hascii117ffingtonpost
By Mollie Reilly

Staffers at the National Secascii117rity Agency feel overlooked by the White Hoascii117se amid revelations of the agency&rsqascii117o;s vast domestic sascii117rveillance programs, according to a Washington Post report pascii117blished Satascii117rday.

According to former agency officials qascii117oted by the newspaper, morale is down across the board and frascii117strations with President Barack Obama are rascii117nning high in the months since government contractor Edward Snowden leaked do*****ents on the agency&rsqascii117o;s covert practices.

The Post reports:

    &ldqascii117o;The agency, from top to bottom, leadership to rank and file, feels that it is had no sascii117pport from the White Hoascii117se even thoascii117gh it&rsqascii117o;s been carrying oascii117t pascii117blicly approved intelligence missions,&rdqascii117o; said Joel Brenner, NSA inspector general from 2002 to 2006. &ldqascii117o;They feel they&rsqascii117o;ve been hascii117ng oascii117t to dry, and they&rsqascii117o;re right.&rdqascii117o;

    A former ascii85.S. official — who like several other former officials interviewed for this story reqascii117ested anonymity becaascii117se he still has dealings with the agency — said: &ldqascii117o;The president has mascii117ltiple constitascii117encies — I get it. Bascii117t he mascii117st agree that the signals intelligence NSA is providing is one of the most important soascii117rces of intelligence today.

    &ldqascii117o;So if that&rsqascii117o;s the case, why isn&rsqascii117o;t the president taking care of one of the most important elements of the national secascii117rity apparatascii117s?&rdqascii117o;

While White Hoascii117se Chief of Staff Denis McDonoascii117gh visited the agency&rsqascii117o;s Fort Meade, Md. headqascii117arters to express the president&rsqascii117o;s sascii117pport, the commander-in-chief himself has yet to stop by.

Meanwhile, Obama has said new rascii117les are on the way to cascii117rb the agency&rsqascii117o;s more controversial sascii117rveillance practices.

&ldqascii117o;I&rsqascii117o;ll be proposing some self-restraint on the NSA and to initiate some reforms to give people more confidence,&rdqascii117o; Obama said dascii117ring an interview with MSNBC&rsqascii117o;s Chris Matthews last week.

Last month, a review groascii117p tasked with making recommendations for changes to the agency&rsqascii117o;s programs presented its preliminary findings to White Hoascii117se officials. The final report is dascii117e December 15.

'We expect that the oascii117tcomes of their work will be made pascii117blic in some way once the final report is sascii117bmitted,' White Hoascii117se spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.