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Snowden Can Be Asked To Testify In Person In Germany NSA Probe (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Whistleblower Edward Snowden can be asked to give evidence in person by a German committee probing the NSA's spying activities, the country's Federal Court of Justice has ruled. Germany's government has been told that it should make suitable arrangements for that to happen. It has been refusing to invite Snowden to give evidence personally since it would need to guarantee that he would not be handed over to the U.S. -- a promise the German authorities say would risk damaging the political relations between the two countries. Instead, it has called for him to give evidence via a video link, or for German officials to interview him in Moscow, both of which Snowden turned down. Following a formal complaint by the greens and left-wing politicians, Germany's Federal Court of Justice has ruled that the German government must provide the necessary guarantees that would allow Snowden to give evidence in person, or explain why it will not do so. Snowden's lawyer, Wolfgang Kaleck, told the Suddeutsche Zeitung that the German government might refuse to provide guarantees, and officially admit that it regards cooperating with the U.S. on intelligence matters in the future as more important than getting to the bottom of past surveillance. In that case, an appeal could be made to Germany's constitutional court, according to an article in Der Spiegel, which would decide whether the German government was allowed to make that trade-off. The committee of inquiry is examining to what extent German citizens and politicians were spied on by the NSA and its so-called Five Eyes partners -- notably GCHQ -- and whether German politicians and intelligence agencies knew about this activity.
Now what exactly happens to Germany if they change their mind once they have Snowden and hand him over to be executed by the US, hmm, nothing what so ever. A really, really bad idea to trust a pretty corrupt German government at this time. Keep in mind they along with the US had no hesitation in getting the Zaporozhi Cossacks to shell and murder Don Cossacks in the Ukraine just as a political stunt killing thousands, to stir up Russia to promote arms sales, this is not a country to trust, seriously. Possibly trust France, certainly not the UK, nor Sweden, possibly Norway, definitely Iceland, not Finland, possibly Italy, definitely not Croatia (measure of US influence and the subsequent corruption it brings every time, the greater the US influence the greater the corruption in the country, not because of Americans but because of multinational corporate control).
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
a promise the German authorities say would risk damaging the political relations between the two countries
So as you know where I'm coming from: I'm a US citizen.
Since my own government is clearly going to do everything in its power to get back at Snowden for embarrassing them and pointing out their unconstitutional behavior, I think it's up to Europe to grow a backbone here. It needs to be willing to cause some damage to its political relations with the US. In fact, that may be the only hope for Snowden's safety. If the US buddies up to Russia after the administration change, it's conceivable that the US gets its hands on Snowden in person. The only way for him to remain safe is to have political refuge in a friendly nation, and a European country seems like the best bet there.
That means Europe has to be willing to take the shit that the US will dish out over it. And that should not be too bad, all things considered. The US isn't going to burn its bridges with its allies over this. It'll talk some smack, stomp its boots some, but it will be more bluster than anything.
So, Europeans: please try to pressure your own governments to give ES protection. Push for it. It's his best long term hope. The Russian situation is not going to be stable in the long term, and if he returns back here, he's fucked.
They want him to testify against his own country, in the interest of the German people (and not in the interest of Americans/humanity in general as he previously did), all without giving him political asylum first.
For a country that doesn't have the decency of giving political asylum for someone that is being persecuted for whistle blowing on activities that hurt the whole world to even ask for help would be really bold. But doing so while threatening to give him to a country that is known for human rights abuses, torture and that have a legal system where he can not present a defense for his actions. Impressive.