[Peetwo]

Malcolm on 'under the bus' diplomacy -

Dear Chester (you useless git), please take note of the following as a lesson in how to throw a foreign government and regional ally (nicely) under the bus...yours Malcolm T.

Via the Oz today:

MH370: report not for Australia to reveal says Malcolm Turnbull

• Jared Owens, Ean Higgins
  
• The Australian
  
• 11:11AM July 25, 2016
  [img=0x0]http://pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/track/component/author/0573acb566bb47c45e64e4c55a998aba/?esi=true&t_product=the-australian&t_template=s3/austemp-article_common/vertical/author/widget&td_bio=false[/img]
  

Malcolm Turnbull has rebuffed Labor’s calls to reveal what Australia knows about the FBI’s reported evidence that Malaysia Airlines captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah ­deliberately brought down Flight MH370.

New York magazine published an article at the weekend saying it had obtained access to a secret FBI report that showed Zaharie had used his elaborate home computer flight simulator less than a month before the aircraft vanished to conduct a simulated flight along a route closely matching that actually taken by MH370.

Opposition transport spokesman Anthony ­Albanese yesterday told The Australian the government had a duty to the families of the victims to explain what information it had.

The Prime Minister today said he was aware of the reports, but insisted the information was not for Australia to reveal.

“I’m unable to comment on them other than to say that it’s a matter for the Malaysian investigators when they’re considering their final report into this tragedy and I just note that even if the simulator information does show that it is possible or very likely that the captain planned this shocking event it does not tell us the location of the aircraft,” Mr Turnbull told reporters in Sydney.

“I want to say that everyone involved in this unprecedented search for MH370 earnestly, passionately wants to find the aircraft and I want to commend and thank all of those, all of the organisations, all of the individuals, and the countries — Malaysia and China — who have collaborated in this search.

“The location of this aircraft I hope will be found, but at this point it is an unknown. It has an element of mystery, but above all a deep sense of tragedy and loss and our hearts go out to the families and friends of those who died aboard that plane.”

That the FBI had succeeded in recovering the flight simulator data, and concluded Zaharie had hijacked his own aircraft, was first revealed by Australian pilot Byron Bailey writing in The Weekend Australian in January, quoting an Australian government source.

Captain Bailey and British airline pilot Simon Hardy have ­argued the search has been in the wrong area because rather than crashing down sharply after running out of fuel because the pilots were unconscious, as assumed by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, a conscious “rogue pilot” could have glided the aircraft much further or conducted a controlled ditching under power.

When Captain Bailey revealed what he had been told about the FBI conclusion, the ATSB and the FBI refused to confirm or deny the report.

Critics such as Captain Bailey have claimed the Australian government and the ATSB have known all along, including from the secret FBI report, that Zaharie hijacked the aircraft, but went with the “ghost plane” scenario to avoid embarrassing Malaysia, which would not want a conclusion its pilot deliberately took down a jet.

The specific document New York claims to have uncovered adds weight to Captain Bailey’s original revelation, and the magazine described it as “the strongest evidence yet that Zaharie made off with the plane in a premeditated act of mass murder-suicide’’.

   

Hmm...I think miniscule NFI DDD has just had his first bottom spanking...


MTF...P2