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EXCLUSIVE: Snowden sought Booz Allen job to gather evidence on NSA surveillance
south china morning post ^ | 6/24 | lana lam

Posted on 06/24/2013 8:43:26 AM PDT by RummyChick

For the first time, Snowden has admitted he sought a position at Booz Allen Hamilton so he could collect proof about the US National Security Agency’s secret surveillance programmes ahead of planned leaks to the media.

“My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked,” he told the Post on June 12. “That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.”

During a global online chat last week, Snowden also stated he took pay cuts “in the course of pursuing specific work”.

His admission comes as US officials voiced anger at Hong Kong, and indirectly Beijing, after the whistle-blower was allowed to leave the city on Sunday.

Snowden is understood to be heading for Ecuador to seek political asylum with the help of WikiLeaks, which claimed to have secured his safe passage to the South American country.

Snowden, who arrived in Hong Kong on May 20, first contacted documentary maker Laura Poitras in January, claiming to have information about the intelligence community. But it was several months later before Snowden met Poitras and two British reporters in the city.

He spent the time collecting a cache of classified documents as a computer systems administrator at Booz Allen Hamilton.

In his interview with the Post, Snowden divulged information that he claimed showed hacking by the NSA into computers in Hong Kong and mainland China.

“I did not release them earlier because I don’t want to simply dump huge amounts of documents without regard to their content,” he said.

“I have to screen everything before releasing it to journalists.”

Asked if he specifically went to Booz Allen Hamilton to gather evidence of surveillance, he replied: “Correct on Booz.”

His intention was to collect information about the NSA hacking into “the whole world” and “not specifically Hong Kong and China”.

The documents he divulged to the Post were obtained during his tenure at Booz Allen Hamilton in April, he said.

He also signalled his intention to leak more of those documents at a later date.

“If I have time to go through this information, I would like to make it available to journalists in each country to make their own assessment, independent of my bias, as to whether or not the knowledge of US network operations against their people should be published.”

Two days after Snowden broke cover in Hong Kong as the source of the NSA leaks, Booz Allen Hamilton sacked him.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bhonsa; boozallen; nsaleak; snowden; surveillance
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1 posted on 06/24/2013 8:43:26 AM PDT by RummyChick
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To: RummyChick

One one hand....could he have been working for the CIA when he gained that access...or.....some other country.


2 posted on 06/24/2013 8:44:40 AM PDT by RummyChick
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To: RummyChick

What is James Clapper’s Booz Allen stock worth? He was after all an executive with the company before leaving to work in “intelligence”.


3 posted on 06/24/2013 8:46:16 AM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: RummyChick

If this is the case then he should have some very damming evidence that can not be disputed.


4 posted on 06/24/2013 8:46:51 AM PDT by RBW in PA
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To: RummyChick
on the other hand ... a bait and switch?
5 posted on 06/24/2013 8:47:22 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
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To: RummyChick

bookmark


6 posted on 06/24/2013 8:48:24 AM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: RummyChick

Well, at least he didn’t try to set off World War 3.


7 posted on 06/24/2013 8:48:30 AM PDT by CMB_polarization
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To: RummyChick

8 posted on 06/24/2013 8:48:34 AM PDT by JoeProBono (Mille vocibus imago valet;-{)
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To: RummyChick

I’m still of the opinion this guy is an Obama and Hillary operative and this is part of the Benghazi cover up.


9 posted on 06/24/2013 8:48:59 AM PDT by IMR 4350
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To: RummyChick

Its not shocking the NSA is spying on other countries.
The big shock is it was spying on all Americans.


10 posted on 06/24/2013 8:49:02 AM PDT by RginTN
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To: RummyChick

So, while the NSA was spying on the rest of us to “keep us safe”, they couldn’t keep their own information safe - this high school dropout just walked in, and walked away with all kinds of classified information.


11 posted on 06/24/2013 8:51:29 AM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: IMR 4350

Obama /US is looking incompetent on the world stage.

Would he really have set this in motion???

Maybe like Benghazi he started something and it got out of control.

But I don’t buy into Obama starting this on purpose. He is looking like a buffoon.

Maybe Hillary.


12 posted on 06/24/2013 8:52:09 AM PDT by RummyChick
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To: IMR 4350

Why?

It doesn’t need to be covered up. America does not care or do not even know about it in general, and the repubicans are not going to do anything at all.

Obama could come out tomorrow and say the whole thing was a set up to deal the blind sheik back to the mozlums, and that they let them all die on purpose and then lied about it and arrested an innocent man, and NOTHING would be done about it.


13 posted on 06/24/2013 8:54:30 AM PDT by chris37 (Heartless.)
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To: GreenHornet

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/06/switzerland-questions-u-s-over-cia-drunk-driving-gambit/

He wasn’t just a high school drop out

“In an attempt to learn secret financial information, Snowden alleged that undercover CIA agents would get the banker drunk and “encourage” him to drive home in his car. When the banker was eventually arrested for drunk driving, the CIA operatives offered to help him out of the jam, paving the way for recruitment as a source.

“Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world,” Snowden told The Guardian. “I realized that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good.”


14 posted on 06/24/2013 8:55:33 AM PDT by RummyChick
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To: RummyChick

The good news is...

If Snowden is caught, convicted and imprisoned...

When he’s released, he can go back to work for Booz Allen again because the EEOC says Booz Allen can’t base their hiring/non-hiring on criminal background checks/convictions.


15 posted on 06/24/2013 8:55:42 AM PDT by moovova
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To: RginTN

Yes, the spying on other countries is what the NSA is supposed to be doing. Revealing those documents may actually be traitorous, Exposing the spying on average Americans and storing the data is something that we need to know about and stop. Storing the data for future use has the potential of creating a police state.


16 posted on 06/24/2013 8:56:33 AM PDT by Eva
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To: GreenHornet

I wonder how many Chinese nationals are working for the company. It seems to be a longstanding problem that we don’t have the stones to talk about.


17 posted on 06/24/2013 8:58:44 AM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: Eva
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
18 posted on 06/24/2013 8:59:34 AM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: RummyChick

“You shouldn’t listen to snow den cuz he was really effective and he is effective now, too...”

WTF....???


19 posted on 06/24/2013 9:02:13 AM PDT by gaijin
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To: IMR 4350
red herring
yeah, another set of chasing rabbits.
do you really think; O'Butplug cares...

20 posted on 06/24/2013 9:03:50 AM PDT by skinkinthegrass (who'll take tomorrow,$pend it all today;who can take your income & tax it all away..0'Blowfly can :)
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