Despite firing one if its own employees for leaking information about the National Security Agency's surveillance programs, Booz Allen Hamilton appears more than willing to jumpstart a discussion on the importance of transparency in society.
Need proof? The defense contractor financially backed a discussion entitled "Matter of Debate: Is Privacy Paramount or Should We Live in a Transparent Society?" at the 2013 Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado this past weekend.
Dave Weigel, a reporter for Slate, tweeted the following picture from the conference:
"We have been a sponsor of the Aspen Ideas Festival since its origination," James Fisher, Booz Allen's senior manager of media relations, told The Huffington Post. "We have been a long time sponsor for the Aspen Institute. We feel very strongly in the importance of the exchange of ideas and discussion."
The event comes just weeks after Edward Snowden, a former Booz Allen employee, revealed that he accepted a job at the company with the ulterior motive of gathering evidence on NSA data collection networks. Booz Allen has since fired Snowden, calling his leak a "a grave violation of the code of conduct and core values of our firm."
Close to half of the firm's 25,000 employees work with information that would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security if leaked, according to The New York Times.
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