France: The Deputy Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Ayrault made the Morales Airspace decision

[Catherina]

Translation mine. Let the finger-pointing begin and the skeletons start tumbling out.

The Deputy Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Ayrault originated the order to forbid overly rights to President Morales

Le Monde | 06.07.2013 at 23h06 • Updated 07.07.2013 at 0:07 | By Arnaud Leparmentier



After the Tuesday, July 2 French airspace ban imposed on the plane of the Bolivian President Evo Morales, things are being sorted out within the French government ... and they blame Matignon (the official residence of the French Prime Minister). Several sources, one of them in the Elysee Palace, say it was Camille Putois, Deputy Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who made the decision.

On Saturday night, our source confirmed that decisions to ban overview of France were taken by Matignon but refused to comment on his personal role....

Christophe Chantepy, Chief of Staff for Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault refuses to attribute the decision to a particular person. "This is a government decision, there was a mistake as stated by Laurent Fabius and France expressed regret," says Chantepy. "Everyone was afterwards dissatisfied with the way everything happened. At some point you make a decision, there are choices to make," said Mr. Chantepy. The French government believed that the American Edward Snowden, who revealed the huge U.S. intelligence system could be on the Bolivian plane. This forced the presidential plane to land in Vienna, resulting in a diplomatic imbroglio. "There was conflicting information about the passengers who were on board", said President Francois Hollande on Wednesday, July 3. "Once I knew it was the plane of the Bolivian President, I immediately gave the flight permission" he added.

http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2013/07/06/la-directrice-adjointe-de-cabinet-de-m-ayrault-accusee-d-avoir-interdit-le-survol-de-l-avion-de-morales_3443729_651865.html

[Arctic Dave]

1. It was all just a rumor.

Got that! A rumor.

[Drew Richards]

3. According to many here...it never happened and if it did, its no big deal...

They are probably the same people that will cry and bitch if they ever got stopped at a dui check point...but hey its no big deal right?

Whats it matter if we break a few international laws...we are Merika darn right.

[Catherina]

7. It boggles the mind

When all the screaming starts, when the laws we broke are turned against us, when the pain really kicks in after we've lost more jobs and the world openly tells us to fuck off because it's not interested in our bullshit, or our financial house of cards anymore, we'll be past the point of any political fix. I tremble for my country when I see what's coming. Martin Luther King warned decades ago us clearly but we just kept going, faster and more recklessly than ever.

Screaming

[KittyWampus]

14. Rumor- definition>

1. A piece of unverified information of uncertain origin usually spread by word of mouth.
2. Unverified information received from another; hearsay.

It was a rumor that S. was on board that flight.

[reusrename]

22. I cannot believe you are still in denial over this.

It was a serious act that was taken against a sovereign. Doesn't that level of lawlessness make you at all uncomfortable?

[Savannahmann]

2. It never happened.

It was a fuel thing, or a pilot problem, and I think someone had to use a bathroom, or something.

Deputy Chief of staff. Are we next going to be told how the Deputy Chief of Staff is always aware of every flight over the country?

[sabrina 1]

8. Maybe their Deputy Chief of Staff is also an Air Traffic Controller?

And the next question: Who told this DCS about this interesting plane that might have the American, Edward Snowden on it? Did he just start wondering about planes that day? Does he usually think about planes in his capacity as DCS?

Does the buck stop with him, and if so, why hasn't he been fired by now?

And supposing Snowden had been on the plane? That would be Bolivian Territory and if he had been granted asylum, they could not have removed him from the plane according to the rules on Asylum?

I don't believe for a minute that the Deputy Chief of Staff had a dream that Snowden might be on some plane and then acted on his dream. I believe someone TOLD him that and whoever told him KNEW it was Morales' plane which is why they found it believable, assuming that Morales is as stupid as they are and would risk doing something only a moron would do.

[Catherina]

9. Deputy Chief of staff. And everyone was *told*, it was *very clear*

everything happened in a vacuum, a series of unfortunate coincidences where countries, acting on their own mind you, decided to break international protocols cowboy-style, to capture the White House's most wanted man.

drool-worthy explanations lol.

