Journalist Claims Secret US Flight 'To Capture Snowden' Overflew Scottish Airspace (thenational.scot)

schwit1 writes with a story in The National (a newspaper which makes no bones about it support for an independent Scotland) describing the charge laid by a Scottish journalist that in 2013 a secret U.S. flight involving a plane involved in CIA renditions crossed Scottish airspace, as part of a secret plan to capture whistleblower Edward Snowden. Alex Salmond, then Scotland's First Minister, is calling for transparency with regard to the knowledge that the UK government had of the flight and its mission. According to the report, The plane, which passed above the Outer Hebrides, the Highlands and Aberdeenshire, was dispatched from the American east coast on June 24 2013, the day after Snowden left Hong Kong for Moscow. The craft was used in controversial US 'rendition' missions. Reports by Scottish journalist Duncan Campbell claim the aircraft, traveling well above the standard aviation height at 45,000 feet and without a filed flight plan, was part of a mission to capture Snowden following his release of documents revealing mass surveillance by US and UK secret services. ... [N977GA, the aircraft named as involved in this flight] was previously identified by Dave Willis in Air Force Monthly as an aircraft used for CIA rendition flights of US prisoners. This included the extradition of cleric Abu Hamza from the UK. Snowden accused the Danish Government of conspiring in his arrest. In response to flight reports, he said: "Remember when the Prime Minister Rasmussen said Denmark shouldn't respect asylum law in my case? Turns out he had a secret."

Comments

Re:British Airspace

[Tx]

Even us Brits have trouble with this sometimes. Scotland is a country, just not an independent one, it's part of a larger entity, the United Kingdom; that bit is clear. But our government is called the "British Government" even though it governs the whole United Kingdom, not just the island of Great Britain. Likewise our army is the "British Army" even though it includes the Royal Irish Regiment, and Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britain. So "British" as an adjective seems to mean "of the United Kingdom", rather than "of Britain". It's probably correct in at least some senses to describe the airspace above Scotland as Scottish, British or UK.

Re:British Airspace

[msauve]

They flew over Scotland. The local officials want answers from the UK government about how this was allowed. That shouldn't be hard to figure out, and isn't any different than things that occur on a regular basis between US States and the federal government, when federal actions occur within state borders.

Additionally, stating "Scottish airspace" provides more detail than simply saying "UK airspace," making the statement more informative, and providing the basis for the Scottish interest in the matter.

Re:British Airspace

[amicusNYCL]

Fucking Slashdot. I read the summary, think "hmm, that's interesting", and want to read through the comments to see if people are talking about the plane that was used, maybe some other links to information about the plane, the flight path, where it landed or took off from, how they thought they were going to capture Snowden, or any number of other interesting things, and here you guys are 8 comment levels deep arguing about whether or not Scotland is a country.