Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 Crashes in Ukraine

bjorn said:
[quote author=Angelburst29]I really didn't take note of her name, although the way she just picked up and left, without any kind of notification and someone on the committee located her in NYC working for Hillary
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I believe you are speaking about Wassila Hachchi. She was a politician and indeed suddenly left to campaign for Hillary Clinton in the US. All I know about her is that she claimed 250 thousands euro's and counting of 'wachtgeld' Which means you can get very rich in a short time by doing absolutly nothing. All you need to do is stop working as a politician and don't ever find a job again. She has a job in the US, but didn't report it. So she is still claiming money.
[/quote]

I'm totally flabbergasted and absolutely delighted - Thank-You Bjour!!! YES - that's it! As soon as I saw the name - it clicked. I have been searching, high and low - to the point my eye balls are cherry red.

Perfect example on how "networking" works and has it's benefits!

As fate would have it, Hillary is campaigning in Pennsylvania and making the rounds in my area, along with Cruz and Sanders on Monday.


Here's a good photo of Wassila Hachchi:

Dutch MP resigns to campaign for Hillary Clinton
http://www.nltimes.nl/2016/01/21/dutch-mp-resigns-to-campaign-for-hillary-clinton/

D66 parliamentarian Wassila Hachchi resigned from the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament, and is heading to the United States to campaign for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, her political party announced on Wednesday.

Hachchi was a parliamentarian for five years. She spoke represented the D66 on Defense and the Dutch interests in the Caribbean. “Her tough interrogations during the parliamentary committee inquiries into housing corporations are also notable,” said D66 leader Alexander Pechtold. “I wish her all the best for the future.

Newly-elected lower house leader Khadija Arib thanked Hachchi for her services as parliamentarian, pointing out her efforts in several political committees. “I wish her every success in America with a job that, whatever the outcome may be, affects the whole world,” Arib said.

Hachci was not present in the Tweede Kamer when she was thanked for her service. She is the third D66 parliamentarian to leave before her term is up. In May last year parliamentarian Gerard Schouw left the faction, followed by Magda Berndsen in November.

She will be succeeded in parliament by Salima Belhaj, currently the leader of the D66 in the Rotterdam city council.


Wassila Hachchi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassila_Hachchi

Wassila Hachchi was born on 6 January 1980 in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. She is of Moroccan descent and grew up in Breda.

Hachchi has a degree in business administration from the Erasmus University Rotterdam and was educated at the Royal Netherlands Naval College. She was commissioned in the Royal Netherlands Navy as a logistical officer from 2003 to 2007.

[...] On 17 June 2010, Hachchi was sworn in as a Liberal-Democrat member of the Dutch Parliament.[1]

On 20 January 2016 Hachchi claimed to have left the House of Representatives to join the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016,[4] which has been denied by the campaign. Her sudden leave from the House and lack of communication caused some commotion.[5] She was succeeded in the House by Salima Belhaj.[6]

[5] http://nos.nl/artikel/2082756-gebeten-hachchi-betreurt-commotie-over-vertrek.html


D66 MP who went to work for Hilary Clinton is ‘handing out leaflets’
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/02/85386-2/

The D66 MP who made a surprise decision last month to stand down, saying she was going to work for Hilary Clinton, is actually one of hundreds of volunteers handing out leaflets, the Telegraaf says on Thursday.

Wassila Hachchi said at the time: ‘The decision to leave Dutch politics was due to a personal, positive choice to contribute to Clinton’s campaign and learn from international politics.’

However, the decision to quit also led to a lot of angry questions about her right to claim the special unemployment benefit for MPs, which is currently €6,800 a month.

Politicians are entitled to unemployment benefits of 80% of their salary for the first year, followed by 70% for 26 months, The benefit can also be paid if MPs quit, rather than lose their jobs.

One source told the Telegraaf Hachchi was among the thousands of people leafleting in support of Clinton in New Hampshire. The work is voluntary but there is an accommodation allowance, the paper says.

The paper says its efforts to contact Hachchi have failed and that no one from D66 has heard from her either.


Thanks again Bjorn, very much appreciated.
 
An article suggesting a "documentary" is to be aired Tuesday May 3rd?

