Leaks may lead to policy change

AMONG the stories and rumours prompted by Edward J Snowden’s leaking of classified material — whistleblowing or treason, depending on where you stand — are suggestions that the revelations may actually lead to a policy change concerning the extent to which private companies carry out intelligence gathering and analysis in the United States.

Around a third of the 1.4 million people with “top secret” US security clearances are contractors, according to the Office of the US Director of National Intelligence. We now know that this includes individuals like Snowden, whose hiring and firing by the technology consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton is itself the subject of an investigation.

Intelligence contracting is an industry worth tens of billions of dollars, and companies like Booz Allen have made it central to their business models, staffing their executive suites with former senior intelligence officials.