Bolivia Rejects U.S. Request for Snowden After Flight Detour

[morningfog]

Bolivia rejected a U.S. extradition request for the fugitive former security contractor Edward Snowden one day after speculation that President Evo Morales was harboring him disrupted the South American leader’s flight home from a Moscow conference.

Snowden never spoke with Morales while he was in Russia and the former National Security Agency contractor is not on Bolivian territory, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday. That makes the U.S. request “strange, illegal, unfounded,” it said.

South American leaders rallied to Morales’ side after the incident, with heads of state from countries including Venezuela, Ecuador and Uruguay gathering in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba today in a show of solidarity. Morales’ plane was forced to land in Austria after Spain, France, Portugal and Italy refused to let his presidential jet fly through their airspace.

The detour was a “humiliation” for the region, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said today in a speech in Cochabamba. The Union of South American Nations, or Unasur, issued a statement yesterday expressing outrage over the incident, saying it put Morales’ life at risk.

http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Bolivia-Rejects-U-S-Request-for-Snowden-After-4647492.php

[DisgustipatedinCA]

1. Smooth move. We look like fucking idiots on the world stage

Ham-fisted, overzealous idiots.

[HooptieWagon]

4. Yes, I haven't been this embarrassed to be an American....

...since shrub groped Chancellor Merkel. Obama is flushing our world respect down the toilet.

[flamingdem]

2. Why don't they fly back and get him now?

Or Maduro? Or on their next mission to Moscow?

I'm sure it can be arranged

[JI7]

7. they don't want him

[hrmjustin]

3. That is odd but maybe they know something we don't.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. "Hi..we gave you the finger of disrespect. Now pls. grant this favor...."

Smooth move, State Dept.

[morningfog]

6. John Kerry wishes he was back in the Senate.

[Waiting For Everyman]

8. Venezuela rejected the extradition request, flat.

Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro said today he had also received a request from the U.S. to extradite Snowden. The South American country rejected the petition, saying the U.S. has “no moral authority” to arrest Snowden after he revealed U.S. “crimes against humanity,” Maduro said.

“They have no moral authority to request the extradition of a young man who exposed the illegality under which the Pentagon, the CIA and the power of the U.S. work,” Maduro said this morning from the Caracas airport. “I reject any request they are making for extradition.”

It's the only other country so far that is having none of it.