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United States Government Privacy

NSA Director Keith Alexander Is Reportedly Stepping Down 92

Daniel_Stuckey writes "Keith 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."
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NSA Director Keith Alexander Is Reportedly Stepping Down

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    He's got enough peep show pron to last him 5 lifetimes now.

  • A better idea (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17, 2013 @07:19AM (#45151443)
    Throw them both in prison for ten years for breaking the law.
    • by trum4n ( 982031 )
      50 years.
      • by Anonymous Coward

        No, reenact the Nuremberg trials!

    • Re:A better idea (Score:5, Informative)

      by TWiTfan ( 2887093 ) on Thursday October 17, 2013 @07:35AM (#45151551)

      Silly rabbit, laws are for the poor and weak.

      • And scapegoats! Don't forget the scapegoating! The NSA could totally scapegoat him. Which would be better than what I'm guessing is going to happen: not a damn thing, and the clear message being sent to all future directors of spy agencies: you are operating utterly above the law. At least if we make one guy go to jail, that will give future directors pause before they ignore the constitution.
    • Re:A better idea (Score:5, Insightful)

      by P-niiice ( 1703362 ) on Thursday October 17, 2013 @07:56AM (#45151741)
      Then throw congress in jail for making it legal. The Patriot act is what you get when you let anger guide your choices.
      • Re:A better idea (Score:5, Informative)

        by amiga3D ( 567632 ) on Thursday October 17, 2013 @08:02AM (#45151785)

        Actually they exceeded even the minor limitations of the Patriot Act. They lied to Congress about what they were doing as well which is a felony. It seems that if you have enough power the law doesn't apply to you nowadays. If Nixon were president today he wouldn't need to resign.

        • Implied recognition that Obama and Nixon are much the same...
          • Bullshit. On the other hand, I like the argument that Obama = Bush.

          • by Anonymous Coward

            No, Bush and Obama are worse. Nixon could only cream in his pants at the thought of what those two get away with. Nixon merely spied on the opposite party, using clumsy physical thugs. Bush/Obama are spying on 300+ million people and that's just the domestic number.

            • by amiga3D ( 567632 )

              You have to wonder what Tricky Dick could have done in this day and age don't you? Imagine J. Edgar Hoover with all these new toys and info systems. Oh man!

          • by amiga3D ( 567632 )

            Don't read too much into it. I just grabbed Nixon's name because he was the only President to resign. Obama may be liberal but I don't think he's crooked. He uses the government to rob people which is entirely legal.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by intermodal ( 534361 )

          It's law, it's just unconstitutional law. And you're right, exceeding their authority is a form of usurpation.

          • The Patriot act passed both houses, it was found to be constitutional, it's the law. Get over it.
            • Portions maybe, but the convenient loophole these days is to refuse to hear cases by claiming the parties bringing suit lack standing. Especially when the claimants are actively prevented from gathering information to prove standing, though sometimes they just reject that outright in the first place.

            • by TheCarp ( 96830 )

              Then its time to stop seeing the laws of this country as legitimate. New constitution, the old one FAILED.

              • Re:A better idea (Score:5, Interesting)

                by RenderSeven ( 938535 ) on Thursday October 17, 2013 @01:02PM (#45155217)
                Oh dear gods no!!!! Could you IMAGINE the piece of crap constitution that would be written these days?? By committees and lobbyists and lawyers (oh my)??

                There are 4 pages and 4543 words in the original, unamended Constitution including the signatures. It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world. Compare that to 960 pages for the ACA, about 1300 for a typical Bible, and a whopping 73954 pages for the tax code. I shudder to think what a New and Improved constitution would look like.
                • More than anything else, we need a government reset, not a constitution rewrite. I've been saying since the late 90s that the biggest thing we can do to save our nation from its government is to simply take the time, as a nation, to re-evaluate every part of the US Code and other governmental acts and throw most of them out on the grounds of either being discredited or outmoded based on its intent, or no longer performing its intended function for other reasons. What remains after such a process would def

              • It's not the constitution that fails when the men who execute it are what broke it. The constitution itself is still fairly solid, our government's adherence to it not so much.

            • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by Anonymous Coward

        Anger? We are talking about budgets worth tens to hundreds of billions of dollars. You are going to have a hard time convincing me that anger is a bigger movitator than greed. It barely takes a sneeze to leverage $10 million out of a $10 billion cash flow.

      • by sjames ( 1099 )

        Given the size of the Patriot act and how quickly it was introduced, it's clear it was sitting in someone's desk ready to go. They just waited for something they could whip up into a panic and then introduced it as the cure to what ails ya.

      • It didn't work out for Anakin Skywalker and it hasn't worked out for us. Will we ever learn?
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I'm sure they saw it coming.

