No, the CIA Didn’t Blow Up Malaysia AIrlines Flight MH17. Why Do You Ask?

laptoptravel tweets me, asking “Did Russian Fighter Jets Fire Missiles on Malaysia MH17 Over Ukraine Killing 298?”

There’s a new BBC documentary exploring alternate theories of what happened to the Malaysia Airlines MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that crashed on July 17, 2014 after being shot down.

The Boeing 777-200ER was carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew. All were killed.

It’s fairly settled that the plane was shot down by a surface to air missile filed from within Ukraine, in an area controlled by pro-Russian forces (the “Donbass People’s Militia”).


Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777

However, this new BBC documentary explores alternate — pro-Russian — theories of the event.

  1. That MH17 was shot down by an air-to-air missile fired from a Ukrainian jet

  2. That MH17 was blown up as part of a CIA plot

Contra laptoptravel, the film argues a Ukranian jet (not a Russian one) fired on the Malaysia Airlines commercial flight.

Apparently 7 out of 100 eye witnesses interviewed said they saw a fighter jet. Because eyewitness non-expert testimony contradicted by science is highly reliable.

Six said: “One of them even told me how he saw it launch a missile. It was like a small line in the sky going into the clouds. Then he heard the big boom.”

He believes two jets shot it down – one firing a canon from the back into the cockpit to destroy the crew.

Then another fired an air-to-air missile.

Oh, and the Russians say their side didn’t do it. Although the pilot the Russians claim shot down MH17 wasn’t flying the day of the incident, and flew missions equipped with air-to-surface missiles and not weapons to take down other aircraft.

So if that didn’t happen then it must have been the CIA placing bombs on the plane prior to departure from Amsterdam.

This allegation was put forward by private investigator, Sergey Sokolov, who claimed that the CIA were helped by the Ukrainian secret service and Dutch security service, to place the bombs on the plane in Holland.

This was apparently so that the US government would have a pretext for greater sanctions against Russia and to support Ukraine’s defense against Russian incursions.

As though it was somehow necessary to turn otherwise pro-Putin American public opinion against the Russian invasion. And the US government undertook such a move in secret, but with the help of the intelligence service of the Netherlands. And somehow needed help of Ukranian spies, because the story works so much better for the Russians if Ukranians are the bad guys.

Even if this is all about an anti-Russian agenda on the part of the U.S., that the Netherlands was somehow co-opted into, Ukranian secret service are the underpants gnomes that can be used to explain holes in the rest of the story that make no sense.

It’s bad enough that efforts by commercial airlines to avoid overflying the area became a financial windfall for Russia.

The Dutch Safety Board released its final report on the tragedy in October 2015. And the pieces actually do fit together, despite 7 people who think they saw a fighter jet and the Russian government’s assertion of a CIA-backed plot to load explosives onto the plane prior to departure.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. There’s no way anyone on the ground could have seen air to air cannon fire at 33,000 feet. The only people who saw the impact were the ones with the binoculars and who had just fired the surface to air missile.

  2. What an irresponsible piece by the BBC. This just gives credence to be lame brain theories posited by the Russians and those who will never believe the government line about anything.

  3. The Russian government is claiming that the AMS-KUL MH flight was brought down by explosives loaded onto the plane at AMS by a CIA-backed team? Which senior Russian government individuals have made and/or are standing by that ridiculous assertion?

    Or is this yet another case of a fabricated straw man being erected so that it can be easily knocked down for some purpose?

  4. Please check out the previous subjects of this program: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conspiracy_Files You will see that Russian theories of MH17 are exactly the kind of conspiracy crap it typically deals with.

    The nature of this program was misrepresented by UK tabloids. BBC has already objected to this interpretation: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/25/bbc-says-russian-media-wrong-to-suggest-documentary-shows-mh17-d/

    “This impartial documentary takes a balanced viewpoint in reporting the competing theories surrounding the fate of MH17, including the evidence for and against those involving Russia, Ukraine and the CIA. It also examines in detail the findings of the official Dutch inquiry into the incident, which provide compelling evidence that the plane was brought down by a powerful ground to air missile.”

  5. As much as I love the BBC it has an irritating interpretation of its obligation to provide balancing views which gives airtime to people who compete against overwhelming bodies of evidence with conjecture and hearsay. Thus the BBC ends up giving too much airtime to conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers and climate change skeptics.

  6. No doubt that thisprovocation was organized and implemented by the same group that organized andimplemented chemical attacks in Syria to blame Assad and Russia. Those are fromUS and their allies.Read: “Top Journalist Says Hillary Approved Sending Sarin to Rebels Used to Frame Assad”

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