Asylum for Snowden proclaims the cover of der Spiegel with a grainy photo of Edward Snowden juxtaposed with a poster of "Big Brother."
Germany is reeling over revelations that the US bugged their president's cell phone as well as the fact that the NSA has a data storage facility smack dab in the middle of their country storing their citizens' metadata. I wrote a diary about a German guy who got a visit from the Commissariat at his door for mockingly inviting facebook friends to tour the NSA facility located in his town of Griesheim.
While duplicitous Dianne Feinstein [Bride of Frankenstein, more like] aka Senator Warbucks, trash talks Snowden on Sunday morning mind control sermons, hastily passes legislation removing whistle blower protections, and codifies the NSA breaking the 4th Amendment by spying on Americans, Germans want to give Edward Snowden a hero's welcome and asylum in their country for giving us all a heads up on Big Bro snooping on our beeswax.
former CDU General Secretary Heiner Geissler believes Snowden "must" be granted asylum.
[snip]
"Snowden has the Western world a great service now it is up to us to help him.."
Even social democratic politicians demand an asylum, "Snowden is a hero, not a traitor," said Axel Schaefer, vice chairman of the SPD parliamentary group SPIEGEL.
While DiFi distracted us from the substance of the
letter Snowden handed to German lawmaker Hans-Christian Stroebele by misinforming us on talk shows that his letter was a request for American
clemency, which it was not, here is the meat of Snowden's letter the PTB likely do not want you to read:
I am Edward Joseph Snowden, formerly employed through contracts or direct hire as a technical expert for the United States National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, and Defense Intelligence Agency.
In the course of my service to these organizations, I believe I witnessed systemic violations of law by my government that created a moral duty to act. As a result of reporting these concerns, I have faced a severe and sustained campaign of persecution that forced me from my family and home. I am currently living in exile under a grant of temporary asylum in the Russian Federation in accordance with international law.
I am heartened by the response to my act of political expression, in both the United States and beyond. Citizens around the world as well as high officials -- including in the United States -- have judged the revelation of an unaccountable system of pervasive surveillance to be a public service. These spying revelations have resulted in the proposal of many new laws and policies to address formerly concealed abuses of the public trust. The benefits to society of this growing knowledge are becoming increasingly clear at the same time claimed risks are being shown to have been mitigated.
Though the outcome of my efforts has been demonstrably positive, my government continues to treat dissent as defection, and seeks to criminalize political speech with felony charges that provide no defense. However, speaking the truth is not a crime. I am confident that with the support of the international community, the government of the United States will abandon this harmful behavior. I hope that when the difficulties of this humanitarian situation have been resolved, I will be able to cooperate in the responsible finding of fact regarding reports in the media, particularly in regard to the truth and authenticity of documents, as appropriate and in accordance with the law.
