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Bolivia leader's jet diverted 'amid Snowden suspicions'
- jlgreco 13y agoThis is getting pretty damn embarrassing. How utterly petty.
- venomsnake 13y agoHe is helping half the world make fools of themselves by literally doing nothing.
- mtgx 13y agoThis is ridiculous. And I thought France wanted to give Snowden asylum? Was it a trick then? They seem to be playing on US' side here.
- m0th87 13y agoA fringe party (Le Pen) demanded asylum for Snowden. Big difference between that and a parliamentary consensus.
- tptacek 13y agoThat fringe party being The National Front, which has approximately the same politics as you'd expect from a similarly named party in the US.
- k-mcgrady 13y agoWhen did France offer him asylum? Most of the countries he applied to rejected on the basis that he could not apply from abroad.
- boi_v2 13y agoI am starting to think that too many governments are pretty scared that if they help Snowden some kind of scandal against them would come out, at the end NSA has tones of data about any one. All these is making pretty clear which governments are really concerned and committed with human rights and democracy and which are just about business and profit. Spain and Portugal are not a surprise, corruption and persecution of activists is all over the place.
- axus 13y agoBut really, what could be a bigger scandal than suspending the 4th amendment and recording all private communication information? What can they release that compares to that?
- VladRussian2 13y ago>What can they release that compares to that? offshore banking accounts, kickback/bribe money transfers, undeclared real estate and other property, visits of relaxation to Berlusconi villas staffed with underage maids, etc ... a bunch of stuff that a typical politician is usually involved in. Imagine how it compares in their mind to suspension of 4th (sounds like one after a 3rd, yes?) amendment in some other country across a big ocean.
- malandrew 13y agoNever thought of that as a reason for denying asylum, but it's quite obvious that if the NSA has tons of communications on your country and your politicians, you probably wouldn't want to piss them off by granting asylum to Snowden This is almost exactly the blackmailing situation I described in this lively discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5960695 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5960695 I imagine that the only way to grant him asylum is to do so very very very secretly.
- mark_l_watson 13y ago+1 I think you are probably correct. The US government must have tons of blackmail worthy "dirt" on a very large number of positions in other countries. If we can set morality aside and speak of practical matters: my country has some tough problems. We spend as much on our corporate military industrial complex as all other countries put together (or very close to it). This "investment" has paid off nicely for us in maintaining the $ as the world's reserve currency. Even though I spent a good part of my life working in the defense industry, it seems pretty obvious that this "investment" is doing little else but making special interests very wealthy. I have my own opinions on how we can make our country safer while spending much less money.
- josemrb 13y agoThat's speculation. The pilot requested assistance and permission to land due to problems with fuel indicator. You can listen to the radio exchange in the link below. http://audioboo.fm/boos/1482009-bolivia-air-force-fuerza-aerea-boliviana-fab001-flight-precaution-landing-vienna-austria http://audioboo.fm/boos/1482009-bolivia-air-force-fuerza-aer... original post in the other thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5981156 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5981156
- United857 13y agoWonder if some maintenance staff did some "routine service" on that indicator while that plane was parked at the Moscow airport.
- MisterWebz 13y agoThe above account is 978 days old and has only two comments, one is the above and the other is an almost exact duplicate. Can anyone verify the legitimacy of his link?
- gatekeepr 13y agowhat are you trying to suggest?
- tptacek 13y agoDon't be a creep.
- MisterWebz 13y agoDon't post useless comments. From the HN guidelines: "When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names." Someone like you ought to have read the guidelines, or do you think having a high karma score means you no longer have to adhere to these guidelines?
- mechanical_fish 13y ago
- United857 13y agoThe pilot should have had balls and carried on. What could they have done? Shoot down a aircraft known to be carrying a head of state?
- mrleinad 13y agoYes. They've murdered presidents before.
- GoodIntentions 13y agoIf they truly did interfere with free transit of the head of any state over this, I am surprised. Shoot downs are not unheard of tho. Your comment made me recall when the Russians took down KAL 007 in the 80s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007 200+ people on that including a member of US government.
- tdfx 13y agoThe international uproar over a shoot down would likely be of little comfort to the dead pilot.
- rfnslyr 13y agoIt's disgusting that there isn't a single country that has granted him asylum yet.
- mrleinad 13y agoBoth Ecuador and Bolivia would. However, to be granted asylum, you need to be in Ecuatorean or Bolivian territory.
- LoganCale 13y agoNo, Ecuador has withdrawn all support for granting Snowden asylum, and Correa says any help they gave him was a mistake. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/02/ecuador-rafael-correa-snowden-mistake http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/02/ecuador-rafael-c...
- rosser 13y agoMy inner student of conspiracy theory wonders whether there's an organized campaign of disinformation around Snowden's movements and whereabouts underway, to obscure, in the ambient confusion over where he actually is, and is going, his getting Disappeared.
- aet 13y agoI really doubt the U.S.want Snowden "disappeared"- there is spying, but also due process.
- rch 13y agoMaybe it's just happy hour, but this finally has me interested in Snowden's personal story. Seems like fun... At least compared to the typical summer slow-news political scandals.