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O'Leary: Forced landing in Belarus was 'state-sponsored hijacking'

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Re: O'Leary: Forced landing in Belarus was 'state-sponsored hijacking'

#21

Post by iso1631 »

simonh wrote: post #13
iso1631 wrote: post #5

O'Leary: Continues to fly his plane over the same route the very next day because passengers didn't buy the "anti kidnap" add-on https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/1396771259724206082...

Airlines can't just fly their planes off on whatever windy route over Europe they feel like. Did all the other airlines start avoiding Belarus Airspace?

Many did. And no they can't "just do it". The hijacking was yesterday, the Ryanair flight took off from Pathos today.

They can file a flightpath avoiding Belarus. Maybe it would be 100 miles longer rather than 50, adding 15 minutes to the journey, and a few extra dollars to the gas bill.

Very poor judgement.

Re: O'Leary: Forced landing in Belarus was 'state-sponsored hijacking'

#23

Post by alkonaut »

throwaway21_ wrote: post #11
alkonaut wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not an exhibit of how this isn't state sponsored hijacking. That's a poor attempt at whataboutism, that has surfaced several times in ALL the threads on this topic. There are several reasons that wasn't even remotely comparable, and the most obvious one is that that was diplomacy (the US closing airspaces and thereby giving the plane no choice but to land). That kind of power is wielded by the US becuase it's…

Don't be silly - Belarus is a sovereign state, they control their airspace and they had every right to land that plane down. Assange made US looked stupid in that incident while Lukashenko made Protasevich looked stupid yesterday. btw nobody sane is believing that US wouldn't force to land plane flying over US with Snowden in it - but Snowden isn't that stupid I guess.

I'm not saying either instance was right - I'm saying they are quite different kinds of wrong.

The Snowden story is plausible - but it's still hypothetical. And of course the same international community (of US allies) that would resist extraditing Snowden today, would protest if the US forced a plane between two other countries and full of their citizens to land in the US.

All that aside: the focus shouldn't be taken away from the fact that the real crime is arresting an opposition journalist/activist.

Re: O'Leary: Forced landing in Belarus was 'state-sponsored hijacking'

#24

Post by nigerian1981 »

londons_explore wrote: post #19

What did that journalist do to anger Belarus that badly? He was only 26 years old... How do you stoke a regime so badly they send a bunch of KGB agents after you? Most journalists at age 26 are still writing about cats stuck up trees...

Roman Protasevich is wanted for organising last year’s protests against Alexander Lukashenko

Re: O'Leary: Forced landing in Belarus was 'state-sponsored hijacking'

#25

Post by sandworm101 »

londons_explore wrote: post #19

What did that journalist do to anger Belarus that badly? He was only 26 years old... How do you stoke a regime so badly they send a bunch of KGB agents after you? Most journalists at age 26 are still writing about cats stuck up trees...

How? You stand for election. Why? You forget to lose.

Re: O'Leary: Forced landing in Belarus was 'state-sponsored hijacking'

#26

Post by varjag »

londons_explore wrote: post #19

What did that journalist do to anger Belarus that badly? He was only 26 years old... How do you stoke a regime so badly they send a bunch of KGB agents after you? Most journalists at age 26 are still writing about cats stuck up trees...

He was a co-editor of the most popular Telegram channel, which people used to get the news and coordinate the protests. The protests (spanning dozens of cities and towns, hundreds of thousands people, lasting months) dealt a blow to ego of Lukashenko.

It is remarkable that Tsikhankuskaya, seen as winning the elections in August and now in exile, was taking the same route a week ago but he chose Roman to be abducted instead. Just shows how deeply he got under Luka skin and why there is zero chance for calls to release him to have any effect. He literally bet the future of country's civil aviation for petty revenge.

tl;dr: Live your life so they have to intercept you with fighter jets by your mid-20s.

Re: O'Leary: Forced landing in Belarus was 'state-sponsored hijacking'

#27

Post by bidirectional »

simonh wrote: post #13
iso1631 wrote: post #5

O'Leary: Continues to fly his plane over the same route the very next day because passengers didn't buy the "anti kidnap" add-on https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/1396771259724206082...

Airlines can't just fly their planes off on whatever windy route over Europe they feel like. Did all the other airlines start avoiding Belarus Airspace?

The linked tweet is a follow-up to an earlier tweet showing several airlines did just that.

Re: O'Leary: Forced landing in Belarus was 'state-sponsored hijacking'

#28

Post by belatw »

londons_explore wrote: post #19

What did that journalist do to anger Belarus that badly? He was only 26 years old... How do you stoke a regime so badly they send a bunch of KGB agents after you? Most journalists at age 26 are still writing about cats stuck up trees...

He dared to report the truth about a maniacal dictator.

Re: O'Leary: Forced landing in Belarus was 'state-sponsored hijacking'

#29

Post by smcl »

sandworm101 wrote: post #25
londons_explore wrote: post #19

What did that journalist do to anger Belarus that badly? He was only 26 years old... How do you stoke a regime so badly they send a bunch of KGB agents after you? Most journalists at age 26 are still writing about cats stuck up trees...

How? You stand for election. Why? You forget to lose.

Edit: misread comment

Re: O'Leary: Forced landing in Belarus was 'state-sponsored hijacking'

#30

Post by throwaway21_ »

KeNE3zuF wrote: post #17
throwaway21_ wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be silly - Belarus is a sovereign state, they control their airspace and they had every right to land that plane down. Assange made US looked stupid in that incident while Lukashenko made Protasevich looked stupid yesterday. btw nobody sane is believing that US wouldn't force to land plane flying over US with Snowden in it - but Snowden isn't that stupid I guess.

This is about might, not right. Both the US and Belarusian governments are obviously able and willing to kidnap people, that doesn't mean they have that right. Sovereignty is likewise about might and not right. They are sovereign because they can do things like this. Anyone who can reliably do things like this in given area is sovereign, but that doesn't mean that anyone has the right to do things like this. Might do…

A said 'right' in the sense that they are free to do it like any other state - Lukashenko isn't nice guy at all but he didn't do anything unusual here - shooting that plane down would be extraordinary, but forcing it to land isn't significantly different than crap that was brought down on Assange or Snowden.
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