If we do not know the truth … we may believe anything or may just choose to believe what we want to believe. It’s important to believe truths only.

Points to ponder…. If there were insufficient evidence – it does not do justice to one self if one were to believe something founded on incomplete evidence. However sincere and well-meaning; one would be in error (as one can be sincerely wrong) for  believing based on insufficient or partial evidence – we need to check concerning allegations or charges constructed on inadequate evidence especially when this insufficiency would have been apparent if anyone had bothered to cross check or have it corroborated.

We must not to let our prejudices, wishes or paroxysms interfere with a sound, balanced and judicious assessment of data and evidences – as accurate data and evidences lead to facts and facts do point to truths. However we need to guard ourselves from being credulous and  we ought not to be careless or uncritical in assessing information and evidences and the formation of opinions, as false beliefs are or can be perilous.

Humanity coming together for a common cause. .. search for MH 370. Concerned nations rising-up to a shared mission.

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Reuters news….By Matt Siegel and Jane Wardell

PERTH/SYDNEY, Australia, March 28 (Reuters) – The pot-bellied silhouette of a Chinese Il-76 military transport plane appeared in the sky over Perth International Airport just as the U.S. naval officer was explaining how he guards his cutting-edge surveillance plane.

Lieutenant Commander Adam Schantz was ticking off the measures, including a round-the-clock guard and armed rapid response team, as he caught sight of the Chinese aircraft coming in to land a few metres from the U.S. P8 Poseidon for which he is responsible.

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is producing strange bedfellows.

“Yeah, it’s a little different,” Schantz said with a laugh.

At least six countries – the United States, China, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Australia – are participating in the search and rescue operation for the flight, which disappeared almost three weeks ago and is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean off Australia’s west coast.

The level of military cooperation between a grouping of countries that contains several traditional antagonists has been unprecedented. But as the wary allies focus on solving this mystery, they are keenly aware of the boundaries of cooperation, diplomatic or military.

“When they are out there and the U.S. is using its sensors, you can be absolutely sure that the Chinese are recording all of that and are analysing how it’s done because that’s very useful in understanding how the P8s work,” David Brewster, a visiting fellow at the Strategic Defence and Studies Centre at the Australian National University, told Reuters.

The Poseidon, an anti-submarine warfare and electronic signals interception plane manufactured by Boeing Co, is the most advanced of its type. Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea all operate an earlier model, the P3 Orion, while China has the larger Russian-made Ilyushin.

The P8 only entered service in 2013 and information on its sophisticated sensors could be a prime target for Chinese intelligence.

“I’m not surprised to see a lot of security. There’s a lot of political sensitivity,” Brewster said.

Western forces are also keeping their eyes open. Air search crews told Reuters that Australian personnel were flying with the Chinese on their sorties. It was not clear if that was for security reasons or to assist with communications after the first Chinese aircraft to fly into Perth landed at the wrong airport last weekend.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said on Thursday that Chinese forces had had “effective communication” with the other countries taking part in the search, including “close coordination” with the Australians and Malaysians.

DIPLOMATIC SENSITIVIES

Then there are diplomatic sensitivities, chief among them the stormy relationships between Japan and its historical foes, regional superpower China and South Korea. By all accounts that has gone more smoothly than many had expected.

Earlier this week, Australian Defence Minister David Johnston hosted a lunch at Perth’s RAAF Base Pearce mess hall with a dozen representatives of both the Chinese and Japanese search teams, as well as the Australians.

A defence ministry source in attendance told Reuters the teams enjoyed corned beef or chicken noodles in a convivial atmosphere, albeit sitting in their national groupings.

“It was very amiable and relaxed, there was no tension whatsoever, it was all friendly – all very professional,” the source told Reuters under condition of anonymity because the person was unauthorised to speak to the media.

Bringing together countries like China and Japan, which have a history of tensions over strategic grievances going back beyond World War Two, does raise cooperation issues, said Andrew Davies, a senior analyst for defence capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

But bigger political realities often faded, he said, when the issue at hand was getting the job done.

