Lt. Gen. Alexander Commits CYBERCOM to Transparency in Untransparent Way

A surreal moment in Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander’s confirmation hearing to become the first U.S. Cyber Command chief: Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) noted that almost “all” substantive answers Alexander provided the Senate Armed Services Committee for how Cyber Command will operate and how it will work with the National Security Agency are classified. Could the general maybe make more information public?

“Transparency is important,” Alexander said, and pointed to how as NSA director he created a directorate for legal compliance — his tenure, of course, came in the wake of the Bush administration’s NSA-based warrantless surveillance program, which a federal judge recently ruled was riddled with illegality — and he would carry that effort over to CYBERCOM. “We take an oath to the Constitution,” Alexander said, and Udall moved on.

So the short answer to Udall’s question was … no.