It would appear that the United States did in fact strong arm at least one country to keep them from offering asylum to Edward Snowden or assisting him in procuring travel arrangements via their country, according to Snowden’s associate, Glenn Greenwald.
The German Vice Chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, said this week that if they helped the NSA whistleblower in any way the United States would stop relaying all intelligence information to Berlin. “They told us they’d cease notifying us of schemes and other intelligence issues,” Gabriel said.
Gabriel commended the work of other reporters and Greenwald as he presented a speech about the journalistic attempts made concerning the Snowden leaks. The Vice Chancellor expressed sorrow that the former Booz Allen employee was made to seek political refuge in “Putin’s autocratic Russia.”
Greenwald questioned Gabriel as to why Germany did not offer Snowden asylum — because under international law, after asylum has been given, the subject is no longer to be considered a fugitive. Based on The Intercept, the Vice Chancellor reacted by saying:
“That will mean, if the threat were carried out, the Americans would enable the German people to stay exposed to a brewing strike by withholding that information from their authorities, found by the Americans.”
If for some reason Vice Chancellor Gabriel wasn’t being true in his comments, his words might be deemed a fear approach as a way to get the citizens of Germany to consider that asylum for Snowden would be a detriment to their well-being. Either way you look at it, the citizens of Germany and the USA, along with their freedoms, come out on the losing end.
SOURCE:
“US Government Threatened Germany Over Aiding Snowden.” The AntiMedia. N.p., 19 Mar. 2015. Web. 20 Mar. 2015. http://theantimedia.org/us-government-threatened-germany-over-aiding-snowden/
It would seem that the very people who run our countries, not just the USA, but UK, Germany, France, all of the western nations are in fact, bullies, of the first order. This would be a sorry time to live if it were not for the legions of people trying to get the truth out.
Please Sean, let’s not blame Germany and everyone else for something Obama has done in this artical. Obama was the one that when renewing the Patriot Act, insisted that it include throwing someone in GITMO (still up and running) without charges and for an unlimited time, even without having to tell anyone they’re there. He’s also the one that took the phone spying to an unheard of level…even tapping into Angela Merkel’s and 34 other world leaders PERSONAL PHONES. Obama is the thing we feared the most when we passed all those laws right after 9/11….someone that would abuse the power. Snowden did the right thing, as an American, and like those that bucked the British Empire with The Declaration of Independence, he is paying a steep price for it. Germany and France are as much a set of victims, as he is.
USA SENT ONE AGENT TO GERMANY TWO TEARS AGO . HE WAS EXPELLED FROM USA .GUILTY FOR REVEALING INFORMATION S TO GERMANS . INTERESTING GAME .
I’d highly recommend not getting involved in that game…
If you want to know what I think,: this is a freaking joke. The German resolve is unparalleled if needed. Germany doesn’t need the United States’ “intelligence” (like the 911 intelligence?) as much as the United States need Germany’s technology. Germany can clamp down on terrorist activities and threat at the snap of their fingers if they want to, just out of social unity. Since the end of WW2, Germany has been playing the US game of being controlled. The day they want to stop that, the United States control over Europe and probably the world is over.
That’s what I think.