The journalist who broke the story about an intelligence leaker says he has even more damaging information about US spying activities. He said this would be released if something were to happen to Edward Snowden.

Glenn Greenwald, a journalist with Britain's Guardian newspaper, which first published Snowden's revelations, told Argentina's La Nacion that the former National Security Agency contractor and Central Intelligence Agency employee had so far elected to withhold much of the information he has.

"Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the US government in a single minute than any other person has ever had," Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro published in the Saturday edition of the paper.  

"The US government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare," Greenwald added.

He also said among the documents Snowden had hid away in several different locations were some that detail how US spy programs conduct surveillance in Latin America.

"One way of intercepting communications is through a telephone company in the United States that has contracts with telecommunications companies in most Latin American countries," Greenwald said, without naming the company.

Stranded in Sheremetyvo

Snowden, 30, has been stranded in the transit area of one of Moscow's international airports since he left Hong Kong three weeks ago. It was while he was in Hong Kong that the Guardian first published his revelations.

Since then, US authorities have been seeking to get Snowden extradited so that he can be put on trial on espionage charges.

On Friday, Snowden told activists who visited him at Sheremetyvo Airport that he planned to apply for temporary asylum in Russia until it was safe for him to travel on to a permanent destination in Latin America.

On Saturday, Russian authorities said that they had not yet received such an application from Snowden. Meanwhile, Bolivian President Evo Morales reiterated his offer of asylum to Snowden while at the same time pledging that La Paz would adhere to all "diplomatic norms and international accords."

pfd/mkg (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under fire for defending the surveillance of telecommunications as a way to prevent terrorist attacks. This comes ahead of a visit to the United States by her interior minister.

The chairman of the opposition Social Democrats, (SPD) Sigmar Gabriel used an interview published by Spiegel Online on Thursday to accuse Chancellor Merkel of being passive in light of revelations about the alleged activities of the US National Security Agency (NSA) in Germany.

The SPD leader also accused the chancellor of trying to pass the buck on the issue to her chief of staff, Ronald Pofalla, when she noted that he was responsible for issues relating to intelligence services.

"The scale of this scandal is so large that nobody other than the chancellor personally needs to ensure that basic rights are protected in Germany," Gabriel said.

The co-leader of the opposition Greens, Claudia Roth, struck a similar tone.

"The chancellor alone is responsible for this government," Roth told the Nürnberger Nachrichten newspaper.

Merkel denies Stasi parallel

The statements followed comments the chancellor made in an interview published in this week's edition of Die Zeit newspaper, in which she rejected the suggestion that there were parallels between the alleged activities of the NSA and those of the former East Germany's secret police, the Stasi.

"For me, there is absolutely no comparison between the [Stasi] and the work of intelligence agencies in democratic states," Merkel said. "They are two completely different things and such comparisons only lead to a trivialization of what the Stasi did to people."

She also highlighted the need for governments to protect their citizens, saying "a country without intelligence work would be too vulnerable."

At the same time though, Merkel called on the United States to clear up allegations about American surveillance activities made by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Her comments came just hours before her interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, was to fly to Washington for meetings to discuss the issue.

In an interview with Spiegel Online, Friedrich said he would use his talks with US Attorney General Eric Holder to express not only Germany's concerns but also how seriously Berlin is taking the issue.

"Between friends one must be able to speak openly," Friedrich said. "This includes the fact that for us, the comprehensive surveillance of the contents of all communications is in no way proportionate," he added.

Snowden, who was also once an employee of the US Central Intelligence Agency, has been on the run from the US authorities since he leaked details of a wide-reaching surveillance program, known as Prism. The 30-year-old American has spent more than two weeks in the transit area of one of Moscow's international airports.

His revelations have stirred up controversy in Germany in particular, due to sensitivities about data protection, in part related to memories of repression by East Germany's Stasi and the Gestapo under the Nazis. This comes just weeks ahead of the next federal election, to be held on September 22.

