Passing the BUK on MH17

So...for the second time in four months, Malaysian Airlines has lost a Boeing 777 jetliner with all on board. If not for the nearly 600 dead souls it would almost be comical. Instead it's criminal but the UN will just shake their fists while doing nothing of consequence. The Ukrainians are more than just a tad embarrassed that a civilian jetliner is unable to transit over their country without being attacked. They're also secretly relieved that something got shot down besides one of their aircraft, since they seem to be losing them at an alarming rate to a surprisingly well-equipped ragamuffin resistance movement. Oh, wait...Moscow is supplying these clowns with whatever they want. But I digress.

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was cruising at 33,000 feet over the area of border fighting in Ukraine on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lampur when it was blown out of the sky by at least one and probably two missiles presumably fired from a Russian-made SAM system called the BUK. Introduced in 1980 and known to NATO as the SA-11, it was designed to hit high-flying targets at altitudes of up to 80,000 feet. By today's standards it is somewhat primitive as it uses a rudimentary radar system that in stand-alone mode isn't linked to a more sophisticated radar and identification network that can distinguish between military and civilian aircraft by their transponder signals alone.

Why the hell Russia would provide the hillbilly rebels of Donestsk with something that despite its age still requires months of training to achieve proficiency with? Because they simply don't give a shit. They want Ukraine back under Soviet Russsian control and are more than willing to give the barely organized rabble fighting against the Ukrainian government whatever they need to kill as many Ukrainians as possible and cause as much chaos as is necessary to get Ukraine to capitulate.

While they may have allegedly pulled their soldiers back across the border into Russia, when Putin originally sent troops into Ukraine a few months under the guise of  "protecting ethnic Russians who voted to secede from Ukraine", they sent in long-range self-propelled artillery and sowed minefields. That's invasion, not peacekeeping. They still have thousands of troops massed on the border awaiting the word to fully invade and take over the former "breadbasket of the Soviet Union".

February 2014. Hey CNN, those aren't tanks but 152mm howitzers with a 20-mile range. Nice try though.

Russian anti-tank minefield on the Ukraine border, February 2014.

Could Russia have printed the minefield caution sign any smaller? Did they remove the mines when they left?

It says "STOP MINES!" Know why it's called a mine? Once you step on it it's all yours.

Ukraine has released videos allegedly showing the BUK missile systems traveling through eastern Ukraine near the site where the plane went down. Reports that rebels had possession of a BUK-M1 came as early as June 29, when rebels overran a Ukrainian military base in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine.

BUK system trundling into Torez

BUK parked in a cozy square in downtown Torez.

The counterintelligence chief at Ukraine’s national security service, Vitaly Nayda, said that his agency became aware that the rebels possessed three BUK-M1 antiaircraft systems as of July 14. At least one was spotted heading into the town of Torez, the most likely location where the missile that downed MH17 were fired from, two hours before the plane was downed. One was later spotted missing two missiles.

Photographs and electronic intercepts, compiled by Ukrainian intelligence operatives, show that three BUK-M1 systems were shipped out of eastern Ukraine in the early morning of July 18, just hours after MH17 was shot down, according to Mr. Nayda. He said that a system missing a missile crossed the border in a flatbed truck to Russia at 2 a.m. on July 18, and two other missile systems with a complete set of missiles in their battery crossed at 4 a.m. The first BUK was filmed as early in the evening as 8:45 PM local time in eastern Ukraine on the border with Russia.

I do not like your BUK on a truck. I do not like it worth a...

 
A social media post by a rebel trooper named Sergei Paschenko (who has since deleted his account and has probably been fed to feral dogs for his transgression against the rebellion and/or Moscow) showed young Sergei, a former Russian-trained air-defense crewman, posing in Ukraine with a BUK system.

Hey everybody look at me with the top secret thing I'm not supposed to talk about

 Paschenko's deleted social media site contained dialogue with a woman called Viktoria dated June 25.

Viktoria: 'So what detachment you are serving in?'
Sergei: 'In a secret one.'
Viktoria: 'Is it really so secret?'
Sergei:  'Yes, this is the most secret air defence ever.'

There is footage out there of militants yukking it up and laughing in the minutes after the missile launch as flaming debris rained down to earth.

This is alleged to have been taken a few seconds after the launch, showing the smoke trails of the missiles.

 
The plane's black boxes were taken away by the rebels and spirited away to Russia. A dollar says Moscow wanted to hear the tapes first to see if anyone in the cockpit said something incriminating, like, maybe, "Oh shit that's a missile!". After much hue and cry from the West, the boxes have been returned to investigators.

