January 11, 2020
Asia Times

Communication Jammed, Iran Missile Operator Fired

by AFP

The Iranian missile operator who shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet opened fire independently because of communications "jamming", a Revolutionary Guards commander said on Saturday.

The operator had mistaken the Boeing 737 for a "cruise missile" and only had ten seconds to decide whether or not to open fire, Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh, the Guards' aerospace commander, said in televised remarks.

Hajizadeh also said that the missile that was fired at a Ukrainian passenger jet exploded next to the plane before it went down. . . .

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[Aegis cruiser shot down an Iranian airliner--Susanne M. Schafer, "Navy Awards Medals To Vincennes Officers," apnews.com, April 23, 1990]

[Not until eight years later did the U.S. government compensate the victims' families, and even then expressed "deep regret," not an apology.--Fred Kaplan, "America's Flight 17: The time the United States blew up a passenger plane, and tried to cover it up," slate.com, July 23, 2014]

"Wag the Dog? Unlawful Killing of General Soleimani," The Wisdom Fund, January 2, 2020

[The July 3, 1988, downing of Iran Air flight 655 by the U.S. Navy remains one of the moments the Iranian government points to in its decades-long distrust of America. They rank it alongside the 1953 CIA-backed coup that toppled its elected prime minister and secured Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's absolute power until he abdicated the throne before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.--Jon Gambrell, "Ukrainian plane crash may be grim echo of US downing of Iran flight in 1988," usatoday.com, January 10, 2020]

Kieran Corcoran, "Iran's foreign ministers says 'US adventurism' is to blame," businessinsider.com, January 10, 2020