Posted on August 1, 2013

Gen. Alexander Addresses Black Hat, Gets Heckled

NSA Director Keith Alexander was heckled and jeered as he pleaded with professional hackers and cyber-security experts to support indiscriminate surveillance at the annual Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was interrupted approximately 30 minutes into his speech when he said that stopping terrorism must be a top priority. An audience member, later revealed to be 30-year-old security consultant Jon McCoy shouted, "freedom."



Transcript begins 38:30.





ALEXANDER: Our nation takes stopping terrorism as one of the most important things.



MCCOY: Freedom!



ALEXANDER: Exactly. And with that, when you think about it, how do we do that? Because we stand for freedom.



MCCOY: Bullshit!



ALEXANDER: Not that... But I think what you’re saying is that in these cases, what’s the distinction, where’s the discussion and what tools do we have to stop those?



MCCOY: No, I’m saying I don’t trust you.



UNIDENTIFIED HECKLER: You lied to Congress. Why would people believe you’re not lying to us right now?



ALEXANDER: I haven’t lied to Congress.



UNIDENTIFIED HECKLER: What about XKS [XKeyScore]? What about Congressional testimony?



UNIDENTIFIED OTHER PERSON: Wait for the question session.



ALEXANDER: Thank you for that. I do think it’s important for us to have this discussion, because in my opinion, what you quickly believe is that which is written in the press without looking at the facts. This is the greatest technical center of gravity in the world. I ask that you all look at those facts. Check that out. Read the Congressional testimony. Look at what we're talking about here, because this is ou nation's future. This is what we've done with these programs, and in my opinion, it's not bull. Those are facts. And what we see coming at our country is more of the same. So the question that we have: what do we do? Let's begin that discussion.