US presents Bolivia with an extradition request for Edward Snowden

[Catherina]

The U.S. Government has presented Bolivia with an extradition request for the former CIA anylist Edward Snowden, according to Bolivia's Minister of Foreign Affairs

...

According Foreign Minister Choquehuanca this extradition request explains the actions of several European countries when they closed their airspace to the plane of the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, thinking that Edward Snowden could be on that on the plane, Snowden is wanted by the U.S. for leaking large amounts of classified information from the U.S. National Security Agency.

...

Texto completo en: http://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/view/99109-eeuu-bolivia-solicitud-extradicion-snowden

Daily "DiePresse" reporting that USA demanded Snowden's extradiction from Austrian authorities yesterday

US Requested that Vienna Extradite Snowden

03.07.2013 | 21:28 | HELMAR DUMBS UND CHRISTIAN ULTSCH (Die Presse)

Bolivian President Morales was forced to land in Vienna. NSA whistleblower Snowden was suspected to be on his jet. In a telephone conversation with the Foreign Office, the U.S. ambassador demanded they extradite him.



Here's the crucial section:

Sie landete gegen 23 Uhr. Kurz danach ging im Wiener Außenamt ein dringlicher Anruf ein. Am anderen Ende der Leitung: US-Botschafter William Eacho. Wie "Die Presse" erfuhr, behauptete er mit großer Bestimmtheit, dass Edward Snowden an Bord sei, der von den USA gesuchte Aufdecker jüngster Abhörskandale. Eacho habe auf eine diplomatische Note verwiesen, in der die USA die Auslieferung Snowdens verlangten.

Translated:

It landed about 11 pm. Shortly after that, the Vienna foreign department received a phone call. The caller was the US embassador William Echo. "Die Presse" learned that he claimed with strong firmness that Edward Snowden was onboard, the whistleblower of the recent surveillance scandals. Eacho referred to a diplomatic note requesting Snowden's extradition.


http://diepresse.com/home/politik/aussenpolitik/1426275/USA-verlangten-von-Wien-Snowdens-Auslieferung?_vl_backlink=/home/politik/aussenpolitik/1416110/index.do&direct=1416110

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Holy shit, adding fuel to the pretty burning fire

This will go well.

[zappaman]

2. OMIGOD!

We are going to war!
It's the end of the American empire!

[alcibiades_mystery]

44. Heh heh heh

Well played.

[JDPriestly]

49. More from that article.

Around 11, Evo Morales appeared one last time out of the brown door, thanked Austria for its hospitality and held his last (literally) "verbal attack" against the USA. It is time for European countries to free themselves: "The era of the Empire is past." (Morales said.) Morales' layover in Vienna lasted more than 12 hours. Minutes later, the conservative party's (the Austrian OVP's) VIP-car brought the President (Morales) and his entourage to the plane. Morales waved another time then the jet moved slowly off in the direction of the runway. The plane, however, was barely in the air when hospitality was no longer the topic: Austria kidnapped the President's plane, complained Bolivia's United Nations ambassador at the UN in Geneva.

Gegen elf trat Evo Morales ein letztes Mal aus der braunen Tür, dankte Österreich für die Gastfreundschaft und holte zum finalen Verbalschlag gegen die USA aus. Es sei Zeit für die europäischen Länder, sich zu befreien: "Das Zeitalter der Imperien ist vorbei." Morales' Zwischenstopp in Wien auch, er hat mehr als zwölf Stunden gedauert. Minuten später brachten schwarze VIP-Wagen den Präsidenten und seine Entourage zum Flieger. Morales winkte noch einmal, dann setzt sich der Jet langsam Richtung Startbahn in Bewegung. Doch kaum war er in der Luft, war von Gastfreundschaft nicht mehr die Rede: Österreich habe die Präsidentenmaschine "gekidnappt", wetterte Boliviens Botschafter bei der UNO in Genf.

http://diepresse.com/home/politik/aussenpolitik/1426275/USA-verlangten-von-Wien-Snowdens-Auslieferung?_vl_backlink=/home/politik/aussenpolitik/1416110/index.do&direct=1416110

I expect that any day now, some huge American Wall Street investment firm will offer big money for a major interest in Die Presse and Der Standard. Silencing the truth costs a lot of money.

I also predict that everyone, the US and European countries, everyone, will kiss and make up, but these events will be forgotten by no one. This is not a good development for the US in the world. The surveillance program will cost us more than just money in the end. This heavy-handed search for Snowden will harm us as will the program itself. Shame on us. What fools we are.

