Booz Allen: We fired NSA leaker on Monday

Consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton confirmed Tuesday that alleged National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden had worked for the firm but underlined that he was fired ... on Monday. It also called his reported actions "shocking."

“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,” the company said in a statement on its website.

“Snowden, who had a salary at the rate of $122,000, was terminated June 10, 2013 for violations of the firm’s code of ethics and firm policy,” the statement said, without elaborating. (Published reports have described Snowden as saying he made about $200,000.).

Snowden, whose current whereabouts are unknown, rocketed to international celebrity after coming forward as the source for a series of dramatic news stories uncovering NSA initiatives to collect the phone records of millions of Verizon customers in the United States and to snoop on communications like email. U.S. officials have insisted that the programs are legal, that Congress was fully briefed on them for years and that law-abiding Americans have nothing to fear. Critics have condemned them as the surveillance state run amok, with insufficient or impotent safeguards from Congress and the courts.

“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,” Booz Allen said. “We will work closely with our clients and authorities in their investigation of this matter.”

(Side note: Is it just me, or does the “Booz Allen in the News” seem a touch ... incomplete?)