Obama administration to nominate new NSA boss

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Thursday that the head of the Navy's Cyber Command has been chosen by the administration of President Barack Obama as the nominee to be the next chief of the troubled National Security Agency, rocked by revelations of widespread scooping up of telephone, email and social-media data. 

Vice Adm. Mike Rogers, also a former intelligence director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is being nominated to replace outgoing Army Gen. Keith Alexander, who plans to retire in March.

Alexander has vigorously defended the NSA's activities as lawful and necessary to detect and disrupt terrorist plots during his tenure as longest-serving NSA chief. A report released last week by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board concluded that the agency's phone data collection program provided only minimal counterterrorism benefits and should be halted. 

"This is a critical time for the NSA, and 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," Hagel, who is in Poland, said in a statement.

Rogers currently heads the U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, overseeing the navy's cyber warfare specialists, and has worked in cryptology and eavesdropping, or "signals intelligence" over a 30-year career. 

Although well-versed in code-breaking and digital warfare, Rogers will be confronted with civil liberties and privacy questions under an intense public spotlight. 

Rogers, who has long been considered the heir apparent for the NSA job, also is being nominated to get a fourth star and head U.S. Cyber Command. Rogers' nomination to head Cyber Command requires Senate confirmation. The NSA job does not, but it will undoubtedly come up at the Cyber Command hearing, as lawmakers air their frustrations with the agency's data collection program and demand that he lay out his vision for how the NSA will move forward.

The beleaguered NSA has been hit by former analyst Edward Snowden's disclosures of its secret surveillance programs that collect phone and Internet data around the world and now faces enormous pressure to change its ways.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper described Rogers in a statement as a dedicated intelligence officer "who deeply understands signals intelligence and cyber operations, which makes him uniquely qualified to lead the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command missions."

Meanwhile, the White House has said it intends to continue having one commander oversee the NSA and Cyber Command, despite suggestions that the jobs should be split due to concerns that the lines have blurred between the two powerful posts, which are both based at Fort Meade in Maryland.

These concerns include a lack of oversight with too much power being vested in one person. In addition, former NSA director Michael Hayden told The Washington Post in an interview last year that he thought the two roles should be separated. 

"I was the director of the NSA. And I found it filled up my entire workday. So I don’t know how someone acts as the director of NSA and the director of Cyber Command," Hayden told the paper. 

Al Jazeera and wire services