posts are removed.
Fact. Within five hours of the plane being downed Kiev releases what it says is a phone intercept between Igor Bezler, a rebel commander of the Russian-backed fighters, and Vasily Geranin, who is described as a colonel in the Russian Federation’s GRU (military intelligence). In that conversation, the two men confirm that “a plane has just been shot down”.
Fact - Shortly afterwards the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) release another intercept in which another separatist leader, Mykola Kozitsin, reportedly has a conversation with one of his fighters after it is apparent the plane is a civilian one. “What the **** were they flying in here for? There’s a war on,” Kozitsin says.
I'm not saying the above two paragraphs are actually true, but that was pretty quick work by Kiev if they made the recordings up.
All the above were known
on the day!!
This following clip was released a year later, so perhaps belongs in the realm of conspiracy. But if this video clip is made up it is pretty impressive and has fooled the folk at News Corp.
MH17 video: Rebels thought shot down plane was a Ukraine fighter jet
Add to this, Russia's embarrassing attempts to lay the blame elsewhere
Russia Photoshopped satellite images to blame Ukraine for shooting down MH17 and outrageous use of it's UN veto
Russia vetoes bid to set up tribunal for downed flight MH17 rather give the game away.
I stand by my post which was made, I repeat,
on the day of the tragedy.