US media censor key witness testimony that a Ukrainian pilot shot down MH17

American, Canadian, Australian, British and notably Murdoch Empire Mainstream media have exposed their remorseless self-censorship on behalf of the US Government by extraordinarily refusing to report the key testament by a Ukrainian military witness that a Captain Vladislav Voloshin of the Ukrainian air force had returned to base on 17 July 2014 in his Su25 fighter jet minus his 2 air-to-air guided missiles and had effectively admitted to shooting down Malaysian Airlines MH17. In contrast, the UK Huffington Post, BBC, Guardian and Telegraph, the Australian ABC, and other media across the world from Russia and Germany to Malaysia have reported this important interview.

The interview with the Ukrainian witness was originally published in Russian by one of Russia’s leading newspapers, Komsomolskaya Pravda, and was then translated to English from Russian by Kristina Rus for FortRuss.blogspot.com. The editor of Global Research published the translation on 24 December 2014 with the qualification that “This interview should be viewed with caution. It requires further investigation and corroboration” [1].

Here are key parts of the evidence of this witness as reported by Global Research [1]: “I was on the territory of Ukraine, in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, the village Aviatorskoye. It is a regular airport. There at this time were based fighter jets and helicopters. Planes regularly flew on bombing missions, Su-25 attack aircraft bombed Donetsk, Lugansk. This lasted a long time…

Out of the eight airplanes, which were based there, only two had “air-to-air” missiles. They were suspended… the aircraft was fitted with missiles to cover themselves in the air. Just in case. Mostly they had air-to-ground ammunition. NURS, bombs…

Airplanes flew regularly. All day since the morning. In the afternoon, about an hour before the downing of the “Boeing”, three attack fighters were raised into the air. I don’t remember the exact time. One of the airplanes was equipped with such missiles. It was a Su-25…

No, I couldn’t confuse it. They vary in size, plumage, coloration. With a guidance head. Very easy to recognize. Anyway, after a short time, only one airplane returned, two were shot down. Somewhere in the East of Ukraine, I was told. The airplane that came back, was the one with those suspended missiles…

[The pilot returned] without the missiles. That pilot was very scared… Last name Voloshin… [He was alone] The airplane is designed for one person… [First name] Vladislav, I think. Don’t remember exactly. Captain… Came back with blank ammunition [no missiles left]… These “air-to-air” missiles are not included in the basic ammunition package. They are used only with a special order. Typically, the aircraft with such rockets were not to allowed into the air. Because this missiles should not be frequently transported in the air. In all two such missiles can fit on this plane. Never before they had been applied. They were written off previously. But literally on the eve, a week before this incident [the loss of MH17] the use of these missiles was urgently renewed. And they put again into service. They have not been used for many years… They were expired. Made back in the Soviet years. But by the urgent order their expiration date was extended…

[Re pilot came back without the missiles] Yes. Knowing this pilot a little bit… (quite possibly, when the other two airplanes were shot down in front of him), he just had a frightened reaction, inadequate. Could out of fright or in revenge launch the missiles into a Boeing. Maybe he took it for some other combat aircraft… He said a phrase, when he was led out of the airplane: “It was not the right plane.” And in the evening there was a phrase to a question from one pilot to him, to Voloshin: “What’s up with the plane?” To which he replied: “The plane was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”…

[Re Ukraine denial of any flights on 17 July 2014, the day of the MH17 disaster] I know about this. Ukraine also announced that two of these airplanes were shot down on the 16th, and not the 17th. And many times the date was changed. But actually, the flights were on a daily basis. I saw it myself. Even during the ceasefire there were flights, although, less frequent.”

Below is a country-by-country sketch of media that are reporting or censoring this important story.

1. United Kingdom (UK).

The UK BBC reported the story, the naming of the pilot as “Capt Voloshyn” and Ukrainian rejection of the assertion [2]. The Telegraph newspaper (UK) also reported the story and names the Ukraine pilot as “Voloshin” [3]. The populist and lowbrow UK Daily Sun also reported the story. The Guardian newspaper reported the assertion somewhat circumspectly and briefly: “A shadowy Russian organisation claiming to be investigating the MH17 crash has claimed that a Ukrainian pilot fired a missile on the day the Malaysia Airlines plane went down, killing 298 people. The group said a witness, who was not named, worked at an airfield in the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk where he claimed to have seen a warplane take off on 17 July with air-to-air missiles and return without them, a Russian report said. The group describing itself as a Russian investigative committee said the testimony of the man “is important proof that Ukrainian military was implicated in the crash of the Boeing 777” [4].
The Huffington Post (UK) reported the story without naming the alleged perpetrator [5] but The Huffington Post (US) censored the story. In contrast , the UK newspapers The Independent, The Observer, the Times and The Scotsman, like similar major Mainstream newspapers in the US, Canada and Australia, failed to run the report.

2. Germany.

Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle [6] reported the essence of the story without naming the Ukrainian pilot.

3. Russia.

Russian media have reported in Russian the testament of this key witness, notably the primary reporter Komsomolskaya Pravda [1]. Russian RT reported the story thus: “Russia’s Investigative Committee has confirmed the claims by a Ukrainian, who said he witnessed the deployment of a Ukrainian warplane armed with air-to-air missiles on the day the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down… The investigators used a polygraph during the interview, which showed no evidence of the witness lying… The witness is likely to be taken into protective custody in Russia because his life may be threatened… The Ukrainian Security Service confirmed on Wednesday that a Captain Voloshin does serve as a military pilot in the country’s armed services. But it said he didn’t fly any missions on the day the Malaysian Airlines flight was shot down… The Russian Defense Ministry made public radar data indicating that a Ukrainian military jet capable of taking down the airliner with an air-to-air missile was in the vicinity of MH17 at the time of the incident” [7].

4. Canada.

The Canadian CBC (Canada’s equivalent of the UK BBC) failed to report the story as did other Mainstream Canadian media as checked out via Google, specifically the Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, The Globe and Mail, and the National Post, this being indicative of the power of the US Government and its traitorous Canadian supporters over cravenly US lackey Canadian media.

5. Australia.

The Australian ABC (the Australian equivalent of the UK BBC) surprisingly reported the story and names “Voloshin” as the alleged culprit”” [8]. The Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-perverted ABC has a shameful record of toeing the US line but the recent savage cuts to the ABC budget by the ultraconservative, US lackey Coalition Federal Government may have weakened this craven and traitorous loyalty to the Americans within the ABC. The other major Australian taxpayer-funded electronic news organization, SBS, failed to report the story as did all the major newspapers including The Guardian Australia, the Fairfax-owned The Age, Canberra Times and Sydney Morning Herald, and the Rupert Murdoch–owned newspapers The Australian, The Herald Sun, The Courier Mail, The Advertiser, The Mercury, The Sunday Times, and the Northern Territory News - an extraordinary testament to media censorship in US lackey Australia.

6. United States of America (USA).

Major newspapers in the US censored the story, these major lying media including The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Post, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post (US), the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle and the La Times. Major American news networks also censored the eye witness story, these lying media including CNN, CBS, MSNBC, and Fox News.

In contrast, some Alternative media in the US did report the story e.g. Veterans Today [9] and Zero Hedge [10]. Veterans Today reported the full transcript of the witness interview [1, 9]. However Zero Hedge reported the story without naming the alleged perpetrator : “Russia’s Investigative Committee says it has uncovered evidence Ukraine was involved in the crash citing a military defector from the Ukraine. The RIC said, as summarized by Bloomberg, that it interrogated a Ukraine military defector who has evidence the Boeing jet shot down in July may have been targeted by Ukrainian military SU-25 plane, according to website statement. The witness claims to have spoken to SU-25’s pilot, according to whom the SU-25 in question was carrying R-60 air-to-air missiles. The SU-25 returned to base after flight without its missiles. The pilot summarized that "MH-17 was in wrong place at wrong time." Tell that to the families of over two hundred innocent casualties of war. The Committee statement adds that Russia may provide witness state protection and that Russian investigators ready to share data with international crash investigators” [10].

7. Asia .

The New Straits Times (Malaysia) reported the full story [11] but The Straits Times of pro-US Singapore censored the story. Iranian Press TV has reported the story but not the name of the alleged perpetrator [12].

Conclusions.

The detailed testament of this key Ukrainian witness should be taken seriously and indeed has been by the Russian media (notably by RT and the primary reporter Komsomolskaya Pravda), by Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, by the UK BBC, by Mainstream UK newspapers including The Telegraph, The Guardian and the Huffington Post (UK), by the Australian ABC, by the Malaysian New Straits Times and by Iranian Press TV.

The suppression of this important and extremely newsworthy story by essentially all Mainstream US and Canadian media, by major British newspapers, by all Mainstream media in Australia except for the ABC, and by the Murdoch Empire media worldwide in particular, is testament to the extraordinary censorship of Western media due to subversion and pressure from the US and US Alliance governments.

Eric Zuesse ( historian and the author, most recently, of “They’re Not Even Close: the Democratic vs Republican Records 1910-2010” and of “Christ’s ventriloquists: The event that created Christianity”) has commented on US suppression of news in relation to the US-backed neo-Nazi-linked coup in the Ukraine and the MH17 atrocity (2014): “Was the rigid control over a nation’s press more rigid and more universal in the Soviet Union, or in Nazi Germany, than is the case in today’s United States? One should not simply assume that it was, or that it wasn’t, but instead recognize how extremely far from being a democracy today’s United States has, in fact, become . This is the most shocking realization of all, because it’s the most suppressed news of all — news about the news-suppression by the ‘news’-media… That’s how dire the condition of what used to be American democracy has now become. The biggest news-story of all is thus the one that is, and that will inevitably be, the most suppressed news-story of all: the news-suppression itself . It extends from the major ‘news’-media to the alternative and even to the specialized ‘news’-media… He [Edward Snowden] raised the extremely serious question as to whether, and the extent to which, a government can lie to its public and still be a democracy. That’s the question. How can the public have a government representing informed consent, if the ‘news’ media are constantly, and systematically, lying about the most important things, and covering up that government’s worst, most heinous, crimes? Yet, this is what Americans have today. The United States is thus no longer a model for any country except for a dictatorship. How likely is it that America’s press will let the American public know this now-established fact? Something’s wrong — and it’s not people such as Edward Snowden” [13].

Brilliant English novelist Jane Austen (1775-1817) posed a germane series of questions directly relevant to this problem of public honesty in her novel “Northanger Abbey” in which the heroine, Miss Catherine Morland, affected by the somewhat Gothic atmosphere of the Tilney family home and the romantic horrors of Mrs Radcliffe’s Gothic novels, conceives the fantasy that General Tilney (the father of her beloved, Henry Tilney) has done away with the late Mrs Tilney. Henry reproves Catherine as follows (1803) : "If I understand you rightly, you have formed a surmise of such horror as I have hardly words to -. Dear Miss Morland, consider the dreadful nature of the suspicions you have entertained. What have you been judging from? Remember the country and the age in which we live. Remember that we are English, that we are Christians. Consult your own understanding, your own sense of the probable, your own observation of what is passing around you. Does our education prepare us for such atrocities? Do our laws connive at them? Could they be perpetrated without being known, in a country like this, where social and literary intercourse is on such a footing, where every man is surrounded by a neighbourhood of voluntary spies, and where roads and newspapers lay everything open?”" [14]. The answers to Henry Tilney’s questions today are surely “Yes! Yes! Yes!” The harsh reality is that governments and their attendant Mainstream media politician, journalist and academic presstitutes are resolutely committed to mendacity as explored at great length in my book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” [15].

Eminent conservative American economist and writer Dr Paul Craig Roberts (the “Father of Reaganomics”) has commented: “ We have learned that integrity is rare in the US government, in the justice system, and in the financial sector. Whatever integrity one can find in these arenas wouldn’t amount to one ounce of gold. Americans live in a rigged system in which propaganda determines the public’s awareness and consciousness. Americans, or most of them, live in the Matrix. Since the end of WWII, most foreign governments have been in the habit of going along with Washington. Only in the aftermath of Washington’s phony wars based on lies and phony economy based on rigged statistics is the rest of the world beginning to realize that Washington is a destabilizing force” [1] and comments even more trenchantly: “When Gerald Celente branded the American media “presstitutes,” he got it right. The US print and TV media (and NPR) whore for Washington and the corporations. Reporting the real news is their last concern. The presstitutes are a Ministry of Propaganda and Coverup. This is true of the entire Western media, a collection of bought-and-paid-for whores” [2].

According to Australian lawyer and academic Professor George Venturini in an extremely detailed analysis of the MH17 atrocity: “The evidence is mounting that MH17 was most likely shot down by Ukrainian forces” [18]. Indeed whatever the reality of how and why MH17 was destroyed, the US and its allies are blatantly blaming Russia for this atrocity to support dangerously escalating US and NATO pressure on Russia. The US has invaded 70 countries [19] and has a long history of lying to support such invasions [20], from Independence in 1776 (that enabled Westward invasion and genocide of the Indians) [21] to the US Government’s 9-11 false flag operation (that enabled massive invasion of the Muslim world and the deaths of 10 million Muslims from violence or violently-imposed deprivation [22, 23]).

Rational risk management that is crucial for societal safety successively involves (a) getting accurate data, (b) scientific analysis (this involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses) and (c) systemic change, changing systems so that when Nature or fallible humans inevitably cause a dangerous situation the system is better able to minimize risk. Unfortunately all too prevalent “spin” and “politicized” responses in society pervert rational risk management by (a) lies, slies (spin-based untruths), censorship, intimidation, self-censorship, and white-washing, (b) anti-science spin involving the use of selected asserted “facts” to support a partisan position, and (c) “blame and shame”, picking convenient culprits for public punishment, and thereby inhibiting reportage (with war being the ultimate expression of this perverted approach). Humanity is subject to worsening nuclear, poverty and global warming threats and Mainstream lying compounds the threat by subverting rational risk management.

Decent Humanity must resolutely expose Mainstream media lying by omission and commission [24-34] and boycott mendacious media, notably those of the Murdoch Media Empire [24], that are endangering Humanity.

References.

[1]. Vladimir Sungorkin, Dmitry Steshin, Nikolay Varsegov , “Meet the pilot who shot down Malaysian Boeing MH17 – Vladislav Voloshin: “The plane was in the wrong place at the wrong time”, Global Research, 24 December 2014: http://www.globalresearch.ca/meet-the-pilot-who-shot-down-malaysian-boeing-mh-17-vladislav-voloshin-the-plane-was-in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time/5421363 GR Editor, December 24, 2014) ).

[2]. “MH17: Russia reveals “witness’ who blames Ukraine pilot”, BBC News, 24 December 2014: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30597555 .

[3]. “Russia sys Ukrainian pilot behind MH17 crash”, The Telegraph, 24 December 2014: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11312348/Russia-says-Ukrainian-pilot-behind-MH17-crash.html .

[4]. “Russia again claims Ukraine shot down MH17”, The Guardian, 25 December 2014: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/25/mh17-russia-claims-to-have-airfield-witness-who-blames-ukrainian-pilot .

[5]. Chris York, “MH17 shot down by Ukraine jet says Russia’s “secret witness”, The Huffington Post (UK), 24 December 2014: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/12/24/mh17-ukraine-russias-secret-witness_n_6378164.html .

[6] “Russia reveals “witness” blaming Ukraine pilot forMH17 crash”, Deutsche Welle, 24 December 2014: http://www.dw.de/russia-reveals-witness-blaming-ukraine-pilot-for-mh17-crash/a-18150656 .

[7]. “Witness account of Ukraine MH17 takedown – investigators”, RT, 24 December 2014: http://rt.com/news/217295-mh17-ukraine-military-plane/ .

[8] “MH17: Russian investigators claim proof from witness of Ukrainian pilot involved in downing of flight”, ABC News, 25 December 2014: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-24/russia-claims-new-proof-ukraine-involved-in-downing-of-mh17/5988140 .

[9]. “Ukraine pilot reveals Kiev plane shot down MH17”, Veterans Today, 23 December 2014: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/12/23/ukraine-pilot-reveals-kiev-plane-shot-down-mh-17-full-transcript/ .

[10]. “Russia says it has evidence from military defector Kiev was responsible for MH17 crash”, Zero Hedge, 24 December 2014: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-24/russia-says-it-has-evidence-ukraine-military-defector-kiev-was-responsible-mh-17-cra .

[11]. “Russia says Ukrainian pilot behind MH17 crash”, New Straits Times, 24 December 2014: http://www.nst.com.my/node/65732 .

[12]. “Ukrainian warplane behind MH17 crash: Russian investigators”, Press TV, 24 December 2014: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/12/24/391638/ukrain-warplane-behind-mh17-crash/ .

[13]. Eric Zuesse , “The Biggest Scandal In America Is Its Controlled Press”, Countercurrents, 4 December, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse041214.htm .

[14]. Jane Austen, “Northanger Abbey”, published posthumously, 1818.

[15]. Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com.au/ .

[16]. Paul Craig Roberts, “The attack on gold”, Information Clearing House, 17 April 2013: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34648.htm .

[17]. Paul Craig Roberts, “America’s greatest affliction: the presstitute media – Paul Craig Roberts”, Paul Craig Roberts, 2 June 2013: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/06/02/americas-greatest-affliction-the-presstitute-media-paul-craig-roberts/ .

[18]. George Venturini, “The downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17- parts 1-9”, The Australian Independent Media Network: http://theaimn.com/downing-malaysia-airlines-mh17-part-9/ .

[19]. Gideon Polya, “US has invaded 70 nations – make 4 July Independence from America Day”, Countercurrents, 5 July 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya050713.htm .

[20]. 9-11Review.com, “History of American false flag operations”: http://www.911review.com/articles/anon/false_flag_perations.html .

[21]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”that includes an avoidable mortality-related history of every country and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html .

[22]. “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/home .

[23]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .

[24]. “Boycott Murdoch media”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottmurdochmedia/ .

[25]. “Censorship by the BBC”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbythebbc/ .

[26]. “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by .

[27]. “Mainstream media censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/home .

[28]. “Mainstream media lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/ .

[29]. “Censorship by The Age”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-the-age .

[30]. “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ .

[31]. "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat .

[32].“ABC fact-checking unit & incorrect reportage by the ABC (Australia’s BBC)”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/abc-fact-checking-unit .

[33]. "Censorship by The Guardian UK": https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-the-guardian-uk .

[34]. "Censorship by The Guardian Australia": https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/home/censorship-by-the-guardian-a .