
German NSA Committee May Interview Snowden - tuetnsuppen
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Fpolitik%2Fdeutschland%2Fbundesgerichtshof-nsa-ausschuss-darf-edward-snowden-vorladen-a-1122370.html
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_jomo
Some background info:

After the 2013 Snowden disclosures, Germany started a Parliamentary Committee
[0] to investigate the extent and background of foreign secret services spying
in Germany. In fact, they ended up revealing a lot about Germany's own secret
service, BND. The committee consists of 8 members: 6 govt, 2 opposition.

They all agreed they should interview Snowden as a witness, but it was unclear
where this would happen. Govt members voted to not interview him in Berlin and
instead do a video conference to Moskow, which Snowden rejected.

The opposition then sued govt parties and the committee for not inviting
Snowden to Berlin. They also sued chancellor Merkel for not supporting the
committee.

The committee also agreed on interviewing Snowden in Moskow locally, which
Snowden also rejected.

Also, the US allegedly threatened Germany to stop notifying them about "plots
and other intelligence matters" should they give Snowden asylum. [1]

0:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Parliamentary_Committee...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Parliamentary_Committee_investigating_the_NSA_spying_scandal)

1: [https://theintercept.com/2015/03/19/us-threatened-germany-
sn...](https://theintercept.com/2015/03/19/us-threatened-germany-snowden-vice-
chancellor-says/)

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philovivero
The translation didn't make things terribly clear for me.

It seems the USA is trying to convince Germany to extradite Snowden from
Russia...? Is that even a thing? Russia will agree to extradite people to EU,
but not to USA?

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johnnyfaehell
As far as I know, Russia has never given anyone up.

~~~
kafkaesq
There are plenty of counter-examples to this, in both post-Soviet and more
recent times. Basically, the authorities are happy enough to "let someone go"
(read: GTFO) once the political cost of keeping them outweighs the perceived
benefit.

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csdrane
Why does he need to be physically present to testify?

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kafkaesq
BTW, instead of "intercepted", the translation should read "be brought in to
testify."

