Higgins made a name for himself as Brown Moses, an unemployed man from Leicester, who somehow became a weapons expert from analysing photographs and videos. For NATO media he became the go-to man because using photographs he could beguile and dazzle a sleepwalking public into believing that President Assad of Syria would kill hundreds if not thousands of his own people at Ghouta and thus give NATO and their allies the perfect casus belli to bomb the shit out of Syria and oust him as per the plan for war and regime change in seven nations in five years revealed to General Wesley Clark.
Last July 2014 MH17 was shot down over East Ukraine. Immediately NATO media accused Ukraine separatists, some elements going so far as to accuse Russia and even Putin himself. Higgins is part of the latter camp. The USA says that it has data from 'sensors' that shows that a BUK was fired from the Shnzihne area. But did they release the data? Er, no. Instead they released a picture of a plane flying over Donetsk being hit by a missile fired from the Shnizhne area.
Well, I'm convinced. Aren't you?! They say they have the data but won't release it, but instead release a picture!!
FUCKING WOW!!
But there is the small matter of the Ukraine Security Service releasing tapes of alleged intercepted phone calls that they say proved 100% beyond doubt that MH17 was shot down by Cossacks from Chernukino.
So who is lying? Perhaps both?
Why don't the USA release their data from 'sensors' that they have instead of allowing conspiracy theories to grow and grow and the war to rumble on and on?
Is it perhaps because they don't have it?
In November last year a project that Higgins put together, Belling Cat, published a report that they said 'proved' that MH17 was shot down by a BUK located south of Shnizhne which was provided by Russia. Using coloured squiggly lines drawn on by the authors themselves, Belling Cat attempted to link Russia with a video of a BUK with a missing missile travelling through Luhansk. I won't say when that video was filmed because we now have THREE different proposed times which Belling Cat have somehow overlooked in their quest to blame Russia: dawn of 18th July; evening of 17th July; late afternoon of 17th July. The Belling Cat report explicitly stated that they cannot verify the time that the video was filmed. However, members of the Belling Cat team, Higgins himself and Aric Toler, have stated elsewhere that the BUK that shot down MH17 was the BUK in that video.
But there are massive problems with all this.
In December 2014 RTL Nieuws published a report into a photograph of a plume of smoke that was allegedly taken immediately after MH17 was shot down. Using Higgins' beloved geolocation, a field 5 KM south of Shnizhne was located as the probable launch site. A NATO weapons expert stated that the smoke came from a missile. A day or two after 17th July Roland Oliphant had been to that field and found a piece of plastic. Upon the publication of the RTL Nieuws report, Belling Cat were ecstatic and gloating that their report of November 2014 had been verified. An investigation into Oliphant's piece of plastic was launched, perhaps with the intent of discovering if it belonged to a BUK system. But it looks like it doesn't, and that investigation has fizzled out. The RTL Nieuws report was used to further bash Russia and Putin.
But a week ago two parallel reports were published, by Correctiv and Der Spiegel, which they claim proved that MH17 was shot down by a BUK from 3 Km north, not 5 Km south, of Shnizhne. Now, this massive contradiction to the previous claims made by the Ukraine Security Service and Belling Cat was somehow overlooked as Belling Cat proclaimed these two parallel reports as 'proof'. Contradictions in times and locations were also missed by Belling Cat as they proclaimed these two reports as 'proof'.
And to add to all this, a few days Higgins suddenly showed some interest in Ukraine's BUKs and other aspects of the investigation into MH17 that Belling Cat had previously steered well clear of. One aspect of this was the Russian MoD press conference on 21st July in which Russia released radar data. I covered what Higgins did regarding this in BELLING CAT AND DUTCH MH17 INVESTIGATION TEAM ARE IN BIG TROUBLE. Higgins looked at a video which overlayed the paths of MH17 provided by the official Dutch MH17 investigation report of September 2014 and the Russian radar data. The Russian radar data showed that MH17 took a left and then right turn, while the Dutch investigation report showed a straight line. But Higgins believed the Dutch investigation report image and said the Russians were wrong. However, buried within the Dutch investigation report is some of the alleged communication between MH17 and ATC, which states that MH17 took a left and then right turn so that it was approximately 20 Nautical Miles north of its previous flight path. According to the report MH17 requested this change in path (but if the Ukraine Security Service have their hands on it for months can we trust that MH17 requested this or is it legitimate to ask if MH17 was ordered to change course?). But Higgins said the Russian radar data is wrong. BUT IT ISN'T!!