Once you set out on a devious path of deception and wrongful conduct, your own mistakes or wrongs come back to haunt you. All of us have to learn that in our lives. The program really isn't worth it. But the US will lose face and have to eat crow if we admit it. We are stuck, and so is the rest of the world. Just the fact that we think we need this kind of one-sided, secret surveillance makes us look really bad. All countries spy. All countries have intelligence. But this program is too extreme.

Another choice for us is to somehow prove that the Russians or the Chinese or some other nation is doing something worse. That would deflect the criticism from us. And then maybe we can save face by getting everyone to abandon this kind of surveillance.

What a mess.

[dipsydoodle]

3. What's Bolivian for go whistle ?

[Coyotl]

17. Vete a cagar en la selva.

[1monster]

48. Nasty! Go wash your hands and disinfect your keyboard!

[KamaAina]

51. Vete = "(You) go"; selva = "forest".

"cagar" is scatological.

[Coyotl]

58. Play on words in Spanish.

Silva and selva.
Silvar and silvicultura.

Literally, "Go crap in the woods."

[KamaAina]

52. Bolivian? Is that anything like Mexican?

Nice post, Bush!

[Cleita]

4. What?????

This is getting crazier and crazier. If they don't have him, why are they doing pre-emptive extraditions? There's gotta be a rule against this kind of BS. Also, didn't they search the plane in Austria and he wasn't there?

[Catherina]

7. See updated OP for link to German article about Vienna get a request yesterday

I don't get it either. I just woke up and am catching up.

Are you fluent in German? Anyone?

[Cleita]

8. I studied it in college but that was fifty years ago.

I doubt if I could read it now.

[Cleita]

12. Heres a translation of the Die Presse article.

http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=de&to=en&a=http://diepresse.com/home/politik/aussenpolitik/1426275/USA-verlangten-von-Wien-Snowdens-Auslieferung?_vl_backlink=/home/politik/aussenpolitik/1416110/index.do&direct=1416110

When you hit the link it comes up in German first but then reloads into English

[Catherina]

13. Thanks Cleita :) n/t

[AmBlue]

56. Do we know for certain...

...whether the Bolivian president's plane was searched?? I think I read in your earlier thread that it was not. And thanks for your tenacious reporting, Catherina. Of course, CNN and MSNBC have had NO coverage of this story yet this evening. None from BBC either that I've seen.

[bunnies]

5. Id really like to see that explanation. nt

[HooptieWagon]

6. Hopefully Morales tells Obama to go pound sand. nt

[nineteen50]

38. depends on if it is a trillion dollar threat or a trillion dollar payoff.

at taxpayers expense of course.

[alcibiades_mystery]

45. Yes, we're sending Bolivia one. trillion. dollars.

[JDPriestly]

50. Morales told the Europeans that the time for Empire is over. That's the last paragraph in an

article in Die Presse, maybe the article cited in the OP.

[tsuki]

9. The Administration is making this worse. They are beginning

to look less like the indispensable one and more like clowns.

[Laelth]

10. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Mojorabbit]

11. Whoa!

I read last night that the plane had not been searched but Austria nevertheless stated he was not on board. I wonder if he was after all.

[tammywammy]

16. I've read multiple things.

Austria said they asked permission and a single person went aboard and searched it. Bolivia saying no one searched it.

I think it'll be another day or so before anyone knows anything close to the truth.

[reorg]

30. According to the article

Bolivia's ambassador says the plane was searched, not officially, but sort of, with Morales' consent. Bolivia's defense minister says it wasn't searched at all, "nobody entered the plane". Austria's Foreign Minister says the plane was searched but nobody was found on board except Bolivians. Morales holds hourly press conferences, is in a good mood and joking, says he doesn't even know how to pronounce "Snowden". Relaxed he reports that the ambassador of Spain wanted to invite himself for a cup of coffee on board but was rejected, by Morales himself, with the words "we don't need no controls".

[temmer]

15. US was positive that Snowden was on the plane

Here's the crucial section:

Sie landete gegen 23 Uhr. Kurz danach ging im Wiener Außenamt ein dringlicher Anruf ein. Am anderen Ende der Leitung: US-Botschafter William Eacho. Wie "Die Presse" erfuhr, behauptete er mit großer Bestimmtheit, dass Edward Snowden an Bord sei, der von den USA gesuchte Aufdecker jüngster Abhörskandale. Eacho habe auf eine diplomatische Note verwiesen, in der die USA die Auslieferung Snowdens verlangten.

