Russian plane crash probe demands cooperation by all

With each passing day, it becomes increasingly apparent that Islamic State terrorists caused the fiery and deadly Oct. 31 crash of a Russian Airbus passenger plane in Egypt’s Sinai Pensinsula. As evidence of an IS bombing mounts, it also becomes increasingly clear that the group no longer can be marginalized as some ragtag band of insurgent extremists wreaking mayhem with beheadings, rapes and murders in pockets throughout the Middle East.

Indeed, initial investigations of the crash paint IS as evolving into a powerful and sophisticated international terrorist network on par with the infamous al-Qaida in its heyday. To be sure, if IS ultimately proves to be the primary force behind the explosion and crash near the Sharm el-Sheikh airport that killed all 224 aboard the Russian aircraft, it means the group has succeeded in executing one of the most notorious mass killings against an enemy state since the terror attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

That’s why the stakes are so enormously high in determining with absolute certainty that the Sinai Province of the Islamic State, an IS chapter in Egypt, carried out the attack as it has professed. Toward that end, it is absolutely essential that all parties in the ongoing investigation spare no energies and exhaust all resources toward arriving at the truth.

BARRIERS TO THE TRUTH

Unfortunately, however, the two principal parties in the investigation – Russia and Egypt – thus far have failed to demonstrate any grave sense of urgency in ensuring an expeditious, fair and thorough investigation of the air disaster. Since Day 1, the investigation has been bogged down in secrecy, squabbling and obfuscation, leading some to fear that key evidence is being compromised.

As The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, most of the debris from the wreckage remains untouched, scattered over miles of desert in the Sinai Peninsula even though it could contain critical clues to the cause of the crash.

Clearly, it would not surprise many to believe that the autocratic regimes of Egypt and Russia are intentionally stonewalling the investigation for political purposes. Egypt’s Abdel Fatah al-Sissi would understandably be loath to acknowledge that security at the airport in Sharm-el-Sheikh, a popular international tourist destination, could so easily be penetrated by IS terrorists. For his part, Russia’s Vladimir Putin might well be reticent to acknowledge that his state-sponsored bombing campaign in Syria resulted in the most deadly civil air attack in Russia’s history. Both nations also have snubbed U.S. pleas to intervene and assist.

As a result, the United Kingdom, the United States and other third parties have by default become the primary messengers in reporting updates on the crash and its causes. Within days of the crash, U.S. and British government sources suggested that intercepted communications chatter indicated that the plane had been brought down by an explosive device.

British Prime Minister David Cameron says “more likely than not” that “a terrorist bomb” had destroyed the airliner.

A U.S. intelligence official told CNN that the signs pointing to ISIS are partially based on monitoring of internal messages of the terrorist group. Those messages are separate from public ISIS claims of responsibility.

In the United States, Texas GOP Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said this week that his committee is convinced that an Islamic State bomb took down the plane.

In the wake of such compelling evidence, the illogical tactics of selfish political preservation fly in the face of the logical need for worldwide cooperation and cohesion in the face of a major international terrorist crime. Such disunity and obfuscation also play into the hands of IS by better enabling it to strengthen and extend its bloodthirsty tentacles of evil.

If such delays and disunity continue, it may be up to the United Nations to intervene with an impartial inquiry into the cause of the disaster. If it is then proven that Islamic State indeed masterminded the airline disaster, it will then be up to Egypt, Russia and the rest of the civilized world to unite with a cohesive strategy to destabilize and destroy the radical thuggish insurgents once and for all.