[BlueCheese]

4. How many languages do you read?

You're translating things from Spanish and French. Impressive!

I think the Spanish foreign minister said that Spain was given word that Snowden was aboard the plane, though the minister did not say where they got the information. At this point, to believe that the only reason Morales' plane landed in Vienna was for a fuel gauge problem, and nothing to do with European actions, is to believe in one heck of a coincidence.

[Catherina]

13. Yes, the Spanish FM said that. That's what they're all saying

and they're all saying they were given the information. The only ones that let it slip where that information came from were the Austrians who were gracious enough to let the plane make an emergency landing and not be arrogant SOBs about it.

I'm sure more will come out, especially from the French because their people prided themselves, in the finest De Gaulle tradition, of not being puppets of Washington, unlike the Brits. Now they find out their government did just that. I don't think this is going to fade away as if it never happened, and it shouldn't either.

[JDPriestly]

21. Austria had a tradition of neutrality from 1945 to 1994 or 1995, sometime in there.

Austria is not used to taking orders from either Russia or the US.

The border between Austria and Hungary was opened maybe around 1980 for travel between the two very friendly nations. And if you recall when East Germany began to disintegrate in 1989, the breach of the Iron Curtain was on that border between Austria and Hungary.

At the end of WWII, Austria was administered with the four powers, UK, US, Russia and France I think each managing a part of Austria. I think that is how it worked. The children in Austrian schools learn about Four Men in a Jeep which is a reference to four men, each from one of the allied countries riding around Vienna in a jeep after the war.

[pinboy3niner]

5. Thanks, Catherina

Great job!

[Catherina]

15. You're welcome

[pinboy3niner]

23. You've done a lot of excellent work on fact-finding and followup

But at least it's not quite as grueling as doing a continuous series of live threads, eh?

Keep up the awesome work!

[pinboy3niner]

6. .

[magellan]

10. K&R

Thanks, Catherina!

[Catherina]

16. Thanks for reading it

[kenny blankenship]

12. Is this connard fired yet?

If not, then he assuredly didn't make the decision like they say he did. It was someone higher up.

[Catherina]

17. That's the exact French reaction. *Patsy*

This was coordinated at higher levels. I don't know if they were fired but someone's tete is going to roll. I wish it would be the right one. DeGaulle is spinning in his grave right now.

[HardTimes99]

18. Notice how all these bureaucrats employ the passive voice: "I was told that . . . " or "Decisions

to ban overflights of France were taken . . ."

That bureaucratic use of the passive voice allows the subjects of actions (the actors) to remain hidden. Notice how no one comes out and uses the active voice, i.e., "The CIA told me that Snowden was on the plane" or "I made a decision to bar the flight".

I'm sure social psychologists and linguists have some explanation for the preference of bureaucrats for the passive voice. No doubt some CYA Principle.

Note to the grammatically challenged: the 'passive voice' should not be confused or conflated with the 'past tense'. The former is a grammatical construction consisting of a conjugated form of 'to be' plus the past participle of a verb, whereas the latter is the conjugated form of the verb for an action that occurred in the past and is now complete. It is possible to use the passive voice in the past tense (see above), the present tense, e.g., "this action is considered acceptable" and the future tense, e.g., "the terrorists will be launched at 3 a.m. tomorrow."

[JDPriestly]

20. The Austrian minister of the Interior quoted in Die Presse stated very clearly that

the American ambassador requested extradition of Snowden. That fact suggests strongly the source of the rumors -- the US embassies.

[HardTimes99]

26. Yeah, that was the sole exception I've noted over the past few weeks. Thanks for pointing

that out.

Like Orwell and E.B. White, I prefer the active voice and strongly dislike use of the passive voice, because it can allow the subject (or actor) to escape accountability\responsibility for his or her actions.

There's a world of difference, imho, between "Snowden's extradition was requested " (past tense, passive voice) and "The Ambassador requested Snowden's extradition" (past tense, active voice).

