Sources: Report on security clearance determinations, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, staff reports. The Washington Post.
The Secret History of NSA Contractors -- ABC News
When a light was beamed into the shadowy corners of the NSA, the United States' largest and perhaps least understood secret intelligence agency, the public did not see James Bond smiling back with a martini in hand. Instead, they saw a 29-year-old high school dropout, a security guard turned freelancer at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton entrusted with the nation's most guarded secrets.
Ed Snowden, a government contractor, who last week blew the whistle on the secret data mining operation known as PRISM, is today in hiding. His last known whereabouts were a Hong Kong hotel.
Before anyone knew Snowden was the source of the leak, the documents he provided The Guardian newspaper, were headline making. He provided the paper with warrants issued by a secret federal court allowing for the wholesale collection of communications data, mined from countless telephone calls and emails by U.S. citizens.
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More News On The NSA's Contractors
Snowden leak shines light on US intelligence agencies' use of contractors -- The Guardian
NSA leak prompts questions over U.S. reliance on contractors -- Reuters
NSA leaks put focus on intelligence apparatus’s reliance on outside contractors -- Washington Post
NSA leaks shift focus to intel contractors -- Baltimore Sun
Meet the contractors analyzing your private data -- Salon
NSA case exposes tangled web of intelligence work -- Bizpac
Booz Allen Hamilton, federal contractor -- Christian Science Monitor
NSA Data Debate: A Glossary and Who’s Who -- Washington Post