United States Espionage is Shaken up by Scandal
Published in El Colombiano
(Colombia) on 12 June 2013
by Juan Felipe Sierra Suarez (link to
original)
The United States government finds itself at a crossroads, caused by the international scandal that has been provoked by Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old ex-employee of the CIA, who revealed information to the British and American press regarding the “official” phone intercepts of telecommunication companies. This will make President Barack Obama reevaluate his anti-terrorism spying strategy.
El Colombiano was told this by Jeffrey C. Fox, a Homeland Security staff member, based in Rocky Mount, Virginia. “These wiretaps will have to change because U.S. civil organizations as well as the European Union will be looking at this security scheme involving telephone calls and email.”*
Likewise, he said that the United States government will have to review the true impact on this security program, which is run by the National Security Agency. To be more precise, this analysis will be coordinated with the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, a subdivision of Homeland Security.
Details
Booz Allen Hamilton, the CIA contractor that employed Snowden, tried to shed responsibility, stating that it had fired the young employee for violating company policies and ethics codes. It also stated that it had employed Snowden for fewer than three months and that he had a salary of $122,000 a year.
Legislative Confrontation
The questioning of the United States government reached Congress as well, where they came out to defend the controversial scheme. One of them was the Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner, who supported the NSA programs and the supervision by Congress and told Reuters [in an ABC interview], “I’ve been briefed on all of these programs…. There’s no American who’s gonna be snooped on in any way — unless they’re in contact — with some terrorists somewhere around the world.”
Nevertheless, Senator Rand Paul, a popular Republican from the tea party movement, which is against government intrusion, said that he was reserving judgment on Snowden and waiting to obtain more information about the impact of the scandal.
For her part, Senator Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat from Maryland, said, “We’ll have lots of hearings on this,” especially on how Snowden, a high school dropout, gained top-secret clearance and access to high-level government secrets.*
Another Congressman who questioned the situation was Jeff Merkley, Democratic senator from Oregon, who stated, “Americans deserve to know how much information about their private communications the government believes it’s allowed to take under the law.”
Cost Revisions
The North American debate also touched on economics, in a country that still hasn’t completely recovered from recession. Because of this, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said yesterday in a hearing before the Senate Military Spending Subcommittee that because of the scandal, it is reviewing contracts with 700,000 private consultants, each one of whom costs three times as much as a public sector employee. “The budget cuts force us to examine every expense, and the contractors are under review because they are 22 percent of the labor force of the Department of Defense,” Hagel said.*
On the other hand, while Russia considers giving Snowden asylum, according to what Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, said yesterday, Google, one of the companies that was pressured to provide information to the Obama government, asked if it could publish an overview of the user data that was requested for national security reasons and show that it is not all users who are spied on.
*Editor’s Note: These quotations, accurately translated, could not be verified.
El Colombiano was told this by Jeffrey C. Fox, a Homeland Security staff member, based in Rocky Mount, Virginia. “These wiretaps will have to change because U.S. civil organizations as well as the European Union will be looking at this security scheme involving telephone calls and email.”*
Likewise, he said that the United States government will have to review the true impact on this security program, which is run by the National Security Agency. To be more precise, this analysis will be coordinated with the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, a subdivision of Homeland Security.
Details
Booz Allen Hamilton, the CIA contractor that employed Snowden, tried to shed responsibility, stating that it had fired the young employee for violating company policies and ethics codes. It also stated that it had employed Snowden for fewer than three months and that he had a salary of $122,000 a year.
Legislative Confrontation
The questioning of the United States government reached Congress as well, where they came out to defend the controversial scheme. One of them was the Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner, who supported the NSA programs and the supervision by Congress and told Reuters [in an ABC interview], “I’ve been briefed on all of these programs…. There’s no American who’s gonna be snooped on in any way — unless they’re in contact — with some terrorists somewhere around the world.”
Nevertheless, Senator Rand Paul, a popular Republican from the tea party movement, which is against government intrusion, said that he was reserving judgment on Snowden and waiting to obtain more information about the impact of the scandal.
For her part, Senator Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat from Maryland, said, “We’ll have lots of hearings on this,” especially on how Snowden, a high school dropout, gained top-secret clearance and access to high-level government secrets.*
Another Congressman who questioned the situation was Jeff Merkley, Democratic senator from Oregon, who stated, “Americans deserve to know how much information about their private communications the government believes it’s allowed to take under the law.”
Cost Revisions
The North American debate also touched on economics, in a country that still hasn’t completely recovered from recession. Because of this, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said yesterday in a hearing before the Senate Military Spending Subcommittee that because of the scandal, it is reviewing contracts with 700,000 private consultants, each one of whom costs three times as much as a public sector employee. “The budget cuts force us to examine every expense, and the contractors are under review because they are 22 percent of the labor force of the Department of Defense,” Hagel said.*
On the other hand, while Russia considers giving Snowden asylum, according to what Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, said yesterday, Google, one of the companies that was pressured to provide information to the Obama government, asked if it could publish an overview of the user data that was requested for national security reasons and show that it is not all users who are spied on.
*Editor’s Note: These quotations, accurately translated, could not be verified.