Germany prepared to speak to Snowden over bugging

Germany’s top security official said yesterday he will try to find a way for Edward Snowden to speak to German officials if the former National Security Agency contractor is willing to provide details about the NSA’s activities including alleged surveillance of chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone.

The comments by interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich came after a German opposition politician travelled to Moscow and met NSA leaker Snowden. The politician, Hans-Christian Stroebele, returned to Berlin with a letter he said Snowden had written, which he released yesterday.

In the letter Snowden, who faces espionage charges in the US, indicated that he will not speak with German officials until the US stops its prosecution of leakers like him.