NSA director heckled on stage at Black Hat security conference

Re:NSA director heckled on stage at Black Hat security confe... by dmix on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @04:18PM (#6136557)

> Alexander also noted the 6,000 NSA cryptologists who have deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, 20 of whom were killed in the line of duty according to Alexander. “Think about people willing to go forward to Iraq and Afghanistan, to make sure our soldiers, airmen and marines get the intelligence they need,” he said. “I believe these are the most noble people we have in this country.”

Having lost a brother who deployed as a signals operator in Afghanistan (to an IED), it always makes me cringe whenever they use forward-deployed soldiers as a defense of the higher-level states "nobility". There is nothing noble about mass surveillance or the invasion of privacy of non-enemy combatant nations/citizens.

The fact citizens signed up to risk their lives in combat-zones at the bottom end of the chain does not legitimize the actions of those at the top.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:NSA director heckled on stage at Black Hat security confe... by jessaustin on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @04:57PM (#6136785)

Hear, hear! When the top brass evoke these deaths, it's like they're saying "if our sainted dead soldiers followed these orders, how can you possibly disagree?" Frankly, the last general worthy of making that sort of comparison was Eisenhower, and he would have been the last man in the military to do so. He was already sickened at this leadership culture when he was President. If he were alive today he would cross the street to avoid a conversation with Alexander.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:NSA director heckled on stage at Black Hat security confe... by rhizome on Thursday August 01, 2013 @12:20AM (#6138618)

it always makes me cringe whenever they use forward-deployed soldiers as a defense of the higher-level states "nobility"

In another context they might be called human shields. Shields in the PR war.

I'm sorry for your loss.

[ Parent | on HN ]