Translated:

It landed about 11 pm. Shortly after that, the Vienna foreign department received a phone call. The caller was US embassador William Echo. "Die Presse" learned that the claimed with big firmness that Edward Snowden was onboard, the whistleblower of the recent surveillance scandals. Eacho referred to a diplomatic note requesting Snowden's extradition.

I can't help - it looks to me that someone has duped the US to cause maximum embarassment. Russians?

[reorg]

24. Assange, knowing his phone is bugged

and somebody is recording every single word he speaks probably called someone, acting like it's a big secret, and told them Snowden may be on his way to Bolivia already. The NSA snoopers reported it immediately and within minutes all US ambassadors in Europe were on stand-by to catch the dangerous traitor!

[TroglodyteScholar]

35. Plausible. n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

36. Heh - if that was how it happened, it would be hilarious

Plant a false rumour that could only get out by bugging the phone ...

[temmer]

61. VERY plausible - kick nt

[Kurovski]

29. Mmm. "big firmness".

Sorry. it's a serious matter. But I'm hopeless.

[warrprayer]

18. N.S.A.

[HardTimes99]

21. LMFAO - This is what the U.S. taxpayers get for their $1 trillion per year? - nt

[dkf]

23. Hee hee hee.

[Catherina]

32. LMAO!

[WillyT]

39. ROFL !!! - K & R !!!

[Catherina]

19. Thank you! Will update my OP with your translation.

[temmer]

40. you're welcome

Btw, the rest of the article is heavily biased towards the arrogant "Ah! Morales! The funny Bolivians!" attitude which is quite common in the German press. But if you go to the comments section of any article, no matter where you go, die Presse, Spiegel, FAZ, ARD, people are as outraged as Latin-Americans. It simply hurts their sense of justice that Morales is treated differently than, say, Merkel.

Here's a statement from Morales:

Gegen elf trat Evo Morales ein letztes Mal aus der braunen Tür, dankte Österreich für die Gastfreundschaft und holte zum finalen Verbalschlag gegen die USA aus. Es sei Zeit für die europäischen Länder, sich zu befreien: "Das Zeitalter der Imperien ist vorbei."

It is time for European countries to free themselves. The age of empires is over.

I know exactly what he means.

[Marr]

20. Our government sure is worked up, considering Snowden

"didn't reveal anything we didn't already know".

[Hydra]

22. Ya, and wasn't there an OP by one of the Ministry of Truth goons

That said all of this never happened?

[Warren Stupidity]

25. That doesn't matter. They will just move on

to the next official bullet point. They are well trained.

[Hydra]

27. Ya, I noticed how fast they are too

To bury their old stuff and more right along.

[Catherina]

28. I don't know how people who pushed memes like that can continue posting with a straight face n/t

[Fumesucker]

34. People?

Assumes facts not in evidence.

[LondonReign2]

43. Also, it's totally legal

The totally legal prgram that everyone already new about certainly has the US Government freaking out.

[Catherina]

26. President Morales is about to land in Brazil

President Morales is about to land in Brazil

Flight tracker: http://www.flightradar24.com/data/airplanes/fab-001

Live coverage: http://www.telesurtv.net/el-canal/senal-en-vivo

[Catherina]

31. Sec General of the OAS "Nothing justifies such a disrespectful act towards a head of state"

Ricardo Patiño Aroca ‏@RicardoPatinoEC 3h

José Miguel Insulza, Sec General of the OAS, "Nothing justifies such a disrespectful act towards the highest authority of a country".

José Miguel Insulza, Sec. Gral. OEA aseguró que "nada justifica una acción de tanto irrespeto por la más alta autoridad de un país"

https://twitter.com/RicardoPatinoEC/status/352483442438574080

[reorg]

33. What is the matter with these people?

Perhaps Dave Lindorff is right:

Has the US, with its massive spy network, just demonstrated that it now has a power greater than its nuclear arsenal: a dossier perhaps on almost every leader in the world with which it is able to blackmail even the likes of Hollande, Merkel and Putin? It is hard to come up with another explanation for the way this incident played out.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/07/03/europes-shame-snowden-and-morales/

[FiveGoodMen]

42. The matter is that they work for the very same people we all voted against.

[HooptieWagon]

55. Just like nuclear weapons are useless against IED toting donkey-carts....

It would appear the vast surveillence network is quite impotent against Chechen immigrants, 29yo nerds, and being played by presidents of third world countries. But I'm sure Obama's intelligence industrial complex buddies are well compensated.

