There was a teeny little piece in the Freep that caught my eye a few weeks ago announcing commencement speakers for area colleges and universities, presumably culled from press releases. On the list was Norwich University’s announcement of its commencement speaker, also released on its website:
Commencement: General Keith Alexander
Former director of the National Security Agency General Keith Alexander will be Norwich University’s 2014 commencement speaker.
Alexander, who completed his 39-year Army career on March 28, 2014, served as the commander of the U.S. Cyber Command and director National Security Agency and chief of the Central Security Service.
Norwich university’s website offers a bit more on Gen. Alexander’s former job responsibilites:
As the NSA director and CSS chief, he was responsible for protecting national security, foreign signals intelligence, combat support, and protecting U.S. national security information systems.
I wonder how many times General Alexander has been asked about spying on Angela Merkel. Or the rest of us. And about Edward Snowden.
If you check out the (former) cyber spy chief’s interview with John Oliver for his new show Last Week Tonight, you’ll get material unlikely to be seen or heard at this Saturday’s commencement (such as Alexander’s embrace of Oliver’s rebranding suggestion, “The only government agency that really listens”).
From Norwich’s commencement info:
On Saturday, May 10, at 2 p.m. during commencement exercises Alexander will address approximately 400 students matriculating from 33 undergraduate programs and one master’s program. The ceremony, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Shapiro Field House.
[emphasis added]
Will activists show up on Saturday to protest the violation of privacy of ordinary citizens by the National Security state? Stay tuned.
Everytime one of these spies with their new pack of lies tries to explain away & gloss what they’ve done to our constitution as well as our democracy, they only look worse than before & fall further into the abyss of complete & total distrust. With each & every one, their statements ring ever more hollow & dishonesty ever more sheer.
No matter how dignified & professional the carefully constructed facade, they routinely fail to pass the smell, straight-face or laugh tests and as such, utter & even epic failures all. What they don’t seem to get is it cannot possibly be explained away so they are in fact defying simple logic.
So, Gen. Alexander would say to Snowden “look what you’ve done”, really??? Since all involved have demonstrated that none of them, including our congesspersons can be trusted, even that would be unprovable. That there was a “secret court” protecting our constitutional rights is simply more breathtaking bullshit as there is no proof or oversight of this & even the “secret court” was infuriated that even they were routinely defied. So all “explainers” default is “trust us” from those who have proven they cannot be trusted.
No sir, look what you’ve all done. Placing every man, woman & child in our nation & around the globe in the potential line-of-fire & harms way by endangering us to any enemies & future dictatorships using our personal information against us. Potential for blackmail against world leaders puts our peace & safety at risk as well as potentially destabilizing our world. This debacle alone has single-handedly destroyed our credibility & legitimacy around the globe thereby weakening us as a nation & greatly damaging our standing in the world.
The sheer scope, amount & types of data collected is unheard of outside of fascist dictatorships. It is all of our phone calls & online activity as some of the companies & IT giants were paid millions to deliver the data. They could not refuse or tell customers what they were doing or publicize government requests. Microsoft reportedly even opened the back door to their servers. All explanations are are simply ludicrous & beyond belief.
Snowden did not do this our leaders did, he merely did what any truly honest individual in the spirit of Daniel Ellsberg would do — expose the truth that we are being lied to & gamed by the officials who hold the public trust & we in fact pay to serve & protect us. Instead of going after criminals & terrorists they have been caught red-handed going after all of us “We The Little People”, treating us as common criminals conducting ongoing fishing expeditions all on the taxpayer dime & once again, billing us for killing us.
that this is the guy they choose to launch their graduates into the future?
I feel a chill coming on.
Our Lady of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques is scheduled to speak at Norwich as well.
It is time for another high level government security official to cash in on the consulting biz.Seems Alexander is starting his own firm. This may explain his recent publicity tour. The good general is just the man to help any organization find a potential “Snowdens”.
Remember Michael Chertoff former DHS head made us more secure by pedaling full body scanners to the DHS after he left his job.
http://www.politico.com/story/…