Runaway whistleblower Edward Snowden has been fired from defense contractor Booz Hamilton, where it’s been revealed he had worked just three months and earned $122,000 a year — significantly less than the high-school dropout previously claimed.
Snowden’s termination comes one week after the 29-year-old allegedly leaked top-secret information from the National Security Agency containing phone and Internet data usage after protectively fleeing the States.
In the first consideration of its kind, Russia has said it would consider offering American whistle-blower Edward Snowden asylum while one public official referred to him as a human rights activist (Photo: EWAN MACASKILL/AP)
In a statement released by Booz Allen on Tuesday, the firm admonished his leaks as a “grave violation to their code of conduct and core values of our firm.”
“We will work closely with our clients and authorities in their investigation of this matter,” the statement continues.
The current whereabouts of Snowden, who previously boasted to the Guardian of earning $200,000 from his position in Hawaii, is unknown.
He was last linked to Hong Kong as of Monday afternoon while previously expressing plans to seek asylum abroad rather than face an ongoing federal investigation back in the States.
On Tuesday Russia expressed the first interest in making such an offer to him.
“If such an appeal is given, it will be considered. We’ll act according to facts,” Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian newspaper Kommersant on Tuesday.
Snowden has not made any known requests to any country so far.
The now former IT contractor and CIA employee previously voiced a desire for asylum in Iceland, telling the Guardian, “My predisposition is to seek asylum in a country with shared values.”
Russia until now has shown little reaction to Snowden’s alleged security crimes in the U.S. with the Kremlin’s intelligence agencies already known for conducting domestic surveillance of their own.
Other European countries, notably Germany, have seen public uproar and discontent over what many consider heavily intrusive U.S. surveillance operations, as revealed by Snowden’s series of leaks.
Snowden’s whereabouts are currently unknown after checking out of this Hong Kong hotel on Monday afternoon (Photo: WING VIA WIKIPEDIA)
Snowden’s reports showed Verizon was transmitting call data on its networks to the government on an ongoing basis. Other phone carriers were also found to be doing the same — adding to the information in a massive government database.
Alexei Pushkov, Russia’s chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Duma, was one of the first to publicly express support for Snowden whom he referred to as a “human rights activist” on Tuesday.
“By promising asylum to Snowden, Moscow has taken upon itself the protection of those persecuted for political reasons. There will be hysterics in the U.S. They only recognise this right for themselves,” he posted to Twitter.
“Listening to telephones and tracking the Internet, the U.S. special services broke the laws of their country. In this case, Snowden, like Assange, is a human rights activist.”
On Monday afternoon Snowden checked out of a Hong Kong hotel leaving his current whereabouts unknown.
Some have argued his decision to flee to Hong Kong was a mistake as there is a 1996 extradition treaty between it and the U.S., in which each promises to surrender any individual wanted for prosecution by the other.
Snowden has instead expressed his belief that the people would protect him.
“Hong Kong has a reputation for freedom in spite of the People’s Republic of China. It has a strong tradition of free speech,” he told the Guardian on Sunday.
Source: New York Daily News
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