Members of different social organizations gather to express their support to Bolivean President Evo Morales, in La Paz, Bolivia, on July 3, 2013.  [Xinhua/ABI]

Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, head of a sovereign state, is protected by international law and practice. Despite this, his plane was forced down as France, Portugal, Spain and Italy all denied entry to their airspace. Why? Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo later explained:

"We were told that [Edward] Snowden was inside. I can work with the data they gave me….They said they were clear he was inside…."

The Foreign Minister would not say who "they" were. Is there even any need to speculate about who "they" are? But "they" overlooked a small detail. President Morales' plane was parked at Vnukovo Airport, as government planes which carry officials who are visiting Moscow typically land there. And Vnukovo is some 35 miles from Sheremetyevo Airport where Snowden was and still is. There was no way he could have boarded Morales' plane.

But the episode shows how much Obama wants to grab Snowden.

We remember how Barack Obama feigned indifference to Snowden's fate. According to the Associated Press, he said he wouldn't be scrambling military jets to go after the twenty-nine-year-old hacker. But the anonymous "they" surely asked the Europeans to do just that.

That proud Europeans have to take orders from Big Brother is truly humiliating, and they were roundly condemned by half of Latin America. The Bolivian Foreign Minister blurted out that President Morales was "kidnapped by imperialism." Does "imperialism" have another name?

Some pundits blamed Snowden for leaving the country and compared him unfavorable to Daniel Ellsberg, whose actions led to the publication of the "Pentagon Papers" in 1971 and stayed in the country. But Ellsberg came out in defense of Snowden in a Washington Post article, stating that "Snowden made the right call when he fled the U.S."

Ellsberg gave the documents, which contained plans to invade Vietnam, despite President Johnson's entreaty that he had no such intention, to the New York Times. But the Times was enjoined from publishing the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg subsequently gave copies to 17 other newspapers and then surrendered to arrest in Boston. For the two years during which he was under indictment, he was free to speak to the media, at rallies and public lectures.

Ellsberg's case was eventually dismissed, but he himself has said that times have changed. There is no chance his experience could be reproduced today. If the U.S. is able to get hold of Snowden, he would likely be held incommunicado in prison, much like Bradley Manning, who leaked information to WikiLeaks. In all probability, Snowden would be treated even more harshly than Manning, whose living conditions were described as "cruel, inhuman and degrading" by the UN Special Rapporteur for torture.

Snowden has said he did nothing wrong, telling the Guardian that he does not want to live in a country where everything he said was recorded.

As Ellsberg points out in his article, the unauthorized disclosure of unconstitutional and immoral "state secrets" remains the lifeblood of a free press.

I have previously described Snowden's revelations as a game changer. To the chagrin of the White House, more and more dirty secrets are being brought to light, revealing the true colors of the leader of the "free world", and making our world a better and safer place.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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