Lawmaker Slams Ex-NSA Chief: ‘Nothing to Offer’ but State Secrets

Keith Alexander, since stepping
down from his position as National Security Administration (NSA)
and U.S. Cyber Command chief following last year’s mass
surveillance revelations, has gotten himself in the business of
cybersecurity consulting.

And not everyone’s comfortable with that. Rep. Alan Grayson
(D-Fl.) yesterday published letters he sent to the “Securities
Industry and Financial Markets Association, the Consumer Bankers
Association, the Financial Services Roundtable and the Clearing
House—all of which Alexander reportedly has approached about his
services,”
according to Wired. The congressman, who sits on both
the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Science,
Space, and Technology, gave a
roundabout warning to former spy chief:

Disclosing or misusing classified information for profit is, as
Mr. Alexander well knows, a felony. I question how Mr. Alexander
can provide any of the services he is offering unless he discloses
or misuses classified information, including extremely sensitive
sources and methods. Without the classified information he acquired
in his former position, he literally would have nothing to offer to
you.

He concluded by turning up the heat and asks the organizations
to be transparent:

Please send me all information related to your negotiations with
Mr. Alexander, so that Congress can verify whether or not he is
selling military and cybersecurity secrets to the financial
industry for personal gain.

Grayson isn’t the only skeptic. In his letter, he cites top
computer security expert Bruce Schneier, who has similar concerns.
Regarding Alexander’s eye-popping rates, $600,000 to $1 million a
month, earlier this week Schneier
asked his readers to “think of how much actual security they
could buy with that $600K a month. Unless he’s giving them
classified information.”

There’s a pinch of irony that Alexander, who does a lot of

handwringing over Edward Snowden for exposing government
secrets, is now on the receiving end suspicion for similar
actions.