Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old former government contractor who leaked sensitive information on the National Security Agency surveillance programs, says he sought the job with Booz Hallen Hamilton to gather evidence on the agency's data collection networks, the Huffington Post reported.
"My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked," Snowden said in a June 12 interview with the South China Morning Post. "That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.
Snowden indicated in the interviw that he has every intention to leak more documents on the NSA's programs.
As of Monday afternoon, it was reported that Snowden left Hong Kong, and is believed to be in Russia. He reportedly did not make a Monday flight to Cuba as planned. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Snowden is 'safe and healthy' but would not give further details of his whereabouts, during a Monday conference call from the Ecuadorian embassy in London with reporters.
The U.S. has filed charges against Snowden including for espionage. U.S. officials said Hong Kong took days to respond and when it did, Hong Kong officials said there were problems with the request. Snowden had disappeared soon thereafter, and his passport was not revoked by the State Department until Saturday. Cuba was to be his next stop on his way to Ecuador where he filed for asylum, or possibly to Venezuela. Snowden was reportedly last believed to be in transit zone of the Moscow airport, and has no visa to officially enter the country without special permission from the Russian government, ABC News reported.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said it would be "very disappointing" if Snowden was "willfully allowed to board an airplane as a result and there would be without any question some effect on the relationship and consequences." The secretary of state also said that Russia should 'do the right thing' and return Snowden to U.S. authorities.
Whether Snowden has handed over any of his NSA files to foreign intelligence services is not known yet, though last week he denied any direct contact with the Chinese government, news reports said.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney rebuked Hong Kong for allowing Snowden to leave, telling reporters today that Hong Kong was notified of the charges against Snowden and the request to arrest him in "plenty of time" to stop him from leaving the country.
"We are just not buying that this was a technical decision... this was a deliberate choice by the government," Carney said. "That decision unquestionably has a negative impact on [the] U.S.-China relationship."
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