Edward Snowden appeals to US for clemency

Berlin: Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who was granted asylum by Russia, has appealed to Washington to stop treating him like a traitor for revealing that the United States was eavesdropping on its allies, a German politician who met with Snowden said Friday.

The appeal came in a letter from Snowden carried to Berlin by Hans-Christian Strobele, a veteran member of the Green Party in the German parliament, who said that he and two journalists for German media had met with Snowden and a person described as his assistant - probably his British aide, Sarah Harrison - at an undisclosed location in or near Moscow on Thursday for almost three hours.

In his letter, Snowden, 30, also appealed for clemency. He said his disclosures about U.S. intelligence activity at home and abroad, which he called "systematic violations of law by my government that created a moral duty to act," had had positive effects.

Yet "my government continues to treat dissent as defection, and seeks to criminalize political speech with felony charges that provide no defense," Snowden wrote. "However, speaking the truth is not a crime. I am confident that with the support of the international community, the government of the United Sates will abandon this harmful behavior."

Strobele, 74, is a seasoned left-wing defense lawyer and the longest-serving member of the parliamentary committee that oversees German intelligence. At a packed news conference held after his return to Berlin, he said he had been trying to visit Snowden since the summer, when the American arrived in Moscow in search of asylum. After a number of countries - including Germany - said that Snowden could not apply for such protection from the Moscow airport where he was taking sanctuary at the time, Russia granted him a one-year asylum August 1.

Strobele said he had been contacted about going to Moscow late last week after Berlin said that Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone might have been tapped by U.S. intelligence agents. He declined to elaborate further, but said he had had no dealings with Russian authorities or the German Embassy in Moscow.

He deftly parried requests to reveal more while appealing to the governments and citizens of Germany, France and the United States to stop treating Snowden as a criminal.

Germany should thank Snowden, Strobele said, echoing an opinion gaining support here.

After ARD, the premier German TV network, reported Thursday night about the Moscow visit, it broadcast a strident commentary stressing that Germany should show gratitude for his exposure of U.S. intelligence practices.

Asked to speculate about which intelligence services might have monitored his trip to Moscow, he said with a smile, "I assume that they are all interested."