Friday, October 11, 2013

Has The White House Abandoned The NSA?

NSA chief Keith Alexander, DNI James Clapper and Deputy Attorney General James Cole testify before the Senate intelligence committee. Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters

NSA Veterans: The White House Is Hanging Us Out to Dry -- Shane Harris, Foreign Policy

'There has been no support for the agency from the President, and this has not gone unnoticed.'

Gen. Keith Alexander and his senior leadership team at the National Security Agency are angry and dispirited by what they see as the White House's failure to defend the spy agency against criticism of its surveillance programs, according to four people familiar with the NSA chiefs' thinking. The top brass of the country's biggest spy agency feels they've been left twisting in the wind, abandoned by the White House and left largely to defend themselves in public and in Congress against allegations of unconstitutional spying on Americans.

Former intelligence officials closely aligned with the NSA criticized President Obama for saying little publicly to defend the agency, and for not emphasizing that some leaked or officially disclosed documents arguably show the NSA operating within its legal authorities.

Read more ....

My Comment: The White House still supports the NSA .... otherwise there would have been a house cleaning a long time ago .... but because they are not expressing support publicly .... this is starting to irk some NSA veterans. I suspect that these veteran NSA officials must know that the White House is only positioning itself to claim ignorance in the event that more disclosures and embarrassments become public .... and if it intensifies .... will be looking for a "fall guy" in the event that it becomes too much of an embarrassment.

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