Style-grammar rant\annotation over. Now back to regular programming.

[JDPriestly]

27. So true. The passive voice is the voice of avoidance. It truly is passive-aggressive in some way.

But sometimes it fits.

[JDPriestly]

19. Thanks, Catherina. For once and for all that sets the record straight.

France, Italy, Portugal and Spain did effectively close off their air space to the plane of the President of Bolivia, Morales. This has been disputed but was very clear from the Austrian and French newspapers. This article makes it absolutely certain.

[temmer]

24. interview with Austrian president Fischer

Thank you for the translation and keeping us updated, Catherina! so I feel committed to contribute the latest news from the Austrian press.

The Austrian president gave an interview to the newspaper Kurier. Apparently he and Morales have a good personal relationship. And for some reason, the outrage of the South American leaders didn't include Austria, did it?

----------------------------------------------------------

Fischer: "No search of Morales jet"

For the first time, the president reveals who looked for Edward Snowden in the jet of Evo Morales and how it was done.

KURIER: Mr. President, it was an exciting week for you. When have you been wakened on Wednesday about the forced landing of the Bolivian president Eo Morales?

- Heinz Fischer: I received a call on my cell phone in the early morning.

So you keep your cell phone turned on during the night?

- I always keep it on in the night

Do you use a tap-proof crypto cell phone?

- My crypto cell phone is in my office for special cases, normally I use an ordinary cell phone. When I received the message, I called Morales and learned, that the had tried to reach me before. He was perplexed that he was denied access to the airspace of some European countries when he was already approaching the French border. He had the choice to go back to Moscow or to land in Vienna. He decided to land in Vienna.

Have you ever heard of such an incident or experienced one?

- No, never. This was a premiere for me, too.

Evo Morales and you are calling each other "friends". He became notorious in the USA because he says that not the production of drugs is a problem, but the use of it - a problematic statement. Do you share it? (???what has this question to do with the subject?)

- My friend Morales has a very plausible stance on this matter. He says: Coca is a plant which can't be demonized; the use of Coca as the raw material for drugs is to be opposed. Morales condemns the drug trade, but not the Coca plant as the base of existence for his peasants.

Morales was forced to land because the USA thought Ed Snowden was on board. Did you really have a thorough look if he was on board as a stowaway?

- What I was told has also been confirmed by President Morales and the Interior minister: the plane asked for allowance to land because of technical problems. Therefore someone of the airport personnel went to the plane/pilot to ask for the nature of the technical problem. The Austrian official was told that the problem was solved already, and on this occasion he noticed that the plane was empty. He didn't have a look underneath the seats. There has been no official searching, but there were no additional persons on board.

So the plane was not searched?

- There was no search in forensic terms. This would not have been legitimate under international law. The airplane of a president of a country belongs to his sovereign territory and must not be searched without more ado.

So this was an "Austrian solution"?

- However you like to name it. What I've just told you has been confirmed by Bolivian and Austrian sources and has not been criticized by anyone.

-------------


http://kurier.at/politik/inland/fischer-keine-durchsuchung-von-morales-jet/18.146.247

Fischer's statement doesn't really clear up things and doesn't match the other stories we hear from Vienna (call from the US ambassador etc.). But he emphasizes that the Bolivians don't object to this version. So this is obviously a diplomatic Eiertanz as it is called in German ("egg dance&quot . My take: due to his good personal relations to Morales, he tries to keep Austria out of the diplomatic mess between South American and West European countries.

[byeya]

28. Austria didn't initiate the episode and is smart for steering as clear of it as possible.

The Austrian president is engaging in an aspect of diplomacy known as 'tact' and it's nice to see.

[temmer]

29. agreed - Austria is proud of his traditional neutrality policy

and Fischer makes it clear that his sympathies are with Morales.

[PufPuf23]

25. Thanks Catherina for the translation(s).

Many posters at DU blow me away.

Jingoism lives at DU.


"Jingoism is extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy.[1] In practice, it is a country's advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests. Colloquially, it refers to excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others—an extreme type of nationalism."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingoism