Attention, Americans in this comments section: even though you're complaining now, if you guys obediently line up to re-elect the party doing this come November, you are part of the problem.
Secret US flight flew over Scottish airspace to capture Snowden
141–150 of 244 posts
Re: Secret US flight flew over Scottish airspace to capture Snowden
#142FYI, the plane was "Gulfstream Aerospace Gulfstream V" flying above 45000ft. Impressive plane.
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Re: Secret US flight flew over Scottish airspace to capture Snowden
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, it's likely it was a jet airplane as the altitude of the flight was 45,000. I suppose in this usage it was implied to be fighter-jets.
It's amazing to witness the gift of gap that high level politicians possess. Obama says "not going to scramble jets." What the public assumes he means: - "Three letter agencies and the military won't be conducting clandestine operations to proactively seek out and remove Snowden from a foreign country." What he actually means: - Quite literally, he's saying that they won't be sending fighter jets to go blow up Snowde…
Also his use of "boots on the ground"
Re: Secret US flight flew over Scottish airspace to capture Snowden
#144Attention, Americans in this comments section: even though you're complaining now, if you guys obediently line up to re-elect the party doing this come November, you are part of the problem.
Are you implying the next Republican president will put a stop to it? That's what the partisan argument in your comment seems to imply.
Which comes down to probably Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio or Donald Trump... I don't see that happening.
Re: Secret US flight flew over Scottish airspace to capture Snowden
#145The craft was used in controversial US ‘rendition’ missions This is apparently true, but misleading. The specific plane we're discussing was used by the CIA, but by this point had been transferred to DOJ for some time. It's also misleading to use the word "rendition" as a shorthand for "extraordinary rendition" (which is itself newspeak for "kidnapping"). "Rendition" itself is simply the process of effectuating extra…
> Either way, the implication that Snowden was targeted for extrajudicial kidnapping isn't supported by any evidence presented so far. We have the downing of President Evo Morales' plane as evidence in support of that. You can read a more full explanation of that here: http://www.democracynow.org/2015/9/15/julian_assange_us_spyi...
I see that some people disagree with that claim. I'd like to hear their explanation as to why they do not believe this is evidence.
Note in particular that I'm not claiming this as absolute proof, just that it's evidence. While one might argue over the weight that should be assigned to it, it seems sufficiently irregular that it should be hard to claim that it's not even evidence.
Re: Secret US flight flew over Scottish airspace to capture Snowden
#146Four legs good, two legs bad! Snuff him out!
Are you really saying that the US government is Stalinist?
Re: Secret US flight flew over Scottish airspace to capture Snowden
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, now I like the article more. :)
to provide some context on the newspaper that this article is on. The national is a newspaper specifically set up at the time of the Scottish Referendum to provide a more nationalist viewpoint to counter the perception that the mainstream UK media had a Unionist slant.
A minor quibble in that is was setup after the referendum to try to cater for the 45% of people who voted for Independence given that no daily paper in Scotland backed Independence.
Re: Secret US flight flew over Scottish airspace to capture Snowden
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's still a country, albeit one in increasingly reluctant political union with England. It would be rare for a Scot to refer to something as happening in the UK rather than specifically Scotland. The legal system is independent and different to England and Wales for instance. The nearest US equivalent would I guess be Puerto Rico rather than Maine.
I don't want to go far into the rabbit hole here but are they represented in the UN or any other kind of international bodies constituted of member states? I understand how they feel about themselves, or more specifically how roughly half of them feel, however, it's not how the world sees them, generally speaking. Chinese understand "the UK" Scotland, as an international political entity will get you sideways looks.
> are they represented in the UN or any other kind of international bodies constituted of member states?
FIFA, UEFA, World Rugby.
Regardless of the comparison with Alaska being flawed, I wouldn't see anything peculiar in an Alaskan newspaper referring to a Russian plane over Alaskan airspace, so I don't see an issue with Scottish people or entities referring to their country as Scotland.
Re: Secret US flight flew over Scottish airspace to capture Snowden
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's still a country, albeit one in increasingly reluctant political union with England. It would be rare for a Scot to refer to something as happening in the UK rather than specifically Scotland. The legal system is independent and different to England and Wales for instance. The nearest US equivalent would I guess be Puerto Rico rather than Maine.
Alaska and Maine have different legal systems too. Scotland is culturally considered a country, sure, but I'm curious whether that has any concrete meaning.
"country" in the UK has a meaning not entirely dissimilar to "state" in the US (in both cases, this is somewhat distinct from the usual use of the term internationally.)
The term does, in fact, have concrete meaning.
Re: Secret US flight flew over Scottish airspace to capture Snowden
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
I understand that (believe me; get RT'd by him sometime and see what happens to your mentions). But add up everything he's said publicly and you still don't have a complete picture of what he had, who he gave it to, and who got what. I'm not suggesting that anything nefarious happened. I do not think Snowden is an FSB operative. I think he grabbed a giant tranche of documents, few of which he actually read, and hande…
Does the USG also have an interest in (c) the ability to prosecute and punish Snowden in such a conspicuous and forceful way that anyone else in a position similar to his would be frightened enough not to take any action similar to his? Snowden and his informal team of assistants Do you believe Greenwald, et al. are collaborators and therefore should be prosecuted?
No. I really dislike Greenwald and, to a lesser extent, The Intercept as a publication, and think they spread more disinformation than journalism, but it's hard for me to see what crime any of them could possibly have committed.
(I answered your first question upthread).