September 29, 2015
MH17-research – until today September 29, 2015 I wrote more than 35,000 words on all kinds of subjects related to the MH17 shoot down. Mistakes are inevitable and I think it is good practice to admit them, be open about them and give credit to the people who correct them.
UPDATE April 6, 2019
Three and a half years after I admitted an error some folks still feel the urge to constantly amplify this event and even pretend I did not make a small mistake, but tried to deliberately distort the facts.
Today I add this update to warn you for some people with a hidden political agenda who are not interested in fact finding at all, but just want to damage me.
Note: Bellingcat founder Higgins blatantly lies in this tweet. How does he know what I think? I have never in any form claimed “MH17 was a false flag”. Why Higgins gets away with such lies? He is supposed to be the creme de la creme of western open source intelligence, but blocks me on Twitter so I cannot defend myself.
For years I had a challenge to communicate normally with Marcel. Until recently I was under the impression he is interested in facts, but in ‘Ugly Face of ‘Civil Journalism’ I expose Marcel van den Berg as the liar he is. Below my original Mea Culpa continues.
September 29, 2015 – Criticism from Marcel at WhathappenedtoflightMH17.com
I proved that the infamous photo cable could not have been made from the roof, but my claim the photos cannot have been made from the balcony is contested by reasonable people. The dispute could not be resolved unless someone would take photos from the balcony.
@marcelvandenber zoals je weet heb ik ook het balkon laten controleren 1/ @JoostNiemoller @JeroenAkkermans pic.twitter.com/yXwAesp6dN
— Max van der Werff (@MaxvanderWerff) August 5, 2015
Yana Yerlashova later went to Torez and made the photo that I layered in the ‘original’. Not a match, but it cannot be ruled out completely the cable sunk to a lower position over time.
*What I learned. Be very precise with what you claim and make sure you can back it up with convincing evidence.
*What I learned. Confirmation bias can be a trap even you are aware of it! Here an article that describes twenty cognitive biases.
Remark: eventually proving that the cable shot is impossible, does not rule out the possibility that still a missile was fired from the location of the plume on the photos. And vice versa.
The cable issue is a small part of a much bigger investigation discussed here
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December 30, 2014 – Wrong geolocation
Input Bellingcat: location of ‘video spot’ falsified.
Instead of simply dismissing the geolocation given by Bellingcat, I should have falsified the data first by finding the ‘real spot’ of the video. The logical fallacy however created a new hypothesis which otherwise I would have completely missed.
*What I learned. First try to falsify somebody’s claim. Do not simply replace it with your own claim.