What Happened to the Malaysian Airliner?Paul Craig Roberts One fact is that the separatists do not have the expensive Buk anti-aircraft missile system or the trained personnel to operate it. Another fact is that the separatists have no incentive to shoot down an airliner and neither does Russia. Anyone can tell the difference between low-flying attack aircraft and an airliner at 33,000 feet. The Ukrainians do have Buk anti-aircraft missile systems, and a Buk battery was operational in the region and deployed at a site from which it could have fired a missile at the airliner. Just as the separatists and the Russian government have no incentive to shoot down an airliner, neither does the Ukrainian government nor, one would think, even the crazed extreme Ukrainian nationalists who have formed militias to take the fight against the separatists that the Ukrainian army is not keen to undertakeunless there was a plan to frame Russia. One Russian general familiar with the weapon system offered his opinion that it was a mistake made by the Ukrainian military untrained in the weapons use. The general said that although Ukraine has a few of the weapons, Ukrainians have had no training in their use in the 23 years since Ukraine separated from Russia. The general thinks it was an accident due to incompetence. This explanation makes a certain amount of sense and far more sense than Washingtons propaganda. The problem with the generals explanation is that it does not explain why the Buk anti-aircraft missile system was deployed near or in a separatist territory. The separatists have no aircraft. It seems odd for Ukraine to have an expensive missile system in an area in which it is of no military use and where the position could be overrun and captured by separatists. One way to begin is to ask: Why was the missile system where it was? Why risk an expensive missile system by deploying it in a conflict environment in which it is of no use? Incompetence is one answer, and another is that the missile system did have an intended use. What intended use? News reports and circumstantial evidence provide two answers. One is that the ultra-nationalist extremists intended to bring down Putins presidential airliner and confused the Malaysian airliner with the Russian airliner. The Interfax news agency citing anonymous sources, apparently air traffic controllers, reported that the Malaysian airliner and Putins airliner were traveling almost the identical route within a few minutes of one another. Interfax quotes its source: I can say that Putins plane and the Malaysian Boeing intersected at the same point and the same echelon. That was close to Warsaw on 330-m echelon at the height of 10,100 meters. The presidential jet was there at 16:21 Moscow time and the Malaysian aircraft at 15:44 Moscow time. The contours of the aircrafts are similar, linear dimensions are also very similar, as for the coloring, at a quite remote distance they are almost identical. I have not seen an official Russian denial, but according to news reports, the Russian government in response to the Interfax news report said that Putins presidential plane no longer flies the Ukraine route since the outbreak of hostilities. Before we take the denial at face value, we need to be aware that the implication that Ukraine attempted to assassinate the president of Russia implies war, which Russia wants to avoid. It also implies Washingtons complicity as it is highly unlikely that Washingtons puppet in Kiev would risk such a dangerous act without Washingtons backing. The Russian government, being intelligent and rational, would obviously deny reports of an attempted assassination of the Russian president by Washington and its Kiev puppet. Otherwise, Russia has to do something about it, and that means war. The second explanation is that the extremists who operate outside the official Ukrainian military, hatched a plot to down an airliner in order to cast the blame on Russia. If such a plot occurred, it likely originated with the CIA or some operative arm of Washington and was intended to force the EU to cease resisting Washingtons sanctions against Russia and to break off Europes valuable economic relationships with Russia. Washington is frustrated that its sanctions are unilateral, unsupported by its NATO puppets or any other countries in the world except possibly the lap-dog British PM. There is considerable circumstantial evidence in support of this second explanation. There is the YouTube video which purports to be a conversation between a Russian general and separatists who are discussing having mistakenly brought down a civilian airliner. According to reports, expert examination of the code in the video reveal that it was made the day before the airliner was hit. Another problem with the video is that whereas we could say that separatists conceivably could confuse an airliner at 33,000 feet with a military attack plane, the Russian military would not. The only conclusion is that by involving the Russian military, the video doubly discredited itself. In my previous article I reported on the BBC news report which I heard and which was obviously primed to place all blame on Russia. The program ended with a BBC correspondent breathlessly reporting that he has just seen the YouTube video and that the video is the smoking gun that proved Russia did it. There is no longer any doubt, he said. Somehow the information got on a video and on YouTube before it reached the Ukrainian government or Washington. The evidence that Putin did it is a video made prior to the attack on the airliner. The entire BBC report aired over National Public Radio was orchestrated for the sole purpose of establishing prior to any evidence that