Paranoid Authorities Wouldn't Let Me Fly My Plane Over U.S. Territory - Was It Something I Wrote?

[Hissyspit]

http://www.alternet.org/rights/139606/paranoid_authorities_wouldn%27t_let_my_plane_fly_over_u.s._territory_--_was_it_something_i_wrote

Paranoid Authorities Wouldn't Let My Plane Fly Over U.S. Territory -- Was It Something I Wrote?

By Hernando Calvo Ospina , Progreso-Weekly. Posted May 4, 2009.

An AirFrance flight was forced to divert a plane thousands of miles because a journalist was considered a national security threat.

Air France Flight 438, from Paris, was to land at Mexico City at 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 18. Five hours before landing, the captain's voice announced that U.S. authorities had prohibited the plane from flying over U.S. territory. The explanation: among the passengers aboard was a person who was not welcome in the United States for reasons of national security.

A few minutes later, the same voice told the startled passengers that the plane was heading for Fort-de-France, Martinique, because the detour the plan needed to take to reach its destination was too long and the fuel was insufficient.

- snip -

Again in the air, and preparing for another four hours of travel, a man who identified himself as the copilot came to me. Trying to look discreet, he asked if I was "Mr. Calvo Ospina." I told him yes.

"The captain wants to sleep, that's why I came here," he said, and he invited me to accompany him to the back of the plane. There, he told me that I was the person "responsible" for the detour. I was astonished.

My first reaction was to ask him: "Do you think I'm a terrorist?" He said no, that's the reason I'm telling you this. He also assured me that it was strange that this was the first time it happened on an Air France plane. Shortly before we landed in Martinique, a stewardess had told me that, in her 11-year career, nothing like that had ever happened to her.

Finally, the copilot asked me not to tell anybody, including the rest of the crew. I assured him that I hadn't the slightest intention of doing so.

- snip -

How far will the U.S. authorities' paranoia go? And why do Air France and the French authorities continue to keep silent about it all?

MORE

[barbtries]

1. that is bizarre.

too much weirdness. i'm glad the story's coming out; i'd like an explanation.

[Solly Mack]

2. "How far will the U.S. authorities' paranoia go?"

I think we already know


K&R

[malaise]

4. Here's why and I have no doubt

some left over Bushie did this - his book Bacardi
http://us.macmillan.com/bacardi
<snip>
Hernando Calvo Ospina is a Colombian investigative journalist who specialises in the anti-Castro movement. He is the author of Salsa, Havana Heat, Bronx Beat (Latin America Bureau, 1995) and co-author of The Cuban Exile Movement: Dissidents or Mercenaries? (Ocean Press, 2000). Bacardi: The Hidden War was first published in Spanish and has been translated into French, Dutch, German and Italian. He lives in Brussels.

The Bacardí rum company is one of the most successful and recognisable brands in the world. It spends millions on marketing itself as the spirit of youth and vitality. But behind its image as a party drink lies a very different story.In this book, investigative journalist Hernando Calvo Ospina brings to light the commercial and political activities of the Bacardí empire to reveal its role in fostering the 40-year long confrontation between the United States and the revolutionary government of Cuba. Through meticulous research, Ospina reveals how directors and shareholders of the family-owned firm have aggressively worked to undermine the Castro government. He explores how they have been implicated in supporting paramilitary organisations that have carried out terrorist attacks, and reveals their links to the extreme right-wing Cuban-American Foundation that supported Ronald Reagan's Contra war in Nicaragua.Bacardí: The Hidden War explains the company's hand in promoting 'special interest' legislation against its competitor, Havana Club Rum, which is manufactured in Cuba and promoted by the European company Pernod-Ricard. Ospina reveals the implications of Bacardí's involvement in this growing dispute that threatens to create a trade war between America and Europe. Exploring the Bacardí empire's links to the CIA, as well as its inside links with the Bush administration, this fascinating account shows how multinational companies act for political as well as economic interests.

[thunder rising]

3. I have an inquiring mind? I think this was a setup...Bush "leave behinds" creating distractions

A person only wonders what the geniuses in DHS use for a brain.

"Pick a person and spin the wheel", bad news AirFrance no overflight.

[leveymg]

5. Mr. Calvo has written some interesting exposes of the CIA's connections with a number of powerful

interests, particularly those that target Cuba, including:

the Bacardi Rum company and family
the Right-wing Miami Cuban nationalists
the National Endowment for Democracy

He is the author of Salsa, Havana Heat, Bronx Beat (Latin America Bureau, 1995) and co-author of The Cuban Exile Movement: Dissidents or Mercenaries? (Ocean Press, 2000). Bacardi: The Hidden War (2002) was first published in Spanish and has been translated into French, Dutch, German and Italian. It will soon be released in English (Pluto Press).

Looks like the CIA has given Mr. Calvo some great kickoff publicity for his latest book tour. Way to go, Langley!

[struggle4progress]

6. US: overt and covert destabilisation (Hernando Calvo Ospina)

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was created in 1983, ostensibly as a non-profit-making organisation to promote human rights and democracy. In 1991 its first president, the historian Allen Weinstein, confessed to The Washington Post: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA” (1).

Long before the NED was created, the same newspaper had revealed in 1967 how the CIA funded foreign trade unions, cultural organisations, media, and prominent intellectuals. As Philip Agee, a former operative with the Company told me in an interview in 2005: “The CIA used known American foundations, as well as other custom-made entities that existed only on paper.”

