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Resolution Adopted. OAS: Spain, Italy, France and Portugal should explain and apologize
Last edited Tue Jul 9, 2013, 11:08 PM - Edit history (3)
Despite the US, Canada and Panamá (less so than the first two), the OAS adopts the resolution condemning the Morales plane incident and calls upon Spain, Italy, France and Portugal to explain AND apologize.
Now that was solidarity.
I'm editing to add the resolutions of July 2 and of today, at the end. So far, there's the UNASUR statement from Cochabamba, the CELAC statement, the July 2 statement from OAS General Secretary and today's Resolution. On Friday, something will be coming from Mercosur.
The final, adopted resolution is in post 42
[hr]
OAS meeting: Spain, Italy, France and Portugal deny responsibilities in #Morales diplomatic incident. European insolence is endless.
http://www.livestream.com/oasenglish
The governments of Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua presented a draft resolution to the Permanent Council to "reject and condemn" the actions "clearly violate basic rules and principles of international law, the inviolability of the heads of state."
The four countries also seek to "require" to France, Portugal, Italy and Spain "explanations and apologies necessary" on the causes that led to the cancellation of overflight clearances "of the aircraft he was traveling the Bolivian president.
http://www.lanacion.com.py/articulo/133326-bolivia-denuncia-en-reunion-especial-de-la-oea-trato-a-avion-de-morales.html
Italy had the nerve to state that they don't owe Morales an apology but that on the contrary, he owes them one.
France and Spain's weasel apologies stand.
Taking a few tweets from the RT reporter following this (Bricio Segovia @ActualidadRT Reporter. in #Bolivia.)
Bricio Segovia @briciosegovia 31m
#Spain apoligizes at the #OAS for the behavior of his ambassador in Austria towards Evo #Morales BUT adds he acted "in good faith". #Snowden
#Spain apoligizes at the #OAS for the behavior of his ambassador in Austria towards Evo #Morales BUT adds he acted "in good faith". #Snowden
Bricio Segovia @briciosegovia 27m
#France at #OAS: It was a technical error. Planes were mistaken at the administrative service. It wasn't a political act. #Morales #Snowden
#France at #OAS: It was a technical error. Planes were mistaken at the administrative service. It wasn't a political act. #Morales #Snowden
Bricio Segovia @briciosegovia 17m
#Italy at #OAS: we had nothing to do w Evo #Morales' incident. It is #Bolivia that should apologize for having involved us in this. #Snowden
#Italy at #OAS: we had nothing to do w Evo #Morales' incident. It is #Bolivia that should apologize for having involved us in this. #Snowden
Bricio Segovia @briciosegovia 30m
#Portugal at #OEA: We did not violate any international treaty and we did not put Evo #Morales' life in danger.
#Portugal at #OEA: We did not violate any international treaty and we did not put Evo #Morales' life in danger.
55 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
and frankly, I don't want to. I don't put people on my ignore list lightly, usually it's for wasting people's time with dishonest arguments or total buffoonery so I'll pass.
Spain and France issued weasel apologies. Portugal, which wouldn't allow Morales to fly across their airspace is being very disingenuous and Italy is totally out of control. It's a good thing Bolivia brought copies of the flight authorization Italy rescinded.
France issued the apology because the French are very angry and their papers published the name of the person who either authorized that or is going to be the sacrificial lam newspaper.
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
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
Spain had to do the same because they're totally busted and there's no "coherent explanation" for the actions of their Ambassador to Austria that night. In addition, if they dug their heels in too deeply, the Austrian President already made several statements damning what took place. And it's now very public that it was the US Ambassador who made the call that Snowden was on the plane and there was an extradition order. All of that is public now.
The European nations are financially bankrupt. They can't provide housing, healthcare or social services anymore. Spain is always running to Latin America looking for handouts. Brazil was very clear that unless they made without apologies, it was going to affect their trade relations. I think Portugal will soon change its tune.
Wait until the Mercosur meeting. That's going to be the meeting to watch. The show in DC is mostly a US attempt to control this but it won't work. They've had 500 years of this shit and, unfortunately for the US, China and Russia have more money to spend and on much better terms, with the added benefit of not interfering in Latin American internal affairs.
The US knows this too which is why I find our handling of things totally inept.
By the way, have you seen this? I'm pointing it out because you have fewer people on ignore and I'm sure the piece of trash FAIR is denouncing found its way here.
Jul 09 2013
Washington Post's WikiLeaks/Snowden/Greenwald Conspiracy Theory
By Peter Hart
To Washington Post columnist Walter Pincus (7/9/13), something about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden just doesn't smell right. Lucky for him he gets space in a prestigious newspaper to work out his hunch–apparently without any editors or factcheckers to get in his way.
Right from the start, Pincus lays out where he's coming from:
He's just asking questions, right? Not really–the whole point of the column is to insinuate that Snowden's being controlled, on some level, by WikiLeaks, in cahoots with Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald.
Pincus finds it odd that he "worked less than three months at Booz Allen, but by the time he reached Hong Kong in mid-May, Snowden had four computers with NSA documents."
Then Pincus wonders: "Was he encouraged or directed by WikiLeaks personnel or others to take the job as part of a broader plan to expose NSA operations to selected journalists?"
That could be, since he seems to think it's happened before:
Of course, what the government is alleging about Manning isn't necessarily reality; Manning himself has taken credit for the decision to share the information with WikiLeaks.
But Pincus is on his trail to… somewhere. How did Snowden choose which journalists to talk to? Pincus draws a line between Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald and WikiLeaks. You see, Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras "have had close connections with (WikiLeaks' Julian) Assange and WikiLeaks." How close? Pincus writes:
So that tight connection could explain how it is that Julian Assange knew about Greenwald's NSA scoops before they were published. He was interviewed by Democracy Now! on May 29, writes Pincus:
Pincus closes by noting that WikiLeaks continues to assist Snowden, and writing somewhat ominously, "What other roles the group played in getting Snowden to this point remain a mystery."
Unfortunately for Pincus, Glenn Greenwald reads the Washington Post. And he wrote a devastating rebuttal, taking on all of the inaccuracies that Pincus floated in his piece.
Did Greenwald writing for WikiLeaks' blog? No. "I have no idea what you're talking about here, and neither do you," Greenwald writes, noting that the piece in question was one of his columns for Salon.com (4/8/12).
But never mind that–didn't Greenwald's WikiLeaks connection mean that Julian Assange "previewed" his NSA scoops? That claim, Greenwald writes, is "deeply embarrassing for someone who claims even a passing familiarity with surveillance issues." Why? Because what Assange was talking about were the well-documented Bush-era NSA scandals that had been widely discussed years earlier.
But still it's odd that Snowden could amass all those NSA documents in three months, right? No, Greenwald explains, because Snowden had worked for various NSA contractors for four years.
OK, but isn't it fair to wonder whether someone instructed Snowden to take this job to leak information? Well, Greenwald explains, this has all been pretty thoroughly reported, albeit in obscure outlets like the New York Times (6/11/13) and…the Washington Post (6/24/13).
Greenwald writes that "making up facts… should still be deemed unacceptable. At the very least, they merit a prominent correction." He's right. But how did the Washington Post not factcheck any of this before they ran Pincus' tendentious piece?
I would say it'd be a good issue for the Post's ombud to take up, but they got rid of that position earlier this year. They do have a readers' representative, though–Doug Feaver. His email is readers@washpost.com. Maybe he could look into it?
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/07/09/washington-posts-wikileakssnowdengreenwald-conspiracy-theory/
Jul 09 2013
Washington Post's WikiLeaks/Snowden/Greenwald Conspiracy Theory
By Peter Hart
To Washington Post columnist Walter Pincus (7/9/13), something about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden just doesn't smell right. Lucky for him he gets space in a prestigious newspaper to work out his hunch–apparently without any editors or factcheckers to get in his way.
