Iran makes arrests in plane shootdown; police crack down on protests

Iran said on Tuesday it had arrested people accused of a role in shooting down a Ukrainian airliner

This is not an individual crime, it's a crime by a government. They're looking for scapegoats.

It took Iran less than 4 days.

Given the Russian government's enmity toward Ukraine and the reality it was a Ukrainian aircraft blown apart by the missile, do you think Iran's partner Russia encouraged Iran to take full responsibility so Russia wouldn't be blamed?

Russia wouldn't be blamed?

I'm also wondering why not a single news outlet has dared to involve Russia and its technology in their reporting. This, like MH17 is a massive failure of the IFF system used by the missile system. Yet no calls to ban it.

Yes there are human errors, like drawing up overlapping missile defence boundaries with civilian air space, and not communicating with civilian traffic controllers before deploying missiles etc., but at the end of the day, IFF failed.

BB - Not sure what the US has to do with this.

30+ yrs ago. President Reagan (i.e. Commander in Chief) wrote a letter a few days later apologizing to the Iranian Govt. It wasn't 4 yrs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/07/06/reagan-apologized-to-iran-for-downing-of-jetliner/9523c6dc-a244-4b3b-90e9-054168d98c79/

The truth is bad enough. No need to make things up. Should we bring up KAL902, KAL007, YA-BAM, YA-BAL, Malaysia Air #17 or not?

Russia has no responsibility in this incident. Neither does the USA.

Like the Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman now the leaders of Iran are going to bring forth scapegoats.

Like the Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman now the leaders of Iran are going to bring forth scapegoats.

This is going to be a first, are usually never agree with you on anything, but on this one I think you’re right.

Iran's regime has to look tough. Either way, whatever the outcome - Trump is obviously looking for excuses for a war (he IS a bully) and he's going to have egg on his immature face!

A civilian airliner has never been accidentally shot down over Russian airspace.

I suppose that could be true. All the times Russia or the USSR shot down airliners, they meant to do it. Somehow, that isn't comforting.

But none of this has to do with Iran accidentally shooting down a Ukrainian airliner.

Does anyone really think it was planned, on purpose, desired by the Iranian leaders? I do not. I think it was an accident or a failure to communicated flight plans between the guys running the missiles and the airport. Those people almost certainly feel terrible about what they did. A note in their service records and removal from whatever position they had which allowed the mistake should be sufficient.

To me, the real problem is the cover-up by the people involved and that national leadership didn't appear to know the facts for at least 3 days. I suppose if my country would behead me for making a mistake, I might fail to report anything too. That's a cultural and command leadership problem. Someone lied for a few days.

Iran makes arrests in plane shootdown;

Arrests?? I thought it was a mistake. By making arrests the regime implies that the shooters did it on purpose, either on command or by ignoring commands. This makes the regime look even worse.

They've arrested someone accused of filming the missile hit. (Buried in the article).

Quote: "A person who posted a video online last week of a missile striking the plane has been taken into custody by the elite Revolutionary Guards, the semi-official Fars news agency reported."

Burning Bush

America took 4 years to admit to shot down a civilian airliner in 1988.

It took Iran less than 4 days.

You're misinformed. The Pentagon retracted its initial assessment that USS Vincennes had shot down an Iranian F-14 very quickly and confirmed within 24 hours Iran's account that the downed aircraft was a civilian airliner. The US also didn't deny that it shot down an (misidentified) aircraft. The short-lived disagreement was the correct identity of the aircraft that was shot down. That was never a problem in Iran's case, yet they immediately denied that their military action could have been the cause. Congratulating them for taking four days to admit fault is ridiculous. If there wasn't clear and overwhelming satellite intel, video, and photo evidence of a missile shootdown, they may still be claiming that the 176 people are dead because of engine trouble.

Iran said on Tuesday it had arrested people accused of a role in shooting down a Ukrainian airliner

Once hostilities started, all commercial aircraft should have been grounded. The official responsible for ordering the grounding, but failed to do so, should have been the first to be arrested.

Thefu:

A note in their service records and removal from whatever position they had which allowed the mistake should be sufficient.

Agreed. If corporations can get away with killing people without being dissolved and assets forfeited, and low end workers to CEOs are not arrested, why treat this differently? Multiple nations have created this precendent, now they should stand by it. But, in that same regard, im totally for suing the shiek out of them. There was no regime change, presidential resignation, etc, in 1988 with US shoot down of aircraft.

It took Iran less than 4 days.

After outright lying, and after being presented with intel evidence exposing the lie, and being unable to avoid inviting foreign investigators

If it weren't for the intel evidence and coming investigators............. who knows how long the cover-up would last

Yeah they were dragged kicking and screaming into admitting