The downing of the Malaysian MH17 on the 17 of July 2014, where nearly three hundred civilians from different nationalities were killed, it unmistakable constitutes a most serious war crime. Further, imputing such a hideous crime to the leaders of any organization or government, in absence of conclusive evidence, it should be equated in the ethical level of a human-rights related breach, not to mention libel. Worst, if it would be concluded – as suggested in a recent analysis by Maj Wechselmann published in The Professors’ Blog – [2] that the MH17 downing it would have been an stage operation – such a false-flag at expense of 298 civilian lives would constitute a double war crime.

MH17 – The facts and the libel. A false-flag at expense of 298 civilian lives would be a double war crime

By Prof. Marcello Ferrada de Noli, Chairman, Swedish Doctors for Human Rights

1. The speculations

Biased speculations from NATO’s client-media kept flowing against the revolutionary forces in East Ukraine since the first minute.

But not only speculations, aggravating accusations too. The then Sweden’s Foreign Ministry Carl Bildt declared to the Swedish TV, emphatically,

“Of course Russian separatists were behind the shooting down of the Malaysian MH17″.[3].

A few days later, on the 20 of July 2014, the foreign minister elaborated further in his own blog (Alla dessa dagar), “There hardly exist any doubt that (MH17) was shot down by the pro-Russian separatists”. [4]

Bildt, 20 July 2014

Nowadays, this State-promoted libel is increasingly evolving to targeting instead Russia itself. This, to the extreme of publicizing the notion that “the robot was sent over from the Russian side as a deliberate decision by the Russian military – or even from higher level – to the separatists’ area, to shoot down the plane” [State-owned Swedish Radio, details down below] [5].

Obviously, a public releasing of all the Intelligence gathered on the MH17 crash would have set the record straight. Why have this not happened? Why  countries with sophisticated Intelligence capability have not divulged their satellite or radar imaginary over the site crash – as Russia did at an early stage, already on the 21 of July 2014? [6]

The U.S., with its formidable surveillance system  – which in numerous occasions has given proof of in recent years – has undoubtedly  a detailed intelligence gathered on and around the MH17 crash. Yet, the U.S. keeps refusing to share that information. [7] Ukraine confiscated the tapes recording communications between Kiev’s tower-control and the pilots, [8] but they have kept the recordings secret. After a year that the British authority Air Accidents Investigative Branch got the two black-boxes sent by Ukraine for analysis, [9], still no official information has been delivered to the public. 

Most revealing, on the 8 of August 2014 Ukraine, Netherlands, Austria and Belgium signed a pact on that no results of the investigation would be published “unless all four countries agreed”. [10] This agreement was effectuated at a request by Ukraine.

2. The escalating of NATO presence in the Ukraine civil war corresponds to an escalation in the libel around the MH17 causes. After a year evidence stills is kept secret. Is there such a evidence?

The news on this tragedy was first brought in Sweden by Aftonbladet. In the first two lines, long before the description of the events, the paper published; “U.S. Intelligence services certain that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 shot down by an air-defense robot”, meaning it was shot from the ground. [11] That was only hours after the crash. Predictably, shortly thereafter the Foreign Minister of Sweden, Mr. Carl Bildt declared early in the morning in the State-owned Swedish Radio with his own add-on: “the plane was likely shot down by pro-Russian separatists” [In the small text under the minister’s portrait, it reads: “Carl Bildt has been pushing for tougher sanctions from the EU against Russia”].

The reports that minister Bildt had at his disposal did not contain any such evidence to support his statement. Although rather long down in the Aftonbladet‘s text, it was nevertheless written there that the “American Intelligence services said that it was unclear from which side the missile was fired” (and Aftonbladetacknowledges also that the Ukrainian armed forces have such weaponry in their arsenal). [11] What proof had Bildt to made that accusation? None.

