No ’09 suspicion of Snowden, CIA says

WASHINGTON — The CIA has said it did not suspect Edward Snowden of gaining access to computer files without authorization when he was working as a technician for the agency in Geneva in 2009, and did not send him home as a result.

The New York Times reported Thursday that Snowden’s supervisor in Geneva wrote a derogatory report in his personnel file, noting a change in the man’s behavior and work habits, as well as a suspicion that he was trying to gain access to classified computer files he was not authorized to view.

The Times cited two senior U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the episode who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing criminal inquiry into thousands of classified documents Snowden leaked four years later, when he was a contractor for the National Security Agency.

The CIA has repeatedly refused to comment on the case, but it responded to the article in a statement, the first public acknowledgment that Snowden had worked for the agency.

“The CIA did not file any report on Snowden indicating that it suspected he was trying to break into classified computer files to which he did not have authorized access while he was employed at the CIA, nor was he returned home from an overseas assignment because of such concerns,” Todd Ebitz, an agency spokesman, said in the statement.

The conflicting reports could not immediately be reconciled.