October 5, 2016 | No Comments
Edward Snowden, the former system analyst who exposed classified government surveillance programs three years ago, took to Twitter on Wednesday to question the charges facing a National Security Agency contractor suspected of stealing agency secrets.
After sharing a New York Times report that the FBI is investigating whether a government contractor stole secret “source code” designed to hack the computer systems of foreign governments, Snowden tweeted: “Am I correct in reading they didn’t charge him under the Espionage Act? Under this administration, that’s a noteworthy absence.”
Snowden faces charges of theft and violating the Espionage Act after he stole documents about the NSA’s surveillance activity and gave them to newspapers including the Guardian and Washington Post in 2013. He is currently residing in Russia on asylum, and his case has come up recently as some people have called on President Barack Obama to pardon him.
The Times report on Wednesday cited an anonymous official who suggested the ongoing investigation “at the moment … did not look like an espionage case.”
The contractor who was recently arrested, Harold Martin, reportedly worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, the same company that once employed Snowden — who remarked on the parallels some are already drawing.
“Lazy: This guy and @Snowden both worked at @BoozAllen, so they are the same,” Snowden wrote. “Not lazy: Booz must have a unique contract. Let’s investigate.”
Booz Allen fired Martin, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
“When Booz Allen learned of the arrest of one of its employees by the FBI, we immediately reached out to the authorities to offer our total cooperation in their investigation, and we fired the employee,” the contractor said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “We continue to cooperate fully with the government on its investigation into this serious matter. There have been no material changes to our client engagements as a result of this matter. Booz Allen is a 102-year-old company, and the alleged conduct does not reflect our core values.”
Martin was charged with felony theft of government information and misdemeanor unauthorized retention of classified information, according to a Justice Department complaint published Wednesday.