One year after the MH17 crash, we left reassured that Sweden’s position remains at the same level of biased Russophobia – and that the official media still serves as direct megaphone of Carl Bildt biased narrative, no matter the change of government:

Bildt, 17 July 2015

On the eve of the first anniversary of the MH-17 tragedy, the State-owned Swedish Radio had a long reportage in its main program Studio 1. Predictably, the program in its length reasoned on this speculative dilemma: whether the shooting down was perpetrated by pro-Russian rebels in Donbass, or – and this was the main thesis elaborated – whether the plane was shot down by the Russians themselves and on orders from high level! Not a single word was broadcasted in regards to widely known publications that have pointed out to a completely different scenario, namely,  findings indicating that Malaysian Airlines MH17 may have been shot down by a fighter-jet. [12]

Amidst the monotonous Russo-phobic narrative filling that  Swedish Radio broadcasting on the 16 of July, a comment uttered by the speaker did strike into my attention. The speaker said, referring to the MH17 shooting down,

”A turning point in the Ukraine conflict” (“En vänt punkt i den Ukraina konflikten”)

With the above words, the Swedish Radio program evoked at the auditions – Inadvertently – the series of false flag incidents that History has recorded in regards to the need of escalating wars. [13]

Thereafter, the Swedish Radio went directly into cherish Carl Bilt’s thesis, and thus opened the subject with the preposterous allegation, that Russia would have transported the BUK missile launcher from Russia the day before, deliberately (medveten), and with the specific purpose subject of shooting down the MH17!

The main analysis in the radio program is given then to the Swedish Radio own correspondent (Sten Sjöström) who recently had visited the area of the crash. This is what he said:

“During all the summer (after the MH17 downing) the war was conducted in an international level. Before that, the war was seen mostly as a local Eastern Ukraine happening. But because, suddenly, an airplane that flew from Amsterdam to Asia was shot down over that area, carrying people from very many nations, and that suddenly the airplane shots down – that changed the entire picture of this war; and it then led to colossal strong reactions against Russia, immediately. Russia said that it is necessary to wait until all the crash investigations are complete, but the facts are that Russia’s position became very strongly weakened”. [14]

Then the Swedish Radio asks its own correspondent:

SR  asking journalist: “If it will be so, that the Commission of Inquiry concludes that it was a Russian missile fired from a launcher-ramp introduced the day before from Russia who shot down the Malaysian aircraft over Ukraine, how it will affect Russian politics, both domestically and in relation to Europe?” [15]

SR answering journalist: “If it can be established that it was the separatists, it is one thing; but –as you were indicating – if one can prove that the robot was sent over from the Russian side as a deliberate decision by the Russian military – or from even higher level – to the separatists’ area, toshoot down the plane, it definitely led to very serious consequences. It will tighten the situation, definitely. “ [16]

The State-owned Swedish Radio, likewise they did on the days of the MH17 tragedy when they published Carl Bildt’s first stage in the anti-Russia propaganda  escalation, houres after the MH17 crash: “MH17 likely downed by separatists” [17] (two days after Bildt meant “beyond doubt”, to finally putting the blame directly on a Russian Army unit).

The State-owned Swedish Radio – widely known as megaphone of the political and cultural subservience of Sweden – meant that because of that episode (the  MH17 downing) the Ukraine war became a conflict of international proportions. And the Swedish Radio predicts that in a near future it can be worst…  for Russia.

3. So, who needed “international proportions” of such a war? Who needed the MH17 to be shot down?

After the  shooting of the MH17, the anti-Russian psyops in the Western media exploded in a frenetic path. Simultaneously, Russophobic Carl Bild – who according to WikiLeaks exposures would be a U.S. Information Officer – could easily put forward in the EU forum the U.S. positions on a hardening of sanctions against Russia. Further, NATO war exercises started to be implemented “in countries bordering Russia and the Baltic Sea” (U.S. Lt. General Ben Hodges), [17] and from then on the escalation of the U.S. military intervention in Ukraine began, and continues now unabated. U.S. troops commenced first the training of the Ukrainian National Guard, and now continues with the training of the Ukraine Army – while the military aid has escalated from “non-lethal gear”, then military vehicles prepared to carry machine guns, to the sending of heavy weapons asked by the Pentagon.

