NSA director courts Silicon Valley

National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers on Monday night offered a crowd at Stanford University some of the benefits of working for the agency. 

“We’re going to give you the opportunity to do some neat stuff you can’t do anywhere else,” he said, according to reports. “We’re going to give you responsibility early, that’s part of our culture.”

{mosads}”We’re going to give you the opportunity to do stuff you can’t legally do anywhere else,” he added.

Rogers said he tries to make the trip to Silicon Valley at least twice a year to keep up with new technologies and to look for potential talent. 

He took the director’s position in April to replace former NSA Director Keith Alexander, who oversaw the agency during massive revelations of secret surveillance programs last year based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. 

Technology companies since then have looked to rebuild their relationship with customers after reports of the extent of the data collection. In that last few months, Apple and other companies have provided default encryption on their devices. 

Rogers said it does not do any good to turn either side of the debate into a villain. 

“I’m not one who jumps up and down and says either side is fundamentally wrong,” he said. “I understand what drives each side to their viewpoint.”

At another point, he offered a distinction between spying from the NSA and other countries like China, saying many times that other operations are aimed at commercial gain. 

“The Chinese use the power of the national-state to penetrate commercial entities to generate insights and then are sharing those with their private sector to gain economic advantage,” he said.