Poor Morale at NSA Where They're Mad at Obama for Not Supporting Their Spying

[DonViejo]

ADRIAN LEE

NSA officials say they're missing some pep in their step after the American public learned about the agency's proclivities for spying on them without telling them, The Washington Post reports, and they blame President Obama. "The agency, from top to bottom, leadership to rank and file, feels that it is had no support from the White House even though it’s been carrying out publicly approved intelligence missions," Joel Brenner, the inspector general at the NSA from 2002 to 2006 told the paper. "They feel they’ve been hung out to dry, and they’re right."

In particular, NSA employees – who feel "beaten down" after the revelations leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden – say President Obama could have and should have visited Fort Meade, but hasn't done so. At least that's what they've come to expect from presidents after the public gets outraged at their spycraft. When The New York Times reported in 2006 that the NSA was using wiretaps on U.S. citizens without a court order, President George W. Bush swung by the Puzzle Palace for a little pep talk, says Brenner.

Bush came out and spoke to the workforce, and the effect on morale was tremendous. There’s been nothing like that from this White House.

President Obama, lest we forget, was a senator in 2006 when he upbraided Bush for the program by voting against Michael Hayden's confirmation as CIA director.

full article
http://www.thewire.com/national/2013/12/poor-morale-nsa-where-theyre-mad-obama-not-supporting-their-spying/355902/

[bemildred]

1. That's the funniest thing I've read today. nt

[billhicks76]

10. Nazis

Someone needs to make them feel better about just following orders? Of course they feel low...what they have been doing is Anti-American and simple logic says so. Maybe they should bring Goebbels back to life to give them a pep talk.

[truebluegreen]

2. Well, bless their hearts.

[grahamhgreen]

3. Octopussies!

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. So they are pissed that the White House will not give them political cover,eh?

Poor babies.

[ChazInAz]

5. Let 'em dangle out in the open!

[we can do it]

6. Wait- I thought Obama was all for them spying.

[billhicks76]

11. He Is

This is just more desperate obfuscation to make it seem about Obama again. Smoke and Mirrors

[msongs]

7. Obama's spies are in a sad mood. too bad nt

[RussBLib]

8. what a load of crap - n/t

[TeamPooka]

9. Twist slowly in the wind.

[JoePhilly]

12. Apparently we think that everyone who works for the NSA is evil.

If I go by the responses in this thread.

[madinmaryland]

13. Is this from The Onion. The poor wittle delicate flowers are whining about

the President not helping cover up the reprehensible policies of the NSA.

Fuck them.

[woo me with science]

14. Obama loves the surveillance state,

as his actions and words consistently show.


More Orwellian bullshit here, with the usual corporate defenders chiming in.

War is Peace.
Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.
The Chained CPI is Superlative.
There is no spying on Americans.
Obama put Social Security cuts in his budget because he opposes them.
The TPP is good for America.

And now, Obama fights valiantly against the NSA.

We all live in Oceania now.

[bemildred]

15. Do You Trust the Washington Post's Sources on Morale at the NSA?

---

Set beside one another, "discomfort with what the NSA is doing" and "hearing their employer criticized" both seem like a lot better explanations for low morale than an inchoate, unfulfilled yearning for that cruelly withheld visit from the president. His charm and charisma may make him adept at obscuring what the NSA is doing when he speaks to a general audience. NSA employees aren't so easily fooled. In fact, they are perfectly positioned to see the full extent of any mendacity.

The disconnect between my take and the Washington Post's treatment of the story is doubtless due in part to the different ways we respond to a certain title: former NSA official. Given that the NSA carried out a massive, secret, illegal program of warrantless wiretapping in the era just previous to this one, along with more recent violations of the Fourth Amendment and FISA court orders, I see "former NSA official" as a warning that the source may not have scruples about misleading the American people in order to strengthen the surveillance state.

In contrast, the Washington Post, like most newspapers, sees "former NSA official" as a title that bestows more credibility, and that usually justifies an extension of anonymity permitting the source to speak through the press for his or her own ends.

What I wonder is what the impact on the NSA would be if morale really is falling, something that wasn't established to my satisfaction. It would arguably be heartening if surveillance-state employees are upset at the revelation that their employer has been doing wrong. But if NSA employees who have some discomfort with mass surveillance start to quit, who will replace them, and how much less trustworthy would that agency be?

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/do-you-trust-the-em-washington-post-em-s-sources-on-morale-at-the-nsa/282184/

[Blue_Tires]

16. Somewhere in the Metro D.C. area

The IRS, FBI, DEA, Federal Reserve, DHS, and ATF are silently relieved at falling down a few notches on the "Washington's most hated agencies" list...The NSA has become the grandmother of all lightning rods...