

Booz Allen fires leaker Snowden - adamnemecek
http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/11/news/companies/snowden-booz-allen/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

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staunch
This is seriously the weirdest part of this story so far. Why is it news that
this guy, who clearly has resigned, is being "fired"? And why was his precise
salary released? Why is it being reported on? Why does it matter that he did,
or did not, finish high school?

It feels like some kind of desperate attempt to disparage him. As if someone
hopes it will sound like he's a disgruntled former employee that was fired. Or
that he was some low level hack of an employee.

And yet no one is disputing that he worked for our spy agencies for the better
part of a decade, or that he had a job that would tend to give him significant
access. No one is disputing anything he's said at all, as far as I can tell.
This shit is irrelevant.

~~~
downandout
CNN has been focusing on trashing this guy since his identity first came to
light. Their reporting has also been quick to minimize the extent and
importance of this scandal. Partisan reporting at its finest - they are going
to be the last ones on Obama's sinking ship.

~~~
sage_joch
Another thing I noticed is that every Onion story related to the scandal has
been pro-NSA (today I learned pro-NSA humor exists). It reminded me of the
recent gun control debates in which every Onion story related to that was pro
gun control. I'm not saying they're part of a larger concerted effort to sway
public opinion, but it does make me question their integrity as a comedic
organization.

~~~
Vivtek
Pro-gun control? You don't remember the one with the gorillas, I think it was,
advocating for gorilla control and with people complaining that the keeping of
gorillas in public was a Constitutional right, and even if a few people in
stores get savaged by gorillas occasionally, that was a small price to pay for
freedom?

~~~
sage_joch
Um, that one was extremely pro gun control. Read it again. "Gorilla Sales
Skyrocket After Latest Gorilla Attack". This is making fun of people who buy
guns in the aftermath of shootings, and who seek the preservation of 2nd
amendment rights. It argues (by analogy) that such people are silly to fight
for such antiquated rights, and that there would be complete chaos if everyone
owned a gun.

~~~
Vivtek
Indeed - I think my brain short-circuited there somehow and I took "pro" to
mean "anti".

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nullc
Overheard on IRC:

"Mr Snowden's employer, defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, said on
Tuesday it had fired the 29-year-old infrastructure analyst for violating its
ethics code."

… They found out that he had some.

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mililani
I was thinking before, how in the hell is a sys admin contractor making
$200k/year??? Especially in Hawaii. $122k seems about right. Regardless, this
does seem to cast some doubt about Snowden's character. Why lie? It seems like
such a trivial point.

At any rate, I really hope the ad hominen attacks don't sway public opinion
about the gravity of the overall message: even though the messenger may be
disingenuous, the government has already admitted to mass spying. 4th
amendment rights are being disregarded.

edit:

Ok, I'm seeing all kinds of conjecturing. I know a lot of people who work as
civilian IT contractors in Hawaii. I grew up there; I used to work there at
Square USA; my uncle is a retired military officer who is now working for
Northrop Grumman as a civilian IT contractor in Hawaii. There is NO way any
civilian IT contractor is making that kind of dough in Hawaii even working
tons of overtime. When my uncle was working as a civilian IT contractor in
Korea back during the dot com boom, he was telling me that most of his
employees were making $125k. However, most of that was tax free. So, they were
making money hand over fist. Since then, he's said that salaries have
stagnated and even gone down. He's a programmer and an Oracle DBA; and
nowadays, he's not making more than 100k. I personally don't know anyone who
is making $200k in IT. Even my friend at Goldman Sachs who has a masters
degree in comp sci from Cornell is only making $125k without bonuses. And he
said the bonuses are only 10%. So, really guys, the $200k is most likely
baloney. I'm not buying that. But, regardless, it's a moot point. The
government is screwing us over; they've already admitted to it in so much
words.

~~~
yen223
> "I was thinking before, how in the hell is a sys admin contractor making
> $200k/year???"

Government contracts, especially defense contracts which require clearance,
tend to result in inflated salaries.

~~~
rdtsc
Yap most likely, NSA billed $200/year, he was given $120/year, BAH pockets
$80/year.

~~~
lotsofcows
Errr, if was paid $120,000/year and worked full time with the NSA, then BAH
would have been charging at least $480,000/year.

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balabaster
Um... isn't releasing his salary (bear in mind he works in the private sector
for a private contractor and wasn't a government or public sector employee) a
violation of privacy laws? I love the level of irony of every layer of this
story. It gets more comical by the day.

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beedogs
There are nearly a million Americans with top-secret military clearance.

Let's hope this is the start of a trend, and that more are encouraged to come
forth and help us figure out what our governments are doing to us.

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ck2
Let's fire Booz | Allen | Hamilton

Freaking war profiteers.

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gexla
Wow? Fired? That's pretty harsh!

This seems like it would be obvious. Did we really need an article for this?
After the gov yanks your network access and security clearance, you aren't
much help. Bigger news would be that Booz Allen gets fired.

ETA: Though I doubt the gov would fire Booz Allen. That's probably too much
expertise to replace and leaks can happen anywhere. I assume they would work
together to find ways to tighten up.

~~~
yardie
BAH is pretty damn big in DMV (DC,MD,VA). The government would be hard pressed
to fire them outright. And this is nothing to them, sliding a few campaign
contribution checks to a few congress critters will make sure they'll still be
on every bid.

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nikcub
before somebody jumps down his throat for saying he had a salary of $200k a
year, the original part of the article is as follows:

> He has had "a very comfortable life" that included a salary of roughly
> $200,000, a girlfriend with whom he shared a home in Hawaii, a stable
> career, and a family he loves.

The $200k part isn't in quotes, so it is possible that the writer mixed up a
statement on what he previously earned, what he earned in total in the last
year, or something else.

The point of that part of the story was to set out just how much he was
leaving behind, no doubt he had a comfortable life.

I wouldn't read too much in the discrepancy between what Booz say his salary
was and what it was states as in The Guardian - except that it is a bit weird
for a former employer to include in a statement about a person being fired
what their salary was.

They likely only mentioned it because $200k was mentioned in the original
article, a further attempt to discredit although a soft one.

~~~
Taylorious
Why are people focusing so much on the salary? Besides, for all we know that
122k is his base salary he got serious bonuses, stock options, etc and so he
valued his annual earnings at close to 200k.

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motters
The focus on the salary discrepancy is in order to suggest that other elements
of the story might be exaggerated or false.

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Zikes
My salary is only about 70% of my earnings, due to yearly bonuses and equity.

