The international community was all in a huff last week when Belarus’s vile president, Alexander Lukashenko, personally authorized the forced landing of a Ryanair flight carrying a political opponent and activist, blogger Roman Pratasevich.

Neo-Nazi Pratasevich was removed from the plane and arrested after the jet was forced to land in Minsk, the Belorussian capitol. Pratasevich’s Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, was also detained.

“The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms both the diversion of the plane and the subsequent removal and arrest of Mr. Pratasevich,” president* Joe Biden said in a statement following the release of a video with a confession by Pratasevich that his supporters believe was coerced. “This outrageous incident and the video Mr. Pratasevich appears to have made under duress are shameful assaults on both political dissent and the freedom of the press.”

OH MY OH MY OH MY!

Such a terrible, terrible thing to force an airliner to land simply on the suspicion that an ‘enemy of the state’ might be onboard. Such global condemnation and outrage over this brazen act!

Why, I’ve never heard of such a thing ever, EVER happening before!!

EXCEPT I HAVE.

As usual, the good ole USA has already been there and done that, too. But that episode has already been sent down the ‘memory hole.’

We aren’t supposed to remember this headline:

Bolivian President’s Plane Rerouted Over Snowden Suspicions

or this:

Bolivian President’s Jet Rerouted On Suspicions Snowden Could Be On Board; Multi-Country Outrage Ensues

…or this one..!

BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT’S JET REROUTED AMID SUSPICIONS EDWARD SNOWDEN ON BOARD

“A diplomatic crisis engulfing three continents was sparked at midnight after the plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was rerouted to Austria after France and Portugal refused to let it cross their airspace – suspecting whistleblower Edward Snowden was on board…”

Scanning the MSM news coverage of this recent ‘atrocious’ act of ‘air piracy’ by Belarus’ dictatorial leader Lukashenko, you’d never know that back when NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was on the run from US authorities in 2013, hiding out in Moscow – the OBAMA administration coerced NATO allies France and Portugal into denying the use of their airspace to a jet carrying the PRESIDENT OF BOLIVIA, Evo Morales – forcing his plane to land in Vienna, Austria.

Mind you, this wasn’t some regional passenger airliner carrying some measly cyberpunk blogger: in 2013, NATO – acting on behalf of the USA – forced the jet carrying the fucking president of a sovereign nation to land…so they could arrest and detain Edward Snowden!

The MSM seems to have forgotten all about this inconvenient little fact…

Needless to say, Edward Snowden was not on Morales’ plane bound for La Paz, which had just left Moscow following a summit meeting.

So, why did NATO target Morales’ flight? To the ire of US authorities, Morales had suggested during the summit that his government would be willing to consider granting asylum to Snowden, which was apparently enough to mobilize the full force of the US Diplomatic apparatus.

At the time, Amnesty International Director of Law and Policy Michael Bochenek said, “The US attempts to pressure governments to block Snowden’s attempts to seek asylum are deplorable. It is his unassailable right, enshrined in international law, to claim asylum and this should not be impeded. No country can return a person to another country where there is a serious risk of ill-treatment.”

And of course, the OBAMA administration shamelessly lied about their role in this fiasco, claiming the issue was “a matter for European authorities” and declined to comment further.

Yeah, right. Whatever!

Speaking prior to the forced downing of Morales’ jet, state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki [now the Biden administration’s mouthpiece, NOT ironically enough] had vehemently denied claims made by Snowden that the US had bullied other potential hosts such as Ecuador into withdrawing their offer of asylum. “I am not sure what the basis for those claims are,” she said, pretending to be shocked.

Anonymous US sources cravenly insisted at the time that Umerka hadn’t ordered the plane to be diverted, oh, no! It had simply “impressed upon possible host countries the seriousness of the crimes that Snowden has been charged with.” Meaning: US diplomats threatened those nations with all sorts of economic sanctions and promises to pull Umerkin military cooperation if they didn’t bow to Washington’s demands.

It’s clear the USA is capable of far more sophisticated and ominous ‘air piracy’ than stinkin’ Belarus!

But we aren’t supposed to remember any of that. History is written by the victors, after all.

Nothing to see here, folks, keep moving…