Katyn & Smolensk.

This is coolbert:

From the Chicago Tribune almanac today. On this day two years ago now:

In 2010 " Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed along with 96 others - - including his wife, political leaders and heroes of Poland's resistance to communist rule - - when their airplane crashed outside Smolensk, Russia. The group was on its way to mark the massacre of thousands - - of Polish prisoners of war in a forest glad called Katyn by Soviet Military police in 1940."

Some obvious and instantaneous clarifications needed here:

1. Tens of thousands [22,000?] and not merely thousands.

2. A massacre yes but much more, a carefully planned execution, with malice afore thought of the most diabolical and malevolent variety!

3. NOT merely POW [prisoners of war] but the entire elite of the Polish nation. Priests, intellectuals, political figures, military officers, academics. The gamut of that core nucleus from which the leadership of a nation is found.

4. NOT Soviet military police. The NKVD, the Soviet secret police.

"The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre . . . was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940 . . . Of the total killed, about 8,000 were officers taken prisoner during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, another 6,000 were police officers, with the rest being Polish intelligentsia arrested for allegedly being "intelligence agents, gendarmes, landowners, saboteurs, factory owners, lawyers, officials and priests."

All pedantics aside, I had planned to blog on this particular event as considered within the wider context which now goes back seventy years now.

From the original headlines as it was two years ago thanks to the BBC:

"Polish President Lech Kaczynski dies in plane crash"

"President Lech Kaczynski and scores of other senior Polish figures have been killed in a plane crash in Russia."

"the plane apparently hit trees as it approached Smolensk airport in thick fog."

That commemorative event as planned those passengers on the crashed aircraft again that very elite of Polish society and culture, INCLUDING FROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND AT LEAST HALF OF THE POLISH GENERAL STAFF ON BOARD!!

"Poland's army chief, central bank governor, MPs and leading historians were among more than 80 passengers."

My instantaneous and intuitive reaction two year ago was this was a deliberate instance of MEACONING! False navigation signals sent deliberately to deceive the pilot, relying upon instruments as he was at that exact moment, all perishing as a result and with deliberate malice on the part of the Russian. Without a shred of evidence that was my "instantaneous and intuitive" reaction! As it was seventy years ago so it remains now too? Kill the Poles!

This tragic incident from two years ago has been deemed after thorough investigation to have been an accident and MY "instantaneous and intuitive reaction" is just plain wrong? So seems to be the consensus BUT speculation and just downright suspicion remains and in some quarters is quite strong, THIS WAS NOT AN ACCIDENT!

From almost seventy years ago now, the death of Polish wartime commander General Sikorski seeming to suggest that there is indeed precedent for this type of event, death by airplane crash at the most inopportune moment ALSO related to events as occurred at Katyn AT THE TIME!!

"In July 1943, a plane carrying Sikorski plunged into the sea immediately after takeoff from Gibraltar, killing all on board except the pilot . . . Investigators later concluded that Sikorski's injuries were consistent with a plane crash."

Sikorski wartime commander-in-chief of all Polish armed forces and de facto leader of the Polish government in exile, ASKING TOO MANY UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTION REGARDING KATYN.

English investigation of the 1943 airplane crash also strongly suggesting that this tragedy too was an accident, nothing more, similar to events as they recently [2010] transpired in Smolensk.

The David Irving book:  "Accident: The Death of General Sikorski" [get your own free download] that authoritative work [?] on the subject ruling out conspiracy or other acts of sabotage. Disaster as it was in 1943 and the death of General Sikorski due to an overloaded aircraft the cargo of which was not fastened down or positioned correctly? This seems to be the case.

Devoted readers to the blog will forgive those with fevered imaginations such as myself, the coincidences as occurring being too numerous to not arouse suspicion?

coolbert.