U.S. Points to Russian Missile Connection in Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Crash
"Yes."
New U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that Moscow likely provided pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine with sophisticated antiaircraft systems in recent days, matching evidence put forward by Ukraine and bolstering charges that Russia was the source of the weapon that shot down Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -11.11% Flight 17 this week, killing 298.
"If you are a man, Winston, you are the last man. Your kind is extinct; we are the inheritors. Do you understand that you are ALONE? You are outside history, you are non-existent." His manner changed and he said more harshly: "And you consider yourself morally superior to us, with our lies and our cruelty?"
U.S. officials say they now suspect that Russia supplied the rebels with multiple SA-11 antiaircraft systems by smuggling them into eastern Ukraine with other military equipment, including tanks.
"Yes, I consider myself superior."
Further, U.S. officials believe the systems were moved back across the border into Russia following the shoot down of the jetliner, buttressing what Ukraine charges is an attempt by the rebels and their Russian advisers to cover up their involvement in the crash.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Friday, July 18, 2014
July 18, 2014.
The Innocent Lives of Flight 17: Parents, Children, Lovers, Friends
"Then what is it, this principle that will defeat us?"
AMSTERDAM----Cor Schilder woke early Tuesday to help his longtime girlfriend, Neeltje Tol, open her flower shop one last day before the couple headed to Bali.
"I don’t know. The spirit of Man."
Ms. Tol asked the shopkeeper next door to collect the mail while she was away, and then left a note on her store window. "Postman, please deliver the mail next door to Radio Jump we are on holiday." (Follow the latest updates on the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine.)
"And do you consider yourself a man?"
Mr. Schilder, who worked at a landfill and played drums in a band, posted on Facebook FB +3.03% a photograph he took Thursday of the Boeing BA +1.40% 777 that was Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -11.11% Flight 17. "Should it disappear," he wrote, tongue-in-cheek, "this is what it looked like." Then he and Ms. Tol boarded.
"Then what is it, this principle that will defeat us?"
AMSTERDAM----Cor Schilder woke early Tuesday to help his longtime girlfriend, Neeltje Tol, open her flower shop one last day before the couple headed to Bali.
"I don’t know. The spirit of Man."
Ms. Tol asked the shopkeeper next door to collect the mail while she was away, and then left a note on her store window. "Postman, please deliver the mail next door to Radio Jump we are on holiday." (Follow the latest updates on the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine.)
"And do you consider yourself a man?"
Mr. Schilder, who worked at a landfill and played drums in a band, posted on Facebook FB +3.03% a photograph he took Thursday of the Boeing BA +1.40% 777 that was Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -11.11% Flight 17. "Should it disappear," he wrote, tongue-in-cheek, "this is what it looked like." Then he and Ms. Tol boarded.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
July 17, 2014.
Malaysia Airlines Plane Was Hit by Surface-to-Air Missile, U.S. Officials Say
"No. I believe it. I KNOW that you will fail. There is something in the universe----I don’t know, some spirit, some principle----that you will never overcome."
A Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -11.11% plane carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew crashed Thursday in the battle-torn east Ukraine region of Donetsk, where U.S. intelligence agencies say it was struck by a ground-to-air missile.
"Do you believe in God, Winston?"
The U.S. agencies are divided over whether the missile was launched by the Russian military or by pro-Russia separatist rebels, who officials say lack the expertise on their own to bring down a commercial airline in midflight.
"No."
"All roads lead to the Russians to some degree," said a U.S. official. (Follow the latest updates on the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine.)
"No. I believe it. I KNOW that you will fail. There is something in the universe----I don’t know, some spirit, some principle----that you will never overcome."
A Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -11.11% plane carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew crashed Thursday in the battle-torn east Ukraine region of Donetsk, where U.S. intelligence agencies say it was struck by a ground-to-air missile.
"Do you believe in God, Winston?"
The U.S. agencies are divided over whether the missile was launched by the Russian military or by pro-Russia separatist rebels, who officials say lack the expertise on their own to bring down a commercial airline in midflight.
