Not sure how I feel about this:
The director of the U.S. National Security Agency and his deputy are expected to depart in the coming months, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, in a development that could give President Barack Obama a chance to reshape the eavesdropping agency….
Alexander has formalized plans to leave by next March or April, while his civilian deputy, John “Chris” Inglis, is due to retire by year’s end, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
While his misleading answers to Congress may have gotten him in hot water, his job as Director really can’t be faulted. The NSA is supposed to eavesdrop. They are the eyes and ears of our national security. If they didn’t deploy these kind of tactics:
The NSA is “focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets,” an NSA spokeswoman said in a statement provided to The Post on Wednesday, adding that the agency’s operations “protect the nation and its interests from threats such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”
In the search for targets, the NSA has draped a surveillance blanket over dozens of square miles of northwest Pakistan. In Ghul’s case, the agency deployed an arsenal of cyber-espionage tools, secretly seizing control of laptops, siphoning audio files and other messages, and tracking radio transmissions to determine where Ghul might “bed down.”
The e-mail from Ghul’s wife “about her current living conditions” contained enough detail to confirm the coordinates of that household, according to a document summarizing the mission. “This information enabled a capture/kill operation against an individual believed to be Hassan Ghul on October 1,” it said.
The file is part of a collection of records in the Snowden trove that make clear that the drone campaign — often depicted as the CIA’s exclusive domain — relies heavily on the NSA’s ability to vacuum up enormous quantities of e-mail, phone calls and other fragments of signals intelligence, or SIGINT.
Then what the hell are they supposed to do? It’s the digital age and I would of been disappointed if the NSA had not adapted and been out in front in the spying business.
Whether its a Democrat in office or a Republican, our intelligence agencies need to be able to do the job it is tasked with doing without leaks harming our national security.
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Out go all the heads of the military, now out goes the head of the NSA so Obama can take complete control.
Wonderful.
I don’t know if it is ”national” or just local news BUT…
The data collection center in Utah is suffering lots of meltdowns and bugs….glitches.
Also, after all the expense of building it, it looks like the main thing it will store is what we usually delete from our emails as SPAM.
OK, that is the story out there for public consumption.
There were even local reports that the place has had explosions inside and fires.
The contractor, who I personally met and spoke with numerous times while the place was being built, claims the flaws causing the fires is part of its many design flaws.
The US Army Corps of Engineers disagrees but admits they have little to no understanding of the Center’s designs.
So, whichever.
Supposedly the NSA cannot reap data from the Utah Data Collection Center at all.
Do I believe them when they claim this?
Why should I?
The lie for a living.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304441404579119490744478398.html
http://www.nextgov.com/defense/2013/10/nsa-hides-construction-debacle-12-billion-spy-compound/71567/
Yeah, NSA is supposed to spy, but on the enemy, not on us.
And yes, it sounds to me like Obama is purging people who might oppose him, or who might be an embarrassment to him. Would-be dictators do things like that.
@Joseph P. Martino: I totally agree. He has been getting rid of general officers that are not towing the line. All that NSA spying helped him do it. Don’t be surprised if he tries to revise the 22nd amendment. This man wants to be king.
Obama may have taken note of what happened to JFK after he had opposed the CIA/NSA & DOD. Not that I don’t wish Obama would retire right now but the NSA is so far beyond it’s actual usefulness, we should scratch the whole thing and start over!
They are not supposed to be spying on us, identifying every American who is opposed to socialist government to target them for SWAT raids and audits and pre-emptory arrest and interrogation. This is a Stazi tactic designed to eliminate the necessary fear that government should have of a free people.