The FBI planned to fly Edward Snowden’s father to Moscow to encourage the National Security Agency leaker to come home to the United States, his father told The Washington Post.

But Lon Snowden said he backed out, because it was not clear he would be able to speak to his son.

“I said, ‘I want to be able to speak with my son. . . . Can you set up communications?’ And it was, ‘Well, we’re not sure,’ ” the father told the newspaper Tuesday. “I said, ‘Wait a minute, folks, I’m not going to sit on the tarmac to be an emotional tool for you.'”