Written by: Tiobe

A University of New Mexico (UNM) student and UNM alum got more than just answers when they asked a National Security Agency recruiter named “Neal Z.” questions at a UNM Engineering and Science Career Fair Weds. Sept. 17.

UNM student Sean Potter and UNM alum Andy Beale began asking Mr. “Z.” questions about the nature of the organization he was recruiting for, the NSA. In an exchange Beale and Potter caught on camera and posted to YouTube, the interaction took a turn when “Z.” grabbed Potter’s phone whilst simultaneously denying touching the student’s phone, and ended with both “Z.” and Beale calling for security.

“Excuse me sir, I have a legal question that your colleague wasn’t able to help me out with,” begins Beale. “I’ve been trying to locate my mom. She’s been traveling across the country for a couple of weeks, and I haven’t heard from her. Do you guys know where she is?”

“No. NSA is not permitted to track or collect intelligence about U.S. persons,” responds Neal Z.

“You absolutely do. You collect all the metadata on all U.S. phone calls,” counters Beale.

“Ah. Actually, we do not ‘collect’ it. If you look carefully at the law, you’ll see that we get that data under law,” argues “Z.” “We have legal authority through the FISA court to collect certain data that aids foreign intelligence. Do your research before you come and heckle me… The FISA court is someone that we have to work with very closely. If there’s something that does not fall within the law, we don’t approach them with it, because we know the law, and we stay within it.”

Beale continues to pose questions about the NSA to Neal Z., with Z. becoming visibly hostile and reticent to respond to Beale.

“I am not a lawyer. But I have been to our internal classes. I understand the legal basis from which we operate. We work very closely with the justice department. And we are operating within the law,” states Neal Z. “You do not understand what that collection is about. And if you don’t leave soon, I’m going to call the University security to get you out of my face. I am here to recruit. Not to argue legal basis with someone who is uninformed about the law… Okay, we’re done. And you’re done.” At this point in the video, one can see Neal Z. grabbing at Potter’s cell phone, hear Potter asking Z. not to touch him, while Z. insists he is not touching the phone.

“So why did you choose to come and heckle a government agency who’s honestly just trying to recruit at your university?” asks Z.

“We asked questions. I’m just asking you questions,” responds Beale. “I wasn’t intending to start a fight with you. We never touched you.”

“Your approach to making – yeah, you can stop filming. Did you get permission from our public affairs office to film us?” demands Z. “Thank you for being hecklers. Is this the way you want to disrupt a career fair at your university? Your fellow students are here to get jobs!”

“No, no. This is a public place. You have no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public place, and you know that,” says Potter.

At this point, two unidentified UNM employees approach, and one of them begins lecturing Beale and Potter on their audacity for asking a recruiter questions in a public forum.

“I think it’s important to express your opinion, but that’s not what this venue is about today,” says the second UNM employee. “There is free speech, but there’s certain appropriate times where you come in and you express things, and I think you can set things up in an appropriate way. Just like if I had an issue with you, I wouldn’t talk about it in public; I’d meet you somewhere private and say, ‘this is what I have to share with you.’ That’s just my way of approaching things. I think that’s just the more adult way to do that.”

Beale and Potter pointed out they typically lack open access to the NSA, and would wait for security to respond to the assault charge against Neal Z.

Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDsYp1fWi-I to view the entire conversation.

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Sources:

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/17/irate-nsa-staffer-doesnt-like-filmed-public-reason/

http://deepcor.com/news/1225/video-students-confront-nsa-representative