[h=3]By DEVLIN BARRETT And ERIC MORATH[/h]Leak investigators are scouring National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden's personal and professional life to try to determine if anyone helped him gather secret documents about sensitive intelligence programs before he gave them to reporters, according to people familiar with the probe.
Officials said they haven't found evidence suggesting he had an accomplice, but they need to investigate further to be sure that no other leaker or potential leaker is associated with him.
Authorities have also begun weighing what possible criminal charges they could file against Mr. Snowden. That work is complicated by the fact that his last known location was Hong Kong. Any charge would have to conform with the U.S. extradition treaty with Hong Kong, which only applies to offenses that areserious crimes in both jurisdictions.
People familiar with the discussions said federal prosecutors are weighing charges ranging from theft of government property to espionage. In order for Mr. Snowden to be extradited from Hong Kong, the latter charge would have to come with a pledge he wouldn't face the death penalty, because Hong Kong's extradition treaty forbids turning over someone who faces possible execution.
Separately, probers are also tracing Mr. Snowden's electronic footprints inside the NSA, these people said. Mr. Snowden had been an employee of government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp., working at an NSA facility in Hawaii in recent months.
Mr. Snowden, who outed himself Sunday as the source of recent stories about secret government operations to gather large amounts of phone and Internet user data, was a relatively small player in the U.S. intelligence apparatus, according to people familiar with his case. His job, however, allowed him access to computer systems that contained highly sensitive information, according to these people.
One person said his position was not much different from that of Bradley Manning, the Army private who, despite his low rank, was able to take a trove of U.S. documents and share them with the website WikiLeaks.
Mr. Snowden, 29 years old, checked out of his Hong Kong hotel Monday, and his whereabouts couldn't be determined. His public admissions on the website of the Guardian newspaper make it more likely the U.S. government will prosecute him, but he told the newspaper he hoped Hong Kong or another host country would resist any attempts to extradite him to face charges.
In the Guardian interview, Mr. Snowden said he worried about the consequences his actions might have for his family. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents spoke Monday with his father, who lives in Pennsylvania. His father didn't speak to reporters outside his home.
By his mother's home in Ellicott City, Md., neighbor Joyce Kinsey said she sympathized with the family, but didn't support what he had done.
"I'm saddened by what's taken place,'' said Ms. Kinsey, 63. "I don't like what the government is doing, but I don't believe someone should come forth and give away secrets.…If he didn't like it, he should have quit his job and started a special-interest group. This was not the right way.''
She said Mr. Snowden had lived at the suburban home about 12 years ago, for a period of about two years. Ms. Kinsey described him as nice but not outgoing, saying he would say hello if spoken to but usually didn't make eye contact.
Military records show that Mr. Snowden joined the Army Reserve in May 2004 as a Special Forces recruit, but was discharged four months later. Mr. Snowden told the Guardian he left the military after breaking his legs during training.
He told the paper he ended up getting a security job for the NSA in Maryland and later worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. After leaving that job, he became a contractor for the NSA. He had worked for Booz Allen Hamilton for about three months, he said, when he flew to Hong Kong.
Mr. Snowden told the Guardian that he also had worked for Dell Inc. as a U.S. contractor, but it refused to confirm that.
His disclosures to the Guardian and the Washington Post have provided new details of large-scale data-gathering and storage programs that the government says are important tools in detecting and preventing terror plots. Under one program, the NSA collects phone-call records of millions of Americans, including the numbers called and the time and duration of the calls. Another program, called Prism, targets foreign Internet traffic, though questions remain about how often it collects information on the online activity of U.S. citizens or residents.
Some lawmakers have called for Mr. Snowden's swift extradition and prosecution from Hong Kong. Among some prominent figures on the far left and far right, though, his actions engendered sympathy.
Conservative radio host Glenn Beck and liberal documentary filmmaker Michael Moore have both praised Mr. Snowden. More than 100 Snowden supporters gathered for a rainy rally on his behalf Monday in New York.
Some are raising funds online for Mr. Snowden. Dwight Crow, an employee at Facebook, launched an online campaign that had raised more than $8,000 by Monday afternoon.
