Given the political minefield entailed with giving German asylum to Edward Snowden, should Switzerland step in and offer him safe harbor, giving Berlin easy access to the former NSA analyst without demolishing its ties to Washington? For Switzerland’s News, Patrik Etschmayer suggests that such an arrangement would not only be the right thing to do, it would ease German frustration with Switzerland, which is resisting handing over the names of Germans dodging taxes with their Swiss bank accounts.
For Switzerland’s News, Patrik Etschmayer starts off:
Since reports of NSA spying on senior politicians have come to light, large numbers of German Bundestag lawmakers immediately began advocating that Germany provide asylum for whistleblower Edward Snowden. For the legislators, a dilemma looms from which they probably won’t be able to extricate themselves.
Since Green Party veteran Hans-Christian Ströbele had a little chat with Edward Snowden in his Moscow asylum, a sense of urgency has seized the German government. Although we don’t (yet) know exactly what was said is, it has emerged that Edward Snowden would like to testify in Germany and that he may also want to request asylum.
Members of the CDU/CSU parliamentary coalition, on the other hand, are only interested in what the whistleblower has to say – they couldn’t care less what happens to the man with the information: For Angela Merkel and her party buddies, Snowden is a smoking hot potato they would prefer not even to touch. However, on its own, the desire for the information this person has, practically speaking, obliges one to take the informant in. After all, wanting clarification without granting asylum is more or less equivalent to wanting to make an omelet without breaking any eggs.
The diplomatic risks for Germany’s government are enormous. On the one hand, a variety of alliances and other state obligations stand in the way, and many risks remain unknown to the public. For example, the involvement of their own intelligence services spying on German citizens are no doubt the cause of headaches for more than a few members of the government.
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