Parry has been writing an article every single day, and yesterday he retreated somewhat, hedging his condemnation of Jackass’ mendacious outburst with agnostic remarks about ‘maybe the separatists did it after all.’ This is just the transcript section – RB
During his appearance on NBC Meet the Press with David Gregory, Jackass said:
Let me tell you what we know at this point, David, because it tells you a lot about what is going on. In the last month, we have observed major supplies moving in. Several weeks ago, about 150-vehicle convoy, including APCs, tanks, rocket launchers, artillery all going in and being transferred to the separatists. We know that they had an SA-11 system in the vicinity literally hours before the shoot-down took place. There are social media records of that. They were talking, and we have the intercepts of their conversations talking about the transfer and movement and repositioning of the SA-11 system. The social media showed them with this system moving through the very area where we believe the shoot-down took place hours before it took place. Social media, which is an extraordinary tool, obviously, in all of this, has posted recordings of a separatist bragging about the shoot-down of a plane at the time, right after it took place. The self-appointed, so-called ‘defense minister of the People’s Republic of Donetsk,’ Mr Igor Strelkov, actually posted a bragging statement on the social media about having shot down a transport. And then when it became apparent it was civilian, they quickly removed that particular posting.
David Gregory:
Are you bottom-lining here that Russia provided the weapon?
Kerry:
There’s a story today confirming that, but we have not within the Administration made a determination. But it’s pretty clear when there’s a build-up of extraordinary circumstantial evidence. I’m a former prosecutor. I’ve tried cases on circumstantial evidence. It’s powerful here. But even more importantly, we picked up the imagery of this launch. We know the trajectory. We know where it came from. We know the timing, and it was exactly at the time that this aircraft disappeared from the radar. We also know from voice identification that the separatists were bragging about shooting it down afterwards. So there’s a stacking-up of evidence here which Russia needs to help account for. We are not drawing the final conclusion here, but there is a lot that points at the need for Russia to be responsible. And what Pres Obama believes and we, the international community, join in believing, all, everybody is convinced we must have unfettered access. And the lack of access, the lack of access, David, makes its own statement about culpability and responsibility.
Of course, the only skepticism expressed by NBC’s Gregory was over why the Obama administration hadn’t jumped to the conclusion of Russian guilt even faster. Gregory cited a belligerent WaPo editorial, saying:
The WaPo has editorialized this weekend what was missing from the President’s comments when he spoke out on Friday was a clear moral conclusion about the regime of Vladimir Putin or an articulation of how Usaia will respond. What about it? … Call Vladimir Putin what he is. What is the threat that he and Russia present to Usaia and to the West? I detect in your words, Mr Secretary, some reluctance to make this a one-on-one battle. You want to give Russia a little bit more room here. But the question is still about consequences.
And so on. But in fact Jackass is simply lying when he claims that Strelkov personally boasted of a shootdown. DPR trumpeted their capture of Ukrainian air defense base A-1402 in a Tweet datemarked “6.58 AM 29 Jun 2014″. The Tweet has now been deleted. Voice of Russia reported the capture of the base at 18.30 hrs on the same day, here. Novorus.info reported it on the same day at 19.50 hrs, here. Finally, Voice of Sevastopol reported at 21.48 hrs on Jul 14 that DPR or LPR (it doesn’t say which) had used this “Buk” complex to shoot down an Antonov An-26 military transport plane, flying at “more than 6,000 metres,” here. It said:
Today the militia for the destruction of the plane An-26 of the enemy at height more than 6000 meters was used ADMS “KM” (better known as “Buk”). A few weeks ago it was reported about the seizure by the militia of these systems. Now they are refurbished, complete with crews and put into operation.
Basically, that’s it. Strelkov only has one official outlet, ICorpus.ru, and there were no boasts there on Jul 17 – RB