Testifying before a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander was asked about Edward Snowden, the self-professed source of the recent leak of top secret NSA documents.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked Alexander if he was concerned about how Snowden, a 29-year-old without much formal education or professional experience, had access to the highly classified information he ended up releasing to the media. Alexander said he did have concerns about the access that Snowden had. But he also said that Snowden had “great skills” for the job he held.
“I would point out that in the [information technology] arena, in the cyber arena, some of these folks have tremendous skills to operate networks,” Alexander said. “That was his job for the most part — from the 2009-’10 — as an i. T, system administrator within those networks.
