Senior US intelligence officials say they have no evidence of Russian government involvement in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
They say the passenger jet was likely felled by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile fired by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and that Russia “created the conditions” for the downing by arming the separatists, AP reported.
The officials briefed reporters Tuesday under ground rules that their names not be used in discussing intelligence related to last week’s air disaster, which killed 298 people.
They said they did not know if any Russians were present at the missile launch, and they wouldn’t say that the missile crew was trained in Russia.
A senior official said the most likely explanation was the plane was shot down by mistake.
The officials declined to provide more details on the satellites and other sophisticated sensors that enabled them to trace the path of the missile, citing concerns about compromising secret US capabilities.
They spoke condition of anonymity during a briefing arranged for reporters in Washington. Their secrecy was in stark contrast to Russian briefs by responsible official figures who provided technical data for public scrutiny.
The Russian military has presented information that a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter had been gaining altitude in the direction of the Malaysian Boeing prior to the catastrophe.
According to military monitoring data outlined by chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces Lt. Gen. Andrey Kartopolov along with chief of the Air Force Main Staff Lt. Gen. Igor Makushev this week, Russia is concerned about a number of unanswered questions surrounding the downing of the jet.
The American spooks said they have ruled out the possibility that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the attack. They confirmed however that they were still toying with “scenario’s” and not facts.
“That is not a plausible scenario,” said one senior U.S. official, who noted that American intelligence agencies have confirmed that Ukraine had no anti-aircraft missile system within range of the Malaysian flight at the time it was struck.
They did not elaborate on pro-Western and pro-Ukranian rogue elements in the area.
Via WaPo,
Senior U.S. intelligence officials cited sensors that traced the path of the missile, shrapnel markings on the downed aircraft, voiceprint analysis of separatists claiming credit for the strike, and a flood of photos and other data from social media sites.
The officials also for the first time identified a sprawling Russian military installation near the city of Rostov as the main conduit of Russian support to separatists in Ukraine, describing it as a hub of training and weapons that has expanded dramatically over the past month. The officials said that tanks, rocket launchers and other arms have continued to flow into Ukraine.
They gave no evidence to back up these claims, however. The officials also expressed exasperation that their attempts to influence public opinion lacked some credibility.
“We are seeing a full-court press by the Russian government to instruct affiliated or friendly elements to manipulate the media environment to spread Russia’s version of the story,” the official said.
The U.S. officials said they have confirmed the authenticity of some of those recordings, including one in which the self-proclaimed defense minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Igor Strelkov, claimed responsibility for shooting down a military transport plane at the time the Malaysian aircraft was struck.
Analysis comparing that audio clip to other confirmed recordings of Strelkov’s voice “confirmed these were authentic conversations,” one of the officials said.
“If you listen to Youtube you get that: ‘we’re finding civilians,’” a senior U.S. intelligence official said. For that reason, the official said, “the most plausible explanation to me is [it was] a mistake.”
On Monday State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf was asked whether the US could back up claims that “common sense” and no reliable data indicated Ukrainian militia had shot down the Malaysian Airlines plane, along with “evidence” provided by social media.
Harf responded that there was a “host of information” gathered by US intelligence on the incident, but that they “needed to get all the facts”.
“I certainly am blaming the Russians for the pro-Russian separatists’ behavior in general, but we need to get all the facts about this specific incident. We don’t – I don’t want to go out there and put culpability on anyone until we have all of those facts,” Harf told journalists.
Thus, despite claims that the media would be presented with unclassified evidence from US intelligence sources, the spooks mostly reiterated earlier claims based on social media posts and unverified audio and video recordings published by Ukrainian government.