Island Nation to U.S.: Give Back Our Only Jet!
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 12.20.05 | 1:37 PM ET
This has to go down as one of the wildest travel-related stories of the year. The Pacific island nation of Nauru is asking the United States to return its only passenger jet—the Air Nauru 737—which it lost in court recently to a U.S. government credit agency. Without the plane, the island must charter jets so that its 10,000 residents are not isolated from the rest of the world. But that’s just the beginning. “Nauru lost the plane after a failed legal attempt to put the U.S. on trial in a bizarre case involving spies, terrorism and North Korean defectors,” the Australian reports.
The newspaper’s account states:
The case had the potential to cause embarrassment at the highest levels in Washington.
Nauru argued that repossessing the plane would breach secret promises of financial aid made to Nauru by the US Government in return for its help in fighting terrorism.
Nauru claimed that senior US political figures - including a Congress official and former Reagan presidential adviser Michael Horowitz - promised financial riches if Nauru scrapped its offshore banking and passports schemes, which were giving safe haven for terrorists.
Nauru claims the officials also tried to recruit Nauru in a brazen scheme to help spirit senior North Korean defectors to the west via Nauruan diplomatic missions in China.
Email to friend
Twitter
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! Buzz
Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
