One Too Many Hats

President Barack Obama tapped Admiral Michael Rogers to be the next director of the National Security Agency and the next commander of U.S. Cyber Command, two of the most prominent and powerful positions in all of American intelligence. It wasn’t a surprise pick.

Rogers had been groomed to become the next head of the NSA, the nation’s largest intelligence agency and its primary gatherer of signals intelligence–phone calls, emails, and other electronic communications. The Chicago native was already the head of signals intelligence for the Navy, and in his 30-year military career has worked in that field as well as cryptology, the other pillar of the NSA’s mission. But Rogers is also in charge of U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, the Navy’s cyber defense and warfare group. As such, he is both the Navy’s chief electronic spy and its top cyber warrior. That made him rarely suited among senior military officers to take over from Army Gen. Keith Alexander, who currently serves as both the NSA director and the head of Cyber Command. Both organizations work in tandem to penetrate foreign computer systems, steal information, and lay the groundwork for cyberattacks, which only the president, or, in rare cases, the secretary of defense, can authorize. They also work to protect U.S. computer systems from penetration by foreign governments and hackers. Numerous experts, including President Obama’s own NSA review panel which was established to investigate programs revealed Snowden, have recommended that the NSA and Cyber Command be run by different people, arguing that this “dual-hatted” position gives too much power and authority to one person.