My Dinner With NSA Director Keith Alexander

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennifergranick/2013/08/22/my-dinner-with-general-alexander/

By Jennifer Granick
Forbes Contributor
Director of Civil Liberties, Stanford Center for Internet and Society
8/22/2013

On July 30, 2013, I had the pleasure of having dinner with General Keith 
Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency. Just a few weeks 
earlier, NYU Law Professor Christopher Sprigman and I had called the NSA's 
activities "criminal" in the digital pages of the New York Times, so I 
thought it was particularly gracious of him to sit with me. General 
Alexander is an engaging man and our conversation left me with an 
appreciation for a fundamental difference in perspective between defenders 
and critics of the NSA's surveillance program: whether you believe that 
unchecked power inevitably corrupts, or rather believe that the sincere 
intentions of well-meaning individuals will protect us.

I have no doubt that Gen. Alexander loves this country as much as I do, or 
that his primary motivation is to protect our nation from terrorist 
attacks. "Never again," he said over dinner.  But it may be that our deep 
differences stem from a fundamental disagreement about human nature.  I 
think Gen. Alexander believes that history is made by great individuals 
standing against evil.  I believe that brave people can make a difference, 
but that larger inexorable forces are often more important: history, 
economics, political and social systems, the environment. So I believe 
that power corrupts and that good people will do bad things when a system 
is poorly designed, no matter how well-intentioned they may be.  More than 
once, my dinner companions felt the need to reassure the DIRNSA that none 
of us thought he was a bad man, but that we thought the surveillance 
policies and practices were bad, and that eventually, inevitably, those 
policies and practices would lead to abuse.

Nothing Gen. Alexander said at dinner differed from what I'd heard him say 
publicly before.  He was a bit exasperated with me for disagreeing with 
him about the FISA Amendments Act's impact on Americans, which was 
unexpected. He repeated that old saw about the NSA does not "target" 
Americans, and when I explained I knew about the contorted definition the 
NSA gives to that word, all he responded was "That's wrong."

The General seemed convinced that if only I knew what he knew, I would 
agree with him. He urged me to visit Pakistan, so that I would better 
understand the dangers America faces.  I responded that one of my 
longest-standing friends has relatives there and visits regularly, maybe 
she would take me.  I did not miss his point, and he did not miss mine. At 
one point he incredulously identified me as being "to the left of Senator 
Wyden".

[...]



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