The acronym “MH17” has become a symbol of many things since that fateful day on July 17 when the Malaysian airliner crashed in embattled east Ukraine. First and foremost, the scattered bits of aircraft aluminum that littered the cold fields of Ukraine are now a grave marker for 298 innocent souls.
The broken airplane was sent to the Netherlands via rail to be studied. It is prima facie evidence in a baffling, bewildering international mess. Luckily, there are those trying to unravel the mystery. Here’s some revealing testimony about just how botched this investigation is.
Wrecked From the Start
As the pieces of wings, tail, and fuselage of MH17 arrive via train in Netherlands to be examined, the Malaysian Airlines MH17 catastrophe is already being called a “botched investigation.” For some, it was from the very beginning, but now the Netherlands Parliament, and angry families of those killed, they’ve voiced their suspicions over the highly secretive inquiry.
On Dec. 5, Prime Minister Mark Rutte was asked to turn over the investigation to the United Nations. In The Hague, parliamentarians like Christian Democrat MP Pieter Omtzigt, have tabled questions for the Dutch Safety Board, the foreign ministry, and the minister of justice. As Omtzigt and others probe the veil of secrecy surrounding this affair, the world court of opinion owes a special attentiveness these efforts.
MORE:
- Malaysia Airlines Flight 17: Russia Rejects Australia’s Call for Apology Over Downed Plane
- Malaysia Airlines Update: Flight 17 Prosecutor Open to Idea that Airplane Shot It Down
- What Happened? The Day Flight 17 Was Downed
Five months after MH17 disintegrated, and we only have a messy blame game as evidence of who shot down the plane.
Beneath the watchful eyes of the world’s most sophisticated intelligence, at a spot on the globe scrutinized like no other, 298 lives lay shattered to bits and pieces. It’s all inconceivable to even the layperson, that this case has no solution yet.
With Europe and the world in a spinning diplomacy game that’s spiraling downward, we’ve only a slew of acronyms to quell our curiosities: the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE); the once masked Joint Investigation Team (JIT); and other curious outfits like the Eurojust.
As far as anyone outside the investigation know, rumors of CIA involvement and a false flag could be true. Is another acronym to blame—did NATO play a role? Or was the whole affair the fault of a former KGB operative turned president of Russia? We literally know nothing.
So it was when I tweeted Omtzigt and received his reply the other day, a ray of light beamed into an otherwise bleak information vacuum. As it turns out, even the lawmakers don’t know what’s going on.
Echoing Dismay
Before I get into mine and Mr. Omtzigt’s conversation, it will help the reader to know how circuitous and confusing the trail the MH17 inquiry is for those who inquire.
You see, most of the official channels into this catastrophe are either officially closed, very far up the food chain, or obscured by a bureaucratic veil hardly anyone can easily see through.
The story of that fateful day is a roller coaster of hype and misinformation not seen before.
A few hours into the news, the Obama administration’s secretary of state essentially blamed the Russian Federation. Then mainstream media mirrored this, even without so much as a satellite image or any verification whatsoever, save for some laced together audio and video via the Internet.
The pro-Russian separatists accused of shooting down the plane denied the implications. So did Russian officials, even though early on, MH17 supposedly succumbed to “Putin’s Missile,” according to headlines.
In the Netherlands, Australia, and Malaysia, where dozens of families were shattered by the loss, shock and speechlessness prevailed. This was supplanted with anger, an anger that has not been quelled, but which has only been refocused on the people in charge of finding the truth.
My own investigation into the event probably resembles most interested parties’ efforts. The fighting on the ground in east Ukraine seemed to be the first roadblock to solving the crime.
Investigators of the OSCE were the first on the scene; their multinational observers probably know as much as anyone. I tried contacting their special monitoring mission head (SMM) on the scene, but never received a reply. I did communicate with OSCE’s spokesperson, Cathie Burton, who was immensely helpful in my understanding the mess their organization has to unravel.
You see the OSCE is an organization born out of the Cold War (her words), one dependent on agreement by all the nations involved as to what the “facts” are in any situation. This is both a blessing and a curse where transparency is concerned. I quote Ms. Burton:
“I understand your frustration: this is a difficult time to find the facts and I have personally never seen so much misinformation spread, either mischievously or innocently.”
Despite Ms. Burton’s candidness and professionalism, and her organization’s super tough job, the reader can glimpse the secrecy and silence that’s taken hold of this tragic event. There’s simply no transparency into this vitally impactful event.
