By Craig Whitlock July 22
The Russian government has challenged the Obama administration to make public the satellite imagery and other intelligence that U.S. officials have cited as evidence that separatists destroyed the Malaysia Airlines plane with an SA-11 missile.
On Tuesday, the commander of the Air Force’s Space Command, which operates satellites that can detect missile launches around the world, declined to elaborate on what, exactly, the U.S. military was able to observe from space at the time of the shootdown. But the commander, Gen. William L. Shelton, was dismissive of Russian suggestions that the U.S. government was bluffing or exaggerating its evidence.
“It looks like an act of desperation,” Shelton said of demands from Russian military leaders that Washington make public any satellite imagery it collected from eastern Ukraine around the time of the aviation disaster. “I will say this about our satellites: They are very good satellites. They are very sensitive and they are very accurate.”
The Pentagon operates a constellation of satellites — known as the Space-Based Infrared System — that can detect missile launches from outer space. Shelton said infrared sensors on the satellites provide blanket global coverage, “24-7, all the time.”
The satellites, he said, can detect launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles and the launches of other satellites into space. But he declined to say whether they could observe other classes of missiles, such as the SA-11 anti-aircraft system allegedly used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. “We just don’t talk about it,” he said of the satellites’ specific capabilities.
This is a follow-up by the Defense Minister of Russian Mr. Antonov published today:
US Claims of Flight MH17 Downing by Militia Remain Unfounded – Russia’s Defense Ministry
MOSCOW, July 24 (RIA Novosti) – The United States has not yet provided any documented evidence to prove that the rocket that brought down the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was launched from militia-controlled territory, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Thursday.
"It was stated that the data of the US technical intelligence and satellite photography confirmed the launch of the rocket from the militia-controlled territory. The question is: where is this data? Why hasn’t it been made available to the public?” Antonov said in an interview to the Rossiya-24 television channel.
Antonov suggested that these facts are "still, so to speak, being manufactured."
The United States presented Tuesday the information it had to support its claims that the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which killed 298 people last week, was a result of a shooting down by independence supporters in the region.
US officials said they were not sure who was behind the crash, saying independence supporters could have downed the airliner "by mistake." The officials said they relied in their conclusions partly on social media information and video recordings distributed by Ukrainian authorities.
Ukrainian government and militia have been trading blame for the alleged downing of the airliner ever since reports suggested foul play, with independence supporters saying they lacked the required technology to shoot a moving target at the given altitude.
Posted By: Yaiqab Saint
Thursday, July 24th 2014 at 9:12AM
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