On July 30, 2014, Matthew Dubas, editor of the New
Jersey-based publication The Ukrainian Weekly, appeared in an episode of "The G-Man Interviews" to discuss the crash of Malaysian Flight MH17.
During that interview, Dubas noted that his sources told him there was footage of trucks transporting weapons into Ukraine and that a Buk missile was missing from one of the transport vehicles. The episode can be viewed here.
Dubas submitted the following editorial in response to the recent CNN news report entitled "MH17 Downed By Missile Brought in from Russia". The report indicated that after a prolonged investigation, investigators found the flight was downed by a Buk missile. The views expressed by Mr. Dubas do not necessarily reflect the views of the Ukrainian Weekly's management or staff.
When I appeared on The G-Man Interviews in 2014, I believe we even discussed possible
locations where the Buk was fired from, and the similar pictures and evidence
that Bellingcat and others have publicized.
The denials from Moscow are such a
thinly veiled middle finger to the Western legal framework that hopes to
prosecute those individuals and Russia itself for its crimes against humanity.
(Russia continues its veto in the UN Security Council on the formation of an
international tribunal for MH17, etc.) As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
told Russia at the U.N., Russia is living in a "parallel world,"
where reality is deemed by Moscow as fiction and Moscow's fiction is reality.
The Western world is seemingly
ill-prepared to deal with such terrorist gangsters as we have not seen
effective examples of leadership to deter. ISIS is small potatoes by
comparison, as it does not have nukes but is sitting on an oil cache (like
Russia), nor does it target civilian aircraft. Iran has begun its agitation in
the region as well, with assistance and encouragement from Moscow. Radicalized
Islamists pose a greater threat to the general public in urban areas, as those
attacks have been localized, as we've seen, but meant to induce fear and
disrupt the daily routines of individuals.
The same frustration is growing due to
Russia's blatant war crimes in Syria.
The question that has been on everyone's
mind is: Will Russia ever face prosecution and will the victims ever get a
sense of justice for the innocents lost by terrorist acts?
Not long ago, some people were asking if
the Soviet Union would ever collapse and if Ukraine would ever be free, and
that has become a reality (although in the last two years it has come under
threat from Russia). We can do more than just hope. We can make it happen, but
only if we act together against Russia. And Russia is attempting to break that
unity through a disinformation campaign and influencing political parties in
Europe and, seemingly, the U.S. as well.
History has shown that some
governments have gone against convention in order to seek justice, like when
the Mossad secretly extricated Nazi leader Adolph Eichmann from Argentina to
face prosecution in Israel.
I don't expect anything like
that, but it should perhaps inspire Western leaders to think outside the box
(more than just sanctions) and to seek to apply enforceable consequences on
such criminals and governments that are guilty of war crimes and crimes against
humanity.
Another example would be the
targeting of Boko Haram and reports of its attempt to starve to death more than
75,000 people in Nigeria. The world has been mostly silent on that threat as
well.
Yet, global leaders continue
to repeat that old saying, "Never again."
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