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Snowden indiscriminately leaked a huge trove of classified information to the press. Governments desperately want to know what has been compromised and what has not. What Snowden stole, they want to steal back, or at least catalog. Is there honor among thieves?

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So, arrest Snowden then, if that becomes possible. Invading the home of someone who is not guilty of a crime is an unacceptable escalation by the governing state.

Appelbaum is in possession of stolen information. He is being surveilled and surreptitiously searched like any common suspect might be. The FBI conducts secret sneak and peaks all the time, legally. Public arrests may or may not happen, but that's not the game right now. The first order of business is identifying who has what information and with whom they might be sharing it. An arrest would cause any extant network or conspiracy to go further underground.

> , legally.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneak_and_peek_warrant

What would be the equivalent of that in Germany? Not saying there is none.

I doubt that the FBI (or any other US authority) is allowed to operate in any state outside the USA. Similar with all other countries.

It's easy enough to engage the local authorities, but if they won't cooperate, a unilateral op. in the name of national security is not unheard of.

"Easy enough?" I am also not sure if that is really so easy. We are not talking about a terrorist here.

Applebaum has access to stolen information, but what proof do you have that he is in possession of it?

Given his background with Tor it seems likely that it is just stashed somewhere in the cloud.

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