German NSA Committee May Interview Snowden | Hacker News Reader

German NSA Committee May Interview Snowden

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37 pointstuetnsuppen9 comments

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...

1: https://theintercept.com/2015/03/19/us-threatened-germany-sn...

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?

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

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.

Members of the investigation committee for NSA spying activities in Germany wanted to hear Snowden as a witness. This request was blocked by the majority of committee members belonging to the current government parties, officially because they can not guarantee for Snowden's safety, supposedly because Snowden may reveal unpleasant facts about spying activities of the current or former governments. Opposition party members than went to court that now decided that also a minority can request to hear a witness. Now they are planing to again request hearing Snowden on Thursday in the next meeting of the committee. What follows we will see.

No, a minority in the investigation committee dealing with the revelations around NSA and other foreign intelligence services can now (due to a recent court decision) bring forward a motion to summon Snowden for a testimony to Germany. They will bring it forward to the federal government which will deny the request. The minority will then appeal the decision which will then go to the highest court in Germany. So, nothing will happen for at least several months or even years.

I apologize for not offering a better translation. I am also neither a native English speaker nor a German lawyer. But I will try to translate/explain as good as possible.

The term 'extradition' may be a bit misleading here. Extradition applies to people who are under arrest or in jail (he is not) and describes the process of transferring people to another country even against their will (which may or may not be the case). As far as I understand the ruling by the Bundesgerichtshof (not the constitutional court in the country, just the highest court in administrative matters) merely says that the NSA special committee of the Bundestag (Federal Parliament) needs to bring forward the request for a hearing of Edward Snowden to the German federal government. From thereon are two possibilities: if the German federal government agrees, they have to allow for a safe transfer. If they don't the case may likely go to the constitutional court.

Why does he need to be physically present to testify?

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

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