Can Germany call on Snowden as a witness?
His is the face of the NSA scandal: Edward Snowden, former employee of the CIA and NSA. Over the summer, and carrying thousands of secret documents, he traveled to Hong Kong. From there, it was onward to Russia.
The latest revelation - about the NSA eavesdropping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone - also came directly from the pages released by Snowden. To many German politicians, then, Snowden would clearly be the most appropriate person to speak to as a witness in the spying affair.
'The US government lied to us'
"Snowden's allegations appear to be credible, while the US government clearly lied to us in this matter," said the Social Democrat Party's parliamentary chairman, Thomas Opperman, in the pages of Germany's mass-circulation BILD newspaper on Sunday (27.10.2013).
During that interview (link in German), Opperman called for an investigative committee to be formed into the eavesdropping affair. Such an inquiry, he argues, should try to question the whistleblower himself.
The problem with this is that, although Snowden has enjoyed asylum in Russia since August, his exact place of residence is not publicly known. By traveling to Germany, he would run the risk of being handed over to the US - although Oppermann considers such a scenario unlikely.
"I can't imagine that the Federal Republic of Germany would deport someone who uncovered a serious act of espionage against the German chancellor to the country that conducted that act of espionage," the Social Democrat added on public German television channel ZDF.
http://www.dw.de/can-germany-call-on-snowden-as-a-witness/a-17186463
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