In this context, no public became really surprised – and that is the whole idea with an escalation strategy – when massive American troops start exercise operations kilometres of the Russian border. In the NewsVoice article “Severe tensions between Nato, Russia and Ukraine could lead to a greater war – Warmongers should think twice” we quote Professor Stephen F. Cohen, New York University, who referred to the nowadays situation as a re-edition of a “cold war”, while marking that the epicentre of this new cold war is not any longer Berlin, but it has moved by the U.S. “right to the Russian borders”. [18]

In other words, who had to expect a geopolitical harvesting with the shooting of MH17? And for whom instead such a deed was supposed to signify a  geopolitical setback? 

Another publication of Swedish Radio of the same 16 of July, emphatically stated in big headlines:

“Proof indicates that pro-Russian rebels shot down Malaysian passenger-plane” [19]

That was also a false-flag wise deceiving

The content of the information drastically contradicts the above emphatic headlines-statement. In the online publication is given that, “the conclusion is given in a draft to the preliminary report of  Netherland investigators…reports CNN”. [20]

I have listened to the corresponding recordings of the broadcasted program. It turns out that the information was done “anonymous” by two Americans. And that these two anonymous Americans – which are the ultimate source of the Swedish Radio’s aggravating statement – have nothing to do with the Netherland investigative committee! [5].

Swedish Radio’s illegal media-blackout

In fact, there exist in Sweden written impartiality-reporting rules, that he Public service TV and Radio have the obligation to comply with. They are bound to give both versions of important debatable issues. Obviously, the broadcasting authorities do not care to follow such rules in cases like this one, when it is a matter of propagate the version of the bosses they serve – against the truly interest of the people of Sweden. And they know they would be acquitted if any one would file against them. For they truly represent those in power. Nevertheless, theyshould have mention that there are other facts on the table. Or at least other interpretations that differ from their source, “two anonym Americans that contacted the media outlet CNN”.

They should have said, at least, that the Russian Defence Ministry had call to a press conference –most likely attended by the Swedish correspondents – where they presented to the public the facts their own Intelligence and surveillance systems had have gathered on the MH17 incident. [6] Those facts prove that an Ukrainian fighter jet  SU-25 did fly at that occasion in the vicinity of the MH17 plane. And there is a video too, with the radar imaginary. The Video was uploaded by Russian TV, RT [to download the video click on the second image below]. And it was not a production of RT’s own news, or sourced in two anonymous individuals – like in the case of the CNN-report in which the Swedish Radio Studio 1 based its unilateral, biased program of the 16 of July 2015.

The RT video shows the actual press conference by high-rank identifiable generals of the Russian Army. The same Russian Army that Bildt and his Swedish Radio Studio 1 have the boldness to accuse – with no proof – to have in cold blood killed the MH17 298 civilians. Why would Swedish Radio totally hide this information from the Swedish public? And while elaborating at length just precisely the theme of West being investigating not whether, but “how” the Russians downed the MH17? 

Because the shooting down of the MH17 it goes corollary with the accusations that Russia bears the responsibility for it. Because the tragedy and the blaming are only dos caras de la misma moneda – the two faces of a same coin, the formulation of a “False Flag” hypothesis around the shooting of MH17 is not alien to either logics nor to experience. History, that is – which knows that false flag operations might end in Nuremberg trials, such as the one starting WWII. The Tonkin Gulf incidents, the “weapons of mass destruction”, they are all waiting for judgement.

Addenda: Read also on this issue: Sputnik News interviews Swedish Doctors for Human Rights Chairman, on UN Security Council draft resolution ref. MH17

Notes and References

[1] Swedish Doctors for Human Rights (SWDHR)

[2] Maj Wechsselmann, Was the shooting down of MH17 a false-flag operation?, The Professors’ Blog, 29 July 2015.

