edward snowden is calling for international help to persuade the us to drop its espionage charges against him according to a letter a german lawmaker released friday after meeting the american in moscow
edward snowdens new job in russia
snowden said he would like to testify before the us congress about national security agency surveillance and may be willing to help german officials investigate alleged us spying in germany hanschristian stroebele a lawmaker with germanys opposition greens told a press conference
but snowden indicated in the letter that neither would happen unless the us dropped its espionage charges  a policy shift the obama administration has given no indication it would make
earlier friday germanys top security official said he would like to arrange for german authorities to talk to snowden about allegations that the nsa monitored the cellphone of chancellor angela merkel and other us surveillance operations
reports about nsa spying on world leaders and allies have outraged europeans in the past two weeks snowden has said he no longer has the nsa materials but his knowledge of us spying efforts could be seen as invaluable by other nations germany has purchased stolen data before  most notably swiss banking records  and used that to successfully prosecute people
in his onepage typed letter written in english and bearing signatures that stroebele said were his own and snowdens snowden complained that the us government continues to treat dissent as defection and seeks to criminalize political speech with felony charges that provide no defence
i am confident that with the support of the international community the government of the united states will abandon this harmful behaviour snowden wrote
but he indicated he wouldnt talk in germany or elsewhere until the situation is resolved
stroebele said snowden appeared healthy and cheerful during their meeting thursday at an undisclosed location in moscow the german television network ard which accompanied stroebele said the germans were taken to the meeting by security officials under strict secrecy
snowden said that he would like most to lay the facts on the table before a committee of the us congress and explain them stroebele said the lawmaker a prominent critic of the nsas alleged activities said the 30yearold did not present himself to me as antiamerican or anything like that  quite the contrary
stroebele sent the snowden letter friday to merkels staff german federal prosecutors and the speaker of germanys parliament before releasing it to journalists
germany is seeking answers from us authorities to allegations that merkels cellphone was monitored which prompted the german chancellor to complain to obama last week and sent german officials heading to washington for talks on the spying issue
german federal prosecutors are looking into whether there are grounds to investigate the allegations regarding merkels cellphone germanys parliament is also expected to discuss the nsas alleged spying on nov 18
us secretary of state john kerry meanwhile conceded that some of the nsas spying has reached too far and will be stopped
kerry said thursday in a video link to an open government conference in london that because of modern technology some of the nsa activities have been happening on automatic pilot without the knowledge of obama administration officials
kerry said ongoing reviews of us surveillance will ensure that technology is not being abused
the president and i have learned of some things that have been happening in many ways on an automatic pilot because the technology is there kerry said in some cases some of these actions have reached too far and we are going to try to make sure it doesnt happen in the future he said
earlier friday germanys interior minister said if snowden were willing he would try to arrange a meeting with german officials
if the message is that mr snowden wants to give us information then we will be glad to accept that interior minister hanspeter friedrich said in comments confirmed by his spokesman
snowden was granted a oneyear asylum in russia in august after being stuck at a moscow airport for more than a month following his arrival there from hong kong russian president vladimir putin has said snowden got asylum on condition that he wouldnt harm us interests
snowdens russian lawyer anatoly kucherena told the interfax news agency that snowden would not violate the terms of his asylum if he talked to the germans in the wiretapping case but stroebele said snowden had significant reservations about that idea fearing that speaking to foreign officials on russian soil could cause him problems
if snowden leaves russia he would lose his asylum status kucherena confirmed
germany along with many other nations rejected an asylum request from snowden earlier this year in july the germans received a us request for snowdens arrest should he be found in the country
snowdens exact whereabouts in russia and his activities have been a mystery
stroebele was tightlipped about where he was taken to meet the american in russia he said he had no contact with russian authorities other than a passport control officer and none with the german embassy in moscow
snowdens lawyer said thursday that his client has accepted a technicalsupport job with a major russian website but refused to name it
he enjoys living in russia he likes travelling we have such opportunities we have opportunities to visit cultural events we have opportunities to show him our places of interest kucherena said friday
he also said snowden is studying the russian language and has developed some competency
there has been wide speculation that snowden is under the control of russias security services but there has been no confirmation of that