“You might be surprised at how down-to-business the actual operators can be on the ground,” he said. (Additional reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney and Michael Martina in Perth and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Ron Popeski)

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New leads in the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370..new satellite images of 122 potential objects ‘identifie…http://goo.gl/6Sn0QF @ckw09 7:45 PM – 26 Mar 2014

China wanted Malaysia to supply all the relevant information and evidence about MH370 satellite data analysis.  See  China demanded from Malaysia the Satellite data about MH370 …

China’s official Xinhua News Agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng as telling the Malaysian ambassador to Beijing that China wanted to know the specific facts that led Malaysia to announce Monday night that the plane had been lost.

There was no immediate response from the Malaysian side.

China demanded Malaysia turn over the satellite data used to conclude that a Malaysia Airlines jet had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean as gale-force winds and heavy rain today halted efforts to search for any remains of the plane.  Extracts…  Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng told Malaysia’s ambassador to Beijing that China wanted to know exactly what led Najib to announce that the plane had been lost, a statement on the ministry’s website said.

Malaysia Airlines Chairman Mohammed Nor Mohammed Yusof said at a news conference today that it may take time for further answers to come clear.

“This has been an unprecedented event requiring an unprecedented response,” he said. “The investigation still underway may yet prove to be even longer and more complex than it has been since March 8th.”

He added that even though no wreckage of the Boeing 777 has been found, there was no doubt it had crashed.

“This by the evidence given to us, and by rational deduction, we could only arrive at that conclusion: That is, for Malaysia Airlines to declare that it has lost its plane, and by extension, the people in the plane,” he said.

The airline’s chief executive, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, said although there have been an increasing number of apparent leads, there has been no definitive identification of any debris. For several days now, search planes have been scouring seas 2,500 kilometres southwest of Perth, Australia, and have spotted several floating objects, but none have been retrieved or proven to be from the missing plane.

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New satellite analysis & data revealed that last position of MH370 was in the middle of the Indian Ocean. http://goo.gl/qKmbcJ  @ckw09 11:45 PM – 24 Mar 2014 

Inaccurate ABC news @ 24 Mar 2014 ABC News .. Pieces of debris floating off the coast of Australia have been positively identified as belonging to missing Malaysia Airlines flight #MH370, which disappeared more than two weeks ago.

With incorrect information, inadequate facts or the absence of hard data for MH370  … it’s hard to ascertain the truths of the matter and/or the truths of the matter cannot be ascertained fully.

For example, IF the last words of “All right, good night” sign-off by the co-pilot had happened after either the ACARS or transponder
had been deliberately switched off, coupled with a subsequent change of flight path, then the decompression of the plane as suggested by  http://goo.gl/OQb6ni can’t be the reason.

However if the last words by the co-pilot were before the ACARS and transponder were inactivated, then it’s possible that a fire might have broken out on the aircraft shortly after last contact was made with air traffic control (according to views of experienced pilots, the main reasons for transponder to be shut-off on purpose by a pilot was due to smoke, fire or electrical fire); or a major structural failure had occurred. The plane was in distress and the pilot then made a sharp left turn and attempted to return to a Malaysian airport in Langkawi.  Here is a perspective from a veteran pilot of what possibly could had happened to MH370 … http://goo.gl/ZZJcks

Background info… ACARS and the sequence of events before the air turn back.

Quote: Fr @MAS ..MH370 PRESS CONFERENCE – 18/03/14 clarifies that it cannot determine when ACARS had been disabled, only that it occurred within a specific time range: from 01:07 – approximately when the aircraft reached the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, and the last ACARS transmission occurred – to 01:37, which was the next scheduled reporting time.

……………..

Officials later have revealed a new timeline suggesting the final voice transmission from the cockpit of the missing Malaysian plane may have occurred before any of its communications systems were disabled; adding more uncertainty about whom aboard might have been to blame.