Russia was responsible. Indeed the entire Western media spoke as one: Russia did it. And the presstitutes are still speaking the same way. Possibly, this uniform opinion merely reflects the Pavlovian training of the Western media to automatically line up with Washington. No media source wants to be subject to criticism for being unamerican or to find itself isolated by majority opinion, which carries the day, and earn black marks for being wrong. As a former journalist for, and contributor to, Americas most important news publications, I know how this works. On the other hand, if we discount the Pavlovian conditioning, the only conclusion is that the entire news cycle pertaining to the downing of the Malaysian airliner is orchestrated in order to lay the blame on Putin. Romesh Ratnesar, deputy editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, provides convincing evidence for orchestration in his own remarks of July 17. Ratnesars opinion title is: The Malaysia Airlines Shootdown Spells Disaster for Putin. Ratnesar does not mean that Putin is being framed-up. He means that prior to Putin having the Malaysian airliner shot down, to the vast majority of Americans, Russias meddling in Ukraine has largely seemed of peripheral importance to U.S. interests. That calculus has changed. . . . It may take months, even years, but Putins recklessness is bound to catch up to him. When it does, the downing of MH 17 may be seen as the beginning of his undoing. As a former Wall Street Journal editor, anyone who handed me a piece of shit like Ratnesar published would have been fired. Look at the insinuations when there is no evidence to support them. Look at the lie that Washingtons coup is Russias meddling in Ukraine. What we are witnessing is the total corruption of Western journalism by Washingtons imperial agenda. Journalists have to get on board with the lies or get run over. Look around for still honest journalists. Who are they? Glenn Greenwald, who is under constant attack by his fellow journalists, all of whom are whores. Who else can you think of? Julian Assange, locked away in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London on Washingtons orders. The British puppet government wont permit free transit to Assange to take up his asylum in Ecuador. The last country that did this was the Soviet Union, which required its Hungarian puppet to keep Cardinal Mindszenty interred in the US Embassy in Budapest for 15 years from 1956 until 1971. Mindszenty was granted political asylum by the United States, but Hungary, on Soviet orders, would not honor his asylum, just as Washingtons British puppet, on Washingtons orders, will not honor Assanges asylum. If we are honest and have the strength to face reality, we will realize that the Soviet Union did not collapse. It simply moved, along with Mao and Pol Pot, to Washington and London. The flaw in Putins diplomacy is that Putins diplomacy relies on good will and on truth prevailing. However, the West has no good will, and Washington is not interested in truth prevailing but in Washington prevailing. What Putin confronts is not reasonable partners, but a propaganda ministry aimed at him. I understand Putins strategy, which contrasts Russian reasonableness with Washingtons threats, but it is a risky bet. Europe has long been a part of Washington, and there are no Europeans in power who have the vision needed to separate Europe from Washington. Moreover, European leaders are paid large sums of money to serve Washington. One year out of office and Tony Blair was worth $50 million dollars. After the disasters that Europeans have experienced, it is unlikely that European leaders think of anything other than a comfortable existence for themselves. That existence is best obtained by serving Washington. As the successful extortion of Greece by banks proves, European people are powerless. Here is the official statement of the Russian Defense Ministry: Washingtons propaganda assault against Russia is a double tragedy, because it has diverted attention from Israels latest atrocity against the Palestinians locked up in the Gaza Ghetto. Israel claims that its air attack and invasion of Gaza is merely Israels attempt to find and close the alleged tunnels through which Palestinian terrorists pour into Israel inflicting carnage. Of course there are no tunnels and no terrorist carnage in Israel. One might think that at least one journalist somewhere in the American media would ask why bombing hospitals and civilian housing closes underground tunnels into Israel. But that is too much to ask of the whores that comprise the US media. Expect even less from the US Congress. Both the House and Senate have passed resolutions supporting Israels slaughter of Palestinians. Two Republicansthe despicable Lindsey Graham and the disappointing Rand Pauland two democratsBob Menendez and Ben Cardinsponsored the Senate resolution backing Israels premeditated murder of Palestinian women and children. The resolution passed the exceptional and indispensable peoples Senate unanimously. As a reward for its policy of genocide, the Obama regime is immediately transferring $429 million of US taxpayers money to Israel to pay for the slaughter. Contrast the US governments support for Israels war crimes with the propaganda onslaught against Russia based on lies. We are living all over again Saddam Husseins weapons of mass destruction, Assads use of chemical weapons, Iranian nukes. Washington has lied for so long that it cant do anything else. This article first appeared at Paul Craig Roberts website Institute For Political Economy. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His Internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. 