CNN leak on DSB report which blames pro-Russian rebels for shooting down plane is nonsense!

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At July 16 CNN reported with big headlines : First on CNN: Sources say MH17 report blames Russian missile for shooting down plane. 

This article is complete nonsense however many media copied the CNN article. For instance the Dutch NOS and RTL Nieuws.

Major Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant however soon published that the DSB report will not mention the weapon and who used it.

According to the CNN article:

Dutch accident investigators say that evidence points to pro-Russian rebels as being responsible for shooting down MH-17, according to a source who has seen the report.

According to the source, the report says it was a Buk missile — a Russian surface-to-air missile — that was used, launched from a village in Russian rebel controlled territory.

Another source with knowledge of the report’s details says it gives a minute by minute timeline of flight MH17. This source also says not only does the draft report pinpoint where the missile was fired from it identifies who was in control of the territory and pins the downing of MH17 on the pro-Russian rebels.

According to both sources, the report also pins some blame on Malaysia Airlines for how its planes were dispatched that day.

News agencies should have known that the CNN article could not be correct. The task of the DSB is to establish the cause of an aviation accident. Not to blame the person who caused it. It is a pure technical investigation. Another reason to not trust the CNN article is that it would be very strange in this highly sensitive case the DSB would report more that what their responsibility is. This would for sure annoy Russia and discredit the DSB report.

However as shown many newspapers copied the CNN news without even thinking if it was correct.

Soon after officials confirmed the DSB report will not contain where the missile was launched and that the Pro-Russian rebels launched it. Major Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant was one of the very few newspapers which stated CNN was incorrect.

Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Olena Zerkal told at a pressmeeting there will be no location or perpetrator mentioned in the DSB report.

Also Mark Rosenker, a former chair of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), familiar with the draft report, said that it was a purely technical investigation that would only say the plane had been struck by a ground-to-air missile, with no information on those who brought the plane down, he stressed. (source)

At August 4, Dutch Ambassador to Ukraine Kees Klompenhouwer has said the DSB report will be purely technical, it will not answer who did it – that answer will be provided by the attorney general’s indictment, the ambassador said.

Another indication that the DSB cannot mention the location of the launch is that as recent as June 20 Dutch members of the JIT took ground samples of the supposed launch location near Snizhne. () and NOS. It would be impossible to include the results in the final DSB report. The draft final reports on the investigation into the crash and the investigation pertaining to flight routes were made available to the accredited representatives of the participating States on Tuesday, 2 June. In accordance with ICAO Annex 13, they have sixty days to submit comments on the reports. (source)

DSB spokeswomen Sara Vernooij said this in 2014 about the content of the preliminary report (source)

This interim report, however, has not apportioned any blame. “We investigate the cause of the accident and not who’s responsible,” Sara Vernooij, spokewoman for the Dutch Safety Board OVV, told AFP.

So someone told CNN about the content of the DSB report for what I believe propaganda reasons. And all major news agencies copied it without asking questions. With a single exception being the Dutch de Volkskrant newspaper.

 

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