[Catherina]

37. US admits contact with other countries over potential Snowden flights

Our Washington bureau chief, Dan Roberts, has been at the State Department briefing. Spokeswoman Jen Psaki has confirmed that the US has been in contact with countries that had a "chance" of Snowden flying through their air space:

"We have been in contact with a range of countries that had a chance of having Snowden land or travel through their country but I am not going to outline what those countries were or when this (contact) happened."

She refused to confirm or deny any specific involvement with Morale's flight or address questions on whether it was a breach of diplomatic protocol, saying these were matters for Europeans to address.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/03/edward-snowden-asylum-live#block-51d469b4e4b00d0b2b8588c2

[temmer]

41. Morales' plane took off from Vnukovo airport

which is, as we know, NOT the airport where Snowden is. According to the article.

Didn't the CIA manage to check that?

[Catherina]

46. For a trillion dollar intel machine it sure has a lot of FAIL

Innocent kids being killed by drones, Presidential planes forced down, NO prevention of 9-11 or other *terror* attacks on US soil.

A trillion a year? Wake up America.

[HooptieWagon]

53. Yep. Obama was played, and comes off looking like a petulant bully.

Well done, Snowden and Morales!

Obama might soon be less popular overseas than Bush at his nadir.

[Catherina]

47. OAS Press Release: "Deep Displeasure" Demands explanation

Press Release

OAS Secretary General Expresses Deep Displeasure over Airplane Incident involving President Morales in Europe
July 2, 2013

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, expressed his deep displeasure with the decision of the aviation authorities of several European countries that denied the use of airspace to the plane carrying the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Evo Morales, from Moscow to La Paz.

The leader of the hemispheric Organization said that in his opinion nothing justifies an act of such lack of respect for the highest authority of a country.

For that reason, said Insulza, the countries involved must give an explanation of the reasons why they took this decision, in particular as it endangered the life of the leader of a member country of the OAS.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org

Reference: E-262/13

http://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-262/13

[another_liberal]

54. "If you aren't big enough to fight us . . ."

Our new guiding principle in regard to diplomatic relations with foreign countries seems to have become:

"If you aren't big enough to fight us, we'll do what the hell we want to you!"

[Rosa Luxemburg]

57. i thought that he was in China ?

My he gets around. The UK thinks that he works for the CIA.

[Coyotl]

59. Now that everyone knows the USG is reading their mail, taping their phones, etc.,

maybe there is a lot of creative misinformation going around

[kentuck]

60. Why??

Do they think Bolivia has him?? Have they presented extradition requests to any other countries? Very interesting.

[DirkGently]

62. "Boom." N/t

[Savannahmann]

63. Astonishing

Billions of dollars. Thousands of experts. Millions of Top Secret Clearances, and all they end up with is an International incident that has united South America in a way not seen in a long time. Most of my posts keep harping on the idea of our side thinking things through. But for some reason, we just won't do it.

[Peace Patriot]

64. Thanks so much for your threads on this, Catherina!

They have been invaluable to me, in catching up on this story while I was busy with family events.

I hope this is a clever shell game, designed by Assange/others and/or South American intelligence agencies (or others), to get Snowden safely into asylum in one of the leftist democracies in South America.

South American intelligence agencies have become astute over the last decade, in dealing with various U.S. coup plots and dirty tricks. One of those dirty tricks comes to mind, regarding the immunity of presidential jets. Remember that CIA caper out of Miami, where the guy named "Guido" (two jaguars in the driveway in Miami), wormed his way onto a private jet carrying Venezuelan oil executives to Argentina, tried to get $700,000 in cash through customs in Buenos Aires International, got caught, and had dual Venezuelan/U.S. citizenship and managed to talk his way back to Miami, where he became the "state witness" for a Bushbot U.S. attorney who claimed that the money was intended from Hugo Chavez to Cristina Fernandez for her first presidential campaign?

Chavez's VP at the time (Nicolas Maduro? not sure) said, "Why would we send money to Fernandez through customs when we could have taken it the next day on President Chavez's jet with diplomatic immunity?" (Chavez was traveling to Argentina the next day.)

I thought this was so funny at the time. "Guido"'s ploy was so obvious (he obviously was TRYING to get caught). And this VP's logic was so incisive. He put his finger exactly on the flaw in this absurd dirty trick.

