MPs to quiz editor on Snowden leaks

london — British lawmakers will grill the editor of the

next month over the newspaper’s publication of intelligence leaks by Edward Snowden, it said on Friday.

“Alan (Rusbridger) has been invited to give evidence to the home affairs select committee and looks forward to appearing next month,” a spokeswoman for the daily said. The has been accused of endangering national security by publishing information about US and British spying programmes leaked by Snowden, a former contractor with the US National Security Agency (NSA).

However, the newspaper has strongly defended its actions, saying the publication has opened up a debate about secrecy, privacy and freedom of speech.

There was no immediate comment from the home affairs committee, which is made up of elected members of parliament from Britain’s three main political parties.

But its chairman, opposition Labour MP Keith Vaz, said last month that it would be investigating “elements of the involvement in, and publication of, the Snowden leaks” as part of a wider inquiry into counter-terrorism.

The revelations over the past five months have sparked embarrassment and outrage in Washington by laying bare the huge scale of US spying, including on its allies.

They have also shone light on the surveillance programmes of Britain, a close ally of the United States, to widespread condemnation by politicians and intelligence chiefs here.

“Our adversaries are rubbing their hands with glee. Al Qaeda is lapping it up,” John Sawers, the head of British foreign spy agency MI6, told lawmakers on Thursday. —