About that whole thing with the president of Bolivia and Edward Snowden not being on his plane

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I tweeted yesterday about the appalling treatment of Bolivian President Evo Morales after he left Moscow on his way home -- European countries not allowing his plane into their airspace:

Really, #Europe? Messing with the prez of Bolivia's plane? Are you happy being satellites of the U.S. national security state? #FreeSnowden
— Michael Stickings (@mjwstickings) July 3, 2013

And I'm in agreement with Drum:

Did we really, seriously, strong-arm the governments of France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy to deny the president of Bolivia permission to fly over their airspace? All because some moron in one of our intelligence services that supposedly tracks every communication on the planet decided that Evo Morales was serious when he joked about taking Edward Snowden home with him from Moscow?

If every country in South America responded by expelling every diplomat in every American embassy, it would hardly seem like an overreaction to me. This would have been outrageous and thuggish behavior even if Snowden had been in Morales' plane. But he wasn't, so it's actually outrageous, thuggish, and clownish. Jesus.

*****

I think the treatment of Morales's plane was outrageous behavior, and quite likely a result of pressure from the United States.

Yup.