The documentary, Conspiracy Files: Who Shot Down MH17? Will be aired on BBC Two on May 3 at 9pm

Did a Ukrainian fighter jet shoot down MH17? BBC documentary claims Boeing 777 may have been targeted by another plane
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3556177/Was-MH17-shot-Ukrainian-fighter-jet-BBC-documentary-claims-Boeing-777-targeted-plane.html

* Official report said Boeing 777 was downed by Russian-made Buk missile
* Evidence suggests witnesses saw the plane being shot down by fighter jet
* Other new theory says attack was part of CIA-backed 'terrorist operation'

New evidence suggests that the downing of the Malaysian Airlines plane MH17 was caused by a shot from a Ukrainian fighter jet rather than a ground-to-air missile.

The damning allegations will be revealed in a BBC documentary which puts forward a number of theories as to why the aircraft exploded.

It is even argued that the tragedy was caused by a CIA-backed 'terrorist operation.'

The fresh allegations come as three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and six injured in an upsurge of fighting between pro-Russian rebels and government forces in the country's separatist east, today.

The Boeing 777 exploded over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014 and killed 298 people, as it headed towards Kuala Lumpur.

Although the official report states that the plane was hit by a Russian-made Buk missile fired from an area of the Ukraine that was under the control of Russian-backed rebels, the programme notes that people saw the aircraft being shot down by a fighter jet.

Speaking in the documentary, Natasha Beronina, said: 'It was summer, harvest time. We heard a bang.

'At first we thought we saw black smoke and two planes, little ones like silver toys. One flew straight on and the other one turned round when the bang happened and flew back from where it had come.'

Another witness even said that they saw a jet launch a missile before hearing a big boom.

The Sunday Express noted that German investigative journalist, Billy Six, interviewed 100 witnesses for the programme, seven of which said they saw a fighter jet.

They believed that two jets were present and that one fired an air-to-air missile, while the other fired a canon from the back into MH17's cockpit.

However, this was something that was profusely denied by pilot, Captain Vladislav Voloshin, who was accused of being responsible.

In the interview, Voloshin said that there were no flights on that day and there were also no air-to-air missiles, as they were carrying air-to-surface missiles for ground targets.

Another extraordinary theory mentioned in the programme is that the aircraft was detonated in a CIA-backed 'terrorist operation', where two bombs were planted on the airliner

This allegation was put forward by private investigator, Sergey Sokolov, who claimed that the CIA were helped by the Ukrainian secret service and Dutch security service, to place the bombs on the plane in Holland.

He said: 'This terrorist act was a pretext for firstly intensifying sanctions on Russia, secondly to show the world that Russia is a barbarian country and thirdly to strengthen the presence of Nato in Europe, particularly Ukraine.'

Speaking after the death of three Ukrainian soldiers today, Military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said: 'As a result of hostilities, three Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and another six wounded over the past 24 hours'.'

According to Motuzyanyk, the situation along the frontline 'had escalated again', accusing separatists of ramping up attacks against the Kiev military and using heavy weapons.

He said: 'The invaders are actively using mortars and armoured vehicles along the entire frontline,

The new casualties came after three Ukrainian soldiers were killed by pro-Russian rebels in a mortar attack earlier this week, in the deadliest attack in nearly two months, the Kiev military said.

A series of truce agreements have helped reduce the violence, although sporadic clashes continue and prevent the sides from reaching a firm political reconciliation deal.

Around 9,200 people have died and more than 21,000 been injured since the revolt against Ukraine's pro-Western leadership erupted in eastern Ukraine in April 2014.

Kiev and the West accuse Russia of supporting the insurgents and sending regular troops across the border, claims that Moscow denies.

Earlier this week, Ukraine's defence minister Stepan Poltorak warned it may take years to end a war that plunged Moscow's relations with the West to a post-Cold War low.

The documentary, Conspiracy Files: Who Shot Down MH17? Will be aired on BBC Two on May 3 at 9pm.
 
Yeah, I wonder what's going on when the BBC is letting the cat out of the bag with this documentary. Well, let's see first if it will be aired at all. Perhaps this has to do with 'Brexit', is this a way for the UK to warn the US not to meddle too much with their decision making?
 
Thanks again angelburst29.
A similar story can be found here: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/663787/Ukrainian-fighter-jet-shot-Russian-crash-MH17-BBC-documentary

According to a statement made by Dutch blogger Joost Niemöller (see also the Dutch original) the maker of the documentary --Mike Rudin-- cannot be trusted as his program does feature in a series called The Conspiracy Files which sets the context askew right from the beginning. According to Niemöller this also happened with another previous documentary program of his about the 9/11 attacks.

