November 7, 2015

Investigation Before Speculation

"The Washington post editors peddle the crackpot idea that the CIA smuggled a bomb on board of the Russian airline that went down over the Sinai peninsula. Or something like that. No one else, as far as I can tell, has offered such an idiotic conspiracy theory.

So far there is not even a shred of real evidence that a bomb took down the plane. All we know is that the black boxes on board of the plane suddenly stopped recording. This points to a sudden rupture and decompression of the plane after which it disintegrated and fell down. The cause of such ruptures can be manifold. Metal fatigue or faulty repairs are a frequent cause (see Japan Airlines Flight 123). As the plane's tail separated from the main cell a tail strike the plane suffered years ago might be relevant. A turbine blade may have cracked and hit the nacelle at a critical point (see Delta Air Lines Flight 1288). A Lithium ion rechargeable battery pack in some luggage in the rear luggage hold may have exploded (see UPS Airlines Flight 6)." - An excerpt from, "WaPo Peddles Crackpot Idea - Fears Russia Will Steal It" by b, Moon of Alabama, November 7, 2015.
One of the problems of the social media age is the rush to speculation in the wake of horrific attacks and tragedies. But it is also a blessing because you get to see propaganda apparatuses get to work frantically and clumsily, as they rush to identify domestic and foreign enemies that they want to blame for the attack for their own political reasons.

The most recent example of this is the rampant worldwide speculation about the causes for the destruction of the Russian plane in Egypt.

ISIS immediately took responsibility like a bunch of pathetic losers without even giving one iota of evidence. A serious group interested in winning over global sympathy would never claim the downing of a civilian jet. It's just not done. And this reaffirms the well-founded suspicions that ISIS is not a serious group with real grassroots support in Muslim countries, but a poisonous perversion of Islam that is catered to by very powerful intelligence agencies in the U.S, England, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and other states.

But it was not just ISIS that jumped the gun too early. The U.S. government and mainstream media were also quick to the draw, even backing up ISIS statements that they were the ones responsible for the murder of Russian civilians. Did they bring forth any evidence to back up their claims? Of course not. We live in the post-evidence age. Powerful governments can just make up shit and their brainwashed citizens will believe them.

The Erdogan government in Turkey is also guilty of using this method to retain control over the country. When a peaceful protest in Ankara was bombed last month, the Erdogan cabal pointed to ISIS and the PKK. But the most likely culprit was the state itself. NATO governments are known to use the tactic of false flag terrorism to intimidate unfavourable domestic political opponents and push them in their preferred direction.

So, as we see time and time again, the chief disseminators of conspiracy theories are in officialdom. And a big reason why this happens is because people want answers quickly. We saw this last year when a military school in Peshawar, Pakistan was attacked. People wanted revenge, not the facts. Blood is boiling, passions are raised, and here comes daddy government with all the answers.

But did the people of Pakistan get all the facts? Who was involved in that attack still remains a mystery because the Pakistani government, having been involved in Taliban operations in Afghanistan for decades, is not a reliable investigator in crimes committed by the Taliban. It named seven culprits and imprisoned them, but were they the real people responsible or was the attack state run? We'll most likely never know.

The tragedy of the Russian plane crash is another event that has been seized upon by people who have a ready-made narrative and are only looking for an opening to push it in the world media. In such a confusing environment, the government of Russia should be commended for deciding to investigate first, and point fingers later. But it may also not want to tell the whole truth for political reasons.

So, at the end of the day, the job of finding the truth about consequential tragedies and perception-changing terror attacks is left to disinterested global citizens who have no political stake in the outcome of any investigation.