Friday 25 April 2014

Unverified & Exposed: NYT-State Dept 'Russians in Ukraine' image proof collapses

Unverified & Exposed: NYT-State Dept 'Russians in Ukraine' image proof collapses

Pictures presented by Washington and Kiev as evidence of Russia's involvement in Ukraine,
 and published on Monday by the New York Times, were unverified and in fact contradicted
 the claims they were to support.
The US State department acknowledged the error and the New York Times back-tracked 
on its Monday story, which claimed “photographs and descriptions from eastern Ukraine 
endorsed by the Obama administration … suggest that many of the green men are 
indeed Russian military and intelligence forces”.
The proof was this particular picture with an inscription “Group photograph taken in Russia”.
Image from instagram.com @maximdondyuk
Image from instagram.com @maximdondyuk
Freelance photographer Maxim Dondyuk took the photo.
It was taken in Slavyansk [Ukraine],” he told NYT over the phone. “Nobody asked my
 permission to use it.
The picture was amongst others Kiev gave the OSCE mission to Ukraine to ‘prove’ 
Russian involvement in the massive unrest gripping the Donetsk region.
The State Department repeated the claims, citing ‘confirmation’ of Moscow involvement.
“We see in the photos that have been again in international media, on Twitter, publicly 
available is that there are individuals who visibly appear to be tied to Russia. We’ve said
 that publicly a countless number of times,” Jen Psaki, State Dept spokeswoman said.
The New York Times eventually published a climbdown Wednesday - ‘Scrutiny Over 
Photos Said to Tie Russia Units to Ukraine’, where it admitted failing to properly verify
 the Kiev photo dossier.
Screenshot from nytimes.com
Screenshot from nytimes.com
The NYT also cited the State Dept’s Psaki admitting “the assertion that the photograph 
in the American briefing materials had been taken in Russia was incorrect”. She explained
 the picture was only part of a draft packet that wasn’t used by Kerry at the talks.
Psaki then claimed to have other evidence connecting “the Russians and the armed 
militants” in eastern Ukraine but would not provide details.

http://rt.com/news/154548-pictures-russian-troops-false/

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