University of Maryland won’t say if NSA operates secret facility on campus
Officials at the University of Maryland (UMD) refused to say on Tuesday whether or not the school hosts a covert National Security Agency (NSA) facility on campus.
Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who ousted the agency’s secret PRISM program, told British newspaper The Guardian that his first job out of the Army was working “as a security guard for one of the agency’s covert facilities at the University of Maryland.”
Chief communications officer for UMD, Crystal Brown, told Campus Reform on Tuesday she had no information on the facility.
“I don’t have anything on that,” she said.
Brown did say, however, that Snowden worked as an employee of the school’s Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL), which is located on the school’s main College Park campus at 7005 52nd Avenue in College Park, Maryland.
PICTURES: Possible top-secret NSA facility at the University of Maryland
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According to CASL’s official university website, that facility is a “Department of Defense university affiliated research center” with a mission “to defend and protect our country by improving our language readiness and capabilities.”
Brown declined to provide further information on Snowden’s 2005 employment at the university.
Campus Reform, on Tuesday evening, filed a request under the Maryland Public Information Act for all documentation pertaining to Snowden’s employment including salary, duration of employment, supervisor names, job discrimination and any reports of disciplinary action.
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