Ron Paul hints at conspiracy in Ukraine passenger jet crash

SAN ANTONIO -- Former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, said in his Sunday column that there are things that the media will not report on "while western media outlets rush to repeat government propaganda" on the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in Ukrainian airspace.

The column, by the Texas Republican who represented the Houston area, appears on the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity's website, said that "western politicians and media joined together to gain the maximum propaganda value from the disaster" in the aftermath of the incident. He lists nine things that the media will not report on, including his claim that the Ukrainian government "uses the exact same Russian-made weapons."

Paul also claims that the media will not discuss the similarities between this event and last year's events in Syria, in which Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was accused of using poison gas. Paul says that the "U.S. claims that the Assad government in Syria had used poison gas against civilians" have since been proven false.

In her Monday column titled "Ron Paul is Putin's New Best Friend" on the National Journal's website, Lucia Graves wrote that "Paul's argument was quickly picked up by the Kremlin-funded English language outlet Russia Today." She also wrote that "politically, it's a much sounder line of argument for protecting Russia from blame than what's being reported on Russian TV."

Graves also said that Russian president Vladimir Putin's own talking points have been "more subdued." Graves said that Secretary of State John Kerry "was careful not to directly blame Putin for the disaster."

The institute responded Tuesday with a piece from Daniel McAdams, the institute's executive director. McAdams wrote that Graves' column "read like something from a high school newspaper," and that Paul "cautioned skepticism about Obama and Kerry's claims that they know exactly what happened with the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 before the investigation had even begun, much less concluded."

MH17 was shot down July 17 by what was reported to be a surface-to-air missile in Ukraine near Hrabove. The flight was on a trip from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia. All 298 passengers on board were confirmed as dead.

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@JosephCook89

