NSA whistleblower Snowden's employers became rich by maintaining govt secrets

New York: Booz Allen Hamilton, the employerof Edward J Snowden’s who claims to be the source behind leaksabout NSA’s internet spy work, has become one of the largestand most profitable corporations in the country almostexclusively by serving a single client - the US government.

Over the last decade, much of the company’s growth hascome from selling expertise, technology and manpower to theNational Security Agency and other federal intelligenceagencies.

[caption id=“attachment_858985” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] AP image[/caption]

Booz Allen earned USD 1.3 billion, 23 per cent of thecompany’s total revenue, from intelligence work during itsmost recent fiscal year, the New York Times said.It said that the US government has sharply increasedspending on high-tech intelligence gathering since 2001, andboth the Bush and Obama administrations have chosen to rely onprivate contractors like Booz Allen for much of the resultingwork.

“Thousands of people formerly employed by the government,and still approved to deal with classified information, now doessentially the same work for private companies.

“Mr. Snowden, who revealed on Sunday that he provided therecent leak of national security documents, is among them,’the NYT said.

Interestingly, the daily said Obama administration’s chiefintelligence official James R Clapper is a former Boozexecutive. The official who held that post in the Bushadministration John M McConnell now works for Booz.

In January, Booz Allen announced that it was starting workon a new contract worth perhaps as much as USD 5.6 billionover five years to provide intelligence analysis services tothe Defense Department. Under the deal, Booz employees arebeing assigned to help military and national security policymakers, the company said.

The company, based in Virginia, is primarily a technologycontractor. It reported revenues of USD 5.76 billion for thefiscal year ended in March and was No. 436 on Fortune’s listof the 500 largest public companies. The government provided98 per cent of that revenue, the company said.
Its rapid growth, fueled by government investment afterthe September 11 attacks, led to a 2008 buyout by the CarlyleGroup, a private equity firm, followed by a public offering in2010.

PTI