06.09.13
Defector from the Shoeshine Corps of Cyberwar
The source of the intelligence leaks that revealed the National Security Agency’s massive domestic surveillance program last week was identified on Sunday by the Guardian as Edward Snowden, a soft-spoken 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of NSA defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton …
“I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things,” Snowden said. “I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under … I can’t in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.”
Snowden said he decided to leave his family, girlfriend and a comfortable, $200,000-a-year salary behind, and flew to Hong Kong on May 20. He said he chose China because “they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent.”
The paradox of the leaker seeking refuge in China and spilling the beans at the very moment the Obama administration was mounting an unsubtle press campaign over the matter of Chinese cyber-espionage is noticeable.
As an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton, Snowden would have certainly been in the middle of things.
The head of that firm’s cybersecurity contracting arm, Michael McConnell, is and was one of the leading salesmen of cyberwar hype. The firm has a very large interest in expansion of its cybersecurity and cyberwar contracting business to the Department of Defense.
The lengthy and original profile of Snowden, at the Guardian.
Top cyberwar rent-seeker, Michael McConnell and Booz Allen Hamilton.
Michael McConnell and Booz Allen — from the archives.