Edward Snowden, who has spilled a series of government secrets over the past few weeks, took a job with government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton to gather evidence on its surveillance methods, according to a new report from the South China Morning Post.
"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."
Snowden's comments will likely touch off another round of debate over whether his actions were done as "whistleblowing" with good intent. It will also likely raise more questions about the federal government's growing use of government contractors with sensitive intelligence matters.
Snowden told the paper that he wanted to gather information on the NSA's collection of information on "the whole world"— including, but not limited to, Hong Kong and China. He worked at Booz Allen for less than three months, and the company quickly fired him after he admitted to being the source of the leaked documents.
Booz Allen had contracts with the government that totaled $3.85 billion in 2011, and it gets about 98 percent of its revenue from government contracts. On its website, it lists a few "major" customers — and they are all different government agencies. The Defense Department, Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Homeland Security Department, and IRS are just a few.
Snowden has reportedly left Hong Kong and traveled to Russia, a development the Justice Department called "troubling." He was a no-show, however, for a flight from Moscow to Cuba.