NSA Employees Feel 'Beaten Down' After Snowden Leaks, Report Finds

National Security Agency officials say they're missing some pep in their step after the American public learned about the agency's proclivities for spying on them without telling them, The Washington Post reports, and they blame President Obama. 

"The agency, from top to bottom, leadership to rank and file, feels that it has had no support from the White House even though it’s been carrying out publicly approved intelligence missions," Joel Brenner, the inspector general at NSA from 2002 to 2006 told the paper. "They feel they’ve been hung out to dry, and they’re right."

In particular, NSA employees -- who feel "beaten down" after the revelations leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden -- say President Obama could have and should have visited Fort Meade, but hasn't done so. At least that's what they've come to expect from presidents after the public gets outraged at their spycraft. When The New York Times reported in 2006 that the NSA was using wiretaps on U.S. citizens without a court order, President George W. Bush swung by the Puzzle Palace for a little pep talk, says Brenner.

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