NSA awards itself A+ for accountability – as it happened

[unhappycamper]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/11/nsa-chief-keith-alexander-senate-committee-live-updates



NSA director Gen Keith Alexander: under pressure.

NSA awards itself A+ for accountability – as it happened
Tom McCarthy

~snip~

• Alexander argued against limits on surveillance programs, saying the programs secure the nation and operate within the law. "From my perspective, the threats are growing," Alexander said.

• Alexander gave the NSA top grades for self-policing. "This agency in every case reports on itself, tells you what we did wrong..." Alexander said. He was echoed by Robert Litt, general counsel for the office of the director of national intelligence: "Everybody is singularly focused on ensuring that we comply with the Constitution and the law."

• The sparsely attended hearing saw minimal discussion of relatively recently disclosed NSA programs such as the collection of billions of cell phone records worldwide or of Internet metadata abroad. Instead the hearing focused once again on the collection of phone metadata under section 215 of the Patriot Act, a program the witnesses continued to defend.

• Committee chairman Patrick Leahy said the latest NSA disclosures "raise significant questions about the scope"of surveillance and show more oversight is "clearly needed" – "a lot more." But the questions about the new programs didn't much come. Many committee members had conflicts and failed to attend.

[Pholus]

1. Using "it's classified" to avoid accountability is nothing new...

The only people "qualified" to give a review have every motivation to make sure that review assigns the highest possible grade.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Why does Starship Cmdr. Alexander still have his job?

By his own account, he allowed America's most important intelligence programs to be revealed by a 29-year-old new hire at a subcontractor.

[bemildred]

3. That's the question that needs to be asked.

How does one so overtly fail in ones stated mission and yet still not resign?