TIM-Mad Dog Sharon Brought to Heel, The Mysterious Russian Crash Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - Truth in Media http://www.truthinmedia.org * Sharon Brought to Heel * US Lies About the Ukraine - To Upstage Israel? * Uri Avnery on the Mad Dog Sharon Israel-Russia Jetliner Crash: Sharon Comes Back to Heel after Washington Upstages His Rebuke of U.S. Terrorism Suspected, But U.S. Spinning News to Blame the Ukraine; Why? To Upstage Sharon/Israel PHOENIX, Oct. 7 - The veil of mystery is slowly lifting from the U.S. government efforts to blame Ukraine for the crash of the Tu-154 jetliner, bound for Novosibirsk, Russia, that took the lives of 77 people, most of them Israelis. Washington did it in order to upstage Ariel Sharon's planned rebuke of the U.S.'s coddling up to the Arabs, according to an Israeli columnist. And the tactic seems to have produced desired results, notwithstanding the preposterous lies upon which our government's claim was based. The supposedly tough-minded Israeli prime minister, accused by some of terrible atrocities in Lebanon in 1982, came back to George Bush's heel like a good puppy. Here's his apology as quoted in today's New York Times (Oct. 7): "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel apologized tonight (Oct. 6) for what he called a misunderstanding caused by his warning that the United States risked appeasing Arab nations the way Europe appeased Adolf Hitler before World War II. "Unfortunately, the metaphor in my words was not understood correctly, and I'm sorry about that," Mr. Sharon said in a brief telephone interview, referring to remarks he made on Thursday. In offering his extraordinary statement of contrition, the prime minister evidently hoped to salve any wounds left by the harshest public exchange between Israel and the United States in decades. In the interview, he expressed regret five times in less than five minutes, capping three turbulent days of some of the strangest diplomacy conducted between the allies." As soon the Tu-154 crash occurred on Oct. 4, we became suspicious of the official Washington position and asked the question WHY was our government spinning the news to blame Ukraine, using some far-fetched explanations? We provided four theories of our own, speculating about possible motives (see Item 1 above). One of them did indeed involve Israel and its until now supposedly impeccable airline and airport security. That is now all but certain. Our government lied (yes, LIED - and blatantly at that! - see the Venik analysis in Item 1b below), in order to prevent Sharon from wrecking the already shaky Muslim support for its anti-Afghanistan coalition. If the truth were to be known, that the Israel-Russia jetliner was probably downed as a result of a terrorist act, the assertion that Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, made the day of the incident, Israel would have to retaliate if it were to stay true to its long-term policy. And Tel Aviv would have to do it in a massive way, given the massive loss of Israeli lives on board of the doomed jet. Such a response by Israel would have obviously not only escalated the virtual state of war that already exists in the Middle East, but it would have interfered with what we now see are Washington's first retaliatory strikes against Afghanistan, which are taking place as this comment is being written. And so, just as Israel was told to hold fire, and did, during the Gulf War, Sharon was told to shut his mouth and apologize, and did, in the preamble to the first U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan. So now everybody knows who is the master in the U.S.-Israeli relations. As for the anti-Zionist theories which alleged that the tail (Israel) was wagging the dog (the U.S.), well, now we can all see how much they are worth when the push comes to shove. This writer's immediate concern, however, is not the U.S.-Israeli relations. It is the Washington-America relations. Every American now has good reasons to be outraged and thoroughly disgusted with a government that is prepared to stoop so low as to blatantly lie and deceive the American people (not to mention the world) to achieve its megalomanic geopolitical goals. And that's the leadership to which we should entrust our lives and that of our children at a time of "war?" - Those who are willing to do so, please raise your hand, and send us a message to that effect. Thank you. - Those who are NOT willing to support the Washington liars and cheaters into a nebulous, Don Quixotic "war" against Islamic windmills, please raise your hand, click here, and also send us a message to that effect. Thank you. Skin-deep "Humanitarianism" Final comment: the Washington/London cynicism seems to have no bounds. On the eve of the aerial assault against Afghanistan, the Bush administration requested and received from Congress an appropriation