Alexander Hug
© Dominique Faget/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAlexander Hug, second from left, a monitor with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, at the site of the crash in eastern Ukraine on Friday.
The United States government has concluded that the passenger jet felled over Ukraine was shot down by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile launched from rebel-held territory and most likely provided by Russia to pro-Moscow separatists, officials said on Friday.

While American officials are still investigating the chain of events leading to the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on Thursday, they pointed to a series of indicators of Russian involvement. Among other things, military and intelligence officials said there was mounting evidence that a Ukrainian military plane shot down three days earlier had been fired upon from inside Russian territory by the same sort of missile battery used to bring down the civilian jet.


Comment: Secret evidence is not evidence. Show us the evidence. Honestly, you guys in the intelligence community don't exactly have a sterling reputation for the quality of your 'evidence'. You can probably therefore understand why most thinking people think you're full of crap.


The intelligence persuaded President Obama to publicly lay responsibility at least indirectly at the door of the Kremlin. Speaking at the White House, he tried to channel international indignation toward Russia for what he called an "outrage of unspeakable proportions." Mr. Obama said the episode should be "a wake-up call for Europe" and "should snap everybody's heads to attention" about what is going on in Ukraine, where a pro-Russia insurgency has become an international crisis.


Comment: Obama must have had some brain circuits crossed. Yes, it should be a wake-up call for Europe: that Kiev and the U.S. are madmen and need to be stopped.


Without going into detail about the intelligence he had been shown, Mr. Obama said that the separatists had been armed and trained "because of Russian support." High-flying aircraft cannot be shot down without sophisticated equipment and training, he added, "and that is coming from Russia."


Comment: It's hard to go into detail when your 'intelligence' is wholly imaginary.


He singled out President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, accusing him of waging a proxy war that led to the tragedy. "He has the most control over that situation," Mr. Obama said, "and so far, at least, he has not exercised it."


Comment: Ha! That's rich, coming from the head of the U.S. government, proxy war specialist extraordinaire. And no, Putin isn't waging a proxy war. The U.S.-backed regime in Kiev is getting its butt whupped by people who refuse to bend the knee to a gang of inept, murderous, racist thugs. If Obama had a shred of moral decency, he'd be cheering them on, not blaming Putin for not stopping them.


Russia denied involvement and suggested that Ukraine's military might have been responsible, an assertion Ukraine rejected. Mr. Putin called for talks, saying: "All sides to the conflict must swiftly halt fighting and begin peace negotiations. It is with great concern and sadness that we are watching what is happening in eastern Ukraine. It's awful; it's a tragedy."

As investigators tried to sort out control of the crash site in the middle of a war zone and families mourned the victims, the global revulsion at the downing of the plane grew, particularly with the news that a number of AIDS researchers were among the dead. European leaders joined Mr. Obama in calling for an international investigation unimpeded by combatants, and Ukraine asked the United Nations civil aviation authority to lead an investigation.

The president stated that an immediate cease-fire must take place in eastern Ukraine to allow for an international investigation into the Malaysian airline crash.

While separatists guarding the crash site allowed some Ukrainian government rescue teams to enter and begin collecting bodies on Friday, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the armed rebels had prevented its monitors from gaining full access to the site in order to secure a safe route for the investigation and salvaging operations.

One rebel even fired into the air as the monitors were leaving, according to a spokesman for the organization, Michael Bociurkiw, who was there. Mr. Bociurkiw said bodies in the field were beginning to bloat. A separatist leader said that the governments of the Netherlands and Malaysia had asked the rebels informally not to disturb the crime scene, but that there were not enough refrigerators to keep the bodies there.


Comment: They even fired into the air? Oh, how horrible!


Among the 298 people who died when the plane came down was Quinn Lucas Schansman, 19, who was born in New York to a Dutch father and had dual American and Dutch citizenship. Mr. Schansman had been studying in Amsterdam when he decided to fly to Indonesia, where his family was on a three-week vacation. "He was headed over there to meet them," said Katinka Wallace, a relative.

Mr. Schansman's Facebook page indicated that he had moved to Amsterdam on April 24 and had been in a relationship with a young woman since last year. His favorite quotation was "I have a dream!" On Friday, friends and relatives posted remembrances in Dutch. "Dear cousin and friend, we're going to miss you," one wrote.

American intelligence agencies concluded that the Boeing 777-200 was struck by a Russian-made SA-11 missile fired from a rebel-controlled area near the border in Ukraine. American analysts were focused on an area near the small towns of Snizhne and Torez, about midway between the rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Their determination was based on an analysis of the launch plume and trajectory of the missile, as detected by an American military spy satellite. But the analysis did not pinpoint the origin of the missile launch or identify who launched it. "Those are the million-dollar questions," said a senior Pentagon official who, like others, insisted on anonymity to discuss details of the analysis.


