No, they are trying to show the world the value of collecting data on millions of innocent law abiding citizens and how it enables accurate targeting of which plane a whistleblower is on almost as well as it can prevent terrorists bombing marathons and flying into buildings.
Apparently the Bolivian presidential aircraft is a Sabreliner [0], which has a much shorter range than a big commercial jet. It may be unable to cross the Atlantic without a fuel stop near the coast. If Spain, France, and Portugal all say "don't fly here", they may not intend to shoot the thing down, but they might very well refuse to allow the aircraft to refuel when it lands.
As far as I can surmise, the reason that the Bolivian president complied was due to the fact that had he not, it would at the very least, be seen as an act of aggression, and could possibly be seen as much more.
Though they wouldn't threaten to shoot the plane down per se, you can bet they'd send up a few armed and loaded fighter jets to 'escort' the president's plane either out of their air space or to a safe landing zone where he could then explain himself to the proper authorities.
Doesn't mean that France, Portugal and Spain actually thwarted any plans, but only showed their hand, and that they certainly would attempt to thwart any such plans if they could. I suppose wikileaks' tweet is just saying "shame on you for even trying..."
If this turns out to be true, I will never again travel to these countries and spend my tourist dollars there. Not saying this is true, but if it is, NO MORE FRENCH CHEESE :-)
less than 1m ago Snowden is not on the plane, AFP reports
AFP are reporting that Austrian foreign ministry officials have confirmed Edward Snowden is not on the plane.
The report continues:
"President Morales will leave early Wednesday morning for La Paz," the Bolivian capital, ministry spokesman Alexander Schallenberg told AFP. Austria did not know why Morales's plane had landed there, he added.
Ex-pat in Bolivia here. People here are _pissed_ at this abuse. I wish Snowden does make his way here to Bolivia and hides in the jungle. Good luck finding him.
Having an extradition treaty doesn't automatically mean that the process will be successful or quick. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extradition So don't hold your breath.
> US refused to send them their former coca-growing president
You should correct the wikipedia article, then. According to it, he renounced his citizenship, became stateless, and prior to that he served his probation sentence, and is therefore not wanted by US law enforcement.
Not to argue, but he could be considered de facto stateless. However, the term stateless even being a thing piqued my interest rather more than whether or not Snowden actually is. Thus, I Wikipediaed all about it.
Interesting to see that France and Portugal are willing to risk their diplomatic relations with South America for getting Snowden. I would not have expected that. I would guess people and politicians in Bolivia are quite pissed right now.
The Guardian does a superb job with live web coverage of everything from football (soccer) matches to breaking news around the world. It's sort of just coincidence that they have a direct connection to the Snowden story in this case.
NYT actually has a perfectly cromulent story which explains some (though definitely not all) of the confusing aspects of the story. Apparently airspace shenanigans haven't been going on just today, for instance.