Malaysian Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said an initial investigation indicated that the last words heard from the plane by ground controllers – “All right, good night” – were spoken by the co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid.  Malaysian officials said earlier that those words came after one of the jetliner’s data communications systems – the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System – had been switched off, suggesting the voice from the cockpit may have been trying to deceive ground controllers.

On Saturday, Mar 15.. the Malaysian PM stated that–

“Based on new satellite information, we can say with a high degree of certainty that the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) was disabled just before the aircraft reached the East coast of peninsular Malaysia. Shortly afterwards, near the border between Malaysian and Vietnamese air traffic control, the aircraft’s transponder was switched off.”

These findings were drafted together with representatives from the lead international investigators, based on the information available at the time.” Unquote.

New data verified MH370 changed course-so can’t be decompression. FAA,NTSB,AAIB &Malaysian.. confirmed course http:/…http://goo.gl/PZZ5ao @ckw09  Mar 15

A November 2013 FAA Airworthiness Directive for the 777. Some one wrote his thoughts here… http://goo.gl/OQb6ni @ckw09  Mar 13

Moments of great ordeal for families connected to MH370. http://goo.gl/HcI16B  http://goo.gl/C5NHkm  @MAS ..sole TwitterAc4Malaysia Airlines. @ckw09  Mar 11

Our minds need to be  open, unbiased to the data and information transmitted  to us, we must base our beliefs on the basis of the right data – we shall know the truth and the truth shall set us free.

We all have a choice – this man Chiune Sugihara decided to do what’s right  ..helping to save lives. One can make a big and vital difference.

Here is an extraordinary account of a man of conviction & courage and .. who obeyed God rather than man.

Extracted fr http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiune_Sugihara

Chiune Sugihara (杉原 千畝 1 January 1900 – 31 July 1986) was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped several thousandJews leave the country by issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who escaped were refugees from German-occupied Poland and residents of Lithuania. Sugihara wrote travel visas that facilitated the escape of more than 6,000 Jewish refugees to Japanese territory, risking his career and his family’s lives.

Sugihara’s widow with Lithuania’s then president Valdas Adamkus at a tree planting ceremony in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2001. 

In 1939, Sugihara became a vice-consul of the Japanese Consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania. His other duty was to report on Soviet and German troop movements.[2]Sugihara is said to have cooperated with Polish intelligence as part of a bigger Japanese-Polish cooperative plan.[5] As the Soviet Union occupied sovereign Lithuania in 1940, many Jewish refugees from Poland (Polish Jews) as well as Lithuanian Jews tried to acquire exit visas. Without the visas, it was dangerous to travel, yet it was impossible to find countries willing to issue them. Hundreds of refugees came to the Japaneseconsulate in Kaunas, trying to get a visa to Japan.

The Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk had provided some of them with an official third destination to Curaçao, a Caribbean island and Dutch colony that required no entry visa, or Surinam (which, upon independence in 1975, became Suriname). At the time, the Japanese government required that visas be issued only to those who had gone through appropriate immigration procedures and had enough funds. Most of the refugees did not fulfill these criteria. Sugihara dutifully contacted the Japanese Foreign Ministry three times for instructions. Each time, the Ministry responded that anybody granted a visa should have a visa to a third destination to exit Japan, with no exceptions.[2]From 18 July to 28 August 1940, aware that applicants were in danger if they stayed behind, Sugihara began to grant visas on his own initiative, after consulting with his family.

He ignored the requirements and issued the Jews with a ten-day visa to transit through Japan, in direct violation of his orders. Given his inferior post and the culture of the Japanese Foreign Service bureaucracy, this was an extraordinary act of disobedience. He spoke to Soviet officials who agreed to let the Jews travel through the country via the Trans-Siberian Railway at five times the standard ticket price.Sugihara continued to hand write visas, reportedly spending 18–20 hours a day on them, producing a normal month’s worth of visas each day, until 4 September, when he had to leave his post before the consulate was closed. By that time he had granted thousands of visas to Jews, many of whom were heads of households and thus permitted to take their families with them. On the night before their scheduled departure, Sugihara and his wife stayed awake writing out visa approvals.

