Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) says Gen. Keith Alexander, the head of
the United States National Security Agency, should be fired or forced
to resign for letting contractor Edward Snowden have access to the
information he ultimately leaked.
Five months after Mr. Snowden first took credit for leaking a cache of
sensitive NSA documents to the media, Sen. McCain told reporters with
Germany’s Der Spiegel over the weekend that Gen. Alexander should be
held accountable for putting the national security of the US at risk
by allowing classified information to fall into the hands of an
individual intent on making those documents public.
Speaking broadly of how the NSA’s authorities are kept in check, the
senior senator told Der Spiegel, “There has not been sufficient
congressional oversight, and there has been an absolutely disgraceful
sharing of information that never should have taken place.”
“For many years, we had an absolute provision that any classified
information, which was going to be shared, is based on need-to-know
information,” said McCain. “I was a Navy pilot and had Top Secret
clearance because I was in a squadron that in case of war with Russia
would carry nuclear weapons. But that did not mean that I was privy to
everything.”
Asked by the magazine if someone other than Snowden should be
reprimanded for their role in the scandal, McCain suggested “The head
of the NSA, the president of the United States, the Congressional
Intelligence Committees [and] all of these contractors we pay that
were responsible for performing the background checks” all be
considered for “wholesale housecleaning” in Washington.
“[T]hey should resign or be fired,” added McCain. “We no longer hold
anybody accountable in Washington. The Commandant of the Marine Corps
fired a couple of generals because of failure of security at a base in
Afghanistan. Tell me who has been fired for anything that’s gone bad
in this town.”
Snowden, 30, fled the US earlier this year and supplied a number of
media outlets with a treasure trove of NSA documents that have been
steadily published in international papers ever since, in turn
revealing a number of embarrassing operations conducted by the US
intelligence agency, including evidence of domestic spying and
surveillance targeting American allies.
Commenting to reporters on why the NSA would eavesdrop on Germany
Chancellor Angela Merkel — a revelation that has only surfaced after
Snowden’s leaks suggested the possibility — McCain said, “I think they
did it is because they could do it.”
“In other words, there were people with enhanced capabilities that
have been developed over the last decade or so, and they were sitting
around and said we can do this, and so they did it,” the senator said.
And just as McCain expressed a grim opinion with regards to any
accountability within the NSA, he also suggested he believes there is
a slim chance Snowden will ever return to the US from Russia, where he
was awarded temporary asylum in August by President Vladimir Putin.
“The Russians know if they send him back that that’s a lesson to other
people who might defect. I’m sure that Mr. Snowden has told them
everything that he possibly knows,” said McCain.
“If you believe that Mr. Snowden didn’t give the Russians information
that he has, then you believe that pigs can fly,” he added.
When Pres. Putin approved Snowden’s asylum request three months ago,
the senator accused Russia of committing a “disgrace” that served as
“a deliberate effort to embarrass the United States.”
“It is a slap in the face of all Americans. Now is the time to
fundamentally rethink our relationship with Putin’s Russia. We need to
deal with the Russia that is, not the Russia we might wish for,” he
said then.
As for Alexander, McCain might soon have his wish: the four-star
general will reportedly retire next year, exiting his role at the top
of the NSA and the US Cyber Command. – Eurasia Review
