Is Keith Alexander the Tenet of today?

By "A.
Little Accountability"


Best
Defense guest columnist

In two months, NSA Director General Keith Alexander is
retiring. He'll likely be celebrated for all of his accomplishments, which will
put him in league with Tommy R. Franks and George Tenet. One could say that
Alexander has done for protecting our country's secrets what Paul Bremer did
for the smooth post-war transition in Iraq and former FEMA Director Michael "heckuva
job" Brown did for Katrina preparation and response. Yet there has been
absolutely no accountability regarding the Snowden leaks. Seems like the buck
should stop with Alexander and/or Director of National Intelligence Clapper,
no?

The Department of Justice prosecuted and put in
jail for three years a
former CIA employee who leaked the name of a covert
employee, claiming it harmed national security. Yet here we see the person who
arguably is responsible for the biggest unauthorized disclosure of our nation's
secrets lined up to get a nice retirement sendoff. Moreover, our government is
bending over backwards to tell us how much the Snowden leaks have hurt national
security (which I believe) and therefore they cannot also say that the NSA
lapse that allowed these disclosures is not important.

Tom, you took your premise in The Generals, of accountability in
generalship (or lack thereof), and applied it to all of our conflicts since World
War II. Yet, for a reader to understand what you wrote, he or she either
needs some familiarity
with the conflicts, or needs to have read your books. But everyone knows what Snowden was
able to do, and if you layer on the issue of government accountability, it
allows the premise of The Generals to
be made more clearly and succinctly to a much wider global audience.