Thread - Ahead of the MH17 trial starting next week Russian officials are inevitably crying like little children about how unfair everything is and making up stories about images of the Buk in Ukraine being fake. Let's follow that logic then.
9news.com.au/national/mh17-…
9news.com.au/national/mh17-…
The "fake" images Russia refers to are the images of the Buk missile launcher filled on July 17th and 18th, geolocated to a route running through separatist territory towards the launch site of the missile that shot down MH17.
So first, if these images are faked, then the fakers made sure it was along a realistic route. Not impossible, but then we have some other issues. There's social media sightings of the Buk as it was travelling through those locations, prior to MH17 being shot down...
That means if those images are fake then the social media posts are also fake, and as they were posted before MH17 was shot down it would mean those posts were prearranged, broadening the conspiracy to not just fake images, but fake social media posts made before the shootdown.
Not only that, but the social media posts about the Buk, made before MH17 was shot down, are on accounts that have been around for some times, even years before MH17 was shot down, with normal everyday interactions before and after July 17th 2014. That's quite the set up.
Maybe you'll argue these accounts were hacked, but they continue as normal after July 17th 2014, showing no signs of being hijacked or the account owners claiming they were hacked.
So now it's not just fake photos and videos, it's fake social media accounts set up years ago posting about a non-existent Buk missile launcher prior to MH17 being shot down. And it doesn't end there!
There's satellite imagery from Digital Globe showing the Buk convoy at 11:08am in the morning, very close to a position where it was also filmed. Is Digital Globe also part of the conspiracy?
Plus we have an AP journalist who reported seeing the Buk being unloaded in Snizhne in a story filed prior to MH17 being shot down, so they must be part of the conspiracy as well.
After the photo of the Buk in Torez was geolocated journalists went to the location and spoke to locals who confirmed seeing the Buk at a time consistent with the social media posts. So they must have been planted there or decided to lie in a manner consistent with the conspiracy
Russia, for its part, has relied on conspiracy websites and internet rumours for its claims the photographs and videos have been faked, which is definitely what you'd do if you had a solid case to make.
What we can say for sure is in the aftermath of MH17 being shot down Russia presented "evidence" that was a series of lies and fabrications, including lying about images of the Buk and altering and lying about the dates of satellite imagery bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
Of course, it's obvious to any reasonable person that Russia is guilty of shooting down MH17 and has been lying about it non-stop for the past 5 and a half years, but I think it's worthwhile to lay out how absurd their lies are.
Last year we released a 6 part documentary podcast on MH17 that examines these claims and much more, which you can download from any good podcast app, and some rubbish ones too podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the…
Those who expect the JIT's case at the MH17 trial will be based on social media posts and images found on the internet will be in for deep disappointment, but we can still expect the same denials and conspiracy theories to be recycled by the denialists and truthers.
And to end the thread, I'll note this is just about the route of the Buk in Ukraine, there's also much the same kind of evidence that points to the launch site, the route of the Buk in Russia, and features matching the Buk in Ukraine to the Buk in Russia.
So those who attack this evidence ignore the entire body of evidence and the implications of their allegations to that evidence, because ultimately they only care about appearances and denying Russia's guilt, not facts and evidence.
