The Department of Defense has a blog, Armed With Science, that on Saturday October 26, 2013 did a thirty minute interview with General Keith Alexander. ?In this interview the General expressed concern that “reporters are selling secret government documents and that we’ve got to fix that.” ?Considering the warm regard the NSA has shown for the Fourth Amendment we can only imagine his cure for his perceived abuse of the first.
This was one of the most bizarre interviews I have ever seen. It was shot in the NSA museum with the General, surrounded by artifacts from the sixty plus year history of the organization. However his interviewer only appears occasionally, as a faceless entity. The back of her head is shown repeatedly but never her face.
Also during the interview you never actually hear the interviewer ask a question. The screen goes black, the question appears, and then we cut back to General Alexander presumably answering that question. It made me think that maybe he simply sat down, rambled on for thirty minutes, and then they made up questions to interject into his speech?
Also, the interview had a musical underscore. A creepy, kind of low budget horror film type of music that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before in any interview. Those are the details of the interview that were odd. Unfortunately those weren’t the only odd things.
General Alexander started off by talking about how the NSA in WW2 managed to break the German codes and the Japanese codes and somehow used that as justification for their actions today. I didn’t realize that tapping Angela Merkel’s phone is the equivalent of deciphering a secret code during a time war but there you have it. That seems to be the General’s belief. ?Not that the Merkel situation was ever addressed or even mentioned in this “interview.”
Also during the interview we were lucky enough to get the “we didn’t connect the dots before 9-11” analogy at least twice, and the General almost broke into 9-11 Tourette’s Syndrome; where 9-11 must be mentioned at least every two or three minutes. The General who heads the most impressive spy agency ever built in the history of the world, seems to either have no knowledge of history or is lying. Countless pages have been filled outlining NOT how the “dots” weren’t “connected” but that they WERE connected and the people at the top simply dropped the ball.
We also get treated to a more specific version of the, already discredited, “over 40 events” prevented story the NSA loves to tell. NOW the story is 13 specific events in the United States and 25 in Europe. What were those events? Well either the interviewer didn’t ask or they are top secret. Either way we simply have to take General Alexander’s word for it. And he wouldn’t lie. Would he?
He uses our success at turning around the Iraq war as an example of his agency’s usefulness and power. Without mentioning that Iraq was/is an illegal war of aggression waged simply because, “Iraq has better targets.“? So I’m not sure if he is intentionally undermining his organization or his concept of long term success needs work. Just because we have temporarily stopped Iraq from becoming a client state of Iran doesn’t mean Iran didn’t win the US-Iraq war. Perhaps we should wait a couple of years before letting the General take his victory laps.
General Alexander also mentioned twice that his department has more oversight “that is greater than any other department.” Then goes on to list several internal checks on his own power. And we all know how well it turns out when we let the kids guard the cookie jar.
He also mentioned once, Congressional oversight, so I guess the fact that he’s been caught lying every time he has spoken to Congress somehow counts as some form of oversight? The oversight seems to be that General Alexander isn’t in the brig or wearing a Private’s stripe from being demoted.
General Alexander had himself interviewed so that they could put out their own propaganda and try to spin public perception. His implied threats are clear; either let the NSA do whatever it wants or 9-11 will happen again. Trust our judgment over what a “free press” should print or you are aiding and abetting the enemy. I, or whoever sits in my chair, is the only thing keeping our brave soldiers safe while they make the world safe for the freedom you no longer have.
I know they meant the interview to put a positive spin on what they are doing and to give the media something else to talk about other than the NSA wiretapping Angela Merkel (and the fact that the President may, or may not, have known about it.) The faceless interviewer, the strange music, hell even the back light they bounced off the back of his head, was a little “not right.”
They may be the worlds most advanced secret police but they need to work on their propaganda skills. Or, worse, they are so sure of their power that they don’t think they need to worry too much ABOUT their propaganda skills. ?Either way this was a strange man giving a strange interview.
Edited by SS