of $320 million for food aid to Afghan refugees. First we make them homeless and bomb them, then we feed them to appease the billion-plus of their Muslim brothers and sisters around the world. It's a carrot and stick approach that's as old as war. Or rabbit baiting. Which is why should be an insult to every Muslim's intelligence. How stupid do the Anglo-Saxon leaders think the Muslims are? Furthermore, the Washington-London "humanitarianism" is skin deep. It is motivated only by its geopolitical self-interests. Where was food aid or any other kind of aid for the Serb civilians when Washington and London, among other NATO allies, tried to bomb that country into stone age in 1999? Back then, the western aid was offered ONLY to the Albanian refugees. And for the same reason. They were mostly Muslims and NATO allies in a battle against the predominantly Serb Christians, who numbered less than 10 million. In other words, the Serb lives were unimportant in a geopolitical sense. But don't take our word for it. More than two years since the bombing, and over a year after Washington managed to install a puppet government in Belgrade, the families of the nearly 2,000 Serb civilians killed by NATO, and of over 5,000 who were injured by the western bombs, have received one fat zero by way of any compensation. From any government, including their own. Which is why the food aid hailed today by both George Bush and by the British prime minister, Tony Blair, in their evidently carefully coordinated speeches to announce the start of the joint American-British military action against Afghanistan, is yet another cynical gesture by the "humanitarians" of the New World Order. * Israel-Russia Jetliner Crash: Washington Lies to Curtail Israel By "Venik" PHOENIX, Oct. 7 - The name "Venik" should be familiar to regular TiM readers from the days of the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. It is a pseudonym for a Philadelphia-based source whose full name and identity are known to TiM. "Venik" has provided some invaluable intelligence that helped dispel the NATO lies and distortions during its 1999 aggression against Serbia. The same source has come through once again, to help debunk Washington's lies and distortions regarding the Israel-Russia Tu-154 jetliner crash. Here's a "Venik" report which includes detailed maps, which are now available at the TiM web site: Tu-154M Crash: Theoretical Impossibility A Russian Tupolev Tu-154M airliner s/n 85693, flight number 1812, operated by the Sibir Airlines, crashed in the Black Sea while flying from Tel-Aviv, Israel, to Novosibirsk, Russia, on Oct. 4, 2001, 180km southeast from the Russian airport Sochi-Adler. The airliner has 66 Israeli citizens and 11 crewmembers aboard. At 13:30 Moscow time the airliner entered the airspace controlled by the Russian Rostov-on-Don civil aviation ground control center. As required by the procedure, the airliner's crew conducted a standard communication check with the ground control in Rostov-on-Don. At the time of the contact (13:39) the Tu-154M was cruising at altitude of 11 km and the speed of 850 km/h - standard fuel-efficient cruising parameters for the 'M' version of the Tu-154. The crew did not report any problems. At 13:44 the airliner disappeared from the screen of the Russian "Strela" automated air traffic control and guidance system located in Rostov-on-Don. The air traffic controller in Rostov-on-Don requested other aircraft in the area to report any available information about the missing Sibir Airlines Tu-154M. The first response came back almost immediately from the captain of an Armenian Antonov An-24 two-engine turboprop plane. The pilot reported that he observed an airliner explode in the air to the left and above his aircraft. The remains of the airliner were seen falling into the sea, where a secondary explosion was observed along with a considerable quantity of burning fuel on the surface of the sea. At 14:27 a Russian Defense Ministry An-24 and a an Mi-8 helicopter of the Sochi Border Guard service were dispatched to the area of the crash. At the same time two vessels - tugboats "Mercury" and "Captain Buklinichev" - departed from the port of Tuapse and Novorossijsk, respectively. Several minutes later a specially-equipped rescue vessel "Spasatel Prokopchik" left the port of Gelendzhik for the crash site. On the same day the Ukrainian Armed Forces were conducting training exercises involving surface-to-air missile systems S-300PS, S-200V 'Vega' and other shorter-range ground-based and naval SAM systems. Among the practice targets were Tupolev Tu-143 'Reis' unmanned reconnaissance vehicles. A total of 11 remotely-controlled targets were destroyed by Ukrainian air defenses during the exercises and some 40 SAMs were launched. The target UAVs were flying at very low altitudes to imitate cruise missiles and low-flying naval strike