"No."
"All roads lead to the Russians to some degree," said a U.S. official. (Follow the latest updates on the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine.)
Monday, July 14, 2014
July 14, 2014.
Obama Contends With Arc of Instability Unseen Since '70s
"We control life, Winston, at all its levels. You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable. Or perhaps you have returned to your old idea that the proletarians or the slaves will arise and overthrow us. Put it out of your mind. They are helpless, like the animals. Humanity is the Party. The others are outside----irrelevant."
WASHINGTON----A convergence of security crises is playing out around the globe, from the Palestinian territories and Iraq to Ukraine and the South China Sea, posing a serious challenge to President Barack Obama's foreign policy and reflecting a world in which U.S. global power seems increasingly tenuous.
"I don’t care. In the end they will beat you. Sooner or later they will see you for what you are, and then they will tear you to pieces."
The breadth of global instability now unfolding hasn't been seen since the late 1970s, U.S. security strategists say, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, revolutionary Islamists took power in Iran, and Southeast Asia was reeling in the wake of the U.S. exit from Vietnam.
"Do you see any evidence that that is happening? Or any reason why it should?"
In the past month alone, the U.S. has faced twin civil wars in Iraq and Syria, renewed fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, an electoral crisis in Afghanistan and ethnic strife on the edge of Russia, in Ukraine.
"We control life, Winston, at all its levels. You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable. Or perhaps you have returned to your old idea that the proletarians or the slaves will arise and overthrow us. Put it out of your mind. They are helpless, like the animals. Humanity is the Party. The others are outside----irrelevant."
WASHINGTON----A convergence of security crises is playing out around the globe, from the Palestinian territories and Iraq to Ukraine and the South China Sea, posing a serious challenge to President Barack Obama's foreign policy and reflecting a world in which U.S. global power seems increasingly tenuous.
"I don’t care. In the end they will beat you. Sooner or later they will see you for what you are, and then they will tear you to pieces."
The breadth of global instability now unfolding hasn't been seen since the late 1970s, U.S. security strategists say, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, revolutionary Islamists took power in Iran, and Southeast Asia was reeling in the wake of the U.S. exit from Vietnam.
"Do you see any evidence that that is happening? Or any reason why it should?"
In the past month alone, the U.S. has faced twin civil wars in Iraq and Syria, renewed fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, an electoral crisis in Afghanistan and ethnic strife on the edge of Russia, in Ukraine.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
July 12, 2014.
Will a Wounded Girl Be Saved?
"Nonsense. You are under the impression that hatred is more exhausting than love. Why should it be? And if it were, what difference would that make? Suppose that we choose to wear ourselves out faster. Suppose that we quicken the tempo of human life till men are senile at thirty. Still what difference would it make? Can you not understand that the death of the individual is not death? The party is immortal."
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan----Keyan Riley answered the phone and reached for his green, clothbound notebook. He began scrawling notes about the two Afghan girls whose lives had just fallen into his hands. "5 yr." the doctor wrote of the younger girl. "40 mm grenade."
As usual, the voice had battered Winston into helplessness. Moreover he was in dread that if he persisted in his disagreement O’Brien would twist the dial again. And yet he could not keep silent. Feebly, without arguments, with nothing to support him except his inarticulate horror of what O’Brien had said, he returned to the attack.
On the other end of the line was a surgeon from a Special Forces outpost in the Afghan hinterlands. The girls had accidentally detonated a discarded grenade. The younger one had chest wounds; the second, a six-year-old, was pierced by shrapnel in the abdomen.
"I don’t know----I don’t care. Somehow you will fail. Something will defeat you. Life will defeat you."
Could Dr. Riley send a medevac helicopter, the surgeon asked, to take the girls to the U.S. hospital at Bagram?
"Nonsense. You are under the impression that hatred is more exhausting than love. Why should it be? And if it were, what difference would that make? Suppose that we choose to wear ourselves out faster. Suppose that we quicken the tempo of human life till men are senile at thirty. Still what difference would it make? Can you not understand that the death of the individual is not death? The party is immortal."
