Russia Prepares For Internet War Over Malaysian Jet 503
An anonymous reader writes The investigation of a Malaysian passenger jet shot down over Ukrainian rebel held territory is heating up. U.S. and U.K. news organizations are studiously trying to spread the blame, Russian ITAR, which, just earlier today was celebrating the downing of a large aircraft by rebel missiles in Torez (Google cache) is reporting that the rebels do not have access to the missiles needed for such attacks. The rebel commander who earlier today reported the downing of the aircraft has also issued a correction to earlier reports that they had captured BUK air defense systems with Russian sources now stating that the rebels do not posses such air defenses. The Ukrainian president has been attempting to frame the incident as a "terrorist attack". President Obama made contact with Vladimir Putin and has been instead treating it as an accident, calling it a "terrible tragedy" and saying that the priority is investigating whether U.S. citizens were involved. With control of the black box and its own internet propaganda army Russia may be in a good position to win the propaganda war.
Re:meanwhile overnight... (Score:5, Informative)
I think I found it: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10976191/Malaysia-Airlines-crash-video-claims-to-show-missile-launcher-being-smuggled-into-Russia.html [telegraph.co.uk]
Re:meanwhile overnight... (Score:5, Informative)
Here is the story Malaysia Airlines plane crashes on Ukraine-Russia border - live [telegraph.co.uk]
The video is referenced as
12.20 Tom Parfitt has picked up an intriguing Russian-language detail.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, has made the latest of a series of claims that a Buk missile launcher allegedly used by pro-Russian rebels to knock down Flight MH17 was smuggled away into Russia overnight. He highlights a video which purportedly shows the launcher with two of its missiles missing, writing "it's not hard to guess why".
“It was exactly these missiles which brought death to almost 300 innocent passengers of the ill-fated Malaysian Boeing,” he added.
Mr Gerashchenko says the video was made by Ukrainian intelligence agents at 4.50am as the launcher was on the move towards the Russian border near the town of Krasnodon.
We obviously can't confirm it's authenticity.
The video is found here Buk launcher video [youtube.com]
Re:meanwhile overnight... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Black box data streaming (Score:5, Informative)
My guess is cost. Sending data via satellite is very expensive, and there's a lot of data recorded. As for ground stations, I'm not aware of any plane-to-ground data communications currently in use (other than radio for voice) so that would need a completely new infrastructure built.
Nope. Sorry to interrupt your speculation, but the reality is that there is technology available for that. It's been used in corporate private aviation etc. many decades already. It costs some money, it will cost something to install and operate, but it's not too expensive any more. The reasons why it isn't been used in commercial airliners is mainly it's just not been a requirement to install, there have not been accidents which would had it made a requirement and because airline operators are business trying to make money they avoid any extra costs they can.
There is a very good summary of the state of this in Science Friday May 30, 2014 story [sciencefriday.com] following previous Malesian Airlines plane case.
ac
Re:meanwhile overnight... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:US wars with Congressional approval since 1945: (Score:5, Informative)
13, actually. But please, continue with your rant.
Re:meanwhile overnight... (Score:5, Informative)
Janes suggests that whilst training is needed, the launcher can operate in stand alone mode and even be set to fire autonomously at anything approaching it:
http://www.janes.com/article/4... [janes.com]
I suspect setting it in this mode could be done by a Ukrainian military defector, a Russian operative, or possibly even just by a smart operative being told over the phone or whatever how to set it into this mode. I doubt there's something mystical about it that stops someone being able to be talked through it, people have been talked through how to land aircraft before over comms with zero experience so it seems reasonable.
Besides, it was only the other day the rebels were gloating about having shot down an actual Ukrainian transport at that sort of altitude, so they've already admitted they have the capability to launch this sort of missile anyway so that's not even in doubt at this point either way.