planes. The maximum altitude attainable by the Tu-143 UAV is less than 5,000 meters. The exercises were supervised by Russian military representatives, including the Russian Air Force commander, Col. Gen. Kornukov. The Ukrainian ground-based SAM missiles were launched from the 31st naval weapons proving ground located on the Cape Apouk located on the eastern coast of the Crimean Peninsula. The Russian airliner crashed some 334-374 kilometers east of the Cape Apouk. This exceeds the maximum range/altitude of all ground-based or naval SAM systems currently in Ukrainian service. American Response Almost immediately after the crash of the Sibir Airlines Tu-154M, the U.S. press published reports, based on anonymous statement by U.S. military sources, indicating that the Russian airliner was shot down by a Ukrainian missile. This information was soon reprinted by major U.S. newspapers with remarkable agility, becoming the de-facto official position of the U.S. government on the issue. The technical aspects of the Tu-154 crash are relatively easy to understand: the airliner crashed well beyond the maximum range of any ground-based SAM systems in Crimea. Before the crash the airliner was cruising at 11,000 meters - well above the maximum altitude of any naval SAM system in Ukraine's service, which is limited by 4,000 meters attainable by the 20 Gecko-type missiles of the upgraded SA-N-4 low-altitude SAM system aboard the 'Krivak III' class "Hetman Sahajdachniy" patrol frigate. The political aspects of the incident, however, are far more difficult to sort out. Why would the U.S. be so quick to blame Ukraine - one of its closest allies among the former Soviet republics - without any hard evidence against the country? American claims of satellite photographs showing the Tu-154 destroyed by a SAM so far are not supported by facts. Many military experts have strong reservations regarding the possibility of existence of such images. Why? It is entirely possibly for a satellite imaging system to detect a SAM launch in either infrared or visual bands. This is especially true for large SAMs such as S-200 and S-300, which have relatively high IR and visual signatures during launch. However, following the missile's launch a satellite imaging system will become ineffective in visually tracking the missile's trajectory: due to the missile's very high speed, it's IR trail becomes quickly dissipated. Finally, to show that the SAM is likely to intercept an aircraft, it would be required to know the position of the aircraft and the trajectory of the SAM at no more than 30 second before the intercept for these types of SAMs. This is due to the very high speed of the missile. It is highly unlikely that any satellite could have recorded a SAM and the Tu-154 less than 30 seconds before the possible intercept. It is important to understand that this is not so much due to the capabilities of the satellite imaging systems as it is due to control aspects of satellite reconnaissance. This completely discredits claims by anonymous American military sources that they have evidence of an intercept of the Russian airliner by a Ukrainian SAM. Political Rationale Following the terrorist acts in the U.S. on September 11 media self-censorship became a commonplace occurrence in the U.S. media. It is highly unlikely that information from "unnamed Pentagon sources" could have been accidentally leaked and published by the nations leading newspapers at a time when good relations between Russia and Ukraine are so important for the U.S. anti-terrorist efforts. However, perhaps there is something even more important, such as response of Israel to the loss of such a great number of its citizens in what appears to be a terrorist attack. At a time when the U.S. is trying to achieve greater cooperation with the Arab world in its war against terrorism, any response by Israel to such a massive terrorist attack against its citizens may completely ruin the chances of American diplomats in the Middle East, leaving the U.S. without much-needed support of the Arab countries. "Venik," Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Maps courtesy of "Venik:" map of the Tu-154 flight route http://www.truthinmedia.org/Images2001/tu154-map1.gif map of the Tu154 crash site and the Ukraine military exercise zone http://www.truthinmedia.org/Images2001/tu154-map2.gif * Before Apologizing, Sharon Had Virtually Declared War on U.S. by Uri Avnery TEL AVIV, Oct. 6 - We received the following article from Uri Avnery, an Israeli columnist, via his associates at Gush Shalom (Israel Peace Bloc): "Ariel Sharon has declared war on the USA. It can't be defined any other way. He has not declared war on the Palestinians, because that is not necessary. The military confrontation between Israel and the Palestinian people has already been going on for a long time, and nothing has changed this