Posted on 10/27/2013 4:41:38 AM PDT by JerseyHighlander
Apparently not satisfied with just setting fire to the 4th Amendment, NSA boss Keith Alexander's next target is the 1st Amendment. In an interview with the Defense Department's "Armed With Science" blog , it appears that Alexander felt he'd have a friendly audience, so he let loose with some insane claims, including suggesting that the government needs to find a way to "stop" journalists from reporting on the Snowden leaks .
As noted by Politco, General Alexander isn't a fan of journalists doing anything about these documents:
"I think its wrong that that newspaper reporters have all these documents, the 50,000whatever they have and are selling them and giving them out as if theseyou know it just doesnt make sense," Alexander said in an interview with the Defense Department's "Armed With Science" blog.
"We ought to come up with a way of stopping it. I dont know how to do that. Thats more of the courts and the policymakers but, from my perspective, its wrong to allow this to go on," the NSA director declared.
It's not the policymakers and the courts. It's the Constitution, and it says there's freedom of the press.
Other parts of the interview continue to show Alexander spewing things that have already been debunked:
When you look at the 9/11 commission, it faulted the intelligence community for not connecting the dots. We didnt have the tools . These [programs we have now] are tools that help us connect the dots. We have learned that lesson once. We all vowed this would never happen again. We should commit to that course of action.
That's not true . The 9/11 commission argued, indeed, that the intelligence service failed to connect the dots, but it wasn't because they lacked the information . It's just that it wasn't properly shared. The way to fix that is not to collect more information and make it even harder to connect the dots. And yet that's been General Alexander's strategy all along.
Elsewhere in the interview, Alexander laughably tries to pretend that US Cyber Command, which he also controls, is focused on protecting "intellectual property." But that's also not true. As has been clearly stated and confirmed, it's focused on offensive attacks , which it does more than any other country (even as the US government tries to scold countries like China and Iran for their online attacks).
And then, I guess he figures that if he's going to lie about, well, everything, why not go all in, and just claim that these programs aren't "spying."
They arent spying programs, he says directly. One is called the Business Records FISA Program, or Section 215, and the other is called the FISA Amendment Act 702 or PRISM.
The business records program, or Section 215, is probably the most misunderstood of the two programs. The metadata program takes information and puts it in a data repository. Metadata is the phone number, the date, time, group, and duration of the call.
Thats all we have, Gen. Alexander explains. We dont have any names or any content.
Except that having that metadata is incredibly revealing and absolutely is a form of spying. If it's not, why won't General Alexander release his phone numbers, date, time, group and duration of all of his calls from the past year? Why not? Because he thinks that's private information. Because it is. And because General Alexander is a hypocrite.
The oversight and compliance on these programs is greater than any other program in our government.
Hahahahah. No. This is also a lie. It's been shown that the courts and Congress have admitted they're limited by what the NSA tells them -- and the NSA goes out of its way to avoid telling Congress very much.
Alexander also mocks the recent claims about spying on French phone calls, using the exact same dodge as his boss , James Clapper. Both pretend that the news reports said that 70 million calls were recorded . Alexander mocks this by pointing out it would be impossible to have so many calls listened to, and to find enough translators to understand them. But the reports were about mostly metadata, and just some recordings. Pretending that the press said something that it didn't doesn't make Alexander look trustworthy. It makes it look like he's lying.
Not surprisingly, though hilariously, the blogger for the Defense Department's "Armed With Science," Jessica Tozer doesn't appear to challenge any of Alexander's claims. Instead, she repeats all the statements and mocks anyone who might challenge them:
Some people would rather believe a dramatic, convenient lie than a real, uncomplicated truth. Dont be that person.
I'd argue that right back at Tozer and Alexander, because Alexander is flat out lying in the interview, based on confirmed facts.
Dont give credence to speculation, rumor, or hyperbole. Simply put, dont give into the hype. When it comes down it, a nation without the NSA would be a nation left undefended.
And that, dear readers, is no lie.
Um. It's absolutely a challengeable statement, but the Defense Department, obviously, isn't here for reasoned discussion on this issues.
Shut down or flat-out murder.
I think you vastly mis-read what grumpygresh actually said.
Firings?
I’m holding out for firing squads.
Individual patriotic Germans probably did. But by that point their decisions was irrelevant.
Since before he was elected, actually. He tried to use police(!) against any broadcaster critical of him, and I think he actually managed to do so.
Iranian fire.
Can’t you see that flash of fire
10 times brighter than the day
And behold a mighty city
Broken in the dust again
Hence our point about dissent.
Individual Americans ARE dissenting right now.
Shall we wait till it’s too late like the Germans did?
The only thing that bothers me about that, is that it's really our job, not theirs.
Yes. Overthrowing Hitler was Germany’s job.
I would argue to the NSA that it wasn’t American citizens or businesses that attacked us on 9/11 but Muslims instead.
Their spying on us and muzzling reporters does nothing yo prevent another 9/11.
Unless they truly believe certain fringe conspiracy theories put forth by the toe sniffers that 9/11 was done by “businessmen” or some such.
true that
Pretending that the press said something that it didn't doesn't make Alexander look trustworthy. It makes it look like he's lying.The guy works for the government and his lips were moving. Obviously he was lying.
Alexander would do better just to say "FYTW" and leave it at that.
Yes. Actually, ridding the earth of that evil man and his cronies was a job of the German people. Unfortunately, we had to end up doing it for them, the same way that the Iranians, or someone similar will do our job for us.
Aye, and it’s looking like someone else is going to have to do it for us as well. *sigh*
> In an interview with the Defense Department’s “Armed With Science” blog , it appears that Alexander felt he’d have a friendly audience, so he let loose with some insane claims, including suggesting that the government needs to find a way to “stop” journalists from reporting on the Snowden leaks...
Barack Obama ‘approved tapping Angela Merkel’s phone 3 years ago’
[Keith Alexander told him]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3084170/posts
Lib Cartoonist Ted Rall:
‘Truth Behind ACA Mess Is Obama and His Gang of Golfing Buddies Are Idiots’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3084185/posts
Piers Morgan Links to Fake News Report to Mock Sarah Palin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3084184/posts
Thanks JerseyHighlander.
Wow, I butchered that one
I’m having a John Titor moment with your comment.
Oh come on. Why not just chalk it up to sarcasm?
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