Germany's high court in Karlsruhe threw out a bid by the opposite Left and Green parties on Friday to force the federal government to allow whistleblower Edward Snowden to come to Berlin to answer a parliamentary committee's questions regarding the NSA's activities in Germany.

The opposition parties wanted the panel to meet with Snowden in person. But, Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling grand coalition had voiced concern over potential damage such a meeting would do to relations with Washington.

Germany's Federal Constitutional Court based in Karlsruhe ruled that the suit filed by the Greens and the Left party or Linke was legally inadmissible because it was an administrative issue that should be decided before another top court, Germany's BHG Federal Court of Justice.

Earlier this year, inquiry panel chairman Patrick Sensburg of Merkel's Christian Democrats had suggested interviewing Snowden via video from Moscow, where he has temporary asylum.

Snowden's lawyer said at the time that the former NSA contractor would only speak to the Bundestag parliamentary committee if allowed to do so in Germany.

'No proof' of eavesdropping

Snowden's name was also heard around Karlsruhe earlier this week, when Germany's top public prosecutor, Harald Range, said he had no proof that the NSA had actually spied on Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone.

Range's investigation, which was launched in June, is still ongoing, but he said on Wednesday, "there is no proof at the moment which could lead to charges that Chancellor Merkel's phone connection data was collected or her calls tapped."

The revelations made in documents leaked by Snowden caused outrage last year in Germany, particularly the allegation that the NSA had bugged Merkel's previous phone. Chancellor Merkel called it an unacceptable breach of trust between the two allies.

Earlier this year Berlin attempted to arrange a "no-spy" agreement with the US, but was unsuccessful.

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Court disallows bid to invite Snowden to testify in Berlin

Edward Snowden. Photograph: Guardian

Attempts by opposition parties in Germany to bring Edward Snowden to Berlin to give evidence about the NSAs operations have been thwarted by the countrys highest court.

The Green and Left parties wanted the whistleblower to give evidence in person to a parliamentary committee investigating espionage by the US agency, but Germanys constitutional court ruled against them on Friday.

The government has argued that Snowdens presence in Germany could impair relations with the US and put it under pressure to extradite him.

It has suggested sending the committee which consists of eight MPs to interview him in Moscow, where Snowden is living in exile. Snowden has said through a lawyer that he is prepared to speak to the panel only if permitted to do so in Germany.

Opposition MPs have been vocal about their wish for Snowden to be granted asylum in Germany, where anger towards the NSA and sympathy for the whistleblower has been particularly high.

If Snowden were to be allowed to enter Germany, the clamour for him to be able to stay would be strong and resistance from the government would be likely to be met with civil unrest.

Support for Snowden in Germany reached a peak after allegations came to light that Angela Merkels phone was bugged. But Germanys top public prosecutor announced this week that an investigation had so far failed to find any firm evidence for the claim.

Harald Range, who launched an investigation in June, did not rule out that it could be true, but said: The document presented in public as proof of an authentic tapping of the mobile is not an authentic surveillance order by the NSA. There is no proof right now that could lead to charges that Chancellor Merkels phone connection data was collected or her calls tapped.

Range said the investigation would continue. He said that neither Snowden, the reporter for Spiegel magazine who was in possession of a document that appeared to be evidence of tapping, nor Germanys foreign intelligence agency, the BND, had presented him with any other details.

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Court rejects attempt to allow Edward Snowden into Germany

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was targeted by flame-haired former spy Anna Chapman, The Sunday People reports.

According to the British newspaper, former KGB agent Boris Karpichkov, who has defected to the West, says the Kremlin laid out a plan for Chapman, 32, to lure Snowden, 31, into staying in the country so Russian intelligence officials could try to talk to him about American security secrets.

The two met only once, says Karpichkov, but Chapman tweeted a marriage proposal soon afterward, on July 3, 2013.

"But Snowden became concerned about what the consequences would be," Karpichkov said. "If Snowden had accepted, he would have a right to Russian citizenship. That would lock him in Russia. As a citizen hed need permission to leave."

Chapman last year walked out of an interview with NBC when questioned about the proposal, and was likely told by the Kremlin not to discuss the matter, the paper reported.

Former British Parliament Member Rupert Allason, an author of espionage books, told the Mirror, "Anna is sophisticated enough to live with an American There arent many of those in the FSB (formerly the KGB). She would be prepared to use her obvious gifts."

