After Snowden, NSA Trims Workforce

Fewer people means fewer whistleblowers

Edward Snowden fired a thunderbolt through top intelligence officials, and now he's sending a jolt through his former colleagues on the job.

Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor whose revelations about massive government surveillance programs rocked the Obama administration, is at least partially responsible for the timing of a significant reduction in part of the agency's workforce.

Army Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the NSA's director, told a cybersecurity conference at Fordham University in New York last week that almost the entire crew of 1,000 systems administrators at the agency is being cut.