After departing a gas exporters’ summit in Russia on Tuesday, the plane carrying Bolivia’s President Evo Morales was diverted to Vienna, Austria when it was suddenly denied air space by Portugal and France due to suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden may have been on board. In the end, no sign of Snowden was found during a search of the plane, and Bolivia is now calling the incident a ‘kidnapping.’
From Reuters:
Bolivia accused Austria of “kidnapping” its president, Evo Morales, on Wednesday after authorities searched his plane during a stop-over in Vienna on suspicion he was taking fugitive U.S. intelligence analyst Edward Snowden to Latin America.
A senior Bolivian diplomat said the Austrians had acted at the bidding of the United States, which has been trying to get its hands on Snowden since he revealed details of its secret surveillance programs last month.
“We’re talking about the president on an official trip after an official summit being kidnapped,” Bolivia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Sacha Llorenti Soliz, told reporters in Geneva.
Bolivia has, not surprisingly, capitalized on the incident to take shots at the West.
From NBC News:
“We want to tell Bolivians, we want to tell the world, that President Evo Morales, our president, the president of all Bolivians, was kidnapped in Europe today,” Vice President Alvaro García Linera said late Tuesday in front of the official presidential residence in the capital, La Paz. “We want to say to the nations of the world that President Evo Morales has been abducted by imperialism and is being held in Europe.”
In a statement from aboard his presidential plane Wednesday, Morales underlined the indignation and fury felt at the highest levels of the Bolivian government, and made a thinly-veiled attack on Western powers.
“I feel this was an excuse to frighten, intimidate and punish me. More than anything, an excuse to try and silence us on the struggle against the politics of plunder, invasion and domination,” president Morales said.
The incident has sparked international outcry, as Bolivia has now promised to file a formal complaint with the UN Human Rights Commission.
The foreign ministry of Cuba also issued a statement Tuesday calling on the international community “to mobilize against these violations of international law and human rights.”
Bolivia is one of twenty countries to which Snowden has applied for asylum. Brazil, Finland, Germany, India and Poland have all rejected the requests, while Austria, Ecuador, Norway and Spain have indicated that asylum could only be considered if made from within their countries or at one of their embassies, according to CBS News.
The former NSA contractor has since withdrawn his asylum request with Russia after President Vladimir Putin said Snowden could stay only if he ceased his work “aimed at harming our American partners.”
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Comments
Wow! They went so far as to block the flight of a Head of State and searched his plane! Now granted Bolivia is not a major country, but the idea that you would violate the movement of a Head of State to and from a diplomatic mission is insane. Obama has just opened up the door to the US President getting suddenly blocked on flight and being taken. This is an act of war. Seriously, can anyone imagine the US reaction if Air Force One while to or fro a diplomatic mission was forced down and searched while the President was on it?
The US is acting like its afraid for its very existence. We haven’t pursued terrorists like this, not even Bin Laden. What is on those laptops that the White House is willing to risk a massive trade war or even conflict. I bet on that laptop is grounds to impeach Obama, Polosi, Bhoener and Fienstien in one swoop. They clearly don’t care this much about American Security as evidenced by foreign policy, so it has to be a threat to their power. They better watch out, if they back him into a corner, he may just release everything.
Diplomacy. Head of State. Act of war.
In the words of Dr. Zachary Smith, “You bubble headed booby!”
Spare me the drama.
What did the Foreign Service do for Christopher Stevens and his remaining heroic staff?
How have Danny Pearl or Chris Berg been remembered since their beheadings? Those “real killers” will be before the judge about the time Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman’s “real killers” get arrested.
Oh! Clutch the pearls, fetch the smelling salts: our territorial integrity is at risk and the stability of our institutions has been undermined yet again!
The current Chinese Communists and the former KGB are likely rid of the little weasel and glad of it.
I pity the sad sack Special Agent in Charge that gets saddled with global whack-a-mole (pizza parlor game, not assassination) playing George Carlin spy-at-the-airport looking for a skinny hipster carrying a laptop.
Go ahead, little leaker!
Let ‘er rip!
Here is your revelations list: misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, treason, lust, adultery, substance abuse, theft, double dipping on expense accounts, perjury.
Extra points for videos.
Thank you, Mandy, for the story and the chance to comment.
Good luck with getting those meds straightened out.
France & Spain are denying the plane was not given permission to fly over. However the search in the Canary Islands has been confirmed ( I think ) .
This won’t help Obama’s xefforts in South America But of more interest is the Spain Vs South America rift .
The Bolivian Prez is ethnic native & its about time we had some anti Hispanic action. Doesn’t matter what is true – Spain could do with a smack down just for fun’s sake.
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