Former DHS, NSA heads blame Snowden for drop in terrorism intel

Former NSA director Keith Alexander and former head of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff are introduced by Bill Marshall, managing director at The Chertoff Group

Michael Chertoff, former secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, said the leaks by Edward Snowden related to government surveillance practices has led to less intelligence on terrorism and has led lawmakers to remain apprehensive on cybersecurity legislation.

Now the co-founder of The Chertoff Group, Chertoff joined retired Gen. Keith Alexander, former director of the National Security Agency for a discussion during a conference in New York on September 9.

Snowden’s release of confidential NSA documents has been “turned against the US” and prevented this country from finding common ground with other countries, said Chertoff. This has the “collective communication” used to stop terrorists and track their movements—such as of the Westerners joining ISIS.

Alexander used last year’s attack at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya as an example. The Islamist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the incident. Alexander said other countries asked why the intelligence on this group wasn’t available.

“We’ve always provided intelligence that is not there [now],” Alexander said. The Snowden leaks “impacted our ability,” he added.

The former general acknowledged the NSA “lost the media war on Snowden.”

“We weren’t fast enough, not out in front,” Alexander said, adding that “not one person at the NSA did anything wrong.” If he has any regrets, it was that the NSA was not “effective in protecting industry partners who were doing the right thing,” he told the audience at the conference, focused on cybersecurity in the financial services sector.

Alexander said the media cannot continue to “make Snowden look like a hero when the result is people die.”

Chertoff and Alexander expressed support for cybersecurity legislation. Alexander said lawmakers understand the important but are “not getting it through.”

“We’ve got to get Congress to pass legislation,” Alexander said.

Here too, Chertoff blamed the Snowden-effect for giving politicians an “allergic reaction” to cyber-related legislation.