General Keith B. Alexander in service uniform
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General Keith B. Alexander in service uniform by Wikipedia
NSA Director General Keith Alexander
On Thursday evening, NSA Director General Keith Alexander gave a talk before the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs.
As I read an account of the talk by Sun reporter Carrie Wells in today's Baltimore Sun entitled, "Director of NSA defends its methods" it has to be said bluntly and to the point; obfuscation, dissembling and outright lying were the hallmark of the general's remarks.
To wit he said he was looking for "better ways" to conduct surveillance stating "I'm not wedded to these programs" and "There is nothing that anyone from the NSA or Cyber Command has done that is wrong", (this presumably made with a straight face).
When a Maryland State Senator Jim Rosepepe asked Alexander how he justified the tapping of phones of world leaders the general responded, "I would actually turn it around and say, I think there's a better way to do it. We can look at some of these and say, some of this is not needed to defend the nation". Ah, no kidding general, but what kind of an answer was that to the state senator's question?
Alexander went on to relate terrorism and cyber security gaps remain the greatest threats to the U.S. then went on to criticize the whistleblowing of Edward Snowden and the media that published Snowden's authenticated accounts saying they harmed the nations security, its companies and relationships with allies and the NSA programs are misunderstood by the public as "Snowden misinterpreted the way we work". No general, it is the NSA's actions that have harmed the nations security, harmed companies earnings with "back door" entry into software sold to foreign clients, harmed relationships with "allies" by bugging their leaders cell phones as well as their people without any justification.
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