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BERLIN (AP) — Germany has dismissed a claim by NSA leaker Edward Snowden that it bowed to U.S. demands to water down legal protection for German citizens.
Snowden told the European Parliament in a statement published Friday that Germany was pressured to modify its legislation on wiretapping and other forms of lawful telecoms surveillance.
The former National Security Agency contractor didn't elaborate on how the laws were changed or when, but suggested it was standard practice for the NSA to instruct friendly nations on how to "degrade the legal protections of their countries' communications."
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Monday that Germany's parliament "doesn't give in to outside pressure, certainly not from foreign spy agencies, and that's true in this case too."
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