Bolivian President’s Plane Leaves Austria After Diplomatic Scramble
It began as a seemingly offhand remark by the president of Bolivia, who suggested during a visit to Moscow that he might be happy to host Edward J. Snowden, the fugitive former security contractor who is desperate to find asylum. It escalated into a major diplomatic scramble in which the Bolivian president’s plane was rerouted to Austria, apparently because of suspicions that Mr. Snowden was aboard.
After the plane spent 13 hours overnight on the tarmac at the Vienna airport, it took off at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, according to Peter Kleemann, a spokesman for the airport. Austrian media reported the plane was bound for Bolivia, but planned to make a stopover in the Canary Islands.
Outraged Bolivian officials, insisting that Mr. Snowden was not on the plane, accused France and Portugal on Tuesday of acting under American pressure to rescind permission for President Evo Morales’s plane to traverse their airspace on the way back to Bolivia. Low on fuel, the plane’s crew won permission to land in Vienna.
Bolivia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Sacha Llorentty Solíz, said in Geneva on Wednesday that he believed the order to divert the plane came from the United States, Reuters reported. The ambassador added that the search of the plane violated international law, the report said.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/world/snowden.html?_r=0
Disgraceful that they grounded it.
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