Trump right that Russia was not behind MH17 crash: American writer

An American writer and political analyst says Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is right that there is no evidence that Russia was behind last year's downing of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine.

Trump made the remarks in an interview on Wednesday while commenting on a new report from Dutch investigators which claims Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a Russian-made rocket and warhead, CNN reported.

“It really is fascinating when a fascist megalomaniac has more sense in the geopolitical sphere than all the other candidates combined,” Daniel Patrick Welch told Press TV on Thursday.

“This isn’t to say that Donald Trump is not dangerous, a demagogue, and a racist, but he is right about this, and he has been right about other things,” he added.

“There are two things for me to come out of this. One, CNN framed it as a story to show how loony Trump is. And, secondly, that Trump feels free enough to actually tell the truth on an issue this large. That shows how far outside he is from the mainstream, unfortunately,” the analyst said.

“This is what happens when people run for office and accept the system - it changes them. And part of Trump’s appeal is that he refuses to be accepted like that,” he stated.

“Now that said, it would be dangerous to dismiss the fascist nature of the rest of his ideas,” he pointed out. “But in this case, when you talk about this issue, he is exactly right.”

Welch said that “CNN used the same manipulative – really ugly sort of transparent lies - they keep repeating this mean, Russian-made, Russian-made, Russian-made. The thing is any missile that is fired is Russian-made.”

“The entire arsenal of Ukraine, except for what NATO is giving them now, is Russian-made, it’s Soviet-made. It’s from at least 25 years ago,” he pointed out.

“So everybody knows that’s a canard, a red herring. Of course, they were Soviet-made, because that’s where it came from, that says nothing about who fired it,” the political commentator stated.

“And the Dutch report says nothing about who fired it, and the international community says nothing about who fired it,” he emphasized. 

“CNN is completely using this lack of evidence and the old blame-Russia meme to stir up the pot and reignite a dead issue. It is – as Trump says - a dead issue,” he concluded.

In his interview, Trump said that the United States should focus on its own problems and advised it not to "get involved" in conflicts abroad.

"I think it is horrible," Trump said of the crash. "But they're saying it wasn't them. The other side says it is them. And we're going to go through that arguing for probably for 50 years and nobody is ever going to know. Probably was Russia."

"It's a long ways away. We have to get back to making America great again," he said. "It's terrible, but we really probably won't know for sure. And you'll probably never find out."

On July 17, 2014, the Boeing 777-200 passenger plane crashed in Ukraine’s conflict zone, killing all 298 people aboard. The plane was travelling to Kuala Lumpur from the Dutch capital Amsterdam.

According to US intelligence and military officials, the aircraft was hit by a Russian SA-series missile launched from eastern Ukraine.

Russian state media, however, released satellite images purportedly showing a Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jet firing a missile at the MH17.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk