Jose Miguel Insulza Quotes
You simply do not do that to a head of a democratic state wanting to cross [fly] over your airspace.
American (traitor of whistleblower depending on who is judging) Edward Snowden was in the Moscow International Airport seeking political asylum from several nations. The United States, wanting to extradite and try Snowden criminally had “intelligence” that Snowden was going to fly out of Russia in the private plane of Bolivian President Morales. The U.S. persuaded the European countries to refuse his plan “flyover” rights—usually a formality that is always granted for a foreign head of state. This forced Morales to land his plane for refueling in Austria where, under pressure from the United States, Austrian law enforcement officials boarded and searched the plane—something that is almost never done to a plane that is just refueling, much less the airplane of a head of state. The Secretary General was expressing the outrage of the OAS nations (and many others around the world). What made the situation even more embarrassing for the United States, Austria, and the other European nations which did not grant flyover rights, was the fact that the U. S. Intelligence was totally wrong. Snowden was not on the plane forcing the Austrians who had technically committed an act of war against Bolivia by forcing their way onto a Bolivian plane carrying diplomats and the president of Bolivia, to apologize. Snowden was still in Russia, and the Russians then gave him political asylum in large part because they too resented the behavior of Austria, Europe and above all the United States in the Bolivian plane incident as the pane had taken off from Moscow. This was a very difficult call for the American intelligence agencies, in that there may well have been a plan to put Snowden in that plane that was cancelled when it was clear that the Americans would try and intercept the plane somehow. The OAS and other complaining nations argued that even if Snowden had been on the plane, there was no right to intercept and search the plane anyway.
Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General, Organization of American States (OAS), Criticism of The U.S. and some of the European Powers who denied the airplane of the Bolivian President the right to fly over Euopean Air Space, Interview, BBC Hardtalk, August 1, 2013
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
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José Miguel Insulza Salinas is a Chilean politician who served as Secretary General of the Organization of American States from 2005 to 2015. He previously served as Chile's Foreign Minister from 1994 to 1999, and as Interior Minister from 2000 to 2005.
