Bu$hie's Kanny Knew Know Such Agency Head

Amidst the unexpected inevitable retirement of O'Connor, the Great Patrotic Festival of Bursting Bombs in Air last weekend, the mayhem of the Olympic Choice, and the general panic over the bombs bursting on the ground for real in London today, most of what passes for media has neglected to report that Bu$hCo has nominated a new Director for the National Security Agency.

The agency has been without a director since mid-April, when Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden left to become the first deputy director of national intelligence. That is the longest vacancy for the top post in the spy agency's history, said Matthew Aid, who is writing a history of NSA.

Alexander, a newcomer to the agency, was selected with the approval of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and National Intelligence Director John D. Negroponte, and despite apparent reservations of Alexander's predecessor...

One of the programs, known as Ground Breaker, is an internal effort to upgrade NSA's computer systems, to improve communications with each other and other government agencies. A second initiative, Trail Blazer, is geared toward modernizing NSA's eavesdropping methods, so they can better track newer communication methods such as cell phones and e-mail...

Earlier, as head of intelligence for the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., Alexander oversaw the flow of intelligence from Iraq and Afghanistan...

... a 1974 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, he holds four master's degrees, including master of science degrees in electronic warfare and national security strategy from the Naval Post Graduate School and the National War College, respectively. He also earned a master's degree in business administration at Boston University.

I guess we're all entitled to a mistake or three. Some of us seem more entitled than others. Being a long time team player doubtless helps.

What exactly is the NSA?

According to the Wikipedia,

The National Security Agency / Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) is a United States government agency responsible for both the collection and analysis of message communications, and for the security of government communications against similar agencies elsewhere. It is a part of the Department of Defense. Its eavesdropping brief includes radio broadcasting, both from organizations and individuals, the Internet, and other intercepted forms of communication, especially confidential communications. Its secure communications brief includes military, diplomatic, and all other sensitive, confidential or secret government communications. Despite having been described as the world's largest single employer of Ph.D. mathematicians, the owner of the single largest group of supercomputers, and having a budget much larger than that of the CIA, it has had a remarkably low profile until recent years. For a long time its existence was not even admitted by the US government. It has even been referred to as "No Such Agency." ...

NSA/CSS, in combination with the equivalent agencies in the United Kingdom (Government Communications Headquarters), Canada (Communications Security Establishment), Australia (Defence Signals Directorate), and New Zealand (Government Communications Security Bureau), and otherwise known as the UKUSA group, is believed to be responsible for, among other things, the operation of the ECHELON system. Its capabilities are suspected to include the ability to monitor a large proportion of the world's transmitted civilian telephone, fax and data traffic...

In the past, there have been alleged instances of improper violations of USSID 18 that occurred in violation of the NSA's strict charter prohibiting such acts. In addition, ECHELON is considered with indignation by citizens of countries outside the UKUSA alliance, with widespread suspicion that the United States government uses it for motives other than its national security, including political and industrial espionage. The chartered purpose of the NSA/CSS is solely to acquire significant foreign intelligence information pertaining to National Security or ongoing military intelligence operations...

So Dear Leader nominated one Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander to head what has to be the only legitimate competitor for Bill Gates in the world.

Alexander is serving as the Army’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence/G-2, the service’s top intelligence official...

Alexander became the Army’s top intelligence official in 2003 after serving as commanding general of the service’s Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM). He graduated from West Point and holds three master’s degrees in physics, business administration and systems technology.

If confirmed as NSA’s director and chief of its Central Security Service, Alexander will oversee the ultra-secretive intelligence agency whose traditional mission has been making and breaking codes and eavesdropping on foreign governments’ communications. In addition, he will direct NSA's growing activities involving computer network defense and attack under the U.S. Strategic Command.

Aside from his academic and INSCOM credentials, Alexander was apparently the boss of the boss of the boys and girls at Abu Ghirab.

Despite having all those newfangled toys his posse does seem to use downright midieval methods for information gathering. Maybe that's what made him appeal so much to Negroponte and Rumsfeld. He doubtless has a strong feeling for tradition.

And what I said about MSN competing with the NSA? Don't worry your head about it.