“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence!”
–Donald Rumsfeld on not finding WMDs in Iraq
On the afternoon of July 17, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777-2H6ER plane carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew members, was shot down at 33,000 feet over a rebel-held area in eastern Ukraine.
Those who downed the plane are war criminals and they must be deported to The Hague and tried.
Russia, which signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, must ratify it. Ukraine, which signed on to the treaty only for this year–must sign on for good. And the United States, which left the treaty (along with Sudan and Israel) and since then has opposed it, must sign it. All three countries must join the community of nations that believes in the rule of law for all and punishment for breaching it, especially in cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
To solve a crime this horrific, hard data is required. However, thus far, the U.S. and the U.K. have been citing two sources: YouTube and Twitter. Satellite images taken after the crash have reportedly been released, but virtually all media venues have simply republished an image originally posted on Twitter by Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Those images, as Twitter would allow, are of very low resolution. More importantly, their earliest date is July 21. All publicly released U.S. satellite information thus far has been of several days after the downing of the plane. Let us also pay attention to the author of the Twitter account–Pyatt. And since he entered the fray via social media, let us recall that it was allegedly he who had discussed a political coup with Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in a conversation in February entertaining thoughts on how to install American-friendly Arseniy Yatsenyuk as prime minister of Ukraine.