Small Wars Journal

Interview Transcript: Former Head of the NSA and Commander of the US Cyber Command, General Keith Alexander

Fri, 05/09/2014 - 5:08am

Interview Transcript: Former Head of the NSA and Commander of the US Cyber Command, General Keith Alexander

Recently retired director of the US National Security Agency and commander of the US Cyber Command General Keith Alexander was interviewed by Australian Financial Review contributing editor Christopher Joye. This is a full transcript of the conversation.

Comments

Madhu (not verified)

Sun, 08/03/2014 - 1:01pm

I saw this on Pat Lang's blog:

<blockquote>- DNI Clapper perjured himself before the US Senate and was allowed to apologize and stay on.

- <strong>General Keith Alexander has gone into business in retirement for the purpose of selling cyberwarfare knowledge that rightly belongs to the American people.</strong>

- John Brennan is now revealed as yet another liar. He told everyone who would listen that CIA had not hacked its way into computers belonging to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). Now the CIA IG has produced a report that states the opposite. Brennan has apologized to the senate. That is not enough. The SSCI's role is oversight of the CIA. Under Brennan's command CIA tried to escape that oversight.

Obama will probably not allow prosecution of these traitors to the spirit of American democracy. They know too much. pl </blockquote>

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2014/08/httpwwwtheat…

The blogger Pundita had sharp words for the chattering analyst crew with its Wall Street Journal Op Eds on Snowden without bothering to pay attention to the entire of the NSA. Purported spies are not the only important story. The least people could do is pay attention to spying ON THE AMERICAN SENATE.

Madhu (not verified)

Tue, 07/29/2014 - 12:19pm

I thought this short piece might be of interest, too. Cyber threats seem quite severe and growing. Thankfully, there are solutions:

<blockquote>Gen. Keith Alexander, the former director of the NSA, is going into the private sector by launching a cybersecurity firm in Washington, D.C.

Alexander will head a consulting firm geared toward protecting financial institutions from cyberattacks, Politico revealed on Thursday night.

BREAK

Alexander is the latest in a long line of prominent government security and intelligence officials to go on to work in the private sector after a long public career. Other examples include Tom Ridge, the first secretary of homeland security, who now heads his own firm, Ridge Global; and Michael Chertoff, the second U.S. secretary of homeland security, who founded the Chertoff Group in 2009. The previous NSA director, Michael Hayden, didn't start his own firm, he joined the Chertoff Group.</blockquote>

http://mashable.com/2014/05/09/keith-alexander-cybersecurity-firm/

acraw

Tue, 07/29/2014 - 12:40am

In reply to by acraw

Ouch… I was actually in Oz when this was published, and somehow missed that issue of the AFR (and the reference to it here at the SWJ). And now I'm totally furious with myself for missing it, as after reading the interview, I feel somewhat like a muppet with Gen. Alexander's hand up my arse!

So… to the relevant people at the POA, I'm the jerk… and I apologize for my own ignorance. Had I been on the ball, I could have, and would have just posted a link to the Generals interview, instead of stumbling around (trampling over) superior explanations and etc. For whatever it's worth, I'm sorry.

Sincerely,

A. Scott Crawford

Sirs,

Is there a link to a downloadable PDF file of the full transcript? I don't mind the AFR layout per say, but prefer to print out long interviews in order to read via a printed hard copy. I'll try again after posting this, but am having trouble getting a decent printable version from the original source.

Thanks,

A. Scott Crawford