The other reports coming out are FAR more disturbing. The cretins disguising themselves as some sort of people's militia impeded access to crash wreckage since the very beginning, most often at gunpoint. However, while keeping investigators and westerners away from the scene, they did nothing to keep their own people out and seemed to let pro-Russian locals meander about at will taking cell-phone pictures.

All that's missing is a pickup truck with a set of metal testicles hanging from the bumper.

The undisciplined rabble have been seen looting the wreckage at every turn, stealing anything of value they can get their hands on. One militia member was seen about to pocket a pair of binoculars until he saw the lenses were shattered, so he tossed it back on the ground, near an empty case that once held an expensive camera. Another rebel was spotted finding and pocketing a gold ring off a corpse. A news correspondent at the scene saw empty wallets and open purses strewn on the ground. There were also unconfirmed reports on social media that smartphones and jewelry had appeared in local market stalls. Families of victims were urgently cancelling their loved ones’ credit cards and mobile phone accounts after desperate relatives revealed how they had called the cell phones of their loves ones - only for them to be answered by strangers with 'eastern European-sounding voices'. Total scumbaggery

Common thieves of uncommon audacity. Pocketing a gold ring off a corpse.

The rebel leader has basically admitted people have been looting the crash site, stealing from corpses, and scavenging aluminum to sell, by issuing a decree that all items are to be turned in to his headquarters, but not so that they could be given back. This clown intends to use the pillaged loot to fund his own defenses. The order read:

  'To all detachments of Donetsk People's Republic army, to soldiers and commanders who from 18 to 21 July 2014 in the area where the Boeing 777 of Malaysian airlines crashed and who possess personal belongings related to this airplane. Before 8 pm on 23 July 2014 you must give these things away to the headquarters of DPR army. Valuable items (watches, earrings, lockets and other jewelry) must be sent to the DPR Defence Fund.'

It is signed by rebel army commander Colonel Igor Strelkov, and carries what appears to be an official stamp. The alleged order has been posted on social media websites in Ukraine and Russia.


New evidence has also emerged that the rebels allegedly planned to sabotage the investigation by contaminating the site with parts from other planes. However, it doesn't take a genius to see that this plane was shot down. Pieces of the fuselage are riddled with shrapnel punctures indicative of a proximity missile detonation.

International monitors who have finally gained full access to the crash site said Tuesday the plane's cockpit inexplicably had been sawed in half with diesel-powered cutters. Also, "The rear part of the aircraft, one of the biggest intact pieces, has definitely been hacked into," said Michael Bociurkiw, spokesman for the group of international monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)."The separatists are removing evidence from the crash site," he said. "All of which begs the question: What are they trying to hide?"


These animals, in their flagrant disregard for humanity and zeal to steal anything they could grab, allowed victims' corpses to fester in the sun for days. Once picked clean they allowed investigators to start bagging the bodies and parts of bodies up. Rumors circulated that some bodies were taken away and possibly even shipped back to their Russian masters. After days in the sun they were finally placed on a refrigerated rail car and shipped a couple hundred miles to a location where they could be flown out to the Netherlands. Rebel commanders claim that bodies or parts of bodies from all 298 on board were recovered and sent but other reports state that only 200 were recovered, meaning that damn near a third of the dead are unaccounted for and still feeding the local wildlife. Thanks to Russia and their minions, death holds no dignity for the victims of their slaughter.

Not that this is anything new. Undisciplined Red Army troops looted with impunity in World War Two. Whatever the Wehrmacht didn't loot in Poland in the beginning of the war the Soviets stole at the end. They stole from Russian peasants in the name of the State and the Rodina, stole from everyone the allegedly liberated before enslaving in Communism, and then pillaged the burnt out husk of a defeated Germany. They were caught looting in Georgia a few years back when they invaded. It's the Russian way seemingly. The only difference between the military's thugs and those of the Russian Mafia is that only one group has control of the nation's nuclear weapons, and we're not sure which group that is.

Furthermore, shooting down civilian jetliners is nothing new for Moscow. Just ask the families of the 269 people killed when a Soviet Sukhoi-15 shot down Korean Airlines Flight 007 in 1983. 

Russians shooting down airliners, Americans dying in the Middle East, turmoil in Israel.  History repeats itself.

Meanwhile, Obama interrupted his non-stop campaigning and fundraising and golfing and vacationing to issue a brief, impotent babble of empty words before going back to doing nothing as usual. Then again, he was quoted in 2012 while talking to Dmitry Medvedyev that he could tell Vladimir he'd be more more flexible after the elections. Meanwhile Russian bombers fly off our coasts and over our fleets unimpeded, and the current score is Russia 2, Civilian Jetliners 0.

