Citizens Electoral Council of Australia

Media Release Tuesday, 8 March 2016

Craig Isherwood‚ National Secretary
PO Box 376‚ COBURG‚ VIC 3058
Phone: 1800 636 432
Email: cec@cecaust.com.au
Website: http://cec.cecaust.com.au

Dutch MH17 investigator shoots down anti-Russian propaganda

In a report entitled MH17—Potential Suspects and Witnesses from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, the so-called “citizen investigative journalists” at British propaganda organ Bellingcat claim to have identified the Russian servicemen “probably”—the word that passes for evidence involving anything to do with Russia—involved in downing Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over the Donbass region of Ukraine on 17 July 2014. Bellingcat was the source of 60 Minutes’ report last year that claimed to “prove” Russia did it. Inevitably, establishment media—beginning with London’s Guardian and Independent on 24 February—are treating the latest report as Gospel. But a bombshell letter to victims’ relatives from Fred Westerbeke, Chief Public Prosecutor of the Netherlands, has destroyed Bellingcat’s credibility at one stroke—and potentially the Western political establishment’s whole 18 month “blame Russia” campaign along with it. Australians are not being told this information by our news media, the same media who cheered Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop’s attempts to turn the MH17 disaster into WWIII.

Westerbeke is the coordinator of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which comprises officials from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine and is conducting the official criminal investigation into the disaster. His letter was initially sent only to victims’ families; it then appeared in the Dutch press on 19 February—the week before the Bellingcat report, and seemingly intended to pre-empt it—and an English version is also in circulation. Westerbeke wrote:

“On 26 December 2015 Bellingcat has submitted a draft report to the JIT … gathered using social media and other public Internet sources, include [sic] information about members of a Russian military unit with, according to Bellingcat, a possible BUK-missile system in Ukraine. … Insofar as Bellingcat has offered new sources, they are examined and assessed for suitability for the criminal investigation. No evidence of direct involvement of individual members of this unit at the shooting of the MH17 follows from the report of Bellingcat.” (Emphasis added.)

Moreover, Westerbeke said that all evidence is still under evaluation—it is not yet proven that a Buk was even involved. There are, he wrote, “no video or film footage available from launch or trajectory of the missile” (meaning that those circulated as such are either unreliable, or demonstrably fake); nor have the recovered “missile fragments” yet been verified:

“From 22 November to 10 December 2015 there has been a forensic expert meeting in the Netherlands …. [Tests were] carried out on a number of specific parts … which might possibly have been the weapon used. Research is also conducted on material found in the wreckage parts of the aircraft that possibly come from the missile that shot down the aircraft. Further technical research into the specific features of these parts, including paint and metal composition, is still taking place.”

White House lied about satellite pictures

Westerbeke’s letter destroys the Obama Administration’s version of events, which The Australian dramatically and unquestioningly reported on 13 August 2014:

“Shocked US officials watched as they received real-time satellite images showing a Russia-supplied BUK missile being fired at Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine. US Secretary of State John Kerry revealed yesterday the Americans then saw the airline vanish from sight. … ‘This type of weapon, all the evidence of it was seen on our imagery … We saw the take-off. We saw the trajectory, we saw the hit. We saw this aeroplane disappear from the radar screens. So there is really no mystery about where it came from and where these weapons have come from.’”

Westerbeke’s information proves this was a lie! He told Dutch daily NRC on 19 December 2015, “Satellite images showing how on 17 July flight MH17 over Ukraine was shot out of the sky by a rocket do not exist. There has been a misunderstanding about this … There is no conclusive evidence from intelligence services with the answer to all the questions.” (Emphasis added.) He elaborates in his letter: “To date the JIT has no satellite images of the launch of the missile. Because of clouds usable images are not available from the firing location at the time of day when the MH17 was shot down.” He also indicates that the US government is withholding what incriminating evidence it does claim to have: “Raw primary radar data could potentially provide information on a rocket trajectory”, he writes, but “JIT does not have this data … The US authorities have data generated by their own security forces, which could potentially provide information on a rocket trajectory”, but under a smokescreen of protecting “state secrets”, they have thus far refused to share it with Dutch civil authorities.

By contrast, Russia handed its own radar, satellite and communications data to crash investigators from the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) in August 2014. The DSB ignored it, and Westerbeke seems to indicate that its format renders it unsuitable for his team’s purposes; but, he notes, his office is “discussing [it] with the Russian authorities” nonetheless. Oleg Storchevoy, deputy head of Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, has publicly offered to send all data again if need be. Ukraine has supplied no radar data, claiming that none exists—in a war zone where its own military aircraft were operating regularly, with international flights passing overhead, the Kiev regime says that both its civilian and military radar systems happened to be switched off that day.

Demand answers

Members of Parliament in the Netherlands—the home of most MH17 victims and their families—responded to Westerbeke’s revelations with demands for the truth from all governments involved, including their own. Reportedly, the Australian government responded by dissociating itself from the letter’s contents, while a media barrage promoting Bellingcat’s already discredited propaganda report passed without comment.

That Australia enthusiastically joined, and sometimes led, the Anglo-American’s calculated slandering of Russia over the MH17 tragedy, without any evidence, is disgrace enough. That our government effectively dismisses the head of the JIT as either lying or incompetent as soon as he contradicts that agenda betrays the Australian government’s motives as not being achieving truth and justice for the Australian victims, but jumping in with the neo-con warmongers that former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser called our “dangerous allies” who transparently seized on this tragedy to push their insane agenda for world war.

Contact Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s office to demand her response to the JIT letter, and whether she intends to retract her false statements about the MH17 disaster.
Canberra: Ph: (02) 6277 7500 Fax: (02) 6273 4112
Perth: Ph: (08) 9388 0288 Fax: (08) 9388 0299
Email: Julie.Bishop.MP@aph.gov.au

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