    • I'm sure they saw it coming.

      He saw it on his long range sensors.

    • Re:Well (Score:5, Funny)

      by TWiTfan ( 2887093 ) on Thursday October 17, 2013 @07:43AM (#45151609)

      President Obama: "Well Keith, I'm here to.."

      Keith Alexander: "Ask me to resign, yeah I knew."

      President Obama: Whaat..how you did you know?

      Keith Alexander: "Several of your aides mentioned it within hearing distance of their cellphone mikes yesterday."

      President Obama: "Well okay, what are you planning on doing now?"

      Keith Alexander: "Probably spend a few days whacking it to these pictures I captured from your daughter's cellphone camera. Then I'm going to become the most powerful lobbyist in Washington with all this blackmail material."

    • If he saw it coming then Snowden would have had an unfortunate accident.

  • by Required Snark ( 1702878 ) on Thursday October 17, 2013 @07:24AM (#45151467)
    So he can devote all his energies to spying on his family and friends.
  • by TWiTfan ( 2887093 ) on Thursday October 17, 2013 @07:33AM (#45151529)

    They should give him a t-shirt that says "I raped my country's Constitution and all I got was full my federal pension, lifetime healthcare benefits, full pardon for all my crimes, and this lousy t-shirt."

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I'll pay for the shirt, just tell me where to have it sent.

    • Oh please...congress raped the constitution long before these guys and they get re-elected time and time again. These people are saints by comparison.

  • by TheloniousToady ( 3343045 ) on Thursday October 17, 2013 @07:41AM (#45151601)

    Although the general public has always known about the CIA, they used to be totally unaware of existence of the NSA. So, although it's not remarkable that the NSA's head is retiring, it is remarkable that the public knows - or cares - about it. The Puzzle Palace just ain't what it used to be.

  • by Dishwasha ( 125561 ) on Thursday October 17, 2013 @08:42AM (#45152149)

    After an extensive audit, it was uncovered that Keith Alexander had system administrator right [slashdot.org].

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Will there be any follow up to that?

  • NSA Director Keith Alexander Is Reportedly Stepping Down

    yes ... reportedly. Maybe he'll start doing it for real now he's finished being a front-man.

  • One thing that people talked about was that Alexander knew too much dirt on everyone and couldn't be forced to resign. It makes it easier that he stepped down voluntarily.

    If you think about it, the NSA had enough information to force former CIA director David Patraeus to resign. I'm not saying they did, I'm just saying that they had the information and could have done it if they wanted to. But at the same time they were not able to prevent actual terrorists like the ones who attacked Westgate mall. The

  • by FuzzNugget ( 2840687 ) on Thursday October 17, 2013 @09:35AM (#45152733)
    ... to get nothing more than a cushy retirement after having committed countless crimes against millions of people.
  • Given that he is not stepping down into a Gen Pop PMITA prison (whilst we are still in his) means he wins.
  • may you rot in hell.
  • Just as the State will destroy DNA evidence that can exonerate prisoners already put to death - to prevent "undermining of the death penalty system", drones rain down down terror on largely innocent populations and bystanders - in the name of the war on terror, now the NSA is seeking to persecute Snowden for espionage, theft and conversion of Government property (data) - data which revealed that the NSA is doing exactly those things on as large a scale as their technology allows. Justice, liberty, privacy,
  • I just sent in my application by emailing it to one of my other accounts.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    "The spook you are trying to reach is no longer in service. Please hold while, and another bureaucrat will soon pretend not to be monitoring the line."

  • Form a consulting company and overcharge the government to provide more bad advice at the highest price.
  • by Rozzin ( 9910 ) on Thursday October 17, 2013 @10:49AM (#45153533) Homepage

    the news comes in the midst of a global public backlash over the NSA's widespread surveillance programs

    I can't find a reliable source for this now, but I seem to remember someone saying recently (on another, less significant matter): "I don't want to know who's getting fired, I want to know who's going to jail."

    Of course, we're not even talking about someone getting fired--we're talking about someone retiring....

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Am I the only one who finds this a little amusing?

    "anonymous US officials told Reuters today"

    Nice to hear US official can maintain anonymity.

  • The NSA has demonstrated government out of control. The whole agency has got to go. The US, my country, has not only created terrorism where it is the primary target (If the "they hate our freedom" is the cause, then why aren't other free countries targeted as well?) but has managed to lose its trust and influence all over the world due to the NSA's behaviors. Worse, it is also affecting American business as they have been shown to be extremely complicit and so also cannot easily be trusted. I'd like to

  • ...Is so that he can work on the review board that is set to investigate the NSA. At least, that's what I imagine will happen.

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