World Net Daily ... When determining whether Iran may be covering up evidence of nefarious activities, always look for the earth-moving equipment!

In 2012, such equipment was reportedly seen at a military site known as Parchin. Intelligence analysts had received information earlier a uranium deuteride initiator had been tested there. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wanted to gain access to the site to take soil samples for testing, which would reveal whether this was true or not. 

But while IAEA negotiated, bulldozers went to work digging up vast amounts of the area in an effort to hide evidence of what Iran was doing.

Five minutes after taking off from Tehran airport on Jan. 8, 2020, at 6:12 a.m., Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 suddenly fell from the sky. The mullahs denied responsibility for several days, making two announcements: 1) the crash was due to mechanical problems; and 2) Tehran would not be transferring the plane's black boxes that had recorded critical flight data to Boeing as they were severely damaged. 

The Iranians later said any suggestion the aircraft was shot down was "scientifically impossible" and accused the U.S. of conducting a "psychological operation" against Iranian citizens with its claims.

A few hours later bulldozers were photographed on the crash site, obviously trying once again to cover up evidence. Western experts now knew the Iranians were undoubtedly lying.

Video evidence of a surface-to-air missile striking the aircraft soon circulated, making it difficult for Iran to issue further denials. Its decision to finally accept responsibility, while still denying it bulldozed the crash site despite photographic evidence to the contrary, probably came when U.S. critics of President Donald Trump provided the mullahs with a way out to accept responsibility but not blame.

A 2020 Democratic presidential candidate perhaps planting the initial seed for Iran's response was Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

As Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at U.S.-occupied bases in Iraq, it awaited a possible U.S. response. Perhaps too quick on the trigger, its air defense system detected an unidentified aircraft and fired a missile. Ukraine Airline Flight 752 was hit, crashing to the ground, claiming the lives of 176 civilians. 

The dead included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Brits and three Germans.

Buttigieg let fly the suggestion the U.S. drone strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani had triggered hostilities and, therefore, Trump was partly to blame for Iran's miscue. His suggestion was picked up by other Trump critics, such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and foreign policy "experts" on "The View," before finally being embraced as Iran's official position.

In a speech given by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that could have been written by Buttigieg, he said:

"It was the U.S. that made for an agitated environment. It was the U.S. that created an unusual situation. It was the U.S. that threatened and took our beloved (Soleimani)."

Iran's initial denial of responsibility triggered protests in several cities against the nation's leaders for lying about it. They continued when another video emerged showing a second missile striking the Ukrainian plane, something Tehran again had tried to hide. Meanwhile, the person who posted the first video has now been arrested.

But with Iran's admission it "unintentionally" shot down the Ukrainian aircraft, it will be interesting to see how this impacts on its annual recognition of an incident occurring 32 years earlier, involving an Iranian airliner shot down unintentionallyby the cruiser USS Vincennes.

On July 3, 1988, USS Vincennes was operating in the Persian Gulf. It was another time of U.S./Iranian tensions as the Iran/Iraq war was drawing to a close – a conflict in which the U.S. had been assisting Iraq. The cruiser was tracking five menacing Iranian boats that had attacked our forces, when it detected an unidentified aircraft fast approaching from Iranian airspace. 

Despite warnings to identify itself, the aircraft failed to do so. Fearing the plane was an attack aircraft and with its flight path presenting a threat to USS Vincennes, the order was finally given to fire. A surface-to-air missile was launched, quickly bringing down Iran Air Flight 655, claiming the lives of 290.

Unlike the mullahs, President Ronald Reagan immediately acknowledged U.S. responsibility and apologized:

"I am saddened to report that it appears that a proper defensive action by the USS Vincennes this morning in the Persian Gulf an Iranian airliner was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz. This is a terrible human tragedy. Our sympathy and condolences go out to the passengers, crew and their families."

Despite Reagan's apology and a U.S. payment to Iran of $131.8 million, the mullahs have long asserted the incident was intentional rather than an act of misidentification. To drive this point home to its citizens, the Iranian government has conducted annual memorial services every year since 1988 to give the incident a high anti-U.S. profile.

Additionally, in an act of revenge typical of the mullahs, the Iranian government attempted later to assassinate the wife of the commanding officer of USS Vincennes by placing a pipe bomb under her vehicle. While it did go off, she, fortunately, was not injured.

We should not anticipate Iran's shooting down of the Ukrainian plane will cause it to have an awakening of any kind as it continues to blame the United States for the loss now of two commercial aircraft.

The late U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick, famously noted an observation about liberals that is still true today. In her 1984 speech given at the Republican National Convention, she said liberals would rather blame America than outside forces for problems the world faces. 

She credited the French writer Jean Francois Revel (1924-2006) as understanding the dangers of endless self-criticism and self-denigration, citing his quote: "Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself."

It is one thing for American citizens to blame America first; it is quite another for them to promote other countries, responsible for their own actions, do the same. For Buttigieg, who seeks his party's 2020 presidential nomination, it is absolutely unpresidential to do so.