The daughter of a Russian diplomat, Chapman was revealed to be part of a spy sleeper cell in the United States. She had been working as a real estate agent in New York City.

She and others were returned to Russia as part of a spy swap, and she began a modeling career and joined a pro-Kremlin party.

Snowden has been stuck in Russia since shortly after releasing documents he obtained as a contractor for the National Security Agency. His actions set off a debate within the country about how much the government can collect data on its own citizens.

Snowden initially flew to Hong Kong, but with the United States attempting to extradite him, he reportedly tried to fly to Ecuador via Moscow. The United States revoked his passport, and he has been in Russia ever since.

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Report: Russian Spy Anna Chapman Tried to Seduce Edward ...

AfterEdward Snowdenleaked information about a wide range ofgovernment surveillance programs, many peopleexpected a majorlegal shift in the world of Internet security. But calls for stricter laws may be missing the point.

Most people want to see statutory change or policy change as evidence that theres been some real impact from the Snowden leaks," explains Bobby Chesney, a law professor at the University of Texas. "But, in a way, I think thats turning out to be the wrong place to look,

Chesney says the real changeis in the private sector specifically, in the changing relationship between the private telecommunications and internet companies and the US government.

Thanks to the way that the Snowden story has catalysed interest in privacy, [there's] pressure on companies to be more privacy-protective," he says. "Theres something of a sea change underway.

Just look at your smartphone: Apple and Google have made encryption a default setting on their devices to ensure the privacy of the user so much so that even the providers, let alone the government, can'taccess the devices information.

The default encryption model, in theory, makes it hard if not impossible for the company themselves to unlock data on, say, a suspects or targets cell phone or iPad, Chesney says.

That hascaused an obvious rift between intelligence agencies and private technology companies. The claim isits not that [the FBI] is seeking new authorities, but that their existing authorities dont mean what they used to because of this technological change," Chesney explains.

The new Congress will also have to tackle the issue of whether government agencies cancontinuebulk metadata collection the practice that allows them to vacuum up information about phone calls regardless of whether they've been identified with crimes or terrorism.

All theyre really talking about is whether the government will hold that haystack of data itself, or if, instead, it will all be held in a disaggregated way in the hands of all the telecommunication companies that are involved, Chesney says.

With legal change on the horizon and private change well underway, the legacy of Snowden is hard to ignore especially for Chesney. In his basic course on national security law, he used to coverinternet securityin just four or five days. Last year, he says, we had to more than double that, and it wasnt nearly enough.

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To see the changes Edward Snowden wrought, just look at your smartphone

No argument.

Citizenfour is the most important documentary of the film year. That doesnt make it the best, though. That, it seems to me, is another subject altogether.

The raw facts of the matter put its significance entirely beyond dispute. Documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras is one of those people tirelessly investigating homeland security procedures since 9/11.

She and reporter Glenn Greenwald started getting messages from a government employee who signed himself Citizenfour and who seemed to be promising the possibility of thunderous whistle-blowing about a subject of enormous interest to them both.

And how.

And that led to the very creation of this film, which documents how that world-rocking news story was born and knocked the world of American information off its axis. Poitras, then, was in on the very beginning of the story of Edward Snowden, who, through Glenn Greenwalds prize-winning reporting, revealed that the National Security Agency not only engages in domestic surveillance but has the technical capacity to do so on virtually a countrywide scale.

In effect, Snowden took part of the sci-fi premise of TVs Person of Interest and made it part of our contemporary reality.

What you watch for 114 minutes in Poitras well-made documentary is every early step of the Snowden story, from the first meeting with Greenwald in Hong Kong to his world odyssey fleeing from a U.S. government that doesnt take kindly to having its uglier secrets exposed.

Snowden blew one hell of a big whistle.

What he was doing, essentially, was revealing the U.S. constitutions Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights to have been transformed into a mere recommendation in a toothless Bill of Suggestions. At least one of our giant secret agencies the National Security Agency not only flouted that right but had the technology to virtually eradicate it.

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If only history found it as necessary to be dramatically compelling as movies

Edward Snowden is still in Russia. Photo: TT

US whistleblower Edward Snowden has given his first major interview in six months to a freelance Swedish reporter, ten days after he picked up the Swedish Right Livelihood award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.

