John McCain says NSA chief Keith Alexander 'should resign or be fired'

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: Guardian UK

Senator John McCain has called for Keith Alexander to "resign or be fired" as the head of the National Security Agency, in an interview with the German news weekly Der Spiegel published on Sunday.

The senator for Arizona, a former Republican presidential candidate, said Alexander should be held accountable for the leaks of thousands of documents by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, which revealed NSA surveillance and spying on a massive scale. McCain said Snowden, who worked for the NSA as a contractor, should never have had access to classified information.

"And now we have a contractor employee, not a government employee, who has access to information which is, when revealed, most damaging to the standing prestige of the United States and our relations with some of our best friends," McCain said. "Why did Edward Snowden have that information? And what are we doing as far as screening people who have access to this information? It's outrageous, and someone ought to be held accountable."

President Barack Obama, the NSA and the congressional intelligence committee had responsibility for the sharing of classified information, he said.

Asked if Alexander should resign, McCain said: "Of course, he should resign, or be fired. We no longer hold anybody accountable in Washington."

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/10/john-mccain-nsa-keith-alexander-snowden

[TwilightGardener]

1. I read on HuffPo that McCain has retracted that statement.

Oh well, sucks being senile.

[Ash_F]

3. Keith Alexander is Republican establishment

Sounds like he had to be reminded that it was an ally he was being quizzed on.

[TwilightGardener]

4. And I think he's a General, too--McCain's usual hero. He was probably thinking of Clapper.

[Ash_F]

5. Clapper is also a high society Republican

So was Petraeus. They infest the highest ranks of the military executive.

[DallasNE]

2. "We No Longer Hold Anybody Accountable In Washington"

For once I would agree with McCain. But I would have started with GW Bush, Cheney, Rice, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and the likes. Their mistakes cost this country over a trillion dollars. Everything else is small potatoes compared to the damage caused by this group. But then McCain was silent as a lamb back then.

[Major Hogwash]

7. Well said. The "there are WMDs in Iraq" lies are far more dangerous than anything that Alexander did

The fact that McCain picked Sarah Palin in 2008 to be his running mate when he ran for the White House should have caused the entire GOP party to demand that McCain resign or be fired!!

[jsr]

6. Alexander is out of control.

[SoapBox]

8. Blah, blah, blah Ginger...Blah, blah, blah.

Retire with the very little cred you have left McCain.

You've turned into a national disgrace.

[sendero]

9. Fire him..

... but not for presiding over an NSA run amok, fire him because someone found out about it.

Yeah, sure Mr. McCain.

[Laelth]

10. Some time ago, Alexander announced his intention to retire in 2014.

As such, McCain felt it safe to call for his resignation or dismissal (to appease our European allies). Evidently, he got a call from the good General and had to retract.

-Laelth

[Trillo]

11. What difference does it make? Isn't "lying" part of the job description?

Presuming Alexander leaves, either resigns or is fired, and someone else takes the same job, then won't that new person do the same or very similar things?

[Rob H.]

12. He certainly sang a different tune about accountability when Dubya was in the WH

I've posted this info before, but it bears repeating if for no other reason than to underscore what a hypocritical asshole McCain is. Condoleezza Rice blatantly lying to the nation about WMDs--leading to the deaths for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of American soliders--and then being nominated for Secretary of State? Everyone should get over it and let bygones be bygones, says McCain.

Both McCain and fellow reactionary wingnut Lindsey Graham defended Condoleezza Rice's 9/11 testimony and voted to confirm her as Secretary of State.

From the article linked in the paragraph above, here's what Graham and McCain said at the time:

Asked if then-Sen. Mark Dayton's use of the word "liar" was justified, Graham pounced.

"Yes, that's even more unfair. Because it was all in terms of weapons of mass destruction and misleading us about the war and what was in Iraq. Well, every intelligence agency in the world was misled. And to connect those two to say that she's a liar is very unfair, over the line."

Before the vote, McCain noted from the Senate floor that the chamber had enough votes to confirm Rice to the job, questioning why Democrats wanted to debate her nomination.

"So I wonder why we are starting this new Congress with a protracted debate about a foregone conclusion," he said, adding that Rice is qualified for the job. "I can only conclude that we are doing this for no other reason than because of lingering bitterness over the outcome of the election."

&quot L)ingering bitterness over the outcome of the election"? Oh, the irony!

Note that Graham also claims, &quot E)very intelligence agency in the world was misled." Unless he means "misled by the United States," I have three words for Graham: Downing Street Memo.

There's no bigger group of bloviating sore losers than today's GOP.

[Jack Rabbit]

13. Every once in a while I find agreement with McCain's conclusions without accepting his premises

I also believe General Alexander should go, but not because he allowed Edward Snowden to release classified documents. On the contrary, I would hold General Alexander in high esteem had he, rather than Snowden, released some of those documents.

I held a security clearance for Top Secret/Sensitive Intelligence in the middle and late seventies. I know why data is classified and how to handle classified information. Valerie Plame Wilson's employment at the CIA was classified for a good reason. When Mr. Cheney and his henchmen leaked that information, he not only revealed that Ms. Plame worked for the CIA, but that any one and everyone who worked for an energy consulting firm called Brewster Jennings worked for the CIA, since there really was no Brewster Jennings. Brewster Jennings was a front for a CIA team that gathered information about nuclear proliferation. Blowing their covers hindered the ability of US intelligence services to gather this information. The irresponsible actions of Mr. Cheney and his henchmen made the world a less safe place for all of us. Mr. Cheney and his henchmen should be prosecuted.

Data that normally would not be classified may become classified because of its source. Although trivial or mundane, it may be something that only a few people know about and, by leaking it, the source is put in jeopardy. The leaking of Ms. Plame's employment at the CIA partly fell into this category. Ms. Plame and all others who said they worked for Brewster Jennings were useless as intelligence agents from the moment that information was made public. Knowing this would allow a foreign intelligence agency to reverse engineer what a Brewster Jennings consultant was told get a pretty good idea what the CIA knows about its country's nuclear capabilities and if its government has passed that information along to any rogue state.

The piece of information that Bradley/Chelsea Manning passed to Wikileaks with which we are most familiar is an example of something that should not have been classified.
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The information wasn't unknown to the Iraqis, especially not those who survived the attack. The source was the helicopter crew itself by taping the event using video equipment on the chopper. If the video equipment on the chopper was a secret, it was probably a poorly kept one. That a modern American military helicopter would be equipped with video cameras is something most people would just assume. There were no secrets here to classify, unless that somebody thought it necessary to classify that an American helicopter crew is capable of making a very deadly mistake. That isn't a good enough reason to classify this attack. That, too, is something most people would just assume. That is why wars are something to avoid and why the crew members, who should not have been in this situation, should not be charged with any crimes unless and until those who planned and ordered the invasion of Iraq stand trial first.

General Alexander is part of a system that frivolously classifies data to avoid embarrassment and not necessarily keep secrets vital to national security. Among the enemies that they may want to remain ignorant of the facts are the American people, that is, you and me. We may take exception to this and starting voting a few tyrants out of office. They might carry this so far that they start spying on us to see if we're going to peaceably assemble or petition for a redress of grievances or something subversive like that.

It isn't so much that I think General Alexander should be fired as I think his job should be eliminated. At the very least, the NSA's mission statement should be made more clear and prohibit some of the very things it does nowadays and more specifically state what is a secret and what is not.