Under pressure, President Lyndon Johnson ordered an investigation, although he was aware that the CIA had been mandated to carry out such activities since its creation in 1947. Agee said: “In the aftermath of World War II, faced with threats to our democratic allies and without any mechanism to channel political assistance, US policy makers resorted to covert means, secretly sending advisers, equipment and funds to support newspapers and parties under siege in Europe” (2). They had to counter the Soviet Union’s ideological influence at the start of the cold war.

The funded organisations sometimes managed to weaken and even eliminate opposition to friendly governments, while creating a climate favourable to US interests. There were coups, such as the one in Brazil in 1964 that overthrew President João Goulart. The coup against Chilean president Salvador Allende in 1973 showed that the US government had not abandoned such methods. Agee claimed: “To prepare the ground for the military, we funded and channelled the forces of leading organisations in civil society and the media. It was an improved version of the coup in Brazil” ...

http://mondediplo.com/2007/08/04ned

[struggle4progress]

7. Cuba exports health (Hernando Calvo Ospina)

When Hurricane Katrina ripped through the southern United States in August 2005, the authorities were overwhelmed and the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, appealed to the international community for emergency medical aid. The Cuban government immediately offered assistance to New Orleans and to the states of Mississippi and Alabama, also affected by the storm, and promised that within 48 hours 1,600 doctors, trained to deal with such catastrophes, would arrive with all the necessary equipment plus 36 tonnes of medical supplies. This offer, and another made directly to President George Bush, went unanswered. In the catastrophe at least 1,800 people, most of them poor, died for lack of aid and treatment.

In October 2005, the Kashmir region of Pakistan experienced one of the most violent earthquakes in its history, with terrible consequences in the poorest and most isolated areas to the north. On 15 October an advance party of 200 emergency doctors arrived from Cuba with several tonnes of equipment. A few days later, Havana sent the necessary materials to erect and equip 30 field hospitals in mountain areas, most of which had never been previously visited by a doctor. Local people learned of Cuba’s existence for the first time.

To avoid causing offence in this predominantly Muslim country, the women on the Cuban team, who represented 44% of some 3,000 medical staff sent to Pakistan in the next six months, dressed appropriately and wore headscarves. Good will was quickly established; many Pakistanis even allowed their wives and daughters to be treated by male doctors.

By the end of April 2006, shortly before their departure, the Cubans had treated 1.5 million patients, mostly women, and performed 13,000 surgical operations. Only a few severely injured patients had to be flown to Havana. Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, an important ally of the US and friend of Bush, officially thanked the Cuban authorities and acknowledged that this small nation in the Caribbean had sent more disaster aid than any other country ...

http://mondediplo.com/2006/08/11cuba

[struggle4progress]

8. En las fronteras del Plan Colombia (Hernando Calvo Ospina)

... En los años ochenta los paramilitares colombianos empiezan a masacrar civiles en las zonas bananeras, con la complicidad de las fuerzas de seguridad, al considerar que son aliados de la guerrilla. A la población no le queda alternativa que resguardarse en Panamá. Cuando se aprueba el Plan Colombia los paramilitares casi controlaban la zona fronteriza, utilizándola también para exportar cocaína y heroína hacia Estados Unidos ...

http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=11857

[formercia]

9. It must be a big list

considering the tens of thousands of 'Terrorists' that were created as a result of this Nation's actions after the attack in 2001.

[reggie the dog]

10. this story was a scandal a couple of weeks agoi

in right or left wing newspapers alike here in France.

[peacetalksforall]

11. This was this year - under Obama? This is sick. I haven't heard about this.

Thanks for posting.

[peacetalksforall]

13. This means that Cuban-Americans just can't be plain Americans - they must have

their idiotic influence everywhere. Make CANF and the rich legislators (especially Ileana and her friend Debbie) pay for the skyrocketing expenses of Air France had to pay for that little diversion.

That did our Secretary of State say about this.

Did the U.S. tell the passengers - We're sorry if you have been invonvenienced.

Crap. This is awful.

France should refuse fly-overs when Kissinger flies or if Cheney and Rusmfeld and their front man ever fly again. Now that would be preventing terrorists.

[struggle4progress]

14. The Bushbots probably added him to the No-Fly list years ago

[peacetalksforall]

15. Wouldn't this mean two lists? One where it affects only the passenger - boarding within the U.S.

The other involves all foreigh airlines and all their passengers, plus the stockholders of the airlines, if they are not nationalized (then it's the citizens?).

What it also signifies is that the U.S. got all the foreign airlines to submit their passenger lists and who they were.

What this means that the U.S. got other nations to enable the imperialism. And the air passenger customers have NO say.

A very graphic example of the takeover of the world.

[struggle4progress]

16. I'm pretty sure the Bushistas had a policy of not cooperating with foreign flights unless

they were given the passenger list

[guruoo]

12. K&R, and who was in charge of flying the plane while

the pilot was asleep, and the copilot was in back talking to Ospina?

"The captain wants to sleep, that's why I came here,"

do they not have to have at least one pilot awake in the cockpit while on autopilot?

[madmom]

17. Can't wait to see the rightwing spin on this.

[pleah]

18. It has already gone a lot farther than that. n/t

[DemReadingDU]

19. afternoon kick