(Reuters) - A contractor at the National Security Agency who leaked details of top-secret U.S. surveillance programs dropped out of sight in Hong Kong on Monday ahead of a likely push by the U.S. government to have him sent back to the United States to face charges.

Edward Snowden, 29, who provided the information for published reports last week that revealed the NSA's broad monitoring of phone call and Internet data from large companies such as Google and Facebook, checked out of his Hong Kong hotel hours after going public in a video released on Sunday by Britain's Guardian newspaper.

The disclosures by Snowden have sent shockwaves across Washington, where several lawmakers called on Monday for the extradition and prosecution of the ex-CIA employee who was behind one of the most significant security leaks in U.S. history.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/10/us-usa-security-idUSBRE95910O20130610


How did low-level contractor gain access to NSA programs?

(CBS News) WASHINGTON -- Edward Snowden was a foot soldier in an army of contractors doing top-secret work for the National Security Agency. He was assigned to an NSA installation in Hawaii, although his employer was the technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

It is not unusual for contractors to have access to classified information. According to a report by the Director of National Intelligence, 483,000 contractors held top-secret clearances last year, compared to 791,000 government employees. Both go through the same background checks, a process which the report showed can take over a year.

What stunned officials about Snowden was that a low-level contractor could gain access to a number of disparate intelligence programs, each of them walled off behind levels of classification above his top-secret clearance.

Snowden's job was to ensure that classified computer networks were operating properly; that apparently allowed him to get past security barriers and browse at will.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57588619/how-did-low-level-contractor-gain-access-to-nsa-programs/