It's not as if they haven't been able to launch massively succesful MLRS attacks in the last week either. There's clearly some extremely skilled military players working for the "rebels". I say rebels in quotes because the entire lineup of the rebels top team are actual Russians, or Ukrainians who have served with the Russian military I believe without exception. They're more actual Russian than they are Ukrainian rebel or separatist.
Re: Black box data streaming (Score:5, Informative)
It wouldn't matter in this case. We know where the plane is and what happened to it. The most you would see is a big acceleration or yaw as the missile detonated, might hear the explosion on the voice recorder, or whatever before it stops recording as the plane came apart. The US is reporting their military surveillance saw the missile radar light up as it tracked the plane.
There are now reports of monitored chatter among the separatists where they figured out it was civilian instead of military after the shoot down. There was also the tweet by the separatist general where he celebrated shooting down another Ukrainian plane and then deleted it. It really looks like it was the separatists who did it, using Russian weapons.
This shoot down and the loss of innocent life is the direct result of Vladimir Putin's reckless behavior and fomenting violence in the Ukraine as he injects weapons, advisors, and military to try to take the Ukraine over. This rests squarely on his shoulders. He might as well have killed those 290 people with his own hands.
The black box really won't provide anything not already known. What we need are radar tracking and satellite photos that show the position of the missile launcher before the missile was fired. That is the smoking gun needed to hang that communist megalomaniac bastard.
Re:meanwhile overnight... (Score:2, Informative)
http://ukraineatwar.blogspot.ca/2014/07/russian-transport-of-buk-that-shot-down.html
The above has a direct link to the video and it shows a blown up picture that one of the four missiles is missing -- it was shown close to Krasnodan 2014-07-18 4:50 AM Kyiv time heading in the direction of the Russian border (at a Russian controlled border point)
Krasnodan is in the Luhansk Oblast, very close to the Ukrainian border
https://www.google.ca/maps/@48.299252,39.7498181,11z
Here is a photo of the BUK Missile System in the vicinity of Snizhne on 2014-07-17 13:30 hours -- four hours before the downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17
http://sprotyv.info/ru/news/2426-foto-kolonny-rossiyskih-terroristov-perevozivshey-zrk-buk-k-mestu-strelby-po-malaziyskomu
This photo shows a BUK Missile System in Snizhne on 2014-07-17 and just 12 km away from the crash site -- this system has a range of 28 km
http://nvua.net/ukraine/Spryatannyy-ZRK-Buk-terroristov-byl-sfotografirovan-v-12-km-ot-mesta-padeniya-Boinga-3988.html
This is a video of a BUK missile system moving from the town of Torez to Snizhne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WjhUAZNHBM&list=UUMgrofT7rfqEPxzicmfdo9w&index=1
Location of the towns of Torez & Snizhne, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine
https://www.google.ca/maps/@48.039368,38.7504295,11z
BTW here is a situational map dated 12 Noon Kyiv time, 2014-07-18
http://gdb.rferl.org/69CCAD96-D1DB-4F66-8455-41C079FCAC83_w974_n_s_s.jpg
BTW here is a situational map dated 12 Noon Kyiv time, 2014-07-17
http://gdb.rferl.org/A18E8EAD-04DB-4EBB-892E-1EAA82655E00_w974_n_s_s.jpg
Re:If only... (Score:5, Informative)
He's one cowboy away from a Brokeback Mountain.
Re:"treating it as an accident" (Score:2, Informative)
The US admitted fault and paid restitutions.
Re:meanwhile overnight... (Score:4, Informative)
A reporter on location reported on NPR this morning that they had a couple witnesses that saw a flash prior to the downing of the launch. Apparently due to the pro-russian population of the village where it was downed, this is a very unpopular confession to make. This is a HUGE snafu for Russia, who has been arming the rebels, so they can continue to humiliate Ukrainian air power. I also think it is ridiculous that Obama is only speaking out of concern for possible US Citizens missing. The Netherlands are a solid ally, this is a terrible attrocity...
I just watched the entire speech, he went out of his way to mention the Netherlands and the bloodlettign they have had to suffer..