By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
During a conference held to award Journalist Glenn Greenwald the Siebenpfeiffer Prize for Journalism, Greenwald reported a conversation in which German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel. In this the Vice Chancellor commented to him that the United States threatened Germany with withholding vital intelligence of terrorist activity if the nation granted asylum to Edward Snowden or otherwise allowed him to travel to Germany.
The event shows the extreme measures the Administration is willing to take regarding whistleblowers and others labeled as threats.
The revelation began when Vice Chancellor Gabriel, speaking of the plight of Edward Snowden, was interrupted by an audience member who asked why Snowden was not offered asylum in Germany. Gabriel replied that Germany would be required to extradite Snowden to the United States.
Here is a video via Saarbrücker Zeitung containing excerpts of the Vice Chancellor’s and Mr. Greenwald’s speeches.
Later, when Greenwald had an opportunity to speak to the Vice Chancellor in person, he enquired about the asylum issue. Greenwald later revealed to the public this conversation via Greenwald’s news service.
In the article, Mr. Greenwald wrote of some truly troubling behavior on behalf of the Obama Administration:
Afterward [the ceremony], however, when I pressed the vice chancellor (who is also head of the Social Democratic Party, as well as the country’s economy and energy minister) as to why the German government could not and would not offer Snowden asylum — which, under international law, negates the asylee’s status as a fugitive — he told me that the U.S. government had aggressively threatened the Germans that if they did so, they would be “cut off” from all intelligence sharing. That would mean, if the threat were carried out, that the Americans would literally allow the German population to remain vulnerable to a brewing attack discovered by the Americans by withholding that information from their government.
This is not the first time the U.S. has purportedly threatened an allied government to withhold evidence of possible terror plots as punishment. In 2009, a British national, Binyam Mohamed, sued the U.K. government for complicity in his torture at Bagram and Guantánamo. The High Court ordered the U.K. government to provide Mohamed’s lawyers with notes and other documents reflecting what the CIA told British intelligence agents about Mohamed’s abuse.
In response, the U.K. government insisted that the High Court must reverse that ruling because the safety of British subjects would be endangered if the ruling stood. Their reasoning: the U.S. government had threatened the British that they would stop sharing intelligence, including evidence of terror plots, if they disclosed what the Americans had told them in confidence about Mohamed’s treatment — even if the disclosure were ordered by the High Court as part of a lawsuit brought by a torture victim. British government lawyers even produced a letter from an unnamed Obama official laying out that threat.
The full article may be read HERE.
Later, the Vice Chancellor’s office declined to comment to the German medium Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about the asylum issue and declared there was no legal basis to offer Edward Snowden asylum.
Deutsche Welle reported the Obama administration has denied the accusation of threatening to withhold information from Berlin, according to Washington newspaper The Hill, which quotes a statement from a senior official calling the suggestion that the US threatened to withhold intelligence “baseless.”
But the question of how “baseless” Glenn Greenwald’s or Vice Chancellor Gabriel’s assertions are is not certainly arguable considering the actions of the Obama Administration in the Snowden matter. All one has to do is look at the past actions of The Administration for guidance.
We have an Administration that declares that the accusations are baseless, yet the same administration’s NSA tapped into Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone, ordered the grounding and search of the aircraft of a head of state on mere suspicion that Edward Snowden might be aboard, and made a similar threat to another NATO ally, the United Kingdom.
The row comes down to a matter of credibility of either side in the Edward Snowden controversy. Who is the more trustworthy, The Obama Administration or Glenn Greenwald?
Sources:
The Intercept
Deutsche Welle
Saarbrücker Zeitung via YouTube
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Family in town. Going to grill some swordfish and asparagus and make some risotto. Then watch a great San Diego sunset w/ some good Cali vino. Trooper my friend, the best revenge is leading a happy and successful life, as you and I have. Love the Hillary emails!
