SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A member of European Parliament holds a sign of support for the NSA whistleblower. (Photo: greensefa/flickr/cc)
Docs Reveal US Used Denmark for Rendition Flight Waiting to Kidnap Snowden
As U.S. was requesting countries apprehend and extradite whistleblower, Danish authorities gave OK for rendition craft
Jan 29, 2016
A U.S. rendition plane was ready and waiting in Copenhagen in June 2013 to nab National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, a Danish news website reported this week.
At the time, Snowden had fled Hong Kong and was stuck at the airport in Moscow.
Documents obtained by Denfri.dk from Denmark's Ministry of Justice, and which back previous claims, show that Danish authorities approved a request from the United States for a specific aircraft to fly over and in Danish territory "for state purposes of a non-commercial nature," and indicate that the aircraft did, in fact, land in Copenhagen.
That aircraft, with registration number N977GA, has been used in CIA and Department of Justice kidnappings, The Registerreported in 2014.
Denfri.dk received the documents, many heavily redacted, following Freedom of Information requests it had sent in August 2015 "regarding requests from the U.S. government to Denmark and other countries that they arrest and extradite Snowden if he set foot in their country," Sputnikreports.
Among the documents the site received, RT reports, was "a batch of heavily redacted emails indicating communications between senior officials in Denmark's police, Foreign Ministry and Justice Ministry, including Anders Herping Nielsen, a chief consultant of the Justice Ministry's international office and its former deputy head, whose responsibility it is to decide on the extradition of people for trial in other countries."
The Justice Ministry wrote in its reply to denfri.dk: "Denmark's relationship with the U.S. would be damaged if the information becomes public knowledge."
The whistleblower himself tweeted this on Wednesday:
\u201cRemember when the PM #Rasmussen said Denmark shouldn't respect asylum law in my case? Turns out he had a secret. https://t.co/8K6cYuvAhv\u201d— Edward Snowden (@Edward Snowden) 1453894891
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
A U.S. rendition plane was ready and waiting in Copenhagen in June 2013 to nab National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, a Danish news website reported this week.
At the time, Snowden had fled Hong Kong and was stuck at the airport in Moscow.
Documents obtained by Denfri.dk from Denmark's Ministry of Justice, and which back previous claims, show that Danish authorities approved a request from the United States for a specific aircraft to fly over and in Danish territory "for state purposes of a non-commercial nature," and indicate that the aircraft did, in fact, land in Copenhagen.
That aircraft, with registration number N977GA, has been used in CIA and Department of Justice kidnappings, The Registerreported in 2014.
Denfri.dk received the documents, many heavily redacted, following Freedom of Information requests it had sent in August 2015 "regarding requests from the U.S. government to Denmark and other countries that they arrest and extradite Snowden if he set foot in their country," Sputnikreports.
Among the documents the site received, RT reports, was "a batch of heavily redacted emails indicating communications between senior officials in Denmark's police, Foreign Ministry and Justice Ministry, including Anders Herping Nielsen, a chief consultant of the Justice Ministry's international office and its former deputy head, whose responsibility it is to decide on the extradition of people for trial in other countries."
The Justice Ministry wrote in its reply to denfri.dk: "Denmark's relationship with the U.S. would be damaged if the information becomes public knowledge."
The whistleblower himself tweeted this on Wednesday:
\u201cRemember when the PM #Rasmussen said Denmark shouldn't respect asylum law in my case? Turns out he had a secret. https://t.co/8K6cYuvAhv\u201d— Edward Snowden (@Edward Snowden) 1453894891
A U.S. rendition plane was ready and waiting in Copenhagen in June 2013 to nab National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, a Danish news website reported this week.
At the time, Snowden had fled Hong Kong and was stuck at the airport in Moscow.
Documents obtained by Denfri.dk from Denmark's Ministry of Justice, and which back previous claims, show that Danish authorities approved a request from the United States for a specific aircraft to fly over and in Danish territory "for state purposes of a non-commercial nature," and indicate that the aircraft did, in fact, land in Copenhagen.
That aircraft, with registration number N977GA, has been used in CIA and Department of Justice kidnappings, The Registerreported in 2014.
Denfri.dk received the documents, many heavily redacted, following Freedom of Information requests it had sent in August 2015 "regarding requests from the U.S. government to Denmark and other countries that they arrest and extradite Snowden if he set foot in their country," Sputnikreports.
Among the documents the site received, RT reports, was "a batch of heavily redacted emails indicating communications between senior officials in Denmark's police, Foreign Ministry and Justice Ministry, including Anders Herping Nielsen, a chief consultant of the Justice Ministry's international office and its former deputy head, whose responsibility it is to decide on the extradition of people for trial in other countries."
The Justice Ministry wrote in its reply to denfri.dk: "Denmark's relationship with the U.S. would be damaged if the information becomes public knowledge."
The whistleblower himself tweeted this on Wednesday:
\u201cRemember when the PM #Rasmussen said Denmark shouldn't respect asylum law in my case? Turns out he had a secret. https://t.co/8K6cYuvAhv\u201d— Edward Snowden (@Edward Snowden) 1453894891
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.