SAN FRANCISCO — Answering his agency's critics and a myriad of news reports, the director of the National Security Agency stated on Tuesday that the agency does not want to control the nation's cybersecurity efforts.

Speaking to attendees at the RSA Security Conference, Lt. General Keith B. Alexander, director of the NSA, defended his agency against criticism that it wants to control the United States' cybersecurity efforts but plans to be part of a team — consisting of the Department of Homeland Security, law enforcement, civilian agencies and industry — that will tackle the problem of securing the nation's interests on the Internet.

"We do not want to run cybersecurity for the United States government," he said. "That's a big job. We need a team to do it."

The statement comes as cybersecurity has become a primary policy initiative for U.S. president Barack Obama and Congress. While some top Obama advisors have argued for a greater role for the NSA, the agency has also been criticized by a top Bush appointee, Rod Beckstrom, who last month resigned from his post as the director of the National Cybersecurity Center. On Wednesday, Melissa Hathaway, a top intel official, will brief attendees at the RSA about the administration's 60-day review of the nation's cybersecurity policy.

The NSA chief also defended his agency's mission and its need for secrecy in how it operates by telling the story of the forefathers of the NSA and their success against the Enigma machines, the German devices for encrypting messages during World War II. The breaking of the German's codes by the British and Poles — and later the U.S. — turned around the war for the Atlantic Ocean. If the success had not been kept a secret, the Allies would have lost a powerful advantage over its adversary, Alexander said.

"The Germans were convinced it was unbreakable," he said. "They sunk 216 vessels off the East Coast of the U.S. ... We later broke (a critical part of) the Engima, and the war went back in our favor."

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