tangent4ronpaul
08-05-2013, 01:02 PM
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/05/inside-the-plot-to-egg-the-director-of-the-nsa/
General Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency, may not have enjoyed being heckled during his keynote address last Wednesday at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. Little did he realize how close he came to a far messier volley of criticism.
One member of the audience, who spoke with me on the condition of anonymity, tells me that he hatched a plan to distribute eggs to the Black Hat audience in the hopes of inspiring the assembled hackers and security professionals to bombard the general during his speech in a yolk-splattered protest against the NSA’s mass surveillance programs.
“I wanted to show that we disapprove of what’s happening,” says the egg protest’s planner. “That we disapprove of unchecked, untransparent invasive government surveillance on a massive scale.”
The night before the keynote, the would-be egger (whose identity was confirmed to me by other sources) bought six dozen Grade AA Large eggs at a local convenience store. He carried the eggs into the Caesar Palace’s conference hall in a backpack. And just before the talk began, he handed one carton to each of the audience members sitting by the aisle of the third through the seventh rows in front of the stage, asking each person to take an egg and pass the carton.
“I thought there might be a moment when someone in the audience wishes they had an egg in their hand,” he says. “I wanted to anticipate that possibility.”
And why not just throw the eggs himself? “I didn’t want this to be the act of just one single, disgruntled individual, but a group response,” explains the egg agitator. “I think there’s something different about one individual heckling or throwing eggs versus a chorus of people who all respond together…I was ready to throw the first egg if there was the potential for a group response.”
That attempt to spontaneously enlist audience members, however, is where the plan failed. “No one took an egg,” he says. The audience, he notes, may have been intimidated by the two suited agents with earpieces flanking Alexander on either side of the stage. ”People seemed actually scared and tense…Everyone would look at the eggs, think about it and then pass the carton to the next person.” Eventually the cartons were confiscated by the conference hall’s security guards.
I’ve contacted the NSA for comment on the attempt to egg its director, and I’ll update this post if I hear back from the agency.
Black Hat conference organizer Jeff Moss, for his part, isn’t pleased. “It’s not cool to throw eggs at people,” he says. “Besides being amazingly disrespectful, there are probably better ways to protest.”
Even aside from the egg agent provocateur in the audience, Alexander’s talk was already a tense moment for the conference. As the general asked for the security community’s understanding in the wake of leaks from Booz Allen contractor Edward Snowden showing large-scale foreign and domestic data collection by the NSA, Black Hat’s audience wasn’t exactly welcoming. Around a half hour into Alexander’s talk, a heckler shouted “I don’t trust you” and “bullshit!” Another voice accused Alexander of lying to Congress, which he vehemently denied. The NSA director received applause of his own when he rebutted the hecklers and listed terrorist activities the NSA has foiled.
For the organizer of the failed egg plan, the audience’s unwillingness to even take an egg from his cartons shows just how deep the NSA’s influence runs within the U.S. security industry. “The crowd was sympathetic to the Alexander and the NSA, possibly because many of them work in that industry and have government contracts,” he says.
But he largely blames himself for failing to organize a more coordinate egging. Would he try the stunt again? “Sure,” he says. “But I’d do it differently.”
Take heed, General Alexander. In a dairy aisle somewhere in America, a carton of projectiles may still have your name on it.
-t
General Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency, may not have enjoyed being heckled during his keynote address last Wednesday at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. Little did he realize how close he came to a far messier volley of criticism.
One member of the audience, who spoke with me on the condition of anonymity, tells me that he hatched a plan to distribute eggs to the Black Hat audience in the hopes of inspiring the assembled hackers and security professionals to bombard the general during his speech in a yolk-splattered protest against the NSA’s mass surveillance programs.
“I wanted to show that we disapprove of what’s happening,” says the egg protest’s planner. “That we disapprove of unchecked, untransparent invasive government surveillance on a massive scale.”
The night before the keynote, the would-be egger (whose identity was confirmed to me by other sources) bought six dozen Grade AA Large eggs at a local convenience store. He carried the eggs into the Caesar Palace’s conference hall in a backpack. And just before the talk began, he handed one carton to each of the audience members sitting by the aisle of the third through the seventh rows in front of the stage, asking each person to take an egg and pass the carton.
“I thought there might be a moment when someone in the audience wishes they had an egg in their hand,” he says. “I wanted to anticipate that possibility.”
And why not just throw the eggs himself? “I didn’t want this to be the act of just one single, disgruntled individual, but a group response,” explains the egg agitator. “I think there’s something different about one individual heckling or throwing eggs versus a chorus of people who all respond together…I was ready to throw the first egg if there was the potential for a group response.”
That attempt to spontaneously enlist audience members, however, is where the plan failed. “No one took an egg,” he says. The audience, he notes, may have been intimidated by the two suited agents with earpieces flanking Alexander on either side of the stage. ”People seemed actually scared and tense…Everyone would look at the eggs, think about it and then pass the carton to the next person.” Eventually the cartons were confiscated by the conference hall’s security guards.
I’ve contacted the NSA for comment on the attempt to egg its director, and I’ll update this post if I hear back from the agency.
Black Hat conference organizer Jeff Moss, for his part, isn’t pleased. “It’s not cool to throw eggs at people,” he says. “Besides being amazingly disrespectful, there are probably better ways to protest.”
Even aside from the egg agent provocateur in the audience, Alexander’s talk was already a tense moment for the conference. As the general asked for the security community’s understanding in the wake of leaks from Booz Allen contractor Edward Snowden showing large-scale foreign and domestic data collection by the NSA, Black Hat’s