British Lab has Found Residue of Explosives on Parts of Plane Whose Crash Killed Kaczyński, Polish Radio Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 25 – Polish news outlets are reporting that the Forensic Explosives Laboratory of the British Defense Ministry found residue of explosives on the vast majority of the 200 parts of the remains of the plane whose crash near Smolensk in 2010 killed Polish President Lech Kaczyński and members of his party.

            Polish radio says that the materials the British have concluded were affected by an explosion were given to London already in May 2017. Many Poles have long suspected that Moscow was behind the crash and have talked openly about the possibility that Russia’s special services placed a bomb on board (http://www.polradio.pl/5/38/Artykul/412476).

            This report will exacerbate not only the already tense relations between Russia and Poland but also those between Russia and Ukraine whose media are playing up this story. Moreover, they will raise new questions about why the West if it had this evidence did not bring it forward and demand an explanation from Moscow.

            Polish and other commentators have suggested that NATO countries knew the truth about the 2010 plane crash long ago but did not say so because an attack that killed the president of Poland and his closest aides could lead to a demand by Warsaw that the alliance invoke Article 5 which specifies that an attack on one member constitutes an attack on all.