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5 Mar, 2015 16:43

‘War lobby uses MH17 tragedy to demonize Russia’

‘War lobby uses MH17 tragedy to demonize Russia’

The war lobby in the West isn’t interested in the truth behind the MH17 plane tragedy for political reasons. The purpose is to impose more sanctions on Russia, journalist and broadcaster Neil Clark says, adding that the blame gain will only continue.

Headlines claiming Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by a Russian BUK missile are all over the Ukrainian media. The source supposedly comes from the Dutch Prosecutor's office. But here's the problem:Dutch prosecutors told RT they've reached no such conclusion.

RT:There are some serious accusations against Russia backed by what people usually recognize to be a credible source, which took RT just one phone call to completely dismiss. Why wouldn't they bother to actually make this phone call themselves and ask the Dutch prosecutors about the facts?

Neil Clark: They are not interested in the truth; they are only interested in playing politics with this terrible tragedy and again accusing Russia. This is all part of the media blame game, that facts go out of the window. We’ve had the incident of the terrible MH17 tragedy, also had the tragic death of Boris Nemtsov. And in both occasions we’ve had so-called journalists rushing to blame Russia and Putin without any evidence. And this is clear politics.
As you said, a simple phone call would have sufficed to find out what the report was actually saying or to find the truth. They weren’t interested in that; all they were interested in was the headlines that Russia was responsible for shooting down this plane. We think back to the day after the MH17 disaster and the infamous headlining Rupert Murdock owned- newspaper in Britain, The Sun, who said: “Putin’s missile,” splashed on the front page. Again, no evidence for that, no apology. And we’re still now in March, 2015, and of course we’re still waiting for the actual report into what caused this terrible tragedy. But it doesn’t stop people from blaming Russia.

READ MORE: Ukraine media falsely claim Dutch prosecutors accused Russia of MH17 downing

RT:It's not the first time Russia has faced these accusation directly or indirectly. How long will the blame game go on?

NC: It is going to carry on because [of] the geopolitical situation, because … there is a war lobby in the West, anti-Russian lobby in the West, which wants to use MH17 to demonize Russia. We think back to what happened; we had David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, comparing Russia with Nazi Germany after the terrible tragedy and urging for more sanctions on Russia - which is what this war lobby have done. They used this terrible plane tragedy for political purposes to try to get … more sanctions on Russia. So of course the blame game is going to continue.
And it’s amazing, if you go on twitter, if you go on the internet you see this claim that Putin shot down the plane. But there is not any evidence. And it’s ok [that] the journalists are able to put it in, they are not being correct, and they are not losing their jobs. If I or any other journalists wrote, for example, that “9/11 was an inside job,” we would be instantly dismissed… as conspiracy theorists. But you can put any conspiracy theory you like in the Western media as long as it is anti-Russian and you’ll get away with it.

RT:What about the investigation? The Dutch side will present their findings in the summer. Will claims and counter-claims be increasing in the run-up?

NC: I’m sure it will. But I think it is pretty revealing that if there has perhaps been clear-cut evidence that the so-called “pro-Russian separatists” fired this plane down with BUK missiles…we would have heard it by now. The very fact that it has taken such a long time implies that it’s going to be very difficult to get to what happened. And what we’ve got is conjecture. So I think that those people who came out within minutes to blame Putin seem to have evidence that obviously the Dutch investigators haven’t seen yet.

If they did have clear evidence, the report would have been out by now surely. The fact that it isn’t, tells us quite clearly, that it is in doubt, that there could be other reasons for this plane coming down. And I think that the Russophobes will once again probably have egg on their face… They’ve got what they want- they’ve got Russia demonized because of this. They’ve got sanctions on Russia, and that is all they are interested in. They are not interested in the truth. These are the people who told us Iraq had WMDs, they’ve told us a lot of false information for years, and they are still doing it, I’m afraid.

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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