Snowden’s alleged CIA computer misuse and internal investigation prior to his NSA tenure

54 Snowden, as a CIA communications officer, was authorized to use the computer system. The problem was that Snowden had deliberately misused it by adding code to it. This code could have compromised the security of the CIA’s “live system.” So while what the CIA public affairs officer said was correct, it clouded the issue. For his part, Snowden blamed his career-ending “derog” on an “e-mail spat” with a superior. From Moscow, he wrote James Risen of the New York Times that his superior officer ordered him not “to rock the boat.” Further, he complained that the technical team at the CIA station in Geneva had “brushed him off’ even though he had a legitimate complaint. When he complained about a flaw in the computer system, he said that his superior took vengeance on him. He said he added the code to the system prove he was right. He attributed the “derog” in his file to the incompetence, blindness and errors of his superiors. According to Snowden, he was a victim. This would not be the last time he faulted superiors for their incompetency. He would later say that the NSA experts who examined the documents that he had stolen as “totally incapable.” In any case, in February 2009, Snowden not only had a career-damaging “derog” in his file but he faced an internal investigation of his suspicious computer activities. According to Tyler Drumheller, the former CIA chief for Europe, such an internal investigation was not undertaken lightly or because of an “email spat.” He said that such an investigation was “a big deal” involving the CIA Office of Security in Washington and possibly the FBI. It would also result in the temporary suspension of his secrecy clearance. This left Snowden with little choice. If he wanted avoid the investigation, he had to resign from the CIA, which he did. That was the end of the security investigation. He was clearly bitter about the CIA, posting on Ars Technica on January 10, 2009, “Obama just appointed a fucking POLITICIAN to run the CIA!” (He was referring to Leon Panetta, President Clinton’s former chief of staff.) Snowden attributed the origins of his antipathy to US intelligence to his 2007-2009 experiences in the CIA. Snowden later told Vanity Fair that the 2009 incident in the CIA convinced him that working “through the system would lead only to reprisals.” "Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," he told the Guardian in June 2013. "I realized that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good." Snowden, if not yet a ticking time bomb, was certainly a disgruntled intelligence worker before he ever got to the NSA HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020206