Bellingcat's Eliot Higgins already has announced an immediate follow-up with their new report, right after the airing of the MH17 docu.

EDITED to add: here's another critical tweet from Malinka with quotes caught from BBC Russian service.
 
[quote author= Aragorn]Yeah, I wonder what's going on when the BBC is letting the cat out of the bag with this documentary. Well, let's see first if it will be aired at all. Perhaps this has to do with 'Brexit', is this a way for the UK to warn the US not to meddle too much with their decision making?
[/quote]

I hope so and if true it follows a line up of controversial truths used as blackmail in an attempt to keep each other in check. First SA role in 9/11. Now the role of the US with MH17. Let them keep jumping at each other throats. The Empire is showing it’s cracks.


[quote author= Palinurus]Bellingcat's Eliot Higgins already has announced an immediate follow-up with their new report, right after the airing of the MH17 docu.[/quote]

If the truth ever prevails. People like this will be hanged sky high. The truth is his greatest enemy. Of course he has to follow it up with more lies. He can only breathe so long if the lies remain steady. Like it is for many on this planet.
 
The Globalresearch website is featuring two articles on the up coming May 3rd movie and related information that might be of interest.

Malaysian Airlines MH17 Brought Down by Ukrainian Military Aircraft. The BBC Refutes its Own Lies?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/malaysian-airlines-mh17-brought-down-ukrainian-military-aircraft-the-bbc-refutes-its-own-lies/5521968
Article by Prof Michel Chossudovsky


Revelations of German Pilot: Shocking Analysis of the “Shooting Down” of Malaysian MH17. “Aircraft Was Not Hit by a Missile”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/german-pilot-speaks-out-shocking-analysis-of-the-shooting-down-of-malaysian-mh17/5394111

By Peter Haisenko

Global Research Editor’s Note

This article first published on July 30, 2014 contradicts the substance of the recently released Dutch Safety Board Report. We are bringing it to the attention of our readers in view of the soon to be released BBC TV documentary, which suggests that the MH17 was shot down by a Ukrainian jet fighter. (GR Ed. M.Ch.)

Zur deutschen Version bitte hier anklicken
 
The documentary that was mentioned earlier in this thread is apparently scheduled for airing this evening on BBV Two. They've pushed the viewing time apparently as late as possible, to minimize the damage. See here:

_http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/programmes/schedules/england

The documentary has already been uploaded on YouTube, you can view it here (perhaps it will disappear soon?):

Link: https://youtu.be/INy_PVR-IHA

Embedded:
 
Thanks Aragorn for providing the necessary link.

Meanwhile, Bellingcat has published its new report:

<snip>
Bellingcat, an investigative journalism collective that specialises in using open-source information to report on conflicts around the world, said in a report released on Tuesday that the weapon used came from the 53rd Anti Aircraft Missile Brigade, based in the southwestern Russian city of Kursk.

The Bellingcat investigation released on Tuesday evening focused on a Buk missile launcher that was seen and filmed moving towards that possible launch site in the hours before MH17 was shot down.

“By trawling through soldiers’ social media posts going back six years we were able identify three Buks belonging to the 53rd with numbers corresponding to 3x2. Several key features on the 53rd's launcher No. 332 match with the missile launcher filmed in east Ukraine on the day MH17 was shot down," said Eliot Higgins, the Leicester based founder of Bellingcat.

In an earlier report Bellingcat linked that vehicle, dubbed by investigators 3x2 because of the missing middle digit in the service number painted on its chassis, to one that appeared in photographs posted by Russian soldiers who drove a convoy from Kursk to the Ukrainian border in June 2014.
<snip>
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Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/03/russian-army-supplied-mh17-missile-report-claims/

Other sources with similar coverage: Talk Media News, the Mirror, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express.

Russian reactions all negative:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/new-mh17-report-unlikely-to-be-true--kremlin/567879.html
http://tass.ru/en/politics/873769 [Kremlin dismisses investigative journalists’ report on causes of MH17 crash in Donbass]
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160504/1039044994/kremlin-bellingcat-mh17.html [Kremlin Questions Bellingcat's Report on MH17 Crash in East Ukraine]
 
I watched the documentary but was disappointed by it. It's presented as balanced view, but imo still has suggestive tone that Russia is to blame, especially towards the end of documentary. It does present the idea that the motive to shoot down MH17 was to implement sanctions against Russia and strengthen NATO presence in Europe. Yet it's missing essential information when it shows evidence for both sides, and they're emphasizing a lot of Bellingcat group's "social media" evidence, which are used to debunk for example information presented by Russian department of defence and others. At last minutes of documentary MH17 victim's mother says how she doesn't believe the Russian propaganda and anything they say. People usually remember the ending better than the beginning, and i'm afraid this document will at best only strengthen the middle ground fallacy, and at worst will feed the 'Russians did it' narrative.
 
