Michael Collins

A Ukrainian resistance member provided a chilling prediction of the recent shoot down of Malaysian Air MH17. A YouTube video posted on June 18, 2014 by Anti-Maidan tells the story. Resistance militia soldier Elena from Slavyansk describes the attacks on her city of 100,000 plus by the Ukraine army and the death and suffering those attacks caused. Then, she warns of a frightening tactic used by the Ukraine air force. Here's the text from Militia Soldier - Elena, from Slavyansk English Subs, Published on June 18, 2014, Anti-Maidan

Terrible things are happening. For example, an incident that happened recently. A passenger plane was flying by. A Ukrainian attack jet aircraft hid behind it.

Then he lowered his altitude a bit and dropped bombs on [the] residential sector of Semenovka town. Then he regained altitude and hit behind the passenger plane. Then he left.

They wanted to provoke the militia to shoot down the passenger plane. There would have been a global catastrophe. Civilians would have died. Then they would say terrorists here did it. There are no terrorists here. There are regular civilians here that came to the defense of their city.

Elena is not part of the propaganda war. She's not making arguments for this or that interpretation of the MH17 tragedy. She is simply describing a reckless air combat tactic used by Ukraine's military a month before the airliner was shot from the sky.

This video raises a very interesting question. Were commercial flights routed over Ukraine to provide Ukraine's air force with cover in order to attack military and civilian targets?

Russian Defense Minister's Questions for Team Obama-Kerry

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov issued a series of questions yesterday that need to be answered soon in order for the Obama administration to maintain even the slightest degree of credibility to objective observers. Here's some background that will allow a full appreciation of the statement.

On July 22, the Russian Defense Ministry held a 30 minute briefing on the intelligence they gathered on the MH17 shoot down. Two findings were prominent. The Russians presented radar evidence of a Ukrainian jet fighter near the approaching Malaysian plane just before the plan exploded and fell to the ground. The Obama administration offered no rebuttal to that evidence presented. Ukraine's government had previously denied the presence of any fighters near MH17 on the day of the crash. The second finding concerned the presence of Buk-M1 SAM systems in Ukraine controlled territory.

On July 20, a U.S. government insider told investigative reporter Robert Parry that satellite images indicated the fatal missile strike on MH17 came from a launch site manned by the Ukraine military. Just two days later, July 22, Parry noted the LA Times analysis from a Defense Department briefing: "U.S. officials said it was possible the SA-11 [anti-aircraft missile] was launched by a defector from the Ukrainian military who was trained to use similar missile systems." Parry concluded his analysis by stating: " … the U.S. intelligence community seems unwilling to accept: that the missile may have been launched by someone working for the Ukrainian military."

Parry left it to the reader to draw an obvious conclusion. The emergence of the "defector" theory about Ukraine military uniforms provides an implicit acceptance of the accuracy of Parry's July 20 the story on U.S satellite images. You don't need a "defector" theory unless you want to explain away Ukraine military at the launch site of the deadly missile attack.

It's a curious theory, this insertion of a defector. Did he defect just before the attack and refrain from changing uniforms in his haste to assume control of the missile defense site? Now, that's an amazing coincidence. How many defectors perform military functions their old uniforms?

Russian Deputy Defense Minister - General Anatoly Antonov - in English, RT July 24, 2014

So, we hear that US imagery confirm that the missile was fired in the area controlled by self-defense forces [Ukraine resistance/separatists]. This begs the question, where is the data and why hasn't it been made public? Is it because it is still being cooked?

Why are there no comments on the data presented by the Russian Defense Ministry at its briefing?

The United States officials rule out the possibility that the plane was shot down by the Ukrainian military because they say that the plane was outside the range of their missiles. This begs the question.

Are the US experts ready to assume responsibility for their claims?

Do they know where all the … launchers are deployed in Ukraine?

What do they have to say about the monitoring data presented by Russia?

Do they ignore it simply because there is nothing for them to say?

Let me ask you a question. What if the United States territory was shelled from a neighboring country and, God forbid, a US citizen was killed. What would the United States do? I think the answer is obvious. Yet Russia is behaving in a reserved and responsible manner. It is therefore self-evident who is trying to provoke whom at the border.

Why don't you take note of the constant rocket shelling of Donetsk and Lugansk instead which claims civilian lives?

Please answer these questions because we have many more coming up.

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(Thanks to The Saker blog for pointers to these tapes)