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EYES ON AMERICA’S TOP SPY:
MICHAEL ROGERS
Editor’s note: This article was reposted from its original
source: New America Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan public policy think
tank that shares its editorial with the blogging community with proper credit.
GUEST BLOG—By Shane Harris at New America
Foundation--This week, the Obama administration unveiled its plans to put an
end to the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of millions of Americans
phone records. That’s a first step towards shutting down the most controversial
of all the NSA programs revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden. While
important details remain to be ironed out, and the plan still needs to be
reconciled with a proposed bill in the House of Representatives, it now seems
all but certain that the NSA will have to go to phone companies and ask for
access to Americans’ data, rather than hold onto the records itself.
Settling
that thorny issue may come as welcome news for Adm. Michael Rogers, whom
President Barack Obama tapped in January to be the next director of the NSA and
the next commander of U.S. Cyber Command, two of the most prominent and
powerful positions in all of American intelligence. It wasn’t a surprise pick.
Indeed,
Rogers had been groomed to become the next head of the NSA, the nation’s
largest intelligence agency and its primary gatherer of signals
intelligence–phone calls, emails, and other electronic communications. The
Chicago native was already the head of signals intelligence for the Navy, and
in his 30-year military career has worked in that field as well as cryptology,
the other pillar of the NSA’s mission.
It will fall
to Rogers to restore the agency’s credibility and manage the stream of leaks
that shows no signs of abating.
But Rogers
is also in charge of U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, the Navy’s cyber defense and
warfare group. As such, he is both the Navy’s chief electronic spy and its top
cyber warrior. That made him rarely suited among senior military officers to
take over from Army Gen. Keith Alexander, who currently serves as both the NSA
director and the head of Cyber Command. Both organizations work in tandem to
penetrate foreign computer systems, steal information, and lay the groundwork
for cyber attacks, which only the president, or, in rare cases, the secretary
of defense, can authorize. They also work to protect U.S. computer systems from
penetration by foreign governments and hackers.
Numerous
experts, including President Obama’s own NSA review panel which was established
to investigate programs revealed Snowden, have recommended that the NSA and
Cyber Command be run by different people, arguing that this “dual-hatted”
position gives too much power and authority to one person. Alexander became the
first Cyber Command chief in 2010, after he’d been running the NSA for five
years. Supporters for keeping the two positions linked say Cyber Command needs
the NSA’s manpower – more than 30,000 employees worldwide – and its technical
expertise in defending computer networks and launching computer attacks.
To make both
organizations work smoothly together, they need a single leader. That argument
won out, and Obama rejected calls to have the NSA and Cyber Command run by
separate people. If Cyber Command matures in the next few years and builds up
enough staff and expertise to stand on its own, Rogers may be the last person
to serve in both roles. But for now, he wears both hats, and will arguably be
the most influential and important intelligence official in the U.S. government
once he is confirmed.
Rogers’
confirmation is all but guaranteed. But prior to the hearing held earlier this
month, the big unanswered question was how he would navigate the tricky
political waters in which the NSA finds itself now. The agency has never faced
such intense public scrutiny or criticism of its normally secret activities. It
will fall to Rogers to restore the agency’s credibility and manage the stream
of leaks that shows no signs of abating. He will have some help in that regard
from his new deputy director, Rick Ledgett, an NSA veteran who most recently
led the agency’s task force investigating the Snowden leaks and assessing what
damage they may have caused.
For now,
[Rogers] wears both hats, and will arguably be the most influential and
important intelligence official in the U.S. government once he is confirmed.
“The United
States government … still [has] no idea what documents were provided to the
journalists, what they have, what they don’t have,” Rogers told senators,
striking a cautious, somewhat non-committal tone. Snowden’s disclosures have
given U.S. adversaries “greater insights into what we [the U.S. military and
intelligence agencies] do and how we did it,” Rogers said. But he didn’t say
how or what particular operations had been compromised. And asked whether he
considered Snowden a “traitor,” Rogers sidestepped. “I don’t know that I would
use the word ‘traitor,’ but I do not consider him a hero.
Rogers held
his own in the hearing, and at least partly answered the question of whether
he’s up for the political challenge of running the NSA in the affirmative. But
there are still big operational challenges to come. Assuming Rogers is
confirmed soon, it will fall to him to manage the plan for reforming the phone
records program. He’ll also have to work hard to repair the agency’s
relationship with U.S. technology companies and foreign governments, who have
protested NSA’s spying on foreign leaders. There’s a cost to the revelations,
both in terms of lost business and damaged reputations for the companies, and
diplomatic strains with allies. Rogers can’t fix those problems on his own, but
if he can defend the agency at the same time demonstrate that he’s listening to
critics, he will start to repair the damage.
Those who
know him have predicted that Rogers will come through unscathed. “He’s just a
steady hand. You never saw a ruffled feather,” said retired Admiral Gary
Roughead, who was the chief of naval operations when Rogers was the Navy’s
intelligence director, a position that has been a stepping stone to the NSA.
“As he has approached all things, he’ll do [the job] in a very thoughtful,
principled way.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shane Harris is a Future Tense Fellow
at New America, and a senior writer at Foreign Policy magazine, where he covers
national security, intelligence, and cyber security. He is writing a book on
cyber warfare. He is the recipient of the 2010 Gerald R. Ford Prize for
Distinguished Reporting on National Defense.
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