Wikileaks founder Assange: We are helping NSA leaker Snowden

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said on Wednesday that his antisecrecy group has been in touch with National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden’s legal team in a bid to help him secure asylum in Iceland.

“I feel a great deal of personal sympathy with Mr Snowden,” Assange told reporters on a conference call. He joined the call from the Ecuadoran embassy in London, where he has lived since entering the diplomatic mission and seeking asylum exactly one year ago.

“We are in touch with Mr Snowden's legal team and have been, are involved, in the process of brokering his asylum in Iceland,” Assange said. “Our people in Iceland have been in contact with his legal team.”

Asked whether Snowden, who reportedly made his disclosures from Hong Kong but whose current location is unclear, could fly to Iceland without being stopped by the U.S. government or America’s allies, Assange replied: “All those issues are being looked at by the people involved.”

But Assange declined to say whether he had had any direct contact with Snowden. He also declined to say whether Wikileaks had been in touch with the former NSA contractor before he provided details of the NSA’s telephone and Internet surveillance to The Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post.

“As a matter of policy, we do not discuss issues which may relate to sourcing,” the Australian said.