Former Congressman Ron Paul said the US knows \u2018more than it is telling\u2019 about the Malaysian aircraft that crashed in eastern Ukraine last month, killing 298 people on board and seriously damaging US-Russian relations in the process.<\/p>\n
In an effort to inject some balance of opinion, not to mention pure sanity, into the ongoing debate over what happened to Malaysian Flight MH17, Ron Paul is convinced the US government is withholding information on the catastrophe.<\/p>\n
“The US government has grown strangely quiet on the accusation that it was Russia or her allies that brought down the Malaysian airliner with a Buk anti-aircraft missile,” Paul said on his news website on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Ron Paul to Obama: Let\u2019s just leave Ukraine alone!<\/p>\n
Paul\u2019s comments are in sharp contrast to the echo chamber of one-sided opinion inside Western mainstream media, which has almost unanimously blamed anti-Kiev militia for bringing down the commercial airline. Incredibly, in many cases Washington had nothing to show as evidence to incriminate pro-Russian rebels aside from tenuous references to social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen that there were heavy weapons moved from Russia to Ukraine, that they have moved into the hands of separatist leaders,\u201d said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. \u201cAnd according to social media reports, those weapons include the SA-11 [Buk missile] system.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another instance, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters \u201cthe Russians intend to deliver heavier and more powerful rocket launchers to the separatist forces in Ukraine, and have evidence that Russia is firing artillery from within Russia to attack Ukrainian military positions.\u201d When veteran AP reporter Matthew Lee asked for proof, he was to be disappointed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t get into the sources and methods behind it,\u201d Harf responded. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you what the information is based on.\u201d Lee said the allegations made by the State Department on Ukraine have fallen far short of \u201cdefinitive proof.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just days after US intelligence officials admitted they had no conclusive evidence to prove Russia was behind the downing of the airliner, Kiev published satellite images as \u2018proof\u2019 it didn\u2019t deploy anti-aircraft batteries around the MH17 crash site. However, these images have altered time-stamps and are from the days after the MH17 tragedy, the Russian Defense Ministry revealed, fully discrediting the Ukrainian claims.<\/p>\n
In yet another inexplicable occurrence, Russian military detected a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet approaching the MH17 Boeing on the day of the catastrophe. No acceptable explanation has ever been given by Kiev as to why this fighter aircraft was so close to the doomed passenger jet moments before it was brought down.<\/p>\n
\u201c[We] would like to get an explanation as to why the military jet was flying along a civil aviation corridor at almost the same time and at the same level as a passenger plane,\u201d Russian Lieutenant-General Andrey Kartopolov demanded days after the crash.<\/p>\n
Paul has slammed the Obama administration, despite its arsenal of surveillance technologies at its disposal, for its failure to provide a single grain of evidence to solve the mystery of the Malaysian airliner.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s hard to believe that the US, with all of its spy satellites available for monitoring everything in Ukraine, that precise proof of who did what and when is not available,” the two-time presidential candidate said.<\/p>\n
“Too bad we can\u2019t count on our government to just tell us the truth and show us the evidence,” Paul added. “I\u2019m convinced that it knows a lot more than it\u2019s telling us.”<\/p>\n
Questions remain regarding the downed Malaysia Airlines plane. Too bad our gov’t won’t paint the full picture: http:\/\/t.co\/oxM2eeCjRA<\/a><\/p>\n\u2014 Ron Paul (@RonPaul) August 8, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n