Will Iran regime co-operate, or just cover up?

Back on Nov. 21 of last year, the government of Iran decided to increase the price of gasoline. The reaction from a populace already stretched to the breaking point by America-imposed economic sanctions was swift and ultimately deadly.

Thousands of Iranians poured into the streets of major cities. The government responded by firing on protesters, real bullets, intended to kill. Machine gunners perched on roofs fired into crowds. Tehran also did its best to shut down social media to avoid scrutiny, but was not entirely successful.

Hundreds, possibly more than a thousand, died. Human rights groups say the final death toll was around 400. Some sources say it was much higher, as high as 1,500, but verification was stymied by the government hiding the bodies. About 7,000 protesters were arrested.

For its part, the government would only acknowledge a handful of deaths and some arrests. The rest, Tehran said, was fake news.

That’s what is facing the government of Canada and everyone else who wants and needs to know what really happened to Flight 752. A regime that thinks nothing of shooting its own citizens, then hiding the evidence and denying its actions.

It’s hard for many of us to comprehend, it’s foreign to our experience. We may have trust issues with governments, we may disagree with them and dislike them intensely, but the concept that the government in place to protect the population can easily turn and slaughter them instead? It doesn’t compute.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government are doing all the right things. They want a full and transparent investigation. They are enlisting international support, and have it from Ukraine, where the doomed flight was headed. Other world leaders have expressed support as well.

On one hand, there’s reason for some optimism. Iran has said it will allow Canadians, and even the aircraft’s manufacturer Boeing, to be part of the investigation. But it’s not clear how much of a part, or how much information will be censored before Canada and Ukraine are plugged in. But that willingness suggests Tehran is concerned about the optics around the tragedy, and might be interested in taking some responsibility.

On the other hand, there is little reason for hope. Photographs are already being circulated which appear to show the crash site scraped clean of debris. Reports say looters have been allowed access with police standing by doing nothing. If these reports and evidence are accurate, it doesn’t look like Iran is interested in anything other than covering its tracks.

And what about the other party involved in the tragedy? What about Donald Trump? Not surprisingly, the U.S. is keeping its head down ever since first releasing its intelligence-supported view that the crash wasn’t accidental, but a result of the plane being struck by ground to air missiles. While relaying that information, Trump was quick to point out his military had nothing to do with the crash, which under the circumstances is believable. But the doesn’t mean the U.S. is entirely innocent.

It was American military leadership that provided Trump with the option of assassinating a top Iranian military leader. Obviously they could not have known this specific tragedy would happen, but they had to know that collateral damage was a near certainty once they assassinated Gen. Qassem Soleimani. It was that killing that mobilized Iranians around the same leadership they had been protesting against for weeks prior to the assassination. Trump didn’t pull any triggers, but he created the conditions that led to the trigger being pulled. He doesn’t get a pass on this, any more than Tehran does.