Ex-NSA Director Keith Alexander's Investments In Tech Firms: "No Conflict" 59
Presto Vivace (882157) writes "No conflicts appear to exist" among Keith Alexander's investments, the NSA said. "New financial disclosure documents released this month by the National Security Agency (NSA) show that Keith Alexander, who served as its director from August 2005 until March 2014, had thousands of dollars of investments during his tenure in a handful of technology firms." Don't worry, the NSA assures us that there was no conflict of interest.
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ROFL, the same shit as Mrs Rice sitting on Dropbox board. Simply put: you drop the service like a hot potato lol.
They must have impressive dirt on politicians... (Score:5, Interesting)
That is the only possible reason why they basically can do as they like, violate nay laws they do not like, lie under oath, etc. all without any consequences whatsoever. The basically form a "state in the state" with its own laws. For a few historical examples where such evil machinations lead, look for example at the events leading to WW2 and the role of the "Wehrmacht".
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Maybe that's why search and seizure are supposed to require warrants?
Maybe (Score:2, Interesting)
Maybe they do.
But the American public just doesn't care and they are more concerned with the distraction issues. People get sucked into propaganda.
In November, nothing much is going to change. We'll still have a shitty Congress because people think all the others suck but their guy and there are the folks who hate the otherside so much, they won't dare for them - you know the whole lesser evil bullshit.
What we should be asking is how ARE the Congresscritters benefiting from this. Keep in mind that most Cong
Re:Maybe (Score:5, Informative)
They benefit in at least three ways:
1) Direct contributions. [opensecrets.org]
2) The Revolving Door [opensecrets.org]
3) Trading on insider information. [npr.org]
There are many other ways I'm sure, smaller and more subtle. But these are the big ones AFAIK.
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When you are director of the an NSA that goes wildly out of control a fourth way becomes available
4) Gather intelligence of criminal activities of major corporations (involving those corporations, politicians and government departments) and upon leaving extort security consulting fees to keep those secrets, well, you are securing their information are you not?
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1. not brought up by either major party.
2. Major party partisanism is strong, they don't vote on the issues, they vote on attacking the other guy, and fear. Few people inside the party are willing to listen to any message that doesn't come dirrectly from party HQ, in fear that it might be sabeteurs working for the other party, or they might be labeled as such by over zealous partisans, and their friends might stab them
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Maybe for you, but for me I'm voting against 90% of the incumbents. Won't matter, but at least I pay attention and try.
/ live in CA
Re:Maybe (Score:4, Interesting)
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> Not only that, seems like for the last 10-20 years I haven't voted for the candidate I like most, but for the less evil candidate.
You are part of the problem. That is short term thinking.
Always vote your conscience because the only way change happens is when the party is afraid of losing votes. Your vote for the 3rd party candidate who won't win will still have 100x more impact than voting for the two party status quo because elections are one and lost on the margins.
Lots of people thought Nader spoi
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Voting Dem instead of Rep, or Rep instead of Dem is ... well, did you play Zak McCracken? And got into the back room of the Telco? It's like pulling that switch on the dumbification machine there.
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In case you don't know it, this [youtube.com] is what I mean.
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What would you expect to change? If the past 14 years proved anything then that it doesn't matter jack shit what side of The Party is ruling, you get the same crappy situation.
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That, or a slow descent into a full Police State (the US is already a partial one) and then into Fascism. Economic collapse within 10 to 100 years after that (nobody is productive in Fascism) and then 50 to 100 years of rebuilding, unless the fascists decide to sterilize the planet when they see that they have lost.
Seen as more useful than not (Score:2)
That's right. There is no conflict of interest (Score:1)
This is, and has always been, perfectly normal procedure in the intercourse between government and business. Business needs a way to enforce its contracts, so they create a "state", with uniforms and badges, and big ass guns. And they use "philosophers" (advertisers) to pitch the whole thing. What is the problem?
Conspiracy (Score:1)
That is all.
IronNet Cybersecurity is the ethics issue (Score:5, Informative)
Most of the ethics questions around Alexander involve his company IronNet Cybersecurity. He founded it when he retired. He's charging big banks $1,000,000 a month to protect them in cyberspace, and its not exactly clear what he has to offer to justify the price tag, other than classified insider knowledge of cyber threats from his NSA years, he probably shouldn't be selling to the highest bidder.
it's the age of IP investment (Score:1, Troll)
so what's the problem? He's only doing what thousands of others are doing, and that's playing the market for his nest egg. I do the same, it's safer than a pension fund or a bank account right now - both of which stand to be raped hard by the State, as has already happened all over Europe. What's next? Going after clerics for buying stock in fountain pens?
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The problem is that Timothy is a link baiting /. editor intent on turning it into reddit.
'No conflict' (Score:3)
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..in a pigs' eye!
NSA representatives would NEVER lie to us would they?
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Why not? It's pretty much their job description.
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More importantly, nowadays for your typical upper-middle class Washingtonian, $10,000 is bordering on chump change.
I'm surprised the IG would even notice it!
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No, you just can't read:
$50,000 Synchronoss,
$15,000 Datascension
$15,000 Pericom,
$15,000 in RF Micro Devices
That's closer to $100k.
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Far too specific. More likely, it's classified and we're not cleared to know whether they could or would.
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They would be doing a damn poor job if they didn't hide anything from us. It's basically their job description.
Does he brew beer too... (Score:2)
...in Nova Scotia?
thanks goog (Score:1)
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