NSA Deputy Director: 'We Need to Be More Transparent'

BY AMANDA WILLS

VANCOUVER, Canada — NSA Deputy Director Rich Ledgett on Thursday talked about Edward Snowden in a rather intense video conference at TED. His last-minute appearance comes just two days after Snowden told the same TED crowd that the biggest revelations are yet to come out of the estimated 1.7 million NSA documents he leaked to journalists because he said it was duty as an American citizen.

However, Ledgett disagrees, saying Snowden had alternatives. He also said those actions could have "put lives at risk in the long run," despite multiple journalists reporting the opposite.

"Characterizing him as a whistleblower actually hurts legitimate whistleblowing activities," Ledgett said.

Snowden exposed controversial NSA programs like PRISM, but he said that's just the beginning. When Snowden spoke on Tuesday, he said there is still a lot of reporting to be done, including diving deeper into the accusation that the NSA tricks companies into building backdoors into their systems that make data vulnerable to hackers across the world.

Regarding the information that Snowden has already leaked, Ledgett said, "There were some kernels of truth in there, but a lot of extrapolations and half-truths." Ledgett kept reiterating that the conversation about these programs is important, but it needs to be "fact-based." Ledgett, who spoke for about 30 minutes, admitted that the NSA needs some reform.

"We need to be more transparent but not in a way that allows the bad guys to counter,"

"We need to be more transparent but not in a way that allows the bad guys to counter,"he said. "Learn the facts. Look at the data. Don't rely on headlines, or soundbites or one-sided conversations."

Snowden, who is still in hiding somewhere in Russia, maintained that his actions weren't reckless and that he did it all for his country. He also said he would love to return to the United States if granted the amnesty that many are calling for, including the New York Times. In December, Ledgett reportedly said he was considering amnesty for Snowden in exchange for the documents in his possession. While he claimed on Thursday that those words were misconstrued, Ledgett did say there may be room for Snowden to have amnesty or plea deal under some condition.

How TED got Snowden and NSA's Ledgett

On Tuesday, TED Curator Chris Anderson joked that the NSA was watching Snowden's appearance, which everyone thought was a surprise at the time.

"We didn't realize he was going to show up there, so kudos to you guys," Ledgett said.

And that's what it seemed when Ledgett beamed into the conference on Thursday morning. The interview, which was left off the official TED schedule until Wednesday evening, seemed reactionary. Maybe it was something Snowden had said on Tuesday that finally compelled the agency’s highest civilian authority to respond?

It turns out that this has been in the works for awhile.

Anderson said they knew they wanted to get Snowden months ago, and went through a personal contact of his at the ACLU. What appealed most to Snowden, however, was the opportunity to speak via telepresence robot.

"It was emotional for him to have a physical presence," said Anderson. He said when Snowden tried out the robot at the ACLU office in New York City before his appearance, he rolled it to the window and looked at the Statue of Liberty.

As for the NSA, Anderson said TED reached out to agency officials months ago before a Snowden appearance was ever on the plate. "If logistics were easier, they would have come in person," he said. After the Snowden interview ended on Tuesday, Anderson reached out to the NSA once again and made the offer to have them respond in their own interview. They accepted late Wednesday, shortly before the announcement.

However, some things didn't go as planned. Ledgett was scheduled to talk at 8:30 a.m. PT, but because of technical difficulties, he didn't go on until nearly two hours later. In the meantime, TED organizers pressed on with other speakers of the "Hacked" session. That included cybersecurity expert Keren Elazari, who fired up the audience with bold comments about hackers and Internet freedom. The irony that she went before Ledgett was not lost on the crowd.

So, Ledgett wasn’t exactly facing a welcoming crowd in the beginning — in fact it was dead silent when his face appeared on screen. At a conference like TED, where the echelons of the tech industry pal around with each other in lunch lines, most attendees support Snowden — at least that's what more than half said by a show of hands when Anderson asked the crowd earlier this week if they considered Snowden to be "fundamentally heroic."

Snowden claims he's trying to protect a free Internet, a cause that hits home for many long-time TED-goers. Tim Berners-Lee, who jumped on stage with robot Snowden and shook his virtual hand, has called the whistleblower a "hero" on several occasions. However, Ledgett surprisingly received a very enthusiastic applause — some even stood — at the end of his session.

“It was an intense experience," Anderson said after the NSA interview. "It pushed my own marginal comfort to the edge.”

Snowden, a former NSA contractor, has been on a public relations tour over the past few weeks, embracing the public debate that has erupted over his actions. He recently made an appearance at SXSW in Austin, Texas via satellite, in which he touched on similar talking points that he did on Tuesday.

SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.

Friday, 21 March 2014