According to witnesses, he was still writing visas while in transit from his hotel and after boarding the train at the Kaunas Railway Station, throwing visas into the crowd of desperate refugees out of the train’s window even as the train pulled out.In final desperation, blank sheets of paper with only the consulate seal and his signature (that could be later written over into a visa) were hurriedly prepared and flung out from the train. As he prepared to depart, he said, “Please forgive me. I cannot write anymore. I wish you the best.” When he bowed deeply to the people before him, someone exclaimed, “Sugihara. We’ll never forget you. I’ll surely see you again!”[1]Sugihara himself wondered about official reaction to the thousands of visas he issued.

Many years later, he recalled, “No one ever said anything about it. I remember thinking that they probably didn’t realize how many I actually issued.”[6]The total number of Jews saved by Sugihara is in dispute, estimating about 6,000; family visas—which allowed several people to travel on one visa—were also issued, which would account for the much higher figure. The Simon Wiesenthal Center has estimated that Chiune Sugihara issued transit visas for about 6,000 Jews and that around 40,000 descendants of the Jewish refugees are alive today because of his actions.[2] Polish intelligence produced some false visas. Sugihara’s widow and eldest son estimate that he saved 10,000 Jews from certain death, whereas Boston University professor and author, Hillel Levine, also estimates that he helped “as many as 10,000 people”, but that far fewer people ultimately survived.[7] According to Levine’s 1996 biography of Sugihara, In Search of Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat issued 3,400 transit visas to the Jews.[7] Levine reports from his research of official Japanese foreign ministry documents entitled “Miscellaneous Documents Regarding Ethnic Issues: Jewish Affairs,’ vol.10, 1940 Diplomatic Record Office, Japanese Foreign Ministry, Tokyo”, that he discovered one list alone of “2,139 names, largely of Poles—both Jews and non-Jews—who received visas between July 9 and August 31, 1940…It is far from complete; many who received visas from Sugihara, including children, are not on it. By statistical extrapolation, it can be estimated that he helped as many as ten thousand escape, yet those who actually survived are probably no more than half that number.”[7] Indeed, some Jews who received Sugihara visas failed to leave Lithuania in time, were later captured by the Germans who invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, and perished in the Holocaust.

The Diplomatic Record Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has opened to the public two documents concerning Sugihara’s file: the first aforementioned document is a 5 February 1941 diplomatic note from Chiune Sugihara to Japan’s then Foreign Minister Yōsuke Matsuoka in which Sugihara stated he issued 1,500 out of 2,139 transit visas to Jews and Poles; however, since most of the 2,139 people were not Jewish, this would imply that most of the visas were given to Polish Jews instead. Levine then notes that another document from the same foreign office file “indicates an additional 3,448 visas were issued in Kaunas for a total of 5,580 visas” which were likely given to Jews desperate to flee Lithuania for safety in Japan or Japanese occupied China. Moreover, there were also “some Jesuits in Vilna who were issuing Sugihara visas with seals that he had left behind and did not destroy, long after the Japanese diplomat had departed” which means that some Jews could have escaped Europe with forged visas issued under Sugihara’s name.[7]Many refugees used their visas to travel across the Soviet Union to Vladivostok and then by boat to Kobe, Japan, where there was a Russian Jewish community.

Tadeusz Romer, the Polish ambassador in Tokyo, organised help for them. From August 1940 to November 1941, he had managed to get transit visas in Japan, asylum visas to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Burma, immigration certificates to the British Mandate of Palestine, and immigrant visas to the United States and some Latin American countries for more than two thousand Polish-Lithuanian Jewish refugees, who arrived in Kobe, Japan, and the Shanghai Ghetto, China.

May you have a great and wonderful day.