Snowden lasted 5 months in Army – POLITICO

The self-proclaimed leaker joined the Army Reserve in 2004, records show. | JOHN SHINKLE/POLITICO

By Stephanie Gaskell

06/10/13 08:24 AM EDT

Updated 06/10/13 11:39 PM EDT

The former CIA computer technician who leaked last weeks explosive details about American classified surveillance programs spent just five months in the Army Reserve before he was discharged, records show.

Edward Snowden, the self-proclaimed whistleblower who sent the information to The Guardian and The Washington Post, joined up in 2004, but separated just five months later, an Army official told POLITICO.

Story Continued Below

His records indicate he enlisted in the Army Reserve as a Special Forces Recruit (18X) on 7 May 2004 but was discharged 28 September 2004. He did not complete any training or receive any awards, the spokesman said.

( PHOTOS: 10 famous whistleblowers)

Records show Snowdens birthday as June 21, 1983. The 18X is a code for an enlistment option that permits recruits to try to go directly into the Armys Special Forces, a path previously open only to serving soldiers.

Those were the new generation of SF babies they started to try to get when the war was really going back then, said Gina Cavallaro, an Army expert and author of the book Sniper: American Single-Shot Warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They didnt require college, they were looking for people they could train up quickly I think it has subsided by now, Cavallaro said. To go directly into the SF world, she said, I think you have to be smart. You cant go into those services and be just your average joe with lots of tattoos and knives. You have to be smart if you have a language its good, plus you have to be physically fit, and there are all these requirements that you have to have.

( Also on POLITICO: Snowden leak exposes cracks in contractor system)

But as it turned out, Snowden did not wind up entering the SF world he told The Guardian that he broke both his legs in a training accident. Its possible he could have injured himself as part of parachute training.

Snowden, who is currently an employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, said he has been holed up in secret at a Hong Kong hotel since taking medical leave from his job at an NSA facility in Hawaii in late May. Booz Allen said Sunday night that Snowden had been its employee for less than three months.

According to The Guardian, Snowden was raised in North Carolina and suburban Maryland. Though he did not graduate from high school, the paper said he later received a GED.

Philip Ewing contributed to this report.

Read the original here:
Snowden lasted 5 months in Army - POLITICO