WASHINGTON – Some senior Department of Defense officials are pushing to formally separate the National Security Agency from the U.S. Cyber Command, as it would move the nation’s top electronic intelligence agency to civilian direction, according to People who knows the subject.
The proposal under consideration has been circulating among Pentagon officials in recent days, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the matter. Supporting Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller was installed at the Pentagon in early November.
The proposal would split control of the two giant agencies in the last few weeks of the Trump administration and comes amid revelations of an alleged Russian attack by U.S. agencies. According to another U.S. official, it appears to have been a dusty version of one that had previously floated inside the Pentagon by then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. “This is very preliminary,” the official said, adding that a meeting was scheduled for next week to discuss the proposal.
Many current and former officials say the partnership between the two spy entities is vital to sharing intelligence and resources, but critics have said the deal could lead to bureaucratic headaches. Some officials also say the two agencies have dueling missions that are in conflict with each other, as Cyber Command focuses on offensive operations, while the NSA’s main goal is to gather information. Some supporters of the separation think the two agencies are simply too critical and vast for a leader to handle.
The NSA and Cyber Command are headquartered in Fort Meade, Maryland, and are headed by General Paul Nakasone. The deal is known as a “double hat” in which a person is at the head of the U.S. government’s first electronic spy agency and the military organization responsible for conducting offensive cyber operations against opponents abroad.
For years, officials and lawmakers have considered the formal separation of the NSA and Cyber Command and it has been weighed repeatedly during the Obama administration. It is controversial because it could lead to the politicization of intelligence produced by the NSA, one of the nation’s leading feedlots of highly sensitive information. It would also mean a radical bureaucratic restructuring of intelligence and cybersecurity agencies during a change in presidential administrations.
Following former Snowor Edward Snowden’s surveillance disclosures in 2013, a presidential task force recommended splitting the main workplace as part of a broader set of reviews on how the U.S. is involved in surveillance activities, but the Recommendation was rejected by the White House.
The Department of Defense and Cyber Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment. NSA declined to comment.
A spokesman for Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, declined to comment on General Milley’s position. “President Milley has not reviewed or approved any recommendations to split the cyber company and the NSA,” said spokesman Colonel David Butler.
The possibility of a change before the end of the Trump administration attracted criticism from the top Democrat in the House on intelligence.
“Any action to break the double-hat relationship could have serious impacts on our national security, especially during a period when the country is fighting what may be the most damaging cyberattack in our country’s history,” he said. House Armed Services Committee spokesman Adam Smith (D., Wash) said in a statement Saturday, referring to alleged Russian piracy by federal and other agencies.
It is unclear how the separation could legally take place without the administration proving in Congress that certain conditions required by law have been met, according to people familiar with the matter.
Miller, who replaced Mark Esper as secretary of defense, took over the Department of Defense at the same time as Ezra Cohen-Watnick was appointed undersecretary of defense in intelligence and security, a job of intelligence. Pentagon’s intelligence. Cohen-Watnick, along with Kash Patel, who became Miller’s chief of staff, support the initiative, according to people in the intelligence community who are familiar with the matter.
Cohen-Watnick previously worked for the National Security Council on intelligence issues, but was retired by former National Security Adviser HR McMaster in 2017. He moved to the Pentagon alongside Mr. Patel, a former Republican aide to the United States. Capitol Hill and member of the National Security Council. and who was appointed Mr. Miller’s chief of staff amid a broader series of staff changes at the Pentagon.
Write to Dustin Volz at [email protected] and Gordon Lubold at [email protected]
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