Thanks, Seppo for taking the time to watch the whole thing, and for your analysis. So, it turns out that this was the usual truth mixed with lies to muddy the waters further. What a pity. No need to share it or promote it then, I guess.
 
I had a chance to review the documentary and the only thing it left me with - was frustration. It's contents were carefully crafted to sound objective, yet if you're aware of certain aspects of information - that was left out, it's very much one sided - to make the Ukrainian Military elite look innocent.

Earlier, Voyageur entered a link in "the Civil War in Ukraine" thread which I wonder - might touch bases with what "is really behind this documentary" for it basically takes in the same timeline (mid-April 2014 up to present) in which Bellingcat surfaces again? The current Ukrainian Government has been in a process of sanitizing "their History", denouncing any wrong doing and blaming Russia for their problems. And I wonder, if this documentary might be an extension of their efforts, to cover their bases and come out squeaky clean?

http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,37292.msg648487.html#msg648487

Quote from Voyageur:

This is kind of an important article on the new Ukrainian official historical revisionism written by Josh Cohen in FP http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/02/the-historian-whitewashing-ukraines-past-volodymyr-viatrovych/

The Historian Whitewashing Ukraine’s Past

Volodymyr Viatrovych is erasing the country’s racist and bloody history — stripping pogroms and ethnic cleansing from the official archives.

When it comes to politics and history, an accurate memory can be a dangerous thing.

In Ukraine, as the country struggles with its identity, that’s doubly true. While Ukrainian political parties try to push the country toward Europe or Russia, a young, rising Ukrainian historian named Volodymyr Viatrovych has placed himself at the center of that fight. Advocating a nationalist, revisionist history that glorifies the country’s move to independence — and purges bloody and opportunistic chapters — Viatrovych has attempted to redraft the country’s modern history to whitewash Ukrainian nationalist groups’ involvement in the Holocaust and mass ethnic cleansing of Poles during World War II. And right now, he’s winning.

In May 2015, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a law that mandated the transfer of the country’s complete set of archives, from the “Soviet organs of repression,” such as the KGB and its decedent, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), to a government organization called the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory. {"Institute of National Memory" sounds like a pretty dark memory hole} Run by the young scholar — and charged with “implementation of state policy in the field of restoration and preservation of national memory of the Ukrainian people” — the institute received millions of documents, including information on political dissidents, propaganda campaigns against religion, the activities of Ukrainian nationalist organizations, KGB espionage and counter-espionage activities, and criminal cases connected to the Stalinist purges. Under the archives law, one of four “memory laws” written by Viatrovych, the institute’s anodyne-sounding mandate is merely a cover to present a biased and one-sided view of modern Ukrainian history — and one that could shape the country’s path forward. (Etc.)
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And this:

Propaganda against Russia for war crimes in Donbas by a team of Polish and Ukrainian volunteers, perpetuated by a propaganda outlet called the euromaidanpress website. Note the names - Boris Nemtsov and Bellingcat as propaganda tools against Russia in the last paragraph.

Evidence on perpetrators of war crimes in Russia’s war in Donbas to be submitted to The Hague
http://euromaidanpress.com/2015/12/24/new-report-russias-war-crimes-and-perpetrators-in-ukraine-2014/#arvlbdata

24 Dec, 2015 - A new 156-page investigative report identifies for the first time perpetrators of war crimes in Russia’s war in East Ukraine. The extensive evidence presented will be submitted to the International Criminal Court in The Hague which has jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The report entitled Russian War Crimes in Eastern Ukraine in 2014 is based on numerous victim and witness interviews conducted by a team of Polish and Ukrainian volunteers. It was commissioned by Polish Parliamentarian Małgorzata Gosiewska of Poland’s Law and Justice Party. The report adds to the mounting evidence of the horrific conditions of war that Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have had to endure as a result of Russia’s invasion into Ukraine after the abdication of the presidency by Victor Yanukovych in the days following the nation’s Euromaidan Revolution in February 2014.

