SurveillanceNSA director faces tough crowd at Black Hat conference
The National Security Agency (NSA) director General Keith Alexander was met with some applause but mostly skepticism – and even boos — when he spoke during a Black Hat conference in Las Vegas earlier this week. Alexander said that there are only twenty-two people who work at the NSA who can approve the surveillance of a specific phone number, and thirty-five analysts who can review the inquiries.
General Alexander received light applause and some boos at Black Hat 2013 conference // Source: news.on.cc
The National Security Agency (NSA) director General Keith Alexander was met with some applause but mostly skepticism – and even boos — when he spoke during a Black Hat conference in Las Vegas earlier this week.
CBS News reports that Alexander was scheduled as the keynote speaker for the conference before Edward Snowden leaked documents on the NSA data collection program. Organizers of the conference gave Alexander a chance to back out, but he decided to go through with the speech.
Alexander showed the audience a slide of a sample of a document with metadata. The sample included a piece of a spreadsheet with columns indicating date, time, from address, to address, length, site and source, but not the content of the data itself. Alexander added that the NSA does not “collect everything.”
During the speech, Alexander discussed how the controversial program prevented terrorism plots and the agency itself, saying “We stand for freedom.”
Alexander’s comments were not received well, as one heckler responded saying, “Bulls***, you lied to Congress. Why should we believe you’re not lying to us?”
Alexander responded by saying “I did not lie to Congress” (the hackler confused Alexander with James Clapper, director of national intelligence, who apologized to lawmakers for offering misleading answers to some of their questions regarding the NSA programs).
The NSA director continued with his speech, discussing terrorist attacks of the last two decades and using them as examples as to why the intelligence industry needed to improve data gathering methods. Alexander added that there are only twenty-two people who work at the NSA who can approve the surveillance of a specific phone number, and thirty-five analysts who can review the inquiries.
The NSA director ended his speech by asking the audience to help the government protect the United States.
“Help us defend the country and find a greater solution. The whole reason I came here is to ask you to make it better.”
When a heckler responded, yelling out “Read the constitution,” Alexander was quick to respond.
“I have. You should too.”
His response was greeted with cheering from the audience.
