What Belarus did, while illegal, is not unprecedented. The dangerous tactic was pioneered by the same U.S. and E.U. officials now righteously condemning it.

At the time, EU states falsely denied that they forced the downing of Bolivia's plane, but ultimately admitted the truth. The whole world suspected who was behind this dangerous and illegal downing of the Bolivian President's jet: the US.

In 2013, it was left to the US State Dept spokesperson -- Jen Psaki -- to answer questions. As always, she refused even basic transparency about the US role.

Ultimately, though, Psaki ended up acknowledging just enough for the press to recognize that the US admitted that it was in contact with these EU countries that forced the landing of the Bolivian president's plane -- by telling them that Snowden was aboard, on his way to asylum.

That the US and EU dangerously forced a plan to land because they intended to arrest a passenger does not mitigate Belarus' illegal act. But any press reports that depict this as "unprecendented" or omit the similar acts of US/EU officials are propaganda

It's "despicable," says this EU Political Scientist, for a journalist to mention that what the EU today is vehemently condemning Belarus for doing is exactly what the EU & US itself did in 2013. These people are pure jingoistic propagandists.

Many Americans have been trained never to question whether their own government does exactly that which they accuse adversaries of doing. They've even been given a term -- "whataboutism" -- that basically means: never point out that our own tribe does what it condemns in others.

Hilarious yet illustrative of how the US functions that they sent out Jen Psaki to condemn Belarus when it was Psaki herself, then State Dept spokesperson, tasked with obfuscating and defending the US/EU's forced landing of Morales' plane to get Snowden: