02.14.14
Fire the nobodies
The director of the N.S.A., Gen. Keith B. Alexander, is retiring next month after serving far longer than his predecessors. The director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., who has also been a focus of criticism for failing to police the speed at which security upgrades have been conducted throughout the intelligence community, remains in office.
Both men, and their wives, were guests at the state dinner on Tuesday night for France’s president, François Hollande, which was widely interpreted as an indication they remained in good stead at the White House.
“The National Security Agency has told Congress that it has forced out a civilian employee after a lengthy investigation to ‘assign accountability’ for the disclosure of intelligence secrets by Edward J. Snowden, one of its former contractors,” reads the Times.
“Two others — identified only as an active-duty military member and another contractor — were ‘removed from access to N.S.A. information’ and facilities last August.”
Another contractor most probably means Mike McConnell’s cybersecurity unit at Booz Allen Hamilton, Edward Snowden’s former proxy employer at the NSA.
Business as usual at Versailles-on-Potomac.
Cynically, there is no reason to hold them in poor standing from the perspective of national leadership. They’ve done what they thought they were supposed to, which was to expand the reach and power of national cyberwar and cyber-spying.
That Edward Snowden would be perceived globally as the good guy must be vexing to them. “How can this be so?” they must wonder. “We are the good guys, not the bad guy.”
Has it not occurred to them that they’re extraordinarily lucky? There has been only one Edward Snowden. The bad guys have a pretty loyal club.
I’ll keep you informed when General Keith cashes in his chips. I would forecast a multi-million dollar signing bonus for going to head the cybersdefense operation of a major arms manufacturer plus, possibly, a million dollar book advance to tell his side of the Snowden story.
Keith Alexander — from the archives.