week. But in Israeli-American relations there has been a dramatic change. Thursday (Oct. 4), a plane flying from Tel-Aviv to Siberia was brought down. When the terrible news arrived, Sharon at once ordered a press-conference to be called at prime television time, to be broadcast live on all Israeli television and radio stations. As usual, the media stood to attention and followed orders. Sharon was sure that the plane was brought down by terrorists (who else?) and intended to exploit the incident for a dramatic indictment of Arafat, "bin Laden's twin brother." But the bad Americans spoiled the performance out of sheer spite: at the very last moment they announced that the plane was actually shot down by a Ukrainian missile. But Sharon was already on his way to battle. When this happens to him, no force on earth can stop him. Like a bull, he charges forward. This time he had prepared something special. "He has written the speech himself," his assistants announced proudly. And, indeed, nobody else could have, except the loonies of the extreme right. Addressing the "Western democracies, headed by the United States," Sharon compared the present situation of Israel to that of Czechoslovakia in 1938. The comparison is obvious: Arafat is Hitler, "the Arabs" (all of them) are the fascist axis, George Bush is Neville Chamberlain, the Americans are about to sell Israel down the river in order to appease the Arabs. Munich 2001. Pedantic historians could point to some faults in this comparison. At that time, Germany was a mighty military power facing little Czechoslovakia. While in today's Middle East the situation is the opposite: Israel is the mighty military power and the Palestinians are a small and weak people. Furthermore, Germany was not living under a Czech occupation. Bush is not waving an umbrella, like Chamberlain, but a sword. He is building a great coalition for starting a war. But Sharon does not pretend to be a historian. Like his companions and partners, he lives in the world of his own images, cut off from international reality. He does not care two hoots about America's geopolitical considerations, particularly when they are trying to build a coalition with the Arabs and other Muslims. To make this possible, the Americans must bring about an end to the Palestinian uprising, which inflames the masses in all Arab countries. They must prove that they are striving for a peace that will satisfy the national requirements of the Palestinians. Because of this Bush declared that the Palestinian state is a "vision", and Colin Powell is preparing a peace plan for the Middle East, after consulting with the Saudi prince. Israeli peace activists see this as a positive development. They know that at this point in time only foreign intervention can put an end to the violence and promote the peace. The daily bloodbath, the calls for vengeance on both sides and the mutual lack of confidence prevent an Oslo-style face-to-face Israeli-Palestinian dialogue without intermediaries. But for Sharon, any such intervention would be a disaster. It would lead to a cease-fire that would compel him to stop all the settlement activity that is so close to his heart and is also the basis of his government coalition. These days, thinly disguised new settlements are being set up at a frantic speed, dozens of others were set up in the last few months under the auspices of the IDF. In this situation, Sharon must choose between two options: either to be flexible and then quietly sabotage the American initiative, or to stand up and fight the Americans. Shimon Peres, his close associate, counsels him to choose the first option. After all, since 1948 there have been dozens of American "peace plans" and all of them were buried by Israel with the help of the Jewish lobby, the members of Congress and the American media. So why not now, too? But Sharon is made of different stuff. He is starting a head-on attack on the Bush administration, at a time when the Jewish lobby does not dare to open its mouth and Congress, as well as the media, are marching obediently behind the President. One thousand eight hundred and sixty nine years ago, the Jewish leader Bar-Kochba declared war on the Roman Empire and brought about the total destruction of the Jewish people in Palestine. Now the new Bar-Kochba challenges the American empire. It will be interesting to see what the result will be this time." Uri Avnery, Israel Uri Avnery is an Israeli columnist whose articles can be seen at the Gush Shalom web site - http://www.gush-shalom.org - among other places. [TiM Ed.: We already know ("what the result was this time"). Sharon backed down. He will be not be new "Bar Kochba."] * TRUTH IN MEDIA Phoenix, Arizona e-mail: publisher@truthinmedia.org Truth in Media Web site http://www.truthinmedia.org/ ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nyteeu-10.07.01-20:29:20-1122