—Rebecca Ballhaus
and Andrew Aylward
contributed to this article.
Officials said they haven't found evidence suggesting he had an accomplice, but they need to investigate further to be sure that no other leaker or potential leaker is associated with him.
Authorities have also begun weighing what possible criminal charges they could file against Mr. Snowden. That work is complicated by the fact that his last known location was Hong Kong. Any charge would have to conform with the U.S. extradition treaty with Hong Kong, which only applies to offenses that areserious crimes in both jurisdictions.
People familiar with the discussions said federal prosecutors are weighing charges ranging from theft of government property to espionage. In order for Mr. Snowden to be extradited from Hong Kong, the latter charge would have to come with a pledge he wouldn't face the death penalty, because Hong Kong's extradition treaty forbids turning over someone who faces possible execution.
Separately, probers are also tracing Mr. Snowden's electronic footprints inside the NSA, these people said. Mr. Snowden had been an employee of government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp., working at an NSA facility in Hawaii in recent months.
Mr. Snowden, who outed himself Sunday as the source of recent stories about secret government operations to gather large amounts of phone and Internet user data, was a relatively small player in the U.S. intelligence apparatus, according to people familiar with his case. His job, however, allowed him access to computer systems that contained highly sensitive information, according to these people.
One person said his position was not much different from that of Bradley Manning, the Army private who, despite his low rank, was able to take a trove of U.S. documents and share them with the website WikiLeaks.
Mr. Snowden, 29 years old, checked out of his Hong Kong hotel Monday, and his whereabouts couldn't be determined. His public admissions on the website of the Guardian newspaper make it more likely the U.S. government will prosecute him, but he told the newspaper he hoped Hong Kong or another host country would resist any attempts to extradite him to face charges.
In the Guardian interview, Mr. Snowden said he worried about the consequences his actions might have for his family. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents spoke Monday with his father, who lives in Pennsylvania. His father didn't speak to reporters outside his home.
By his mother's home in Ellicott City, Md., neighbor Joyce Kinsey said she sympathized with the family, but didn't support what he had done.
"I'm saddened by what's taken place,'' said Ms. Kinsey, 63. "I don't like what the government is doing, but I don't believe someone should come forth and give away secrets.…If he didn't like it, he should have quit his job and started a special-interest group. This was not the right way.''
She said Mr. Snowden had lived at the suburban home about 12 years ago, for a period of about two years. Ms. Kinsey described him as nice but not outgoing, saying he would say hello if spoken to but usually didn't make eye contact.
Military records show that Mr. Snowden joined the Army Reserve in May 2004 as a Special Forces recruit, but was discharged four months later. Mr. Snowden told the Guardian he left the military after breaking his legs during training.
He told the paper he ended up getting a security job for the NSA in Maryland and later worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. After leaving that job, he became a contractor for the NSA. He had worked for Booz Allen Hamilton for about three months, he said, when he flew to Hong Kong.
Mr. Snowden told the Guardian that he also had worked for Dell Inc. as a U.S. contractor, but it refused to confirm that.
His disclosures to the Guardian and the Washington Post have provided new details of large-scale data-gathering and storage programs that the government says are important tools in detecting and preventing terror plots. Under one program, the NSA collects phone-call records of millions of Americans, including the numbers called and the time and duration of the calls. Another program, called Prism, targets foreign Internet traffic, though questions remain about how often it collects information on the online activity of U.S. citizens or residents.
Some lawmakers have called for Mr. Snowden's swift extradition and prosecution from Hong Kong. Among some prominent figures on the far left and far right, though, his actions engendered sympathy.
Conservative radio host Glenn Beck and liberal documentary filmmaker Michael Moore have both praised Mr. Snowden. More than 100 Snowden supporters gathered for a rainy rally on his behalf Monday in New York.
Some are raising funds online for Mr. Snowden. Dwight Crow, an employee at Facebook, launched an online campaign that had raised more than $8,000 by Monday afternoon.
—Rebecca Ballhaus
and Andrew Aylward
contributed to this article.