It really is the most wonderful irony that the US's apparent heavy-handed actions over Morales' plane ended up biting them in the ass.
As an American, I really do want to know, though -- who are the ham-fisted officials in charge of overseeing Snowden's prosecution? Who was the actual official who made the decision to tell France and Spain not to let Morales land? And who are the officials in France and Spain who decided to obey? (And are they still denying it?)
I mean, regardless of what you think about Snowden, the level of American incompetence here, the way our officials are simply disrespecting other governments and peoples of the world, is really astounding. It's shameful, and I wish I knew who the bumbling officials actually are.
These decisions are being made in the Oval Office-- President Obama is directly supervising the manhunt. He's even talked publicly about his approach in a press conference.
I don't know why many assume the U.S. was behind this. France and Italy have their own spy programs and the less said the better, so blocking him could have forced Snowden back to Russia to accept Putin's terms (stop talking) or cause his capture.
Well that's why I said "apparent". But it is awfully hard to believe that a country would independently take the seemingly unprecedented step of dening landing privileges to a sitting head of state, "just because" -- when Snowden has had nothing to do with either France or Spain.
And it's even harder to believe that two countries both would.
Austrian officials (the country where Morales had to land) told the press that the US ambassador in Vienna (William Eacho) informed our government that Snowden is on that plane and we should stop and search it.
As an American, I really do want to know, though -- who are the ham-fisted officials in charge of overseeing Snowden's prosecution? Who was the actual official who made the decision to tell France and Spain not to let Morales land? And who are the officials in France and Spain who decided to obey? (And are they still denying it?)
I mean, regardless of what you think about Snowden, the level of American incompetence here, the way our officials are simply disrespecting other governments and peoples of the world, is really astounding. It's shameful, and I wish I knew who the bumbling officials actually are.