On October 8, Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) President Gerhard Schindler showed members of a parliamentary committee photos and satellite images to bolster his allegation that pro Russian rebels fired the BUK missile that downed a Malaysian airliner on July 19. They believe pro-Russian rebels captured the missile from a Ukrainian base, thus, clearing Russia of the charge that they provided pro-Russian separatists with the BUK missile launchers.
Schindler also reported that Ukrainian photos had been "manipulated" and that Russian allegations that a Ukrainian fighter jet was tailing MH-17 and Ukrainian soldiers had fired the missile were wrong.
Four German citizens as well as a contingency of infectious disease specialists en route to an HIV summit were among the 298 casualties.
US authorities have not recanted their allegation that Russia gave the BUK missile launchers to pro-Russian rebels, nor have they removed stringent sanctions made against Russia based on those assumptions.
Robert Parry's article, Germans Clear Russia in MH-17 Case, provides a timeline of how the narrative blaming Russia for the plane crash emerged a mere 3 days after the plane crash, "shifted," and is now "crumbling." Blow-back "trade wars" that evolved from harsh sanctions imposed against Russia based on this emotionally charged narrative, have "edged Europe toward a new recession."
Parry puts the German intelligence report in perspective, pointing out weaknesses in the case for pinning the blame on pro-Russian rebels:
None of the BND’s evidence to support its conclusions has been made public — and I was subsequently told by a European official that the evidence was not as conclusive as the magazine article depicted.Parry also points out weaknesses in the original US State Department narrative, which was trotted out on Sunday morning news talk shows only 3 days after the incident. He cites the LA Times article, U.S. officials believe attack against Malaysian plane was mistake, which reported:Der Spiegel said the information given to members of a parliamentary committee on Oct. 8 included satellite images and other photography. What’s less clear, however, is how the BND could determine the precise command-and-control of the anti-aircraft missile system amid the chaotic military situation that existed in eastern Ukraine last July.
U.S. intelligence agencies have so far been unable to determine the nationalities or identities of the crew that launched the missile. U.S. officials said it was possible the SA-11 was launched by a defector from the Ukrainian military who was trained to use similar missile systems.Parry said a source confided in him that some US intelligence analysts believed it unlikely that pro-Russian rebels shot down MH-17, but claimed "it appeared Ukrainian government forces were to blame, although possibly a unit operating outside the direct command of Ukraine’s top officials."
Personally, I agree with the preliminary report made by the Dutch Safety Board, which does not assess blame for the MH-17 tragedy, because they need more information, particularly samples of the objects that impaled the cockpit.
There are too many murky elements afoot to make an airtight case against any of the suspects: doctored Ukrainian photos, allegations of blame made too soon after the disaster, and a reluctance to show the public evidentiary satellite images and photographs.