pfd/ccp (dpa, AFP, AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, believed to be in legal limbo in the Moscow airport, is expanding his requests for asylum to another 19 countries, including China, according to WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group that has adopted Snowden and his cause, on Monday night posted a statement said to be from Snowden that slammed President Barack Obama for "using citizenship as a weapon."
"Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person," Snowden says in the statement. "Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.
"Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."
WikiLeaks legal adviser Sarah Harrison delivered the requests for asylum to an official at the Russian consulate at the Moscow airport on Sunday, according to the website. WikiLeaks says some of the requests have already been delivered to the appropriate embassies.
The WikiLeaks statement said requests were made to China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, India and several European countries. Snowden had planned earlier to seek asylum in Ecuador and has requested asylum in Russia.
The asylum requests reported by WikiLeaks and the Snowden statement could not be independently authenticated.
Snowden, who has been on the run since releasing sensitive NSA documents, is believed to have been in Moscow airport's transit zone since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23. The U.S. has annulled his passport, and Ecuador, where he had hoped to get asylum, has been giving mixed signals about offering him shelter.
After Snowden applied for political asylum to remain in Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters in Moscow that Snowden would have to stop leaking U.S. secrets if he wanted asylum there — and he added that Snowden seemed unwilling to stop publishing leaks of classified material.
At the same time, Putin said he had no plans to turn over Snowden to the United States.
The expanded requests for asylum come as the Obama administration contends with European allies angry about the release of documents that alleged U.S. eavesdropping on European Union diplomats.
Obama, in an African news conference with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, said the U.S. would provide allies with information about new reports that the NSA had bugged EU offices in Washington, New York and Brussels. But he also suggested such activity by governments would hardly be unusual.
"We should stipulate that every intelligence service —not just ours, but every European intelligence service, every Asian intelligence service, wherever there's an intelligence service — here's one thing that they're going to be doing: They're going to be trying to understand the world better, and what's going on in world capitals around the world," he said. "If that weren't the case, then there'd be no use for an intelligence service."
The latest issue concerns allegations, published in the German newsweekly Der Spiegel, of U.S. spying on European officials. French President Francois Hollande demanded Monday that the U.S. immediately stop any such eavesdropping and suggested the widening controversy could jeopardize next week's opening of trans-Atlantic trade talks between the United States and Europe.
"We cannot accept this kind of behavior from partners and allies," Hollande said on French television.
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin, "Eavesdropping on friends is unacceptable." He declared, "We're not in the Cold War anymore."
Even before the latest disclosures, talks at the upcoming free-trade sessions were expected to be fragile, with disagreements surfacing over which items should be covered in or excluded from an agreement. The United States has said there should be no exceptions. But France has called for exempting certain cultural products, and other Europeans do not appear eager to give up longtime agricultural subsidies.
Obama said the Europeans "are some of the closest allies that we have in the world." But he added: "I guarantee you that in European capitals, there are people who are interested in, if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points might be should I end up meeting with their leaders. That's how intelligence services operate."
Nonetheless, Obama said he'd told his advisers to "evaluate everything that's being claimed" and promised to share the results with allies.
Meanwhile, the Interfax news agency said a Russian consular official has confirmed that Snowden had asked for asylum in Russia.
Interfax cited Kim Shevchenko, the duty officer at the Russian Foreign Ministry's consular office in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, as saying that Snowden's representative, Harrison, handed over his request Sunday.
"If he wants to go somewhere and there are those who would take him, he is welcome to do so," Putin said. "If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must stop his activities aimed at inflicting damage on our American partners, no matter how strange it may sound coming from my lips."
Obama said "there have been high-level discussions with the Russians" about Snowden's situation.
"We don't have an extradition treaty with Russia. On the other hand, you know, Mr. Snowden, we understand, has traveled there without a valid passport, without legal papers. And you know we are hopeful that the Russian government makes decisions based on the normal procedures regarding international travel and the normal procedures regarding international travel and the normal interactions that law enforcement has. So I can confirm that."
Putin didn't mention any Snowden effort to seek asylum in Russia, and spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to say what the Russian response might be. Putin insisted that Snowden wasn't a Russian agent and that Russian security agencies hadn't contacted him.
Three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the Snowden case, said Washington's efforts were focused primarily on persuading Russia to deport Snowden either directly to the United States or to a third country, possibly in eastern Europe, that would then hand him over to U.S. authorities.
In a sign of the distrust generated by the Der Spiegel report, the German government said it had launched a review of its secure government communications network and the EU's executive, the European Commission, ordered "a comprehensive ad hoc security sweep."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday he didn't know the details of the allegations, but he still played them down, maintaining that many nations undertake various activities to protect their national interests. Kerry failed to quell the outrage from allies, including France, Germany and Italy.
A spokesman for Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, said, "The European Union has demanded and expects full and urgent clarification by the U.S. regarding the allegations."
According to Der Spiegel's report, which it said was partly based on information leaked by Snowden, NSA planted bugs in the EU's diplomatic offices in Washington and infiltrated the building's computer network. Similar measures were taken at the EU's mission to the United Nations in New York, the magazine said.
It also reported that the NSA used secure facilities at NATO headquarters in Brussels to dial into telephone maintenance systems that would have allowed it to intercept senior officials' calls and Internet traffic at a key EU office nearby.
As for Snowden, White House national security spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the White House won't comment on specific asylum requests but reiterated its message to all countries that he "needs to be expelled back to the U.S. based on the fact that he doesn't have travel documents and the charges pending against him."
Regarding possible effects on U.S. interactions with Russia, she said it remains the case "that we don't want this issue to negatively impact the bilateral relationship."
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Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Sarah Di Lorenzo in Paris, Frank Jordans and Geir Moulson in Berlin, Elena Becatoros in Athens, Raf Casert in Brussels, Deb Riechmann in Brunei, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Julie Pace in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.