Too Much Heat? NSA Director Will Step Down from World’s Most Powerful Intelligence Job
Source: motherboard.vice.com
NSA Director Keith Alexander Will Step Down from the World’s Most Powerful Intelligence Job
NSA Director Keith Alexander is reportedly leaving his post as head of the agency, after six months of fervently defending the US government’s decision to spy on the internet activity of citizens around the world.
Alexander will step down by April or May of next year. What’s more, the agency’s deputy director Chris Inglis also plans to retire by the end of next year, anonymous US officials told Reuters today.
Though the news comes in the midst of a global public backlash over the NSA’s widespread surveillance programs, it’s worth pointing out that Alexander had revealed his plans to retire before Edward Snowden leaked details of PRISM in June. Officials didn’t give a reason for his departure.
This will leave the top two spots in the NSA open for President Obama to fill, giving the president a chance to reshape the controversy-laden agency. Aside from being criticized as the architect and top cheerleader for government snooping, Alexander has caused tension in some circles in Washington for having amassed a sweeping amount of power that harkens back to the J. Edgar Hoover years.
Alexander’s headed up the NSA since 2005, the longest anyone’s held the position, and is also commander of US Cyber Command—a position that got him promoted to a four-star general. His unique position as the head of both agencies gives him the responsibility of spotting a threat in cyberspace as well as the authority to launch an offensive attack. Blurring that line between military action and intelligence gathering has some people nervous, especially in the formative years of shaping America’s cyber-strategy.
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Read the full article at: motherboard.vice.com
READ: NSA director heckled, shouted at, by hackers at Black Hat
The NSA Spying and Lying Does Relate to 9/11
By Kevin Ryan | GlobalResearch
Earlier this month, National Security Agency (NSA) head Keith Alexander admitted that he had lied to the U.S. Congress and the American people in an attempt to justify the NSA’s growing surveillance of U.S. citizens.[1]
In June, while attempting to defend the secret NSA programs revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, Alexander claimed that over 50 terrorist plots had been thwarted though collection of the phone and internet records of American citizens. Alexander said that his agency had provided Congress with 54 specific cases in which the programs helped disrupt terror plots in the U.S. and around the world.[2]
Just a few weeks before the “54 plots” claim, Alexander had testified to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee that NSA spying on American citizens had played a critical role in thwarting “dozens” of terrorist attacks.[3] Alexander spent the next three months declaring that the NSA’s spying on Americans was preventing terrorism and another 9/11.
None of that was true as we found out a few weeks ago. Of the 54 alleged plots, only one or two were identified as a result of bulk phone record collection, according to Alexander’s most recent comments. That number has since been whittled down to just one incident that wasn’t a terrorist plot at all but was a case of a cab driver sending cash to an alleged terrorist organization.[4] Bottom line ― the NSA spying on Americans has not stopped any terrorist plots, let alone dozens or 54.
Alexander’s lies followed closely after National Intelligence Director James Clapper’s lie, or as he called it ― his “least most untruthful statement” ― that the NSA was not even collecting information on large number of Americans citizens. In March, Clapper appeared before Congress and was asked “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Clapper replied, “No, sir.” Clapper’s blatant lie was premeditated. Senator Ron Wyden’s office had sent him the question the day before the hearing.[5]
Overlooking these unprosecuted felonies, the idea that the NSA programs prevent terrorism is absurd given NSA’s knowledge about previous terrorist suspects. Although the Bush and Obama administrations have claimed for more than a decade that spying on Americans was justified by 9/11, the intelligence the NSA had prior to 9/11 was enough to stop the attacks. Three examples help to demonstrate this fact.
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Read the full article at: globalresearch.ca
Tune into Red Ice Radio:
Patrick Henningsen - Hour 1 - Syria, Snowden, NSA & the Whistleblower Circus
Jon Rappoport - Hour 1 - The Surveillance State & War on the Individual
James Bamford - NSA, U.S. Cyber Command & the Global Brave New World of Surveillance
Patrick Henningsen - Hour 1 - Syria, Snowden, NSA & the Whistleblower Circus
Russ Baker - Michael Hastings, Libya Repeating in Syria & JFK
