Bolivian President's Plane 'Rerouted Over Snowden Suspicions'

niftydude writes with the latest news on the Edward Snowden saga. It appears that the Bolivian President's plane was denied access to French and Spanish airspace due to suspicions that Snowden was on board. Quoting a few pieces from the Guardian: "In an extraordinary move, France and Portugal revoked flight clearances for the Bolivian President's plane on Tuesday after representations were reportedly made by the U.S. State Department. Mr Morales was flying home from an energy conference in Moscow and his aircraft was hastily rerouted to Vienna, Austria. Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca angrily denied that Mr Snowden was on the President's aircraft, a fact later confirmed by Austrian authorities, and said France and Portugal would have to explain why they abruptly canceled authorization for the flight. AP reports that Venezuela's foreign minister Elias Jaua has condemned the decision by France and Portugal to block the plane from its airspace. He claimed that changing a flight's route without checking on how much fuel was left in the plane, put Morales' life at risk." Spain claims they only agreed to allow the plane to refuel there if it were subject to search, and France did end up authorizing use of their air space today. In related news, Julian Assange and the general secretary of Reporters Without Borders Christophe Deloire published an Op-Ed today why Europe must protect Snowden. And: dryriver sends news that Ecuador discovered that their embassy in London was bugged, describing the incident as "another instance of a loss of ethics at the international level in relations between governments."

Comments

Complete asshat move by the White House

[haruchai]

No matter what you think of Snowden, at this point he's just a whistleblower or spy.

If the US wants to search plane, they can fucking do it themselves - they still have an Air Force, after all.

Re:God it feels good to be an American!!!!!!!

[FriendlyLurker]

Worth pointing out that some of those same EU countries trying to impede and/or deny Snowdens asylum requests ("a centuries-old right in international law") are also responsible for allowing CIA extraordinary rendition of unknown prisoners via their air space without any due process, airplane checks (yes Spain, that includes you).

As usual, US officials and their acolytes who invoke "the law" to demand severe punishment for powerless individuals (Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning) instantly exploit the same concept to protect US political officials, their owners and their allies from the worst crimes: torture, warrantless eavesdropping, rendition, systemic financial fraud, deceiving Congress and the US public about their surveillance behavior. If you're spending your time calling for Ed Snowden's head but not James Clapper's, or if you're obsessed with Snowden's fabricated personality attributes (narcissist!) but apathetic about rampant, out-of-control NSA surveillance, it's probably worth spending a few moments thinking about what this priority scheme reveals.

Re:God it feels good to be an American!!!!!!!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

A'int no "home of the free". The US has more people incarcerated - per capita and in raw number - than any nation on Earth, or even in all of human history!

While accounting for a mere 5% of the global population, the US has an aggregated 25% of the world's prisoners, and is growing this at a consistent, exponential rate.

You have states, like Louisiana, where one out of every 55 people in the state is a prisoner for the duration of a year or more.

We make China look like amateur hour. Stalin? a blip.

Now. How can anyone argue that there's no such thing as "brainwashing", or that it only works on stupid or ignorant people?

Re:God it feels good to be an American!!!!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

From Wikipedia: (emphasis mine)

On 20 August 1940, Trotsky was attacked in his home in Mexico with an ice axe by undercover NKVD agent Ramón Mercader.[108] The blow to Trotsky's head was poorly delivered and failed to kill Trotsky instantly, as Mercader had intended. Witnesses stated that Trotsky spat on Mercader and began struggling fiercely with him. Hearing the commotion, Trotsky's bodyguards burst into the room and nearly killed Mercader, but Trotsky stopped them, laboriously stating that the assassin should be made to answer questions.[109] Trotsky was taken to a hospital, operated on, and survived for more than a day, dying at the age of 60 on 21 August 1940 as a result of blood loss and shock.[110][111]

Re: spy novel

[anagama]

What is different, is that we have direct information (not statements, not conjecture, not foil hattery) about the surveillance. It is the difference between suspecting (or even having a well grounded belief), and KNOWING. It is the difference between knowing that AT&T set up splitters, and wondering what happens after that, and knowing what happens after that.

More to the point though, if we do nothing after these revelations, the DC pukes will take it as a mandate to do more and worse.

So instead of wasting your time and everyone else's lamenting how long it has taken to get to the point where real pushback can occur, get on board and start pushing the fuck back. Hard.

Demand prosecutions, impeachment proceedings. Start with the obvious, like Clapper's felonious perjury, and then keep plowing the bastards. Don't sit back and whine about people not acting in the past -- that is a useless waste of time and just plays into the enemy's hands. So stand up and fight, or if you won't do that, go back to your cotton row and shut the fuck up.