NYT
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced Thursday that it would nominate Vice Adm. Michael S. Rogers to become the new director of the National Security Agency and the commander of the new Pentagon unit that directs the country’s offensive cyberoperations, according to senior administration officials.
Admiral Rogers, a cryptologist by training who has quietly risen to the top of naval intelligence operations, would become the public face of the N.S.A. at a moment that it is caught in the cross hairs of the roiling debate about whether its collection of information about American citizens and foreign leaders has exceeded legal constraints and common sense.
Admiral Rogers would succeed General Keith B. Alexander, who has served as N.S.A. director for nearly nine years and was the first to direct both the civilian spy agency and its military partner, the four-year-old United States Cyber Command.
Since General Alexander announced his plans to retire, Admiral Rogers has been viewed as the leading candidate to succeed him. But Admiral Rogers would come to the job with far more experience in code-breaking and the design of America’s new arsenal of cyberweapons than he would in dealing with the civil liberties issues that have engulfed the N.S.A.
The admiral’s nomination will have to be confirmed by the Senate, and the hearings could well become enmeshed in questions over the future of the N.S.A. and its bulk data collection programs.
A presidential advisory panel recommended in December that President Obama split the jobs of N.S.A. director and head of the Cyber Command, which would have separated the civilian surveillance and code-breaking tasks from the development of cyberweapons and the defense of military networks.
But Mr. Obama rejected that advice before the panel issued its report, concluding that the surveillance and cyberwar functions were so interrelated that separating the jobs would set the United States back in what has become a global arms race to develop cyberweapons.
The administration also intends to nominate Rick Ledgett (sic, Legdett) to serve as deputy director of the N.S.A. Mr. Ledgett leads the agency’s Media Leaks Task Force, which has been assessing the damage done by Edward J. Snowden, the former agency contractor who obtained more than a million documents as a systems administrator in Hawaii.
Mr. Ledgett, in an interview on the CBS News program “60 Minutes,” said that “it’s worth having a conversation” about granting Mr. Snowden amnesty from prosecution in return for a full accounting of what he took and where the remaining unpublished data is.
“I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured, and my bar for those assurances would be very high,” Mr. Ledgett said.
The White House immediately rejected the idea of an amnesty, but Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said recently that he would be open to talking about a plea bargain that gave Mr. Snowden a reduced sentence or reduced charges if he returned from Russia, where he is living in temporary asylum.
Legally and ethically the NSA’s programs, involving essentially limitless spying, have been a disaster for the United States.
In a statement released Thursday afternoon, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel alluded to the challenges Admiral Rogers will face. “Vice Admiral Rogers would bring extraordinary and unique qualifications to this position as the agency continues its vital mission and implements President Obama’s reforms,” Mr. Hagel said from Poland, where he is traveling. “I am also confident that Admiral Rogers has the wisdom to help balance the demands of security, privacy and liberty in our digital age.” (gag)
Mr. Obama interviewed Admiral Rogers for the job recently, and the appeal of his background was obvious: A president who has embraced the use of cyberweapons, and warned of the threat of cyberattacks on the United States, saw in the admiral a man who is described by his Navy peers as a master of a technology that is as critical to defending its fleet today as radar was when it was developed 70 years ago.
Admiral Rogers began his career not in intelligence or electronics, but in traditional surface warfare. He was commissioned via the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps after graduating from Auburn University in 1981, and worked in combat naval gunfire support, serving in operations off Grenada, Beirut and El Salvador. (Contra rebel support)
But in 1986, after five years in the service, he made a leap that prepared him for the post he is now entering: He transferred to cryptology, and trained in both electronic and information warfare. A number of assignments to various warships and carrier strike groups followed, as well as duty supporting United States and NATO missions in the Balkans and for the war in Afghanistan.
Eleven years ago, as the United States was invading Iraq, he joined the military’s prestigious Joint Staff, which works for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He specialized in computer network attack — what today is call cyberwar — and subsequently served in senior staff positions to the Joint Staff’s director and to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
In 2007, he became director of intelligence for the military’s Pacific Command, where China and its tremendous cybersurveillance abilities are a priority. Two years later he became director of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and two years ago he was named commander of the Fleet Cyber Command, created a year before with responsibilities for all of the Navy’s cyberwarfare efforts. It is the Navy’s component of the United States Cyber Command, which he will lead if confirmed.
Correction: January 30, 2014
An earlier version of this article spelled incorrectly the surname of the new deputy director of the N.S.A. He is Rick Ledgett, not Rick Leggett.
From his Military Bio page:
Vice Admiral Michael S. Rogers
Commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command
Commander, U.S. 10th Fleet
Vice Adm. Rogers is a native of Chicago and attended Auburn University, graduating in 1981 and receiving his commission via the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. Originally a surface warfare officer (SWO), he was selected for re-designation to cryptology (now Information Warfare) in 1986.
He assumed his present duties as commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/commander, U.S. 10th Fleet in September 2011. Since becoming a flag officer in 2007, Rogers has also been the director for Intelligence for both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. Pacific Command.
Duties afloat have included service at the unit level as a SWO aboard USS Caron (DD 970); at the strike group level as the senior cryptologist on the staff of Commander, Carrier Group Two/John F. Kennedy Carrier Strike Group; and, at the numbered fleet level on the staff of Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet embarked in USS Lasalle (AGF 3) as the fleet information operations (IO) officer and fleet cryptologist. He has also led cryptologic direct support missions aboard U.S. submarines and surface units in the Arabian Gulf and Mediterranean.
Ashore, Rogers commanded Naval Security Group Activity Winter Harbor, Maine (1998-2000); and, has served at Naval Security Group Department; NAVCOMSTA Rota, Spain; Naval Military Personnel Command; Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet; the Bureau of Personnel as the cryptologic junior officer detailer; and, Commander, Naval Security Group Command as aide and executive assistant (EA) to the commander.
Rogers’ joint service both afloat and ashore has been extensive and, prior to becoming a flag officer, he served at U.S. Atlantic Command, CJTF 120 Operation Support Democracy (Haiti), Joint Force Maritime Component Commander, Europe, and the Joint Staff. His Joint Staff duties (2003-2007) included leadership of the J3 Computer Network Attack/Defense and IO Operations shops, EA to the J3, EA to two Directors of the Joint Staff, special assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, director of the Chairman’s Action Group, and a leader of the JCS Joint Strategic Working Group.
Rogers is a distinguished graduate of the National War College and a graduate of highest distinction from the Naval War College. He is also an Massachusetts Institute of Technology Seminar XXI fellow and holds a Master of Science in National Security Strategy.