Obama Nominates Vice Admiral Michael Rogers New NSA Chief
wiredmikey writes "President Barack Obama has nominated a US Navy officer, Vice Admiral Michael Rogers, to take over as head of the embattled National Security Agency, the Pentagon said Thursday. Rogers, 53, would take the helm at a fraught moment for the spy agency, which is under unprecedented pressure after leaks from ex-intelligence contractor Edward Snowden revealed the extent of its electronic spying. If confirmed by lawmakers, Rogers would also take over as head of the military's cyber warfare command. Rogers, who trained as an intelligence cryptologist, would succeed General Keith Alexander, who has served in the top job since 2005. He currently heads the US Fleet Cyber Command, overseeing the navy's cyber warfare specialists, and over a 30-year career has worked in cryptology and eavesdropping, or 'signals intelligence.' His confirmation hearings in the Senate are likely to be dominated by the ongoing debate about the NSA's espionage, and whether its sifting through Internet traffic and phone records violates privacy rights and democratic values."
Is this what companies do when their product turns out to have lead paint in it or something.
"Yes"
"Can you spy a lot?"
"Yes"
"You're hired."
new hiring practice at the NSA
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"Developing countries have reacted angrily to revelations that the United States spied on other governments at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009."
"Documents leaked by Edward Snowden show how the US National Security Agency (NSA) monitored communication between key countries before and during the conference to give their negotiators advance information about other positions at the high-profile meeting where world leaders including Barack Obama, Gordon Brown and Angela Merkel failed to agree to a strong deal on climate change." link
The business of Admirals is to kill people and destroy their property. An Admiral won't mind smaller violence like breaking constitutional law, lying to the public, and spending taxpayer dollars on projects to make money for a few.
Which is exactly why they need to stop putting military people in these positions.
Yes civilians can do that stuff too, but at least there's a chance, however small, that things might change. Putting another Admiral or General in charge guarantees that nothing will change.
... or is anyone else disturbed by the number of military personnel being appointed to civilian posts in the US government recently?
At what point do we just give up and announce that we're ruled by a junta already?
Dude, if they haven't dismantled the TSA, which visibly annoys people day in and day out, by now what even gave you a glimmer of hope it would happen this time? There have been so many opportunities to break up the TSA, repeal the Patriot Act, and all of the other nonsense that's been going but it seems the only person who gave a shit all of these years was Ron Paul. You see how well that went over. The only way you'll see the NSA or TSA dismantled will be when it becomes profitable for those who pay Congress' bills.
The opposition had been using the filibuster against appointments far too frequently
Fixed it for you. Hint: Democrats did the same thing.
Worry not, they'll reap what they've sowed sooner or later, when the GOP controls the Senate and White House. Politics is cyclical.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
The NSA's job is to spy, so it makes sense to hire SIGINT people. The recent problem is who they've been spying on.
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
It doesn't really matter when the thing started because agencies that ignore the existence of the Constitutions are malicious cancers that can one day kill the nation.
It is up to the President of the United States to SHUT DOWN the offending agency (and / or agencies) in order to stem the malicious progression of these dangerous agencies.
The fact that Obama refuses to shut it down says a lot about the lack of integrity of the individual. As the POTUS he has to answer not only to his own office, but also to the hundreds of millions of the Citizens of the United States of America - and in this role, Obama has failed his job as the POTUS, the oval office - the satus of which the POTUS represents, and, the ***NATION*** !
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
That's a nice false equivalence you've got there. Too bad you miss the point. Almost half of all of the nominee filibusters in the entire history of this country have been by this Republican party during this president's time in office.
The Democrats have never even done close to the same thing.
The best thing about UDP jokes is I don't care if you get them or not