Comment: It's easy to make stuff up when you don't have to use your real name. Heck, it's even easier to make up anonymous sources. Integrity is a quality lacking in the fields of journalism and intelligence these days.


Although the separatists claimed to have captured a Ukrainian SA-11 battery in late June, a senior American official said the system was not believed to be operational. "We have high confidence that it was not a Ukrainian system," the official said of the battery that shot down the Malaysian plane. "We have reason to suspect that it could be a Russian-supplied system."


Comment: And you have absolutely no reason of suspecting that it 'could be' a Ukrainian system, Mr. Senior American Official? Is your imagination that crusty? Or are you just playing by the 'rules' your masters dictate?


The downing of the Ukrainian military transport plane on Monday figured prominently in the evaluations. Western officials said there were strong indications that the missile that struck that plane, an Antonov-26, came from the Russian side of the border, although the crash is still under investigation.

It was not clear whether the same missile battery brought down the Malaysian aircraft on Thursday, but officials said that either way, they believed the unit had been transported over the border from Russia in recent days. The Ukrainian government released audio in which separatist rebels seemed to be discussing an SA-11 missile system that was moved into eastern Ukraine from Russia just before the Malaysian plane was destroyed.

American officials said that while they had not authenticated the tape, they had no reason to doubt it, and noted that the accents of the speakers and the scenario described seemed to fit existing information.


Comment: And you believe such an absurdity? And publish it without comment?


In recent months, Russians have funneled tanks, rockets, artillery and antiaircraft weapons to the separatists, according to American and European officials. Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, the top NATO commander, warned last month that the Russians had trained separatists to operate some of the heavy weaponry, although he did not mention SA-11 missiles specifically.


Comment: And you believe such an allegation, without proof? And publish it without comment?


At a briefing on Friday, Rear Adm. John Kirby, the top Pentagon spokesman, said it would have been difficult for separatists to fire the SA-11 without Russian help. "It strains credulity to think that it could be used by separatists without at least some measure of Russian support and technical assistance," he said.


Comment: It strains credulity that you haven't even mentioned the possibility that Kiev might have been responsible. But then you wouldn't, would you?


Ukraine released what it said was audio of phone calls between rebels and Russian officers. In one call, a rebel is heard saying, "We have just shot down a plane."

Admiral Kirby raised the possibility that the Russian military had transported the system into Ukraine and even fired it. "Whether it was a system that was driven across the border by Russians and then handed off, we don't know," he said.


Comment: But that won't stop you from suggesting it was the case, thus implanting the idea in all the sorry dupes who read shoddy NYT 'journalism'.


Separatist leaders on Friday denied taking down the Malaysian plane, and Russia's foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, dismissed Ukraine's accusations of Russian involvement. "In the last few months, I have not heard practically any truthful statements from Kiev," he said.


Comment: Ahh, finally! One truthful statement -- from a Russian!


The Russian Defense Ministry said at least five Ukrainian air defense systems were within range to bring down the plane. It said the flight path and crash site were within two areas where Ukraine was operating a long-range S-200 air defense system, and where three squadrons were deployed with SA-11 missile batteries.

Ukraine denied that any of its forces had been involved, and American officials said they believed that denial. "The Boeing was outside the zone of possible destruction by the antiaircraft forces of Ukraine," Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, told reporters.

After months of trying to gently prod European allies to take tougher action against Moscow for its intervention in Ukraine, Mr. Obama decided to raise the diplomatic temperature on Friday on both Russia and American allies. He sent his United Nations ambassador, Samantha Power, to the Security Council to describe what she called "credible evidence" that the separatists were responsible. Ms. Power said she could not "rule out technical assistance by Russian personnel."

Mr. Obama then went before the cameras himself at the White House to argue that whatever the investigation found, Russia's aid to the insurgents had led to the disaster. "What we do know is that the violence that's taking place there is facilitated in part, in large part, because of Russian support," he said.


Comment: Wrong. The U.S.'s aid to the fascists in Kiev led to this disaster. The blood is on your hands, Obama.


He said Europe should pay attention, noting that most of the passengers were Europeans, including 189 from the Netherlands. "That, I think, sadly brings home the degree to which the stakes are high for Europe, not simply for the Ukrainian people," Mr. Obama said, "and that we have to be firm in our resolve."

He later called Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany to talk about the disaster. He also spoke with Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia, which had 27 passengers on board, and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. spoke with President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine.

In their own public statements, European leaders expressed outrage but showed little eagerness to escalate the confrontation with Russia. Mr. Cameron, whose country had nine citizens on board, said "those responsible must be brought to account." Ms. Merkel, whose country had four passengers on board, said there were "many indications" that the Malaysian airliner had been "shot down" but declined to say whether she would support tougher sanctions.