Snowden still in Moscow despite plane brouhaha

Bolivia accused the United States on Wednesday of trying to ‘kidnap’ its president, Evo Morales, after his plane was denied permission to fly over some European countries on suspicion he was taking fugitive former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden to Latin America.

Bolivia said the incident, in which the plane was denied permission to fly over France and Portugal before making a stop in Vienna, was an act of aggression and a violation of international law.

Snowden was not on the plane when it landed in Vienna, an Austrian official said. He is believed to be stranded in the transit lounge of a Moscow airport and the United States has been trying to get its hands on him since he revealed details of its secret surveillance programmes last month.

The White House declined to comment on the Bolivian assertion.

The furore was the latest twist in a saga that has raised debate over the balance between privacy rights and national security. Revelations of US surveillance on European countries have also strained transatlantic relations.

France said on Wednesday that free-trade talks between the European Union and the United States should be delayed by two weeks given tensions over media reports, stemming from the Snowden case, that Washington is spying on the 28-nation bloc.

The Bolivian plane was taking Morales home from an energy conference in Moscow when it landed at Vienna airport on Tuesday evening. Austrian deputy chancellor Michael Spindelegger said Morales personally denied that Snowden was aboard his jet and agreed to a voluntary inspection.

‘Based on this invitation from Bolivia, a colleague boarded the plane, looked at everything and there was no one else on board,’ Spindelegger told reporters.

But Bolivian defence minister Ruben Saavedra said Morales’ plane was not searched because Morales had refused Austrian authorities entry.

Bolivia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Sacha Llorenti Soliz, expressed outrage at the chain of events.

‘We’re talking about the president on an official trip after an official summit being kidnapped,’ he said in Geneva.

‘We have no doubt that it was an order from the White House. By no means should a diplomatic plane with the president be diverted from its route and forced to land in another country.’

The ambassador said Bolivia’s anger was directed at the United States and the countries that prevented the plane from flying over them.

The Obama administration has advised foreign governments that allowing Snowden to land on their territory could seriously damage their relations with the United States, US and European national security sources said.