Lawmakers in Germany want former NSA contractor Edward Snowden to give evidence on previously-secret U.S. surveillance of Angela Merkel's mobile phone. Snowden has communicated a desire to travel to Germany or France, but Wednesday they said they would instead try to take his testimony from Moscow without compromising his asylum there. More at Reuters.

Snowden's status in Russia is not without conditions, however: Putin said early on that the most important of those is that Snowden not take further actions to "harm" the United States. Speaking to Germany about covert ops conducted by the US could be interpreted as doing just that.

Wikileaks today released a statement on the matter by their spokesperson Sarah Harrison, who has accompanied Snowden for the past four months.

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