The U.S. government is in a bit of a pickle right now as another NSA contractor appears to be following in the steps of Edward Snowden. The federal government claims that this new leaker is revealing national security documents in the aftermath of Edward Snowden, and no one is happy about it.
The federal government says that proof of another leaker being present inside the NSA came from a new story published by the Intercept, a news site that was launched by Glen Greenwald. This is one of the websites that published the Snowden leaks, so it would make sense for a leaker to go through them.
This particular story by the Intercept focuses a lot on the growth of the United States database of suspected terrorists. Apparently, this happened during the Obama administration, and could be still happening to this very day.
The documents were prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center back in August 2013, which was well after Snowden slipped out of the U.S. to avoid criminal charges against him. The federal government is basically saying that Snowden could have not gotten his hands on these documents, as they were prepared after the documents he leaked, and after he left the country.
As it stands, it is clear that there's another NSA leaker, but who this person is might never come to light, and if it does, chances are this person might not be as lucky as Edward Snowden.
In an interview with CNN back in February, Greenwald stated that he believes there are other leakers within the NSA, and they were likely inspired by Snowden. If this is the case, then the NSA and the government has some serious problems
"I definitely think it's fair to say that there are people who have been inspired by Edward Snowden's courage and by the great good and virtue that it has achieved," said Greenwald.
Greenwald went on to add, "I have no doubt there will be other sources inside the government who see extreme wrongdoing who are inspired by Edward Snowden."
The big question right now, is what will the NSA do and how will the agency go about in identifying this leaker. If he or she is still in the country and still working for the NSA, chances are they won't be able to hop on a flight and run off to another country. The NSA at this point would have blocked employee visas from traveling to certain countries, or from leaving the United States altogether.
It's a tough situation for this particular leaker, as he or she doesn't appear have Snowden's luck.
