Sequester to blame for Snowden’s NSA leak

[msanthrope]

In our colleague Jerry Markon’s interview with Lon Snowden, the father of NSA leaker Edward Snowden, the senior Snowden says it was the sequester that led his son to take the private-sector contracting job that allowed him access to the secret NSA data that he would ultimately make public.

“Edward has said he took his final government contracting job with Booz Allen Hamilton in Hawaii to gain access to sensitive NSA information,” Markon reports. “But his father said Edward told him that his previous contracting job had been eliminated because of the federal budget sequestration.”

So ... no sequester would mean no access which would mean no leak.

In a parallel universe in which there was no sequester, Snowden might be just another contractor collecting checks, instead of an internationally notorious fugitive camping out in the Moscow airport.

So much for those theories that the sequester had little impact.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/post/sequester-to-blame-for-snowdens-nsa-leak/2013/07/31/b22dad2a-f9f6-11e2-9bde-7ddaa186b751_blog.html

I don't even know what that means? He lost his job, so he decided to get even? So much for being a principled whistleblower.

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. And this impacts his revelations how?

Cheers!

[msanthrope]

8. Well, I certainly wouldn't assume good intentions from someone acting out

of revenge or anger over losing their job.

I would question their motives, and look closely at their evidence.

I would not give his claims credulity without evidence. And he has provided little.

[struggle4progress]

15. He contacted WaPo and the Guardian before he took the BAH job, where he apparently collected

the material he leaked

[Rex]

2. So the culprit is Congress?

nt.

[quinnox]

3. Well, he might have lied about this, to protect his father

That is what I'm thinking. Since he was doing this stuff on the sly, and he wouldn't want his father to get in trouble for having knowledge of it when he was planning on releasing this secret information later on. This way, his father was kept in the dark. (and would not be in any legal trouble)

[bunnies]

6. Thats the only reason I can come up with, too.

Because its obviously untrue. The sequester began in March, the same month he started at Booz, and he'd already spoken with Greenwald in January.

[quinnox]

9. I'm just guessing, but it seems like a reasonable explanation

[bunnies]

11. Agreed.

Perhaps the only explanation.

[Shivering Jemmy]

19. Security firms have been cutting employees

In anticipation of the sequester months before it triggered.

I know of which I speak.

[bunnies]

20. Really?

I didnt know that. I'd have thought they would have waited to see if the sequester would be averted. Wonder why they didnt wait. Thanks for the info.

[Shivering Jemmy]

23. No one in the defense industry

Really believed the sequester would be averted.

[bunnies]

24. Makes sense then.

And they were right.

[msanthrope]

10. That's possible, but this just strikes me as very weird. nt

[Wait Wut]

4. Yeah, that's how I read it, too.

I'm giving 'dad' a break, though. He loves his son and is probably desperate to find any reason to alleviate the pressure this has caused. Smartish move blaming it on the government. That'll win him some more brownie points with those already on his side.

It's going to be easy enough for someone to confirm or disprove this story. If it turns out to be false, it'll further damage both dad's and son's credibility.

[msanthrope]

14. Oh yeah--I can't imagine the pressure they are both under. I just don't

get the 'logic' to all of this.

[Luminous Animal]

5. Hahaha! Yeah, because he was going to tell his dad that he wanted the job to gain access to

top secret documents.

Hahahahaha!!!!

[ProSense]

12. Good to see you admit that he took the job just to steal information.

[BeyondGeography]

13. Bruce Fein to Lon: We need to put an alternative scenario out there

[Luminous Animal]

16. Huh?

[BeyondGeography]

7. Damned gubmint

[ProSense]

18. Snowden admitted he took it gain access.

<...>

“My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked,” he said. “That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.”

SCMP reports:

Asked if he specifically went to Booz Allen Hamilton to gather evidence of surveillance, he replied: “Correct on Booz.”

His intention was to collect information about the NSA hacking into “the whole world” and “not specifically Hong Kong and China”.

The documents he divulged to the Post were obtained during his tenure at Booz Allen Hamilton in April, he said.

Snowden also told the Hong Kong newspaper that he intends to leak more documents on the NSA's programs.

- more -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/edward-snowden-booz-allen-hamilton_n_3491203.html

[Luminous Animal]

22. "But his father said Edward told him"... Got it?

Do you really think that Edward was going to tell his dad his intentions? "Hey Dad," I'm going to take this job to have access to top secret documents and contact the media! Great! Right?!

[Luminous Animal]

21. If you had taken a moment to read the original interview, you may have had a clue...

But he pointed to a possible explanation: what he considers misleading statements by U.S. officials about the surveillance methods that Edward Snowden revealed. “If you could say there was a tipping point, I would say it was what happened in the last six to nine months of this nation,” the elder Snowden said.

He also mentioned a conversation that hinted at his son’s growing political awareness; he said Edward told him that he was “troubled” by the 2010 suicide of a Tunisian street vendor that helped trigger the Arab Spring protests.

“It was the idea that a man who simply wanted to make a living, who sold fruits and vegetables to support himself and his family, felt so suppressed and humiliated by his government that he would set himself on fire,” Lon Snowden said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/effort-to-get-nsa-leaker-edward-snowdens-father-to-moscow-collapses/2013/07/30/23e8875e-f949-11e2-b018-5b8251f0c56e_story.html