Congress Probes Disturbing String Of Suicides At NSA, Cyber Command

At least 11 employees at two of America’s most powerful intelligence and cyber warfare agencies have died by suicide over the past year, prompting scrutiny from Congress and the White House.

The deaths occurred among military personnel, civilian employees and contractors working for the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cyber Command, including five suicides within roughly one month that military officials classified as a suicide cluster, according to The Japan Times. The deaths have prompted congressional inquiries and new restrictions on working hours as the agencies grapple with mounting operational demands from overseas conflicts, although officials have not determined that workplace pressures caused the suicides.

The Pentagon referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to CYBERCOM who did not respond for comment. NSA also did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

“The pace of operations right now at both NSA and Cyber Command can be overwhelming,” said Harry Coker Jr., a former senior executive at the NSA and Central Intelligence Agency told The Japan Times. “There is a lot of stress that a lot of us overlook because we think cyber is away from the front, and physically that’s accurate but intellectually and emotionally it’s inaccurate.”

From early June to early July, five employees at the NSA and Cyber Command took their lives. These were categorized as cluster suicides, a phenomenon defined as when “suicides or suicide attempts happen closer together in time, location, or both than expected,” per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The most recent suicide was in September.

This timeline of this cluster coincides with America shifting from a fragile ceasefire agreement with Iran to renewed fighting, according to United States Central Command (CENTCOM).

Even as legislators and military officials made efforts towards addressing the unique mental health challenges faced by these personnel, the suicides continued. Of the ten suicides, nine took place in Fort Meade, Maryland and one in Georgia, according to The Japan Times.

Congressional committees overseeing the military and intelligence agencies requested briefings from both agencies regarding the suicides and workload stress. Tim Kosiba, the NSA’s deputy director, went to the White House to brief officials, per the outlet.

NSA and Cyber Command leaders said that each servicemember had distinctly different motives for ending their lives including personal and financial issues. Technical Sergeant Kevin Stallings referred to a “wall of debt,” his divorce, an earlier suicide in his military unit and the death of his dog, Scud, for his June 11 suicide. Stallings apologized to his military leaders in his suicide note, saying they could not have prevented it.

“This is something I would never reach out for,” he wrote in the note obtained by The Japan Times.

Gen. Joshua Rudd, the Cyber Command and NSA leader, requested $11 million in April to address personnel mental health, warning of possible “burnout and force degradation.”

Two lawmakers sent letters urging the approval of this request in October, following the string of suicides per The Japan Times.

“While we know a lot about warfare,” Democratic Maryland Rep. Sarah Elfreth said according to Bloomberg. “e don’t know much about electronic warfare in terms of its impact on the psyche and people’s mental health.”

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