Key officials advocate NSA, Cyber Command leadership be split up

National Security Agency Seal (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

Ellen Nakashima | The Washington Post | Social Reader | November 30, 2013

Key senior administration officials have advocated splitting the leadership of the nation’s largest spy agency from that of the military’s cyberwarfare command as a final White House decision nears, according to individuals briefed on the discussions.

At a White House meeting of senior national security officials last week, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. said he was in favor of ending the current policy of having one official in charge of both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, said the individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Also, officials appear inclined to install a civilian as director of the NSA for the first time in the agency’s 61-year history. Among those said to be potential successors to the current director, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, is his deputy, John C. “Chris” Inglis.

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N.S.A. Chief Says Phone Logs Halted Terror Threats

Christopher Gregory/The New York Times

Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency, testified Wednesday before a Senate committee.

DAVID E. SANGER, CHARLIE SAVAGE and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT | New York Times | June 12, 2013

WASHINGTON — The director of the National Security Agency told Congress on Wednesday that “dozens” of terrorism threats had been halted by the agency’s huge database of the logs of nearly every domestic phone call made by Americans, while a senator briefed on the program disclosed that the telephone records are destroyed after five years.

The director, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, who heads both the N.S.A. and United States Cyber Command, which runs the military’s offensive and defensive use of cyberweapons, told skeptical members of the Senate Appropriations Committee that his agency was doing exactly what Congress authorized after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

General Alexander said he welcomed debate over the legal justification for the program because “what we’re doing to protect American citizens here is the right thing.” He said the agency “takes great pride in protecting this nation and our civil liberties and privacy” under the oversight of Congress and the courts.

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