Right from the start, Pincus lays out where he's coming from:
Did Edward Snowden decide on his own to seek out journalists and then a job at Booz Allen Hamilton’s Hawaii facility as an IT systems administrator to gather classified documents about the National Security Agency's worldwide surveillance activities?
He's just asking questions, right? Not really–the whole point of the column is to insinuate that Snowden's being controlled, on some level, by WikiLeaks, in cahoots with Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald.
Pincus finds it odd that he "worked less than three months at Booz Allen, but by the time he reached Hong Kong in mid-May, Snowden had four computers with NSA documents."
Then Pincus wonders: "Was he encouraged or directed by WikiLeaks personnel or others to take the job as part of a broader plan to expose NSA operations to selected journalists?"
That could be, since he seems to think it's happened before:
In the case of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier on trial for disclosing thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, it was Julian Assange and his organization who directed the collection of documents, U.S. prosecutors have alleged.
Of course, what the government is alleging about Manning isn't necessarily reality; Manning himself has taken credit for the decision to share the information with WikiLeaks.
But Pincus is on his trail to… somewhere. How did Snowden choose which journalists to talk to? Pincus draws a line between Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald and WikiLeaks. You see, Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras "have had close connections with (WikiLeaks' Julian) Assange and WikiLeaks." How close? Pincus writes:
On April 10, 2012, Greenwald wrote for the WikiLeaks Press's blog about Poitras and WikiLeaks being targeted by U.S. government officials.
So that tight connection could explain how it is that Julian Assange knew about Greenwald's NSA scoops before they were published. He was interviewed by Democracy Now! on May 29, writes Pincus:
Assange previewed the first Greenwald Guardian story based on Snowden documents that landed a week later. Speaking from Ecuador's embassy in London, Assange described how NSA had been collecting "all the calling records of the United States, every record of everyone calling everyone over years…. Those calling records already [are] entered into the national security complex."
Did he know ahead of time of that Guardian story describing the U.S. court order permitting NSA's collection of the telephone toll records of millions of American Verizon customers and storing them for years?
Pincus closes by noting that WikiLeaks continues to assist Snowden, and writing somewhat ominously, "What other roles the group played in getting Snowden to this point remain a mystery."
Unfortunately for Pincus, Glenn Greenwald reads the Washington Post. And he wrote a devastating rebuttal, taking on all of the inaccuracies that Pincus floated in his piece.
Did Greenwald writing for WikiLeaks' blog? No. "I have no idea what you're talking about here, and neither do you," Greenwald writes, noting that the piece in question was one of his columns for Salon.com (4/8/12).
But never mind that–didn't Greenwald's WikiLeaks connection mean that Julian Assange "previewed" his NSA scoops? That claim, Greenwald writes, is "deeply embarrassing for someone who claims even a passing familiarity with surveillance issues." Why? Because what Assange was talking about were the well-documented Bush-era NSA scandals that had been widely discussed years earlier.
But still it's odd that Snowden could amass all those NSA documents in three months, right? No, Greenwald explains, because Snowden had worked for various NSA contractors for four years.
OK, but isn't it fair to wonder whether someone instructed Snowden to take this job to leak information? Well, Greenwald explains, this has all been pretty thoroughly reported, albeit in obscure outlets like the New York Times (6/11/13) and…the Washington Post (6/24/13).
Greenwald writes that "making up facts… should still be deemed unacceptable. At the very least, they merit a prominent correction." He's right. But how did the Washington Post not factcheck any of this before they ran Pincus' tendentious piece?
I would say it'd be a good issue for the Post's ombud to take up, but they got rid of that position earlier this year. They do have a readers' representative, though–Doug Feaver. His email is readers@washpost.com. Maybe he could look into it?
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/07/09/washington-posts-wikileakssnowdengreenwald-conspiracy-theory/
I didn't catch their statement today but last week they had one of the strongest statements at Cochamamba. I can't find their full statement, which specifically mentioned trade relations, but a friend in Brazil sent me this:
Morales incident harms dialogue with Europe, says Brazilian president
In her statement, the Brazilian president called the incident “unacceptable” and “embarrassing”.