The American citizen who has lived in Russia for more than eighteen months after being granted asylum there, told the journalist that he remained too afraid to return to his home country and admitted violating US law.

"If I go home, and I volunteer myself to life in prison, I discourage other people from doing what everyone in the country reasons at this point was the right thing to do, he told the reporter, who produced the interview for Swedish television network SVT,

Snowden went on the run after he leaked top secret NSA documents to journalists. He faces up to three decades in prison in the US forcrimes against national security. Secretary of State John Kerry says the former contractor "damaged his country very significantly."

Snowden very rarely gives interviews, and after he talked to a US television company in May 2014, Kerry demanded that he return home.

"Well I would say if there was fair trial, That would be great, he told SVT.

He criticised current US laws, stating that he would not have the opportunity to make a public interest defence" in the US.

Earlier this month Snowden waswas honoured in Sweden together with Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, picking up the Right Livelihood award, which recognises those who work to improve the lives of others, but whose backgrounds prevent them from picking up traditional Nobel prizes.

He wasunable to attend the ceremonyin person so instead gave a speech via a video link from his base in Russia.

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Snowden in rare talks with Swedish television

They break the system, they change everything - Davide Dormino on Assange-Manning-Snowden sculpture
Watch the full episode here: http://bit.ly/1w5i6Au Davide Dormino, the sculptor behind a planned set of life size bronze sculptures of whistleblowers Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Chelsea...

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They break the system, they change everything - Davide Dormino on Assange-Manning-Snowden sculpture - Video

If looks could kill ... Anna Chapman on manoeuvres with the Russian army. Picture: Ren TV Source: Supplied

Edward Snowden, accepting Sweden's Right Livelihood Honorary Award, says he has no regrets about leaking National Security Agency documents. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

SEXY Russian spy Anna Chapman tried to seduce whistleblower Edward Snowden on orders straight from the Kremlin, according to a defector.

Boris Karpichkov, a former KGB agent, claims that a plan was launched for Ms Chapman, 32, to keep Mr Snowden, 31, in Moscow so that Russian agents could continue to question him about US security secrets, according to a new report.

Mr Snowden and Ms Chapman met only once, Mr Karpichkov said. But Ms Chapman followed up that meeting last year with a tweet heard round the world.

Snowden, she tweeted, will you marry me?!

According to Mr Karpichkov, it was all a part of the plan.

But Snowden became concerned about what the consequences would be, Mr Karpichkov told Londons Sunday People. If Snowden had accepted, he would have a right to Russian citizenship. That would lock him in Russia. As a citizen hed need permission to leave.

Last year, Chapman walked out of an NBC interview in Moscow after the spy-turned-Russian celebrity refused to answer questions about her proposal to Snowden.

Target ... Anna Chapman reportedly pursued Edward Snowden on orders from the Kremlin. Picture: The Guardian Source: Supplied

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Russian spy Anna Chapman ‘tried to seduce Edward Snowden’

Sexy Russian spy fails to seduce whistleblower Snowden . DECEMBER 10, 2014 08:49. . Sexy Russian spy Anna Chapman, 32, reportedly tried to seduce Edward Snowden who leaked the classified details of the U.S. National Security Agency on orders from the Kremlin. Snowden has been staying in Moscow since July last year and is permitted to stay in Russia until the end of 2016.

The New York Post said on Monday, citing British tabloid Sunday People`s interview with former KGB agent Boris Karpichkov, that Chapman tried to seduce Snowden to question him about U.S. security secrets.

She tweeted Snowden, will you marry me? in July last year and, according to Karpichkov, it was a part of the Kremlins plan. Snowden and Chapman met only once before the Tweeter proposal but that was the end.

If Snowden had accepted, he would have a right to Russian citizenship. That would lock him in Russia, Karpichkov said. A Russian citizen needs permission to leave if he or she wants to go to other country.

After repelling Chapmans temptation, Snowden has reunited with his long-term girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, in Moscow since July this year.

Before being ousted as a spy, Chapman worked as a real estate agent in New York City. She was caught as a spy by the FBI and was deported to Russia in July 2009. Following her return to Russia, Chapman worked as a model and joined the leadership of the youth wing of the main pro-Kremlin party.

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Edward Snowden Right Livelihood
Edward Snowden Right Livelihood.

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