What comes to mind, of course, now, is the assumption that Chavez's jet would be immune from any kind of scrutiny by customs. It would be covered by diplomatic immunity, just as an embassy is. That's what "diplomatic pouches" have always been about. A sovereign country is permitted to do its sovereign business from certain locations, and between certain locations, always known to include the country's embassy in other countries, and the embassy's communications home, etc., but obviously needing to include transit by sovereign heads of state and their ambassadors.

In this case--Morales/Bolivia--it was the head of state in his presidential jet which was denied access to airspace and landing, apparently even with some danger to the plane--and the head of state has the power to grant asylum. So, IF Snowden had been on Morales' plane, and IF Morales had given Snowden his protection (as an asylum seeker in sovereign Bolivian territory--the presidential jet), then Snowden could not have been seized from the plane.

In short, Morales has a RIGHT to carry Snowden from Moscow to Bolivia--personally has that right, because he has the power to grant asylum--and those who dared to deny his presidential jet airspace and re-fueling, and, if reports are correct, demanded entrance to his plane to search it, were, at the least, grossly violating diplomatic protocol, and, at worst, were violating international law.

They denied airspace/refueling as blackmail in demanding to search the plane. So, the two things are linked. The one--airspace/refueling-- involves the sovereign right of the refusing country to control its airspace--and the other--the refusing country searching the presidential plane of another sovereign country--involves the sovereign right of the president in the plane NOT to be searched. (He is the chief diplomat of his country--the head of all diplomats, with total power over diplomatic appointments and decisions; so he OBVIOUSLY has to have immunity) (duh!).

I don't know if the presidential jet as sovereign territory has been codified in international law. Actually, I don't know for sure if the sovereignty of embassies is codified, but I'm pretty sure it is. (That's why Ecuador was so outraged by the U.K. threat to invade its embassy in London and seize Julian Assange, and may be why the U.K. backed off of that threat.) In any case, both of these issues is why Unasur (the organization of all South American countries) is appealing to the UN. Diplomacy cannot proceed if behavior like this is tolerated.

If that happens--if diplomacy cannot proceed--we will have a world in which only the possessors of weapons of mass destruction count for anything. We are very close to that dystopia now. Diplomacy, really, is the last and thinning bulkhead against it.

It is particularly disgusting that the U.S. is using the U.K. and these European countries like lapdogs, to carry out its orders for the punishment of whistleblowers, and, in demanding such servile service from its lapdogs, doesn't seem to care a whit about preserving peaceful means of settling differences.

Whether the U.S. was lured into this dastardly behavior as a side effect of a pro-Snowden shell game--as someone suggested above (Assange using the U.S. "ear" within Ecuador's London embassy to set up a decoy, while Snowden escaped by other means), or not (if the U.S. was using different intelligence, also inaccurate), its obvious behind-the-scenes action on this has been unconscionable. Even if they had seized Snowden in this circumstance, the damage to peaceful diplomacy and to U.S.-South American relations (in particular) would be immense.

It's possible that those who rule the U.S. don't care anymore. They may have long ago decided that the only way to subdue South America is war. I have suspected this for some time, and events seem to be moving in that direction--i.e., Obama is prepping that war (like Clinton did the war on Iraq, for Jr.) and maybe it will follow the same pattern, with Obama prepping the war and Jeb implementing it. The oil alone in that region may seem worth it to the MIC and its cohorts. Nothing else has worked. South America has gone democratic and will not willingly return to U.S.-supported fascist oppression and the theft of its resources and impoverishment of its people.

[reusrename]

66. But, but, but...

rule of law, the traitor must be brought to justice by any means possible.

Justice of course being a chemical lobotomy before he becomes much more of a hero.

There can be only one Highlander.

[Catherina]

68. You're such an amazing poster

your words, wow, what an honor. Thank you. See this thread too It was the US AMBASSADOR to Austria who called the FM to say Snowden was on Pres Morales' plane

And this one Evo Morales: "certain European countries need to liberate themselves from the North American Empire"

I'm going to back to work now.

[temmer]

65. kick - important thread here!

The "Presse" article is the only source so far that the US ambassador/government surmised that Snowden was on the plane and exercised pressure on Austria.

Apparently someone in the Austrian foreign department was the source of this information. This looks like an unintended leak. Now they try to control damage. Eacho (the ambassador) confirms the call but denies having pressed the Austrians.

http://www.salzburg.com/nachrichten/welt/politik/sn/artikel/snowden-verdacht-zwang-morales-zu-landung-in-wien-65170/

[Catherina]

67. Priceless. Thank you temmer!

Can you translate that part?