[3] Dagens Nyheter, Johan Croneman: Konsensus råder, tyst det är i husen, mediehusen. DN, 19 August 2014.

[4] Carl Bildt, MH17 och Gaza i Bryssel, Alla dessa dagar, 20 July 2014: “det råder knappast någon tvekan om att det var proryska separatister som sköt ner planet”.

[5] Swedish Radio, Studio Ett, 16 July 2015

[6] RT. Ukrainian Su-25 fighter detected in close approach to MH17 before crash – Moscow, 21 July 2014

[7] Sputnik News, CIA Refuses to Share Updated Intelligence on MH17 Crash – US Journalist, 27 March 2015

[8] BBC [Reporting: Helier Cheung, Amber Dawson, Tom Geoghegan, Tessa Wong, Emma Brant, Alastair Lawson, & Patrick Jackson, As it happened: Reaction to MH17 Malaysia Airlines plane crash in Ukraine, 18 July 2014.

[9] The Independent, MH17 crash: Black boxes arrive in the UK from Ukraine for analysis, 23 July 2014.

[10] James O’Neill, Why the Secrecy on the Mh17 Investigation, Counterpunch, 19 December 2024.

[11]  Aftonbladet, Svår flygkrasch i Ukraina – minst 298 rapporteras döda, 17 July 2014. (“Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 sköts ner med en luftvärnsrobot, slår amerikansk underrättelsetjänst fast.”).

[12] M Ferrada de Noli, New findings may indicate that Malaysian Airlines MH17 was shot down by a fighter-jet. The Professors’ Blog. Updates, starting 5 August 2014.

[13]  Robert Parry, MH-17 Mystery: A New Tonkin Gulf Case?, 17 July 2015

[14] Swedish Radio, Studio Ett, 16 July 2015: ”Hela sommaren (efter MH17 sköts ner) det kriget fördes i ett internationell plan; men innan dess det sägs mest som en lokal Öst Ukraina företeelse. Men i o med att helt plötsligt en flygplan som flög frän Amsterdam till Asien blev nerskjuten over det området, om med folket från väldig manga nationer, och som helt plötsligt drogs ner, då det ändrade hela bilden ut av det här kriget; och det ledde då till väldig starka reaktioner mot Ryssland, omedelbart. Ryssland har sagt att man måste vänta att alla haveri utredningar är klara, med den faktiska situationen var att den Rysslands position försvagades väldigt stark”. 

[15] Swedish Radio, Studio Ett, 16 July 2015: “Om det blir så att haverikommissionen slår fast att det var en Ryss robot från en avfyrningsramp infördes dagen innan från Ryssland som sköt ner Malaysia flygplanet över Ukraina, hur kommer det att påverka rysk politiken både inrikes och i relation till Europa?”  Id.

[16] Swedish Radio, Studio Ett, 16 July 2015: “Om man kan slå fast att det var separatisterna, det är en sak, men – som du var in på – om man kan bevisa att roboten skickades over från ryska sidan som en medveten beslut från ryska militären, eller ännu högre upp, till separatist området för att skjuta ner denna planet, det absolut ledda till väldigt stora konsekvenser. Om man skall kunna bevisa det, det kommer att skärpa situationen, definitivt.” id.

[17] Swedish Radio, Bildt: MH17 likely downed by separatists, 18 July 2014. 

[18] M Ferrada de Noli, ANders Romelsjö, Leif Elinder, Severe tensions between Nato, Russia and Ukraine could lead to a greater war – Warmongers should think twice, NewsVoice, 27 March 2015.

[19] Swedish Radio, Bevis pekar på att proryska rebeller sköt ner malaysiskt passagerarplan, 16 July 2015

[20] [“Slutsatsen dras i en utkast till den nederländska utredarnas preliminära rapport om händelsen, då 298 människor omkom, rapporterar CNN”].

* This article was first published by SWEDHR Research & Reports. Vol 2., N° 24, 28 July 2015