And like I said before, Russia's not our friend either

Did I not say a month or so ago that Russia’s government is NOT our friend?
(http://mojosteve.blogspot.com/2007/07/trust-me-comrades.html)

Maybe I’m just having 1987 flashbacks to the Cold War while reminiscing about my high school days 20 years ago, but I could swear that the news has been full of incidents of the Russian Air Force sending out probing flights of ancient Tupolev Tu-95 Bear bombers to the edges of the sovereign airspace of Iceland, within cruise missile striking distance of the US, and towards the US base on Guam, and alongside Tu-22M Backfire and Tu-160 Blackjack bombers in groups of up to eleven planes around Norwegian airspace. One of the Norwegian flights turned south towards Scotland, trailed by Norwegian F-16’s and were intercepted by British Tornado fighters in British airspace before returning to their bases.

It’s been years since the Kremlin has sent nuclear-capable bombers on such overflights, and it smacks of the sort of Cold War saber-rattling made famous by the former Soviet Union. Granted, the Bear is a decrepit old 1950’s airframe, and the Backfire dates back to the early 70’s, but the Blackjack is pretty modern, based upon our B-1B Lancer and only about 20 years old.

Speaking after Russian and Chinese forces completed major war games exercises for the first time on Russian turf, Vladimir Putin said a halt in long-range bombers' flights after the Soviet collapse had affected Russia's security as other nations had continued such missions — an oblique reference to the United States. About the flights, our best-buddy Putin stated, "I have made a decision to resume regular flights of Russian strategic aviation. We proceed from the assumption that our partners will view the resumption of flights of Russia's strategic aviation with understanding… Starting in 1992, the Russian Federation unilaterally suspended strategic aviation flights to remote areas. Regrettably, other nations haven't followed our example. That has created certain problems for Russia's security…Starting today such tours of duty would be conducted regularly and on the strategic scale. Our pilots have been grounded for too long; they are happy to start a new life." I bet. Flying an 18-hour mission over water is always more fun than being an unpaid guy on the ground making vodka from de-icing solution.

The announcement comes amid a growing chill in the U.S.-Russian relations, strained over Washington's criticism of Russia's democracy record, Moscow's strong criticism of U.S. missile defense plans in Poland and the Czech Republic, and differences over crises such as the Iraq war. Plus, rising oil prices have given Putin some extra cash with which to flex his muscles again. Russia recently planted a titanium reproduction of its flag at the North Pole and claimed the North Pole as Russian soil, test-fired a new ballistic missile supposedly capable of thwarting Washington's fledgling missile shield, and has blocked moves at the U.N. aimed at granting Kosovo formal independence from Russia's ally, Serbia.

And just this morning I read a report on the Russian military testing a new thermobaric bomb based upon the American MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast, nicknamed the Mother Of All Bombs.) They are calling theirs the Dad of all Bombs, and tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability, according to Colonel-General Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff, speaking on Russian Channel One television. Thermobaric weapons explode in an intense fireball combined with a devastating blast, producing a terrifying nuclear bomb-like mushroom cloud and sending a massive shock wave created by the air burst and high temperature. Channel One said that while the Russian bomb contains 7.8 tons of high explosives compared to more than 8 tons of explosives in the U.S. bomb, it's four times more powerful because it uses a new, highly efficient type of explosives that the report didn't identify. While the U.S. bomb is equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, the Russian one is equivalent to 44 tons of regular explosives. The Russian weapon's blast radius is 990 feet, twice as big as that of the U.S. design, the report said.

Feel that cool breeze coming in from the Cold War memory banks? And don't forget that they were recently testing out a new ballistic missile system that supposedly renders our proposed Euro-based missile shield obsolete before we can even build it.

Once again, kids…the Mojo Man is on top of things. Now you know, and as GI Joe said, knowing is half the battle……

Trust me, Comrades....

“Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall…”

With those words, President Ronald Reagan inadvertently broke it off in America’s ass. At least with the Soviet Union as the Bad Guys, we knew what we were getting. Now? Everyone is enamored of the notion that the Russians are Good Guys and our bestest buddies.

Back in 1989, what with all the perestroika and glasnost and general thawing of the Cold War, came the end of communism as The Holy Terror of the 20th Century. This was a Good Thing. Down came the Berlin Wall and Germany reunified. This was a Good Thing that I witnessed first hand at its earliest stages. The Warsaw Pact broke apart and Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania were again free to decide their own fates. The good people of Czechoslovakia parted ways amicably and became Slovakia & the Czech Republic. Sadly, the Yugoslavians broke up into a big nasty mess of Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, and a dozen other microrepublics all hating each other. But communism had failed and we all danced a merry jig.

