Keith B. Alexander

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Person.png Keith B. Alexander  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(soldier, spook, deep state operative)
General Keith B. Alexander in service uniform.jpg
Alexander in 2013
BornKeith Brian Alexander
1951-12-02
Syracuse, New York, U.S.
NationalityUS
Alma materWest Point, Boston University, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, National War College, Naval Postgraduate School, National Defense University
SpouseDeborah Lynn Douglas
Member ofAmazon, Middle East Media Research Institute
Chief of the NSA, now infamous for his mendacious denials regarding the illegal mass surveillance of US citizens.

Employment.png Director of the National Security Agency Wikipedia-icon.png

In office
August 1, 2005 - March 28, 2014
Preceded byWilliam B. Black
Succeeded byMichael Rogers
An infamously mendacious tenure

Keith B. Alexander is a four-star general in the United States Army, who as NSA director became infamous for a set of mendacious denials regarding the NSA's mass surveillance of US citizens.

Lies to the public regarding NSA operations

In July 2012, in response to a question from DEF CON founder Jeff Moss asking “does the NSA really keep a file on everyone?,” Alexander replied, “No, we don’t. Absolutely no. And anybody who would tell you that we’re keeping files or dossiers on the American people knows that’s not true.”[1]

In March 2012, in response to questions during a U.S. congressional hearing from Representative Hank Johnson about allegations made by former NSA officials that the NSA engages in collection of voice and digital information of U.S. citizens Alexander was asked in a number of ways, and replied that, despite the allegations of "James Bashford" [sic] in Wired, the NSA does not collect that data.[2]

On July 9, 2012, when asked by a member of the press if a large data center in Utah was used to store data on American citizens, Alexander stated, "No. While I can't go into all the details on the Utah data center, we don't hold data on U.S. citizens."[3]

At DEF CON 2012, Alexander was the keynote speaker; during the question and answers session, in response to the question "Does the NSA really keep a file on everyone, and if so, how can I see mine?" Alexander replied "Our job is foreign intelligence" and that "Those who would want to weave the story that we have millions or hundreds of millions of dossiers on people, is absolutely false...From my perspective, this is absolute nonsense."[2]

On June 6, 2013, the day after Snowden's revelations, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper released a statement admitting the NSA collects telephony metadata on millions of Americans telephone calls.[4] This metadata information included originating and terminating telephone number, telephone calling card number, IMEI number, time and duration of phone calls.[5]

Andy Greenberg of Forbes said that NSA officials, including Alexander, in the years 2012 and 2013 "publicly denied–often with carefully hedged words–participating in the kind of snooping on Americans that has since become nearly undeniable."[2] In September 2013, Alexander was asked by Senator Mark Udall if it is the goal of the NSA to "collect the phone records of all Americans", to which Alexander replied:

"Yes, I believe it is in the nation's best interest to put all the phone records into a lockbox that we could search."
Keith B. Alexander, September 2013[6]

The '54 Events'

The 54 NSA events.png

Alexander claimed that the mass surveillance prevented 54 terrorist events directed against the U.S. ("42 Plots" and "12 Occurrences of Support to Terrorism"). Sen. Patrick Leahy pressed Alexander on the issue of the 54 events at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, asking Alexander “Would you agree that the 54 cases that keep getting cited by the administration were not all plots, and of the 54, only 13 had some nexus to the U.S.? Would you agree with that, yes or no?” Alexander replied “Yes” but did not elaborate.

Assessing the impact of the NSA's mass surveillance programme on the alleged 54 cases is difficult since, while the agency has allegedly provided a full list to Congress, it remains classified. The congressionally-established Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) investigation (pp. 145-153) concluded that mass surveillance had not played an important part in thwarting a single terrorist event.[7]

 

Events Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
A New Initiative for Poland: A Future Leader in Securing the Fourth Industrial Revolution16 January 201917 January 2019Poland
Warsaw
Conference in Poland in January 2019 planned by the Cyber Statecraft Initiative, sponsored by the Atlantic Council and Bank Polski.
Bilderberg/20085 June 20088 June 2008US
Virginia
Chantilly
The 56th Bilderberg, Chantilly, Virginia, 139 guests
Bilderberg/200914 May 200917 May 2009Greece
Vouliagmeni
The 57th Bilderberg
Bilderberg/20119 June 201112 June 2011Switzerland
Hotel Suvretta
St. Moritz
59th meeting, in Switzerland, 129 guests
Bilderberg/201231 May 20123 June 2012US
Virginia
Chantilly
The 58th Bilderberg, in Chantilly, Virginia. Unusually just 4 years after an earlier Bilderberg meeting there.
Bilderberg/201429 May 20141 June 2014Denmark
Copenhagen
Marriott Hotel
The 62nd Bilderberg, with 136 guests, held in Copenhagen
Munich Security Conference/20131 February 20133 February 2013Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 49th Munich Security Conference
Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.


References

  1. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/07/nsa-chief-denies-dossiers/
  2. a b c Greenberg, Andy. "Watch Top U.S. Intelligence Officials Repeatedly Deny NSA Spying On Americans Over The Last Year (Videos)." Forbes. June 6, 2013. Retrieved on June 11, 2013.
  3. Cyber Security And American Power, see 50:50. C-spanvideo.org (July 9, 2012). Retrieved on June 30, 2013.
  4. "DNI Statement on Recent Unauthorized Disclosures of Classified Information". June 6, 2013. Retrieved June 6, 2013.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  5. In Re: Application of the FBI For an Order Requiring the Production of Tangible Things From Verizon Business Network Services. Verizon forced to hand over telephone data – full court ruling. guardian.co.uk (June 6, 2013)
  6. "Senators: Limit NSA snooping into US phone records". Associated Press. Retrieved 15 October 2013.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  7. http://www.globalresearch.ca/spy-chief-james-clapper-wins-rosemary-award-worst-open-government-performance-of-2013/5375228