...
“Our government would like to convey our indignation and disapproval of the humiliation imposed on President Evo Morales by some European countries as they prevented his presidential plane from flying through their airspace,” said Dilma's statement.
President Dilma added that the Brazilian government was “surprised and appalled” by what happened, noting that it would negatively affect relations with Europe. “Such a humiliating attitude toward President Morales affects not only Bolivia, but all of Latin America. It harms dialogue and potential negotiations between the two continents. This provocation calls for a prompt explanation and appropriate apologies by the countries involved," she said.
The statement also read, “The alleged pretext for this unacceptable conduct – the suspicion that Edward Snowden was in the president's plane – is fanciful and constitutes a serious violation of international law and practices. It violates the rules of civilized relationship between nations. What's even more serious – it put the lives of president Morales and his staff in jeopardy.”
The Brazilian leader promised to “work at all multilateral levels, especially in Latin America, to prevent similar incidents. The Union of South American Nations ("Unasur"
has called an extraordinary meeting (on a date to be defined) to discuss the incident. Brazil will send a representative to the meeting," concluded the president.
Early on Wednesday, Brazil's minister of Foreign Relations, Antonio Patriota, called Bolivia's foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, to express solidarity. He called the European countries' attitude “arrogant”.
...
http://www.ebc.com.br/english/2013/07/incident-with-morales-harms-dialogue-with-europe-says-brazilian-president
In her statement, the Brazilian president called the incident “unacceptable” and “embarrassing”.
...
“Our government would like to convey our indignation and disapproval of the humiliation imposed on President Evo Morales by some European countries as they prevented his presidential plane from flying through their airspace,” said Dilma's statement.
President Dilma added that the Brazilian government was “surprised and appalled” by what happened, noting that it would negatively affect relations with Europe. “Such a humiliating attitude toward President Morales affects not only Bolivia, but all of Latin America. It harms dialogue and potential negotiations between the two continents. This provocation calls for a prompt explanation and appropriate apologies by the countries involved," she said.
The statement also read, “The alleged pretext for this unacceptable conduct – the suspicion that Edward Snowden was in the president's plane – is fanciful and constitutes a serious violation of international law and practices. It violates the rules of civilized relationship between nations. What's even more serious – it put the lives of president Morales and his staff in jeopardy.”
The Brazilian leader promised to “work at all multilateral levels, especially in Latin America, to prevent similar incidents. The Union of South American Nations ("Unasur"
has called an extraordinary meeting (on a date to be defined) to discuss the incident. Brazil will send a representative to the meeting," concluded the president.
Early on Wednesday, Brazil's minister of Foreign Relations, Antonio Patriota, called Bolivia's foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, to express solidarity. He called the European countries' attitude “arrogant”.
...
http://www.ebc.com.br/english/2013/07/incident-with-morales-harms-dialogue-with-europe-says-brazilian-president
Regardless of what happens at this meeting in Washington DC, they're going to pursue this. With or without a strong OAS statement.
They were tripping all over themselves for days, nobody would confirm or deny, journalists found plenty of information to confirm and then the State Department came back from its long 4 day weekend and wouldn't confirm or deny anything.
That tells you all you need to know lol 
Their schedule states the same thing. That was 90 minutes ago and... still nothing.
E-267/13
Media Center
Press Release
OAS Permanent Council Adopts Resolution that Condemns Incident in Europe involving the Plane of the President of Bolivia
July 9, 2013
The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) today adopted a resolution expressing the solidarity of its member states with the President of Bolivia regarding the incident concerning his official aircraft which took place on July 2, condemning actions against the inviolability of Heads of State and urging the European countries involved to provide explanations and apologies.
The text, adopted by consensus in a special meeting of the Council convened at the request of Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela, resolves "to condemn actions that violated basic rules and principles of international law such as the inviolability of Heads of State," and "to strongly call upon the governments of France, Portugal, Italy and Spain to provide the necessary explanations and apologies about the events involving the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Evo Morales, as well as the corresponding apologies."