Snowden should not postpone living his life in other ways. Go on a have a kid…just make sure the girlfriend has the kid in one of those protected countries.
http://nomadcapitalist.com/2013/06/03/the-best-non-extradition-countries-to-be-invisible/
No wishing you dead, Nicky. I wish you a long life in Hilary’s America. That seems punishment enough for your misinformation campaign and misogyny. Btw, that victimhood whine you so casually wrap on every real victim sure looks good on you:
http://youtu.be/171FURqSIQc
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r2Pl7nuNbKc/VQYBuXMIgqI/AAAAAAAAYXI/QHHsw2tpTsw/s1600/hillary%2Bshrugs.jpg
To: Ambassador Stevens
From: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
cc: CIA, FBI, NSA
Ambassador Stevens please don’t be such a pussy. The demonstrations in Benghazi is really just a bunch of towel heads letting off steam. You are in no danger whatsoever. If anything happens you can be sure that the full power of the United States will be exerted to protect you and the embassy.
I have your back.
I mean what are they going to do? Storm the embassy and kill you or something? Get real.
I enclose an attachment to allow you to donate to the Clinton foundation. I am making up my lists for my Administration in 2016 and I have several open positions that you might be interested in the future. If this method does not work you then you can always use my Amazon Portal to order your holiday gifts. This is a great way for you to show your appreciation for my work as Secretary of State. These powder blue pant suits will not wear themselves you know.
LOL, no one was wishing you dead Spinelli, just wagering on how it will happen after Hillary is elected, as it’s evident that it will make you very upset. We are only concerned for your well being.
Annie,
Money makes the Clintons go around, the Clintons go around, the Clintons go around. Money makes the Clintons go around… each and every day!
Did I say follow the money?
Where is Squeeky? I’d like to hear her take on Trooper and Spinelli’s take on Hillary as President. Who knows maybe she changed her mind and no longer supports Hillary? Ah well, all off topic.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NzdHxum5S-I/VQdjGeuFDiI/AAAAAAAAYX8/yf11-S67B5Y/s1600/hillary%2Band%2Bgirls.jpg
To: Jeffrey Epstein
From: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
CC: William Jefferson Clinton, WNBC To Catch a Predator, Shouting Thomas
Dear Mr. Epstein,
I must ask you to cease and desist in your attempts to contact President Clinton to invite him to parties on your own private island. As much as he enjoyed those trips in the past….he must decline because of the obvious reasons that I do not need to detail here. I know you are disappointed as you and Bill had some good times in the past but that is in the past and can never be repeated.
As a small recompense I have arranged for George Stephanopoulos to dress in a tuxedo and stand on the tarmac of your private airstrip to shout “The Plane…the Plane” before your next party. Perhaps that will suffice.
We have already planned our vacation for this year before the run up to the 2016 presidential race. Bill and I will be staying at our good friend Senator Bob Menendez’s camp for wayward Filipino school girls in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. I would appreciate if you do not contact Bill in the future.
If this is a problem then I suggest that we meet in person to discuss. We can meet next Thursday at Fort Marcy Park near the cannons at 3 am as this is the only time I have available. Oh and please wear clean underwear. Your family will thank me later.
Toodles,
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
So, liberals are wishing I die. Stay classy.
Max and Mespo, either one, who cares.
Seems we have a new Bonnie and Clyde here. LOL! We know that didn’t end well. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” is a losing philosophy.
Obama has destroyed our relationships w/ our allies, and cozied up w/ our enemies. The MSM are cultists, just like the lapdogs here.
Justice Holmes,
https://twitter.com/the_intercept/status/578948505462550528
Nick:
Yep, two years left with Obana then 8 with Hillary. My over and under for your BP is 200/125 in the next decade. Any takers?
Eleazer Bryan
Remember the Civil War?
= = =
When brother killed brother over the same plot of land.
The question I propose to my House Rep. is:
How many more years will America be lead by an AUMF to wage an unlimited war of aggression? And how many more years will our Constitution sit in suspension for it? Congressman???
Inga:
They get to see Jesus, don’t you know.
Stevie:
Read your history, jury nullification does not mean judtification to lie under oath get to get on the jury. That doesn’t make you a patriot, it makes you a liar and a felon. Are terms infinitely malleable to the right-wing obscurantists?
Odd how some people eagerly await WW3.
Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.
Mark Twain
Merkel is a helluva lot more intelligent and savvy than Barry Obama.