I never tried to contact the JIT made up by the Netherlands, Australia, Ukraine, and Belgium (which no one seems to understand), basically because the group was at first a myth, a very well-kept secret, according to Dutch politician Pieter Omtzigt.
As for me, I am not even sure now if anyone can actually communicate directly with this group. If asked “who’s in charge” of any of its parts, I doubt any national leader would know.
However unknown the JIT’s inner workings are, there’s another entity that interacts with it, Eurojust. I won’t get into exactly what this organization does, suffice it to say it’s a judicial cooperation unit of the EU. Why they’re involved with the JIT, the Dutch Safety Board, and this investigation, matters less than how secretive they seem. I contacted one of their spokespersons over their role with the JIT, here’s the essence of what I got back:
“Eurojust believes that international cooperation on this sensitive matter is best served by silence.”
Next: Goings On Behind Closed Doors
Goings On Behind Closed Doors
If not for inquiries like those of Pieter Omtzigt, and what little we know from the Russian Defense Ministry report early on, the world court of opinion would only had one prime suspect in all this.
Even up until this weekend, Malaysia was to be excluded from examining the MH17 evidence, excluded from the JIT. This all leads to the problem now of credibility, the belief in truth that leads to justice.
Remember there’s a call to take the investigation out of Netherland’s hands. To make matters even worse, the Dutch Safety Board’s interim report apparently had key elements deleted from its final form. According to this news, backed up by parliamentarian Omtzigt, someone in the investigative menagerie had to request this sentence be removed from the official report:
“The NOTAM with air space restrictions had been emitted as a reaction on the downing of the Antonov 24 on July 14, which flew on altitude FL210”
A “NOTAM” is a notice to airmen that allows pilot discretion over any factor involving his or her aircraft’s safety and operational procedures. The notation of the Antonov above refers to a military aircraft downed by advanced anti-aircraft technology, at a very high altitude, and just a couple of days before the MH17 disaster.
It’s being omitted is huge. In effect, assuming the pilot of MH17 knew of the other downed plane, he could have diverted to avoid hostile territory. Furthermore, news this week tells of sources at Eurocontrol, the organization that manages Europe’s air traffic, saying they told Ukrainian counterparts to take heed of more than 20 Ukrainian military aircraft having been destroyed over pro-Russian territory in the east.
Turning to Omtzigt’s concerns over undue secrecy, misconceptions, and these more recent discoveries, if not for his efforts, the Dutch Parliament and the people would not even know which countries make up the once veiled JIT. Neither would parliamentarians know whether or not one of the prime suspects, Ukraine, actually has a veto right to suppress certain information.
Omtzigt elaborates on his queries, and the overall lack of transparency:
“In an earlier phase I asked for all the agreements which the Dutch government entered into in the aftermath of the MH17 tragedy. I got a long list, but not about the JIT. At that time even the existence of a JIT was confidential.”
This all casts doubt on the validity of the investigation, and this is the problem Omtzigt and all concerned parties face.
How can MH17 be resolved once and for all, if the public cannot believe in the findings? What’s more, how can the families of the victims ever get closure?
Finally, I asked Omzigt his opinion on whether or not the investigation and prosecution of the MH17 case should be passed to another authority, such as the United Nations. The UN made such an offer but the Hague rejected it on Dec. 9. Omzigt responded that he has no preference where the case is tried, but justice must be served.
“It is important that there is a thorough investigation and a fair trial. And it is important that those responsible are punished. Not just those who shot, but also those who gave orders and/or provided the weapons.”
All this leads to the question, “Has the investigation been botched?” Certainly, if the families of the 298 persons cannot trust justice is served, this is the worst miscarriage. Those people who died needlessly above Ukraine, they were citizens of the world too.
I’m sure there are many legislators and officials like Pieter Omtzigt with acronyms attached appropriately: KGB, CIA,NSA, FBI, the JIT, the OSCE, among the myriad others. What’s most worrying for me is something Omtzigt alluded to in our latest correspondence, which I'll share:
“…As to the intel, it is worth noting that both sides do not put the evidence on the table. That is worrying. This is one of the most closely guarded spots on the earth in terms of eavesdropping, satellite monitoring and much else from two sides (Russia and United States with allies). Both sides know a lot more that they are willing to share with the world community.”
It’s no secret this tragedy has been used and manipulated to serve other purposes. Those facts are, however disturbing, a secondary consideration now. Has the investigation been botched? For most people it was the instant doors slammed shut to hide whatever discussion. The problem now is, our own complicity and guilt, if the world allows it to remain so. The 298 victims surely plead from the hereafter for better justice than this from their fellow man.