Moreover, the resolution reaffirms the "full validity of the principles, rules, and international customs governing diplomatic relations among states," and calls on the parties involved to "continue respectful and constructive dialogue, under the rules of international law and the mechanisms for the peaceful settlement of disputes." The text includes footnotes from the United States and Canada.
During the special meeting, the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, said he feels "a great indignation and immense solidarity in response to the aggression suffered by a leader of Latin America and the Caribbean. What happened on July 2 cannot be qualified as a commonplace incident. It is a serious offense to a democratic President of this region."
"It is very clear that this is an event that goes beyond the explanations that have been given here," said the Secretary General. "With all due respect to my European Observer friends, with all the affection that we have for them, there is a serious matter here that has not been clarified."
The incident, said the leader of the hemispheric institution, "leaves a wound.” "And the best way to heal that wound, to mend that wound, is to know what really happened, what really took place," continued the Secretary General. "Where did this news come from that Mr. Snowden was on the plane? Why was it believed?" The best way to clear everything up, he added, "is through transparency."
The Chair of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Paraguay to the OAS, Martin Sannemann, expressed on behalf of the Council condolences to Canada over the railroad accident of July 6 in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, and to the United States over the deaths of 19 firefighters in Arizona. Also, the Chair of the Council congratulated Argentina on the occasion of its independence day on July 9.
During the special meeting of the Council, the representatives of Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Panama, Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Canada, the Dominican Republic, the United States, Colombia, El Salvador and Haiti all took part, as did the Permanent Observers of Italy, Spain, France, Portugal and the European Union.
https://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-267/13
Media Center
Press Release
OAS Permanent Council Adopts Resolution that Condemns Incident in Europe involving the Plane of the President of Bolivia
July 9, 2013
The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) today adopted a resolution expressing the solidarity of its member states with the President of Bolivia regarding the incident concerning his official aircraft which took place on July 2, condemning actions against the inviolability of Heads of State and urging the European countries involved to provide explanations and apologies.
The text, adopted by consensus in a special meeting of the Council convened at the request of Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela, resolves "to condemn actions that violated basic rules and principles of international law such as the inviolability of Heads of State," and "to strongly call upon the governments of France, Portugal, Italy and Spain to provide the necessary explanations and apologies about the events involving the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Evo Morales, as well as the corresponding apologies."
Moreover, the resolution reaffirms the "full validity of the principles, rules, and international customs governing diplomatic relations among states," and calls on the parties involved to "continue respectful and constructive dialogue, under the rules of international law and the mechanisms for the peaceful settlement of disputes." The text includes footnotes from the United States and Canada.
During the special meeting, the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, said he feels "a great indignation and immense solidarity in response to the aggression suffered by a leader of Latin America and the Caribbean. What happened on July 2 cannot be qualified as a commonplace incident. It is a serious offense to a democratic President of this region."
"It is very clear that this is an event that goes beyond the explanations that have been given here," said the Secretary General. "With all due respect to my European Observer friends, with all the affection that we have for them, there is a serious matter here that has not been clarified."
The incident, said the leader of the hemispheric institution, "leaves a wound.” "And the best way to heal that wound, to mend that wound, is to know what really happened, what really took place," continued the Secretary General. "Where did this news come from that Mr. Snowden was on the plane? Why was it believed?" The best way to clear everything up, he added, "is through transparency."
The Chair of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Paraguay to the OAS, Martin Sannemann, expressed on behalf of the Council condolences to Canada over the railroad accident of July 6 in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, and to the United States over the deaths of 19 firefighters in Arizona. Also, the Chair of the Council congratulated Argentina on the occasion of its independence day on July 9.
During the special meeting of the Council, the representatives of Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Panama, Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Canada, the Dominican Republic, the United States, Colombia, El Salvador and Haiti all took part, as did the Permanent Observers of Italy, Spain, France, Portugal and the European Union.
https://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-267/13
