himself the journalist at the guardian who broke the story says that he s been working with this guy since before he got the job at the national security agency. that suggests that he wasn t some idealist who suddenly went to you know took this job and suddenly was inundated with information that he found disturbing. it suggests that he took the job knowing that he already had the top secret classification, took the job nothing he d be able to get access to some secrets that he could later spill. yeah, and he went to work for booze allen, specifically which is a contractor to nsa. jon: correct. we ve had to since 9/11 we ve been contracting out more of these services. the number of national top secret clearances on down, there is something like 1.2 million security clearances total in 135,000 of those are top secret, and another huge number are right below that, so there are
whatever it is that s coming his way. booz allen hamilton, the national security contract where snowden worked this morning confirming that he s been fired for violating the company s code of ethics, adding that his salary was $122,000 a year, not $200,000 as previously reported. and with two briefings on the nsa programs coming up shortly on capitol hill, both are classified and closed to the public. democratic senator ron wyden this morning called for public hearings after this exchange with the nation s intelligence chief in march. does the nsa collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans? no, sir. it does not? not wittingly. there are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect. but not wittingly. reporter: in a statement this morning, senator wyden s office confirmed that clapper
reportedly examining how snowden as a federal contractor in hawaii, had access to such sensitive information. some in washington are questioning whether the government relies too much on contractors and one security expert says a government worker could have just as easily leaked this information. contractors exist for a lot of reasons. if you have a limited budget under sequester you can t hire people for ten years. you don t know if the money is there. so you hire people under a shorter term contract. a civil servant can blow the whistle just like a contractor can. i don t see that as the relevant distinction. reporter: snowden worked as a federal contractor with booze allen hamilton. the company says it fired him yesterday. in an interview with th the guardian newspaper he said he was in a hong kong hotel. reports say he has since checked out of that hotel. back to you. jon: all right, rich edson in washington. going to be an interesting day on the hill. thanks. jenna: right n
laws. they have no idea about his whereabouts. the media here is working itself up into a frenzy as they try and track him down, tamron. all right, ian. thank you very much for that information. now let me bring in our news nation political panel discussing this. thank you all for joining us. greg, i d like to start with you. there is the lingering question of charges. i was fascinate by some of the articles, the most popular today regarding this nsa leak are all about snowden. people are fascinated by the fact he didn t graduate high school, but he landed this job making over $200,000 and what real access he had. that s a remarkable and so far kind of unexplained aspect of all of this. not only that he ended up in this high-paying job for booth allen but that he was apparently hired by the cia with thin academic credentials. in it the aftermath of 9/11, the agency has hired thousands and
Detailed text transcripts for TV channel - FOXNEWS - 20130611:15:03:00 comparemela.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from comparemela.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.