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Barack Obama

Hagel: Navy admiral to be next NSA chief

Tom Vanden Brook
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Vice Adm. Michael Rogers has been chosen to be the next director of the National Security Agency and head of U.S. cyber-command, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

Vice Adm. Michael Rogers speaks to students and staff at the Center for Information Dominance in Monterey, Calif.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Richard Ledgett will be the next NSA deputy director.

The picks of Rogers and Ledgett come at a delicate moment for the NSA, which has faced congressional and public scrutiny in the aftermath of revelations by former contractor Edward Snowden about the agency's surveillance methods.

Rogers will succeed Gen. Keith Alexander, who has served as NSA director since 2005. He later took on a dual-hatted position as chief of U.S. cyber-command in 2010. The White House had announced that Alexander would step down in March.

Ledgett replaces J. Chris Inglis as the top civilian at the NSA. Inglis left his post this month.

President Obama called Rogers and Ledgett "the right people to provide experienced and principled leadership for the NSA moving forward," National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.

A White House intelligence review panel recommended in December that Obama split leadership of the NSA and cyber-command. Obama decided to continue the arrangement under which a single military official oversees both operations.

Rogers, who is trained as a cryptologist, is a 30-year Navy veteran. He runs the Navy's cyber-warfare arm. Ledgett, who heads a NSA task force responding to information leaks, made headlines last month when he told CBS' 60 Minutes that it was "worth having a conversation about" giving Snowden amnesty in exchange for intelligence documents he has in his possession but has not leaked.

His appointment requires Senate confirmation.

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