White House: NSA director to step down next year

In the article “White House: NSA director to step down next year” the white house confirmed that the Army Gen. Keith Alexander will step down from his position of the director of the NSA. The timing of this move has come into question, due to the recent revelations from the Edward Snowden and Wikileaks. The controversy behind these programs that the NSA is leading and Wikileaks exposed has nothing to do with the Generals decision to step down according to the White House. Gen. Alexander had informed the Secretary of Defense months ago before the Wikileaks controversy according to the article. This is a great example of ethos or credibility of the claims by the White House that the step down was planned previously, this seems like very interesting timing. By using logos or reasoning and reasonable person would assume that Gen. Alexander was fired and not simply stepping down. This would depend on what audience (kairos) you talk to some would agree with the White House that his retirement was planned for months. However, there are many out there including myself that this retirement announcement directly coincide with the current scrutiny that the NSA has been under due to revelations of a domestic spying program.  

 Article:

 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/10/17/nsa-director-alexander-steps-down-in-2014/3002985/