The United States Air Force is saying defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton is off the hook for the conduct of former employee Edward Snowden.
Snowden, 30, worked for Booz Allen Hamilton for only three months
before he left his job in May and fled to Hong Kong. There he
supplied journalists with sensitive government documents obtained
using the security clearance that came with his position as a
systems administrator with the firm.
On Wednesday this week, Reuters reported that Booz Allen
Hamilton, or BAH, had been cleared of any wrongdoing by the Air
Force.
“At this time … there is no evidence that at the time of Mr.
Snowden’s misconduct, BAH knew or should have known, approved or
acquiesced in Snowden’s misconduct,” a military official told
the news agency.
“There is no evidence that the Snowden matter constitutes a
reoccurrence of the practices that led to the Air Force proposing
BAH for debarment,” the official said. “To date, the Air
Force … is satisfied with BAH’s efforts to improve it ethics
and compliance programs, and its internal controls.”
Snowden is currently believed to be holed up inside of a Moscow,
Russia airport awaiting the results of asylum requests placed
with more than 20 countries. With the Air Force’s latest
decision, though, BAH can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Had
the Air Force not let BAH off the hook, the firm risked losing
its contract with all departments of the Pentagon. So far,
though, no other government agencies have published similar
determinations.
Booz Allen is reported to generate around 99 percent of its total
revenue thanks to its work with the US government, and raked in
$5.76 billion during the first three months of the year.
When Snowden first revealed himself as the leaker of National
Security Agency documents last month, BAH issued a statement
saying, “News reports that this individual has claimed to have
leaked classified information are shocking, and if accurate, this
action represents a grave violation of the code of conduct and
core values of our firm.”
“If our relationships with such [US government] agencies are
harmed, our future revenue and operating profits would
decline,” BAH said in a separate announcement last month. The
contractor subsequently saw their stocks dip to the lowest
they’ve been in four months.
The Guardian newspaper first began publishing leaked documents
attributed to Snowden on June 6, and three days later he
identified himself as the source in an interview with journalists
Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras.
In a follow-up interview conducted a week later by the South
China Morning Post, Snowden said “My position with Booz Allen
Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the
world the NSA hacked.”
“That is why I accepted that position,” he said.
Snowden’s contract with BAH was terminated two days later, a
decision that spokesman James Fisher told Reuters resulted from
the employee’s “grave violation of Booz Allen’s code of
conduct and core values.”
Republished with permission from: RT