However, we now had all these fledgling democracies teetering on shaky ground, rife with black markets, graft, corruption, and organized crime. This is was a Worrisome Thing. And then we had all these shady fuckers running around selling shoplifted Soviet weapons, from AK’s to tanks, MiG’s to manpack nukes. This was a Bad Thing.

But yet we still danced a merry jig, because at least they weren’t Communists.
They may have been unstable and dangerous, but they were unstable and dangerous “democracies”. The Czechs elected a novelist as their President, and the Poles, to no one’s surprise, elected everyone’s favorite shipyard electrician and union leader as president. Romania and Bulgaria had teething problems in starting their republics, too.

I’m still not 100% ready to trust the Russian government. It’s hard to trust people who grew up not liking us and in many cases still don’t like us, who have many many nuclear weapons to point at us, and many more that they claim to have destroyed but damned well didn’t. It’s a big country with lotsa places to hide little bombs.It's still sometimes hard to trust people I once trained to go to war against.

The current ranks of political apparatchiks and nomenklatura in Russia grew up knowing nothing but communism until the early 90’s, and you didn’t get to any decent managerial positions by thinking the Amerikanskis were comrades. (C’mon, despite changing governments you can’t expect to just replace EVERYONE who ran the administrations; that’s a lotta people to instantly replace with people who know how to run infrastructure). So you have all these hard-line, dyed-in-the-wool Reds who are about to be very unemployed and start humming Yankee Doodlevitch. It was under the Soviet systems that these guys developed their power bases. You can call it “democracy” all you want but I assure you that deep down the place (and military) is still being run at least somewhat like the Politburo did before Smilin’ Mike Gorbachev tore down that wall.

The Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti (KGB, Committee for State Security) became the Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti (FSB, Federal Security Service). Just because you change names doesn’t mean you changed missions, and why hire an ass of new people when you have perfectly well-trained employees already in-house? Though the FSB handles demoestic stuff like our FBI and the FIS (Foreign Intelligence Service, or formerly the KGB’s First Chief Directorate) is like our CIA and does the spying on us. The KGB gave us former Soviet leaders Yuri Andropov and Mikhail Gorbachev, and now current Russian president Vladimir Putin. (Former heads of the KGB have run Moscow since November 12, 1982.)

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Putin smile, except for that rther awkward incident where he kissed that little boy on the abdomen. He just kinda looks at you with cold dead eyes as if contemplating where to dump your body. The dude scares me.

He makes backdoor deals with people who don’t like us, such as Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He still owns as ass of nukes. He’s said that if we put up a misile defense shield in Europe to defend our NATO allies against missile attacks from the Midle East, he’ll see that as aggression and start pointing nukes at us again. What a dick. And he says it lke they ever stopped ointing nukes at us in the first place. Please. Believe THAT and I’ll sell you some of Colonel Khadaffi’s Jheri Curl juice.

Good old Vlad comes over to visit last month to schmooze and make nice with noted genius Gee-Dubya Bush at Dad’s house in Maine, to eat lobstah, go fishing, and presumably work out some issues. More like “I’ll fly over, eat his food, drink his Scotch, chill on the ocean, feed him a line of govno and then go back to waiting for his term to end so I can kick the next poor bastard in the balls”.

His advance party of FSB/FIS agents were caught by a watchful clerk at the state liquor store in Portsmouth, NH trying to pass a phony $100.00 bill for two bottles of Scotch. Liquor store manager Mike Smith said the cashier used a special pen to mark the bill to test its authenticity. "It turned a color that it's not supposed to, and when he saw that, he grabbed the bill back and left," said Smith.

Portsmouth police received a call from the liquor store that the man and his friends were on foot, headed to the nearby Holiday Inn. (I’m intimately familiar with both locations. It’s a 2-minute stroll.) Police responded to the scene; a dispatch message on the police scanner said diplomatic immunity might be involved. But police said that diplomatic immunity was not invoked because police did not make any arrests. The media hushed it up pretty quickly.

So we have the Russian intelligence apparatus passing phony American bills all over the place (don’t feed me any bullshit that they were given a fake Benjamin at the Piscataqua Savings Bank on Pleasant Street. They make these bills to finance their operations overseas at our expense) and we have another former KGB head pointing nukes at us and making buddy-buddy with assclowns who hate us. But the American Sheeple think he’s our friend.

Not cool.