A few days ago yet another article fawning over Higgins contained an interview of Higgins himself, in which he stated :
One new tool we’ve started using recently is Meedan’s Checkdesk, which allows us to collaboratively and transparently verify content, and that’s something I’m hoping to encourage the use of among my contributors and my audience. The hope is that my audience will see the process of verification and investigation, learn from that, and participate, so they learn how verification works and become skilled investigators themselves.
[source : Watch out for Bellingcat, Columbia Journal Review, http://ht.ly/HnsEa, 12th January 2015]
But what I have presented here is a total lack of journalistic integrity that approaches Orwellian propaganda.
1. not once has the integrity of the Ukraine Security Service been questioned, despite the blatant contradiction in what Belling Cat suggest and the Ukraine Security Service suggest;
2. not once has the bias of the investigation into MH17 been addressed: the Netherlands is a founding member of NATO who have wanted Ukraine as a member of NATO for decades so they are not going to waste this chance; MH17 is believed to have been shot down by a BUK yet Ukraine has BUKs; Dutch families of victims have called the investigation "completely botched"; Malaysia, to whom MH17 belonged, was not allowed to participate in the investigation, and when after public pressure it was allowed, but only as a junior member, yet anther Malaysian plane drops out of the sky.
3. when RTL Nieuws publish a report into a photograph into a plume of smoke allegedly taken immediately after MH17 was shot down, which places the launch site of that missile as a field 5 KM south of Shnizhne, Belling Cat gloat and gloat that their case is proven;
4. yet when Correctiv and Der Spiegel publish parallel reports citing 'eyewitness' testimony which places the launch site as 3 Km north of Shnizhne, and in a field that does not lie on the line of sight provided by the photograph in the RTL Niews report, Belling Cat proclaim these two parallel reports as the truth also!! And in these Correctiv and Der Spiegel reports lie several other contradictions, such as the time and location that the video of a BUK with a missing missile was filmed. The Ukraine Security Service said it was filmed at dawn on 18th July in Luhansk. The actual location was traced to a suburb several Kms west of Luhansk centre. But Correctiv and Der Spiegel state that the video was filmed at either late afternoon or evening of 17th July, and on the N21 which does not run through west Luhansk but travels straight through the centre of Luhansk and continues north!
The Russian radar data is crucial. The communications between MH17 and ATC were confiscated by the Ukraine Security Service so they could have done anything to those communications. But the Russian radar data, despite what Higgins states, agrees with what was published in the Dutch investigation report. The Russian radar data showed fighter jets close to MH17 when it was shot down. The Ukraine military says no flights were made on 17th July. But this question of the presence of Ukraine military aircraft close to MH17 when it was shot down can be answered by the Ukraine military opening its log books of all military flights on 17th July for inspection. So far it has not done so. However, several eyewitnesses state on camera that fighter jets were close to MH17 when it was shot down. Such statement worried the BBC so much that they pulled a report containing such statements! But I showed that on the question of Russian radar data, it can be trusted, yet Higgins says that it cannot.
So:
1. why doesn't the USA release its data from 'sensors' to show where the missile was launched?
2. why doesn't the Ukraine military open its log books of flights on 17th July for inspection:
3. why does NATO instead rely on an untrustworthy Belling Cat team to push the Russia-shot-down-MH17 meme?
With his unchecked and biased allegations, as I have pointed out above, Higgins is providing NATO with the kind of information that can be used to convince a sleepwalking public to support NATO's expansion into Ukraine, thus driving us all closer to WW3.
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