Eliot Higgins to present to Dutch parliament on MH17
Eliot Higgins , founder of Bellingcat, will present the report titled ‘Hiding in Plain Sight‘ to the Dutch parliament on March 31. The presentation starts at 14:00 and lasts till 15:00. He will also talk on MH17.
‘Hiding in Plain Sight’ is a publication of Atlantic Council. Drawing upon open source information, Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin’s War in Ukraine provides irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine.
The presentation is for a selected number of Dutch lawmakers who participate in the Commission for Foreign Affairs. Each party in the Tweede Kamer has one member in this commission.
Also invited to present is Maksymillian Czuperski (Atlantic Council)
The presentation is not in the plenary room but in a smaller room named Suze Groenewegzaal.
Details on the presentation are here. The live stream of the presentation can be watched here.
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Boah – what a pitiful show this hearing was.
Talking about gaps in social media as evidence…
I missed the first twenty minutes. The whole issue with Bellingcat is its bias and tunnelvision. Never ever any doubt about their narrative is expressed. Even when BC needs to adjust times of departure of BUK from Donetsk severall times.
I still have major doubts about the BC narrative.
Waiting for United States supplied evidence like photos from commercial satellites showing the BUK enroute to whatever the place it supposed had launched a missile from.
They had better asked you to fill them in on what happened
Yes. However I do not have the funding to make slick reports nor do I have a group of people to do the investigation.
Main goal of this presentation to Commission was reporting on the presence of Russian army people and vehicles in Donbass. I am not an expert on this but agree Russia helped separatists with staff and vehicles.
Don’t forget its probably so a big PR firm is helping Bellingcat to plug their story, from issuance strategies to contacts with news outlets.
At least at two points Higgins is definitely wrong. First Putin fully acknowledged the presence of Russian soldiers on Crimea already on 17 April 2014, not a year later, before millions of Russians in the program “Direct Line with Vladimir Putin”. Second, he calls the Vostok Battalion Chechen, which it was not. In June 2014 Mark Franchetti from the Sunday Times followed this Battalion for several days. At that time there were many stories in the press they were Chechen, but according to Franchetti this was not true. He said they were mostly locals without any military training. Their commander was Alexander Khodakovsky, a former Ukrainian special force officer.
“Russia helped separatist with staff and vehicles”. Who is Russia? Putin as Higgins says? We are always made to believe nothing happens without Putins consent. I think it is little more complicated.
Ukraine had been shelling Russian territory near Marinovka, Donetsk (RF), and Izvarino for some time during June and early July along the border with Russia making increasing threats to respond and suppress the sources of fire. The locations of shelling in Russia are perfectly visible on Google Earth.
I just fail to see what the big deal is about this. There are not many countries that would tolerate such sloppy and dangerous military operations directly on their border that have a soul aim of subjugating their coethnics on the wrong side of the imaginary line, especially when combined with open calls for invasion of the neighboring country from politicians in the country at civil war.
If a civil war broke out in Canada between Quebec and English Canada, does anyone think the US would fail to respond militarily to cries for help from English speakers on its borders in southern Quebec and the Maritimes? if Belgium devolved into civil war, do you think the Netherlands and France would fail to come to the aid of their brethren? Etc.
On July 12/2014 a Russian was killed by shelling from Ukrainian site :
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-crisis-fears-of-escalation-after-shell-fired-from-ukraine-kills-russian-citizen-9603544.html
Mark Franchetti also followed a mission of the Vostok Battalion close to the border. They were attacked by a Ukrainian fighter. He noticed the fighter violated Russian airspace for several kilometers. Remember the reaction of Nato after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter because it violated Turkeys airspace for less then 2 kilometers?
“Ukraine had been shelling Russian territory”. Indeed, and OSCE reported that too. Did Higgins mention that? But Ukraine has an explanation. Not the Ukrainian army was responsible, the separatists were. They did this to provide the Russian with an alibi for reaction against the Ukrainian army.
There is a big difference between the countries you mentioned Andrew, and the situation in Ukraine. People tend to forget only 25 years ago, there was no border between Ukraine and Russia. Russians have family in Ukraine, they may even been born there, and vice versa. Higgins mentioned the Budapest Memorandum, in his own selective way. He forgot Ukraine had obligations too. See Annex II of the memorandum.
https://www.msz.gov.pl/en/p/wiedenobwe_at_s_en/news/memorandum_on_security_assurances_in_connection_with_ukraine_s_accession_to_the_treaty_on_the_npt
Rob: He noticed the fighter violated Russian airspace for several kilometers
Do you have more information on that?
Marcel:
If you search through news reports from June and July 2014, you will find numerous eyewitness reports of Ukrainian airplanes violating Russian airspace along the southern border and Ukrainian artillery hitting locations inside Russia and killing Russians. I suggest starting with Voice of Sevastopol and Colonel Cassad and following the links they provide.
Watch the video with Mark Franchetti on the Savik Shuster show (see athomas reply below). It it is highly revealing especially if you know who these people in the studio are.
Mark Franchetti’s story:
http://www.infosperber.ch/data/attachements/Pinned%20to%20the%20ground%20by%20blizzard%20of%20bullets%20|%20The%20Sunday%20Times.pdf
You can also read the original in The Sunday Times.
Rob:
“There is a big difference between the countries you mentioned Andrew, and the situation in Ukraine. People tend to forget only 25 years ago, there was no border between Ukraine and Russia.”
In New England, the US-Quebec border essentially does not exist. Sometimes it runs through the middle of towns and buildings. People come and go and are closely related in the same way.
“Russians have family in Ukraine, they may even been born there, and vice versa. Higgins mentioned the Budapest Memorandum, in his own selective way.”
Yes, just like the Ukrainians loudly proclaiming their right of self-determination for sovereignty, based on their negation of the will of the people expressed in the Soviet Union referendum. Of course if they have such a right in their particular defined government subunit, then people in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea also have a right to secede from Ukraine at any time based on the same principle.
The real shame is that the governments in the US and Netherlands, which are entirely based in their very existence on the right of armed rebellion to determine sovereignty, oppose people in Ukraine following their lead. If they want to believe such a position, America should swear fealty to Queen Elizabeth and Netherlands to King Carlos.
Could not agree with you more on this. The vote in the Verkhovna Rada in April 2010 concerning the stationing of up to 25’000 Russian troops in Crimea made worldwide headlines back then:
And here is what Mark Franchetti told about the Vostok batallion:
Admin, do you have a record of Higgins’s presentation?
No.