Sarah Harrison, the Wikileaks journalist, who has spent the past four months with Edward Snowden in Russia, has arrived in Germany amid reports that the German government want to question the US whistleblower about the extent of NSA spying in the wake of revelations that Chancellor Angela Merkel had her phone tapped.
Having arrived in Germany, Harrison, who is from Britain, released a statement via the Wikileaks website that read: "As a journalist I have spent the last four months with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and arrived in Germany over the weekend. Already, in the few days I have spent in Germany, it is heartening to see the people joining together and calling for their government to do what must be done - to investigate NSA spying revelations, and to offer Edward Snowden asylum."
Snowden was granted temporary asylum in Russia in August having leaked a huge amount of sensitive information to thre Guardian about US and UK mass surveillance programmes, including the NSA's Prism and GCHQ's version, Tempora.
Harrison sitting next to Snowden at a July news conference in Moscow
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Harrison worked in Hong Kong as part of the WikiLeaks team that brokered a number of asylum offers for Snowden and accompanied him on his flight from the Chinese territory to Latin America when his passport was revoked, effectively stranding him in Russia. She spent 39 days with him in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where he applied for asylum to 21 countries, including Germany.
A German parliamentary committee overseeing the secret services has decided to ask its Government to look at the possibility of questioning Snowden in Russia, its chairman Thomas Oppermann told reporters. Last week, it was reported Snowden was willing to visit Germany to help investigate the alleged US surveillance of chancellor Merkel.
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And the British ambassador in Berlin was reportedly called in for a meeting at the German foreign ministry on Tuesday to explain allegations that Britain had been using its embassy to carry out covert electronic surveillance on the chancellor's government. On Thursday, the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) is to question MI5 director general Andrew Parker, MI6 chief Sir John Sawers and GCHQ director Sir Iain Lobban in its first open evidence session.