Wednesday, 25 February 2015, Washington, D.C. - N.S.A. Director Admiral Michael "Mike" Rogers
shows his true colors (and fangs) at Monday's Washington, D.C. New America cyber-
security conference at suggestion that the N.S.A. is not above the United States
Constitution but actually might have to at least pass the "laugh test" pretending that it
makes "best efforts" to follow it at least generally speaking as the out-of-control
N.S.A. makes demands to further expand its fanatical universal illegal domestic
spying on all United States citizens to encompass all encrypted transmissions including
of ordinary American consumers. Mr. Rogers is joined in his deranged sentiment of
entitlement to ignore completely fundamental rights of Americans by F.B.I. Director
James Comey and United States Attorney General Eric J. Holder all of whom
apparently are "back door men" when it comes to speaking in code (or "The Switch"
as the Washington Post calls it). The Ninth Amendment editorial board passes on the
below Washington Post article without comment other than Mssrs. Rogers and Comey
should already by in prison for a history of atrocious unconstitutional civil rights
surveillance and domestic spying violations as should Mr. Holder
for not prosecuting them (not to mention George W. Bush Administration and C.I.A.
officials guilty of similar crimes as well as for crimes against humanity for conspiracy
to torture C.I.A. never charged nor convicted "detainees"). Just sayin'. . . .
Here’s how the clash between the NSA Director and a senior Yahoo executive went down.
Admiral Michael "Mike" Rogers, director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and commander of U.S. Cyber Command. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)
In an unusual public exchange, the director of the National Security Agency and a senior Yahoo executive clashed over cyber-spying Monday, illustrating the growing chasm between Washington and Silicon Valley over whether intelligence officials should have broad access to the products being developed by the nation's top technology firms.
For a normally staid Washington cyber-security conference, this one hosted by New America, the tense back-and-forth had the packed audience of executives, senior policy makers, bureaucrats and journalists buzzing.
Speaking at the signature event of the conference, NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers called for a "legal framework" that would enable law enforcement and anti-terrorism officials to tap into encrypted data flowing between ordinary consumers -- echoing a stance laid out by other administration officials, including FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Eric J. Holder. But technology executives as well as many cybersecurity experts argue there is no way to build in such "backdoors" without fundamentally undermining the security that protects online communications around the world. In response to recent revelations about government snooping, firms such as Apple and Google have designed their latest mobile software to make it impossible for the companies to turn over data from smartphones and tablet computers to police -- even when authorities have a search warrant.
Roger's remarks were later challenged by Alex Stamos, Yahoo's chief information security officer, during a question-and-answer session.
"So it sounds like you agree with Director Comey that we should be building defects into the encryption in our products so that the US government can decrypt…" Stamos began. (These remarks were verified by a transcript provided by the Web site Just Security.)
"That would be your characterization," Rogers said, interrupting him.
"No, I think... all of the best public cryptographers in the world would agree that you can’t really build backdoors in crypto," Stamos replied. "That it’s like drilling a hole in the windshield."
"I’ve got a lot of world-class cryptographers at the National Security Agency," Rogers said.
"I’ve talked to some of those folks and some of them agree too, but…" Stamos said.
"Oh, we agree that we don’t accept each others’ premise," Rogers replied, interrupting again, as laughter erupted across the audience.
"If we’re going to build defects/backdoors or golden master keys for the U.S. government, do you believe we should do so — we have about 1.3 billion users around the world — should we do for the Chinese government, the Russian government, the Saudi Arabian government, the Israeli government, the French government?" Stamos asked.
"So, I’m not gonna… I mean, the way you framed the question isn’t designed to elicit a response," Rogers replied.
"Well, do you believe we should build backdoors for other countries?" Stamos asked again.
"My position is — hey look, I think that we’re lying that this isn’t technically feasible. Now, it needs to be done within a framework. I’m the first to acknowledge that. You don’t want the FBI and you don’t want the NSA unilaterally deciding, so, what are we going to access and what are we not going to access? That shouldn’t be for us. I just believe that this is achievable. We’ll have to work our way through it. And I’m the first to acknowledge there are international implications. I think we can work our way through this," Rogers answered.
"So you do believe then, that we should build those for other countries if they pass laws?" Stamos asked a third time.
"I think we can work our way through this," Rogers replied.
"I’m sure the Chinese and Russians are going to have the same opinion," Stamos said.
"I said I think we can work through this," Rogers said.
Rogers, in his initial remarks, was also critical of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, saying his disclosures revealed NSA surveillance tactics to terrorists.
“It has had a material impact on our ability to generate insights as to what terrorist groups around the world are doing,” he said.
For his part, Snowden, who has been in the limelight this week after a film documenting his efforts won an Academy Award, wrote Monday that he regretted not leaking his trove of secret documents earlier.
“Had I come forward a little sooner, these programs would have been a little less entrenched," Snowden wrote on the Web site Reddit. "And those abusing them would have felt a little less familiar with and accustomed to the exercise of those powers."
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Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved (no claim to W. P. content)
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Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved (no claim to W. P. content)
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