Edward Snowden fired by consulting giant: US

The man behind leaking America’s secretive Internet surveillance programmes, on Tuesday was fired by the consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton for violating the company’s code of ethics. In a statement issued by the company on Tuesday, it was said, "Booz Allen can confirm that Edward Snowden, 29, was an employee of our firm for less than 3 months, assigned to a team in Hawaii. Snowden, who had a salary at the rate of USD 122,000, was terminated June 10, 2013 for violations of the firm's code of ethics and firm policy. News reports that this individual has claimed to have leaked classified information are shocking, and if accurate, this action represents a grave violation of the code of conduct and core values of our firm.” Meanwhile, lawmakers continued to brand him as a traitor. President Barack Obama pointed out last week that these were important national security programs, to help Americans be safe and to provide tools to fight the terrorism threat. House of Representatives speaker, John Boehner said, “The disclosure of this information puts Americans at risk. It shows our adversaries what our capabilities are. And it's a giant violation of the law," he added. Boehner also said that there is no American who would be snooped on, unless they are in contact with some terrorist around the world, reiterating the fact that the Congress was fully in loop on the issue and has a Congressional approval. "Every time that I have been in a briefing, nine of the 10 people in the room are lawyers there to protect the privacy of the American people," Boehner said. "It is despicable what's happened. I know he's a sympathetic figure for some. But that's not the way to deal with these kind of issues," he added. On the other hand, in a new poll it was shown that most Americans back the tracking activities of the US government, which they believed keeps the nation safe. It was reported that, "…56 per cent of Americans consider the NSA's accessing of telephone call records of millions of Americans through secret court orders 'acceptable', while 41 per cent call the practice 'unacceptable'."