Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup metatuning Some 76 die in mystery plane explosion

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Here is the article in Debka.

Mary

Terrorist Theory Preferred
6 October: The Russian inquiry has always leaned towards the
terrorist theory as the cause of the Siberian Airlines 1812 crash
into the Black Sea last Thursday, October 4, in which all 67Israel
passengers and 11 crew aboard were killed. Russian spokesmen played
up the Ukrainian missile theory out of political considerations,
although they were perfectly aware of the weighty technical counter-
arguments against a stray Ukrainian missile having downed the Tel
Aviv-Novosibirsk Tu 154.
Going through the motions, Russian defense minister Sergei Ivanov
demanded of the Ukrainians more technical data on the S200 ground-air
missile fired at the time of the crash, which the Pentagon claimed
its satellite had picked up impacting the Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk
flight. Moscow also asked the US government for satellite photos to
support its claim that an SA-12 downed the plane. In fact the
Russians and Americans are talking about two different missiles.
But DEBKAfile's counter-intelligence and intelligence sources report
exclusively that Russian and Israeli investigators alike have ruled
the missile option out in favor of the terrorist theory. They are
coming to believe that an explosive charge attached to a handheld
radio was planted in the ceiling of the passengers cabin before it
left Nosibirsk for Tel Aviv.
Palestinian terrorists have made frequent use of cell phones in the
same way for detonating booby-trapped cars.
The bomb, it is believed, was most likely planted on Wednesday
October 3, by a terrorist attached to a Siberian airport technical
crew. One such "electrician" reportedly pulled out a number of
ceiling tiles and spent some time checking the wiring, before the Tu-
154 took off for Tel Aviv. He was not seen again.
If this is confirmed, then the doomed plane carried the bomb from
Novosibirsk to Tel Aviv and took off again, without any of the
security inspectors Israeli or Russian checking the interior of
the plane's fuselage.
No one disputes that the plane exploded before crashing into the
Black Sea. The timing of that explosion puts the terrorist theory
miles ahead of any other. The investigators have established that,
contrary to many reports, the Siberian airliner did not depart from
its regular flight plan. It blew up short minutes after disappearing
from Turkish radar screens and, furthermore, over the deepest section
of the Black Sea. Its wreckage scattered over a 15-km stretch of
water 2000 m deep (roughly 10 times the depth of the Barents seabed
where the Kursk submarine went down), making the salvaging of the
scattered fragments and finding evidence - virtually impossible.
A further difficulty aside from the extreme depth is the high level
of hydrogen sulfide in these waters, which make them exceptionally
corrosive. Any metallic evidence not collected within a day or two
will be destroyed. The "black boxes" encased in orange plastic will
be safe from corrosion, but may have sunk too deep for divers or
submersibles to reach.
In addition, the Armenian pilot who was the sole witness of the
disaster reports hearing two bangs one when the plane exploded and
one from its splashdown. The first was emitted from the plane's
interior.
The S200 ground-air missile about which the Russian defense minister
demanded more data from Ukraine has a range of no more than 240 km,
while the distance from its presumed firing site in Crimea to the
point at which the Siberian plane was downed was more than 300km.
These missiles are anyway fitted with self-destruct devices in case
they go astray and their launchers would have activated this device
had they spotted a civilian airliner in the missile's path.
As to the SA-12, which the Pentagon claims its satellite picked up,
this is Moscow's most advanced missile defense system, called
Triumph, Russia's version of the US Patriot PAC-3, and hardly likely
to be handed over to the Ukraine before it is operational in the
Russian army.
The Russian investigators therefore had many reasons for announcing
Sunday, October 7, that they were turning away from the Ukrainian
missile theory, although they did not withdraw their request for the
US satellite photos.
President Vladimir Putin, a former senior KGB officer, knows
perfectly well that the Americans will never turn these photos over
because they would betray such spy satellite secrets as their
photographic resolution.
The political upstaging began shortly after the crash on Thursday and
were the real cause of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's angry
outburst that same night, when he warned the Western powers against
appeasing terrorists as they did Hitler in 1938 by throwing
Czechoslovakia to the wolves. He has since apologized and the White
House has said the incident was over.
DEBKAfile's political sources reveal what led up to it. In several
hours on the phone with Putin, the two agreed to announce that
terrorists had brought down the Siberian airliner.
When this was reported in Washington, the Americans asked both the
Russians and the Israelis to hold off on the announcement. They
feared Moscow would exploit it to launch a general offensive in
Chechnya before the American campaign in Afghanistan was properly
launched. They also wanted to prevent Israel taking the opportunity
of hitting the Palestinians or the Lebanese Hizballah.
Sharon blew his top not over US Middle East or anti-terror
coalition policies, but over this particular episode. He had imagined
the Bush government, after the grievous blow America had sustained
from air terrorism, to own an interest in bringing out the true cause
of the Siberian Airlines disaster. But he miscalculated.
Even now, the Russian investigation is not expected to be free of
political overtones. It will therefore not be surprising if the true
cause of the crash in which 78 people lost their lives over the Black
Sea may never be officially admitted.

Some 76 die in mystery plane explosion

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