The report concludes, as have previous investigative reports – Boris Nemtsov’s Putin.War, the Atlantic Council’s Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin’s War in Ukraine, Bellingcat’s Russia’s Path(s) to War, and the Interpreter’s An Invasion By Any Other Name: The Kremlin’s Dirty War in Ukraine – that the war in Ukraine deserves to be called a bona fide war, based on the nature of the armed conflict and on the fact that the parties are two sovereign states, Russia and Ukraine. The incontrovertible evidence of Russia’s involvement as revealed through these victims’ testimonies leads the investigators to dismiss early attempts in Russian media and elsewhere to label the conflict a “civil war.”
Click to expand...
 
Seppo Ilmarinen said:
I watched the documentary but was disappointed by it. It's presented as balanced view, but imo still has suggestive tone that Russia is to blame, especially towards the end of documentary. It does present the idea that the motive to shoot down MH17 was to implement sanctions against Russia and strengthen NATO presence in Europe. Yet it's missing essential information when it shows evidence for both sides, and they're emphasizing a lot of Bellingcat group's "social media" evidence, which are used to debunk for example information presented by Russian department of defence and others. At last minutes of documentary MH17 victim's mother says how she doesn't believe the Russian propaganda and anything they say. People usually remember the ending better than the beginning, and i'm afraid this document will at best only strengthen the middle ground fallacy, and at worst will feed the 'Russians did it' narrative.
Click to expand...

I'm not surprised. The BBC has a history of making such "balanced" documentaries on conspiracies and other fringe topics that end up being disguised reinforcements of the official narratives. They did it with 9-11 and others, so that's what I was expecting in this case.
 
This Pravda report - kind of strips - the Bellingcat group .... bare? Journalistic Disinformation at it's finest.

Bellingcat vs. Buk-M1
http://www.pravdareport.com/world/europe/05-05-2016/134342-bellingcat-0/

Original article here:
http://www.politonline.ru/interpretation/22886096.html

The British "journalistic expert group" Bellingcat has allegedly identified the number of the Buk missile system that had supposedly shot down the Boeing 777 of Malaysia Airlines over the Donbass in July 2014.

Bellingcat experts previously stated that a self-propelled Buk-M1 system was traveling on the militia-controlled territory in the east of Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

In response, the authorities of the People's Republic of Donetsk said that they did not agree with the conclusions of Bellingcat experts about the presence of Russian anti-aircraft gunners in the Donbass region, including at the time of the crash of the Malaysian Boeing. Deputy Minister of Defense of the unrecognized republic, Eduard Basurin, stated that "there were no Russian soldiers, including those from the 53rd air defense brigade. "If we had had them either then or now, the line of contact would have been much further," the official said.

Earlier, the media have exposed blogger Eliot Higgins, who "published the conclusions about Flight MH17 crash before the completion of the official investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy.

Higgins is also famous for his analysis of weapons used in the Syrian conflict. It turned out, however, that the author of the notorious materials had neither military experience nor higher education. Higgins admitted that his knowledge of weapons was based on action films with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.

For the Bellingcat project, Higgins used YouTube and Google Planet mapping service. On the basis of his analysis, the blogger claimed that Russia had falsified satellite photos to shift the blame for the crash of the Boeing on the Ukrainian army. Western media cast doubts on the credibility of the Bellingcat report about the crash of the Malaysian Boeing as well. In June last year, German publication Spiegel interviewed an expert in the analysis of forensic photography, Jens Kriese. The interview was made after Bellingcat experts claimed that the Russian Ministry of Defense was supposedly manipulating the photos of the downed aircraft.

According to Kriese, Bellingcat's method of investigation does not hold water in terms of expertise. "Basically, it relies on the so-called ELA-analysis. This is an unscientific and subjective technique. Accordingly, there is no scientific article dedicated to this method," said the expert.

Chief editor of Spiegel Online, Florian Harms, had to bring official apologies to readers for giving misleading anti-Russian headlines on the basis of Bellingcat's reports. On May 3rd, the BBC presented another documentary about the crash of Boeing-777 of Malaysian Airlines over the Donbass. Among other things, the documentary says that the Boeing could be shot down by a Ukrainian fighter jet. German journalist Billy Six interviewed about a hundred people. Seven of them claimed to have seen a Ukrainian fighter that may have shot down the Malaysian plane.

The documentary also includes the official version, including the "research" conducted by the Bellingcat group.

It appears to be Higgins's objective to prove the implication of Donbass militia into the crash of the passenger aircraft. Obviously, the Bellingcat report, albeit far-fetched, looks exactly as the West wants it to be.

Noteworthy, in late July 2014, about a week after the tragedy, the Russian service of the BBC aired a report by correspondent Olga Ivshyna about the Boeing 777 disaster in Ukraine.

In the report, the journalist said that a BBC crew talked to local residents, asking them about what they saw or heard on the day of the plane crash. Some of the eyewitnesses said that they had seen a military aircraft that could down the passenger airliner.

However, a few hours later the report was removed from the website under the pretext of violating "corporate standards." After a wave of indignation, the heavily edited version of the report appeared on the website again.

Interestingly, ex-CIA officer Ray McGovern stand that Bellingcat is sponsored by the Atlantic Council and other Western sources, in particular the United States Agency for International Development.

Below is a telling list of investigative reports that the Bellingcat group made in the past.

The list is quite indicative:

-The Avalanche that Went from Russia to Ukraine

- Russian Official Account of Attack on Ukraine Border Guards- Who's Lying? An In-depth Analysis of the Luhansk Buk Video

- Confirmed: Active Russian Spetsnaz Serviceman Photographed in LuhanskRamadi Haze

- Three Graves: Russian Investigation Team Uncovers Spetsnaz Brigade in Ukraine

- Islamic State Captures Tadmur (Palmyra) in New Sudden Streak of Offensives

As you can see, Bellingcat is a specifically oriented group that "unmasks" only opponents of the West.
 
Well, the propaganda is going up another notch - as soon as I logged onto Yahoo, this article was on top of the list of news items.

Russian Military Involved In Shooting Down Flight MH17, Researchers Say
http://www.npr.org/2016/05/07/477168263/russian-military-involved-in-shooting-down-flight-mh17-researchers-say

Russian officials are trying to discredit a new report that implicates the Russian military in the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines flight 17. Nearly two years ago, that attack in the skies over eastern Ukraine killed 298 people.

The latest report comes from a U.K.-based organization called Bellingcat, which bills itself as a group of citizen investigative journalists. Much of their work is done by volunteers, who sift through open source information on the web, using social media and satellite imagery. The group was launched with a crowd-funding campaign, and says it now receives a grant from Google.

Bellingcat has focused on a number of big stories such as the war in Syria and the terror attacks in Paris. The team has been interested in the MH17 case ever since the plane was shot down in July 2014.

Early on, the group found photographs of an anti-aircraft missile launcher that were taken in eastern Ukraine on the day the plane was shot down. Eliot Higgins, one of the founders of Bellingcat, says his group linked the missile launcher, called a Buk, to the Russian 53rd air defense brigade. That unit is stationed in the Russian city of Kursk, not far from the Ukrainian border.

"We discovered quite quickly that the soldiers there were using a lot of social media, posting photographs of each other, posting photographs of the base," Higgins says.

The photographs included pictures of their equipment, such as their Buk missile launchers. The launcher that was believed to have shot down the Malaysian airliner had an identification number that was partly worn away, but the researchers were able to pick out other unique characteristics. They included a dent in the side of the launcher and even the pattern formed by soot around the exhaust pipe.

"We looked at all these details and we were able to establish the number of the missile launcher, which was 332," Higgins says.

In other words, Bellingcat is saying that MH17 was shot down by a specific Russian missile launcher that was documented to be in eastern Ukraine at the time.

Spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, dismissed the Bellingcat report. She says it was the work of amateurs who ignored the information put forward by Russian experts and professionals.

Zakharova says the motives behind it are sinister. "We consider this whole campaign to be an attempt by certain destructive forces to demonize Russia by creating an image in the mass consciousness that's very far from reality."

Eliot Higgins says much of the information provided by the Russian experts has been refuted. He says there's a simple reason why Russia has been so adamant in rejecting any suggestion its troops were involved in the shoot-down.

Russia has continually denied it ever sent any troops or equipment across the border into Ukraine, Higgins says, because "to admit that they were responsible for MH17 is not only admitting to the murder of 298 people, but also admitting that they were lying for months and months to their own country people."

The Safety Board in the Netherlands, where the flight originated, recently completed its investigation, saying the plane was most likely shot down by a Buk missile, originating from territory controlled by the Russian-backed separatists.

Dutch police are now conducting a criminal investigation into the attack, which may finally determine who fired the missile.
 
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