The South China Morning Post is reporting Edward Snowden took Booz Allen Hamilton contractor job so he could gather cyber evidence from the National Security Agency. I have long maintained that there was no way for Edward Snowden to do what he did unless he had ulterior motives — to gather information for the purpose of leaking. He is a traitor, plain and simple.

Edward Snowden secured a job with a US government contractor for one reason alone – to obtain evidence on Washington’s cyberspying networks, the South China Morning Post can reveal.

For the first time, Snowden has admitted he sought a position at Booz Allen Hamilton so he could collect proof about the US National Security Agency’s secret surveillance programmes ahead of planned leaks to the media.

“My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked,” he told the Post on June 12. “That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.”

During a global online chat last week, Snowden also stated he took pay cuts “in the course of pursuing specific work”.

His admission comes as US officials voiced anger at Hong Kong, and indirectly Beijing, after the whistle-blower was allowed to leave the city on Sunday.

This revelation (which wasn’t a surprise to me) comes as White House press secretary Jay Carney ripped into Hong Kong and China for allowing the “fugitive” Edward Snowden to leave despite having “plenty time” to stop him. He believes it was a deliberate move on the part of China to allow Snowden to leave, saying this will have a negative impact on US-China relations. Snowden reportedly left Hong Kong using refugee papers issued by Ecuador.

This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.