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan----Keyan Riley answered the phone and reached for his green, clothbound notebook. He began scrawling notes about the two Afghan girls whose lives had just fallen into his hands. "5 yr." the doctor wrote of the younger girl. "40 mm grenade."
As usual, the voice had battered Winston into helplessness. Moreover he was in dread that if he persisted in his disagreement O’Brien would twist the dial again. And yet he could not keep silent. Feebly, without arguments, with nothing to support him except his inarticulate horror of what O’Brien had said, he returned to the attack.
On the other end of the line was a surgeon from a Special Forces outpost in the Afghan hinterlands. The girls had accidentally detonated a discarded grenade. The younger one had chest wounds; the second, a six-year-old, was pierced by shrapnel in the abdomen.
"I don’t know----I don’t care. Somehow you will fail. Something will defeat you. Life will defeat you."
Could Dr. Riley send a medevac helicopter, the surgeon asked, to take the girls to the U.S. hospital at Bagram?
Friday, July 11, 2014
July 11, 2014.
Faces of the Affordable Care Act
"It is impossible to found a civilization on fear and hatred and cruelty. It would never endure."
For years, the health coverage Jaime Hood obtained for her 4-year-old son, who has a serious medical condition, hinged on keeping her income to near the poverty level—the threshold for Medicaid, the federal-state insurance for low-income people.
"Why not?"
In the months since one of the health law’s key provisions took effect--banning the insurance-industry practice of rejecting customers with medical conditions—she has taken a full-time job and boosted her income by 50%.
"It would have no vitality. It would disintegrate. It would commit suicide."
That is because Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City now must sell a plan for her son, Devyn, at the same price it charges for covering a healthy child, $186 a month. His private coverage began May 1.
"It is impossible to found a civilization on fear and hatred and cruelty. It would never endure."
For years, the health coverage Jaime Hood obtained for her 4-year-old son, who has a serious medical condition, hinged on keeping her income to near the poverty level—the threshold for Medicaid, the federal-state insurance for low-income people.
"Why not?"
In the months since one of the health law’s key provisions took effect--banning the insurance-industry practice of rejecting customers with medical conditions—she has taken a full-time job and boosted her income by 50%.
"It would have no vitality. It would disintegrate. It would commit suicide."
That is because Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City now must sell a plan for her son, Devyn, at the same price it charges for covering a healthy child, $186 a month. His private coverage began May 1.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
July 10, 2014.
Few Children Are Deported
"What do you mean by that remark, Winston?"
Thousands of children from Central America are undertaking a perilous journey to the U.S. border despite warnings from the U.S. that they will be sent back. In fact, many will get to stay.
"You could not create such a world as you have just described. It is a dream. It is impossible."
Data from immigration courts, along with interviews with the children and their advocates, show that few minors are sent home and many are able to stay for years in the U.S., if not permanently. That presents a deep challenge for President Barack Obama and lawmakers as they try to shore up an overburdened deportation system.
"Why?"
In fiscal year 2013, immigration judges ordered 3,525 migrant children to be deported, according to Justice Department figures. Judges allowed an additional 888 to voluntarily return home without a formal removal order.
"What do you mean by that remark, Winston?"
Thousands of children from Central America are undertaking a perilous journey to the U.S. border despite warnings from the U.S. that they will be sent back. In fact, many will get to stay.
"You could not create such a world as you have just described. It is a dream. It is impossible."
Data from immigration courts, along with interviews with the children and their advocates, show that few minors are sent home and many are able to stay for years in the U.S., if not permanently. That presents a deep challenge for President Barack Obama and lawmakers as they try to shore up an overburdened deportation system.
"Why?"
In fiscal year 2013, immigration judges ordered 3,525 migrant children to be deported, according to Justice Department figures. Judges allowed an additional 888 to voluntarily return home without a formal removal order.
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