Veteran journalist Michael Isikoff at NBCnews.com offers a piece on the NSA's investigation into how NSA leaker Edward Snowden was able to access so much classified material.
According to the NSA, Snowden lied, tricked and betrayed a coworker into giving him his classified system password.
A civilian NSA employee recently resigned after being stripped of his security clearance for allowing former agency contractor Edward Snowden to use his personal log-in credentials to access classified information, according to an agency memo obtained by NBC News.
In addition, an active duty member of the U.S. military and a contractor have been barred from accessing National Security Agency facilities after they were “implicated” in actions that may have aided Snowden, the memo states. Their status is now being reviewed by their employers, the memo says.
The Feb. 10 memo sent to congressional intelligence and jusiciary committees this week, provides the first official account of a sweeping NSA internal inquiry aimed at identifying intelligence officials and contractors who may been responsible for one of the biggest security breaches in U.S. history. The memo is unclassified but labeled “for official use only.”
While the memo’s account is sketchy, it suggests that, contrary to Snowden’s statements, he used an element of trickery to retrieve his trove of tens of thousands of classified documents: “At Snowden’s request,” the civilian NSA employee, who is not identified by name, entered his password onto Snowden’s computer terminal, the memo states.
“Unbeknownst to the civilian, Mr. Snowden was able to capture the password, allowing him even greater access to classified information,” the memo states.
You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:
Too many commentators (Judge Napolitano among them) have praised Snowden as a hero. Oh, how wrong they are in their assessment. Breaking the law is not heroic. At least when I was a CT in the Navy, and when I was later and LDO in the JAG Corps, I had a very clear understanding about what it meant to have a security clearance: Thou shalt not reveal secrets. Period. I never read a caveat that allow for revelation for noble causes. In the absence of evidence that would prove otherwise, I remain convinced that Snowden is no better than Johnny Walker, the infamous NAVSECGRU warrant officer who quite possibly nearly destroyed the country.
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ReplyDeleteR.T.,
ReplyDeleteI agree.
For more than 37 years I worked in the security field and like many others, I signed an agreement to not reveal classified information and material. Although I am now a published writer, I would never go back on my signed agreement.
I received a Top Secret clearance and was assigned to protect classified material when I was only 17 in 1970 while serving in the Radio Communications Division on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk during the Vietnam War.
I went on to do security work as a Defense Department civilian employee and I retired in 2007.
I know that if Snowden had true issues, there are many ways to redress them, such as the "Hot Line" complaint route to the Inspector General's (IG) office. By law, as your know, the IG has to investigate the complaint.
Also, by traveling to China and Russia, two dictatorships and adversaries to the U.S, and revealing U.S. secrets, Snowden proved he is, in my view, a thief, a spy and a traitor.
I should add that for many years, part of my security duties included investigating IG "Hot Line" complaints in a Defense Department command in Philadelphia.
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