U.S. Finds No Direct Link to Russia in Downing of MH17
By Courtney Kube and Erin McClam
he United States has found no direct link between the Russian government and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 last week, three senior intelligence officials said Tuesday.
The officials repeated their belief that pro-Russian separatists fired the missile that took out the jetliner over Ukraine, killing 298 people, but they said they could not say definitively that the separatists did it. ...华岳论坛 - "http://hua-yue.net"
“There’s not going to be a Perry Mason moment,” one U.S. official said. “We don’t know who pulled the trigger.”
The White House stressed that it was not backing off what President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power have said for days — that Russia provided training and support for the separatists who probably shot down the plane, and therefore bore some responsibility.
Instead, the intelligence officials were “just saying that we don’t know if Russians pulled the trigger,” one administration official said. “That doesn’t absolve Russia.”
The officials cited several reasons they could not make a final determination about who fired. One was that U.S. officials have yet to see the plane wreckage in person.
The disclosures came a day after Russian officials challenged the United States to back up its finger-pointing with evidence.
The intelligence officials, summarizing the findings of American intelligence five days after the crash, said the most likely explanation was that the separatists hit the passenger jet by mistake. Separatists had boasted about shooting down Ukrainian military aircraft. ...华岳论坛 - "http://washeng.net"
And the intelligence officials said that Russia is still helping the separatists. As recently as Tuesday, the Ukrainian military told the United States that at least 20 vehicles, including tanks and armored vehicles, crossed from Russia into Ukraine. ...华岳论坛 - "http://hua-yue.net"