NSA Nominee To Senate: 'Trust Me'

Forecast: Heavy Snowden clouds.

President Barack Obama’s pick to lead the National Security Agency pledged on Tuesday to look for ways to build confidence in the beleaguered spy agency and, in a possible shift, stopped short of calling former contractor Edward Snowden a traitor.

Vice Admiral Michael Rogers, now the Navy’s top cyber warrior, was cautious during often terse exchanges at a Senate hearing on his confirmation to also lead the U.S. Cyber Command that saw critics and supporters prod him about the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records, a program exposed by Snowden.

Rogers spoke about the need for NSA transparency and accountability.

Spy agencies are always eager to pay lip service to pleasing the public when they’ve been caught with their little spy hands in the privacy cookie jar. And exactly what does greater transparency from a spy agency look like? There’s a fine line between one that does whatever it needs to in order to keep the bad guys at bay and an Orwellian nightmare that is archiving video footage of every shower you take.

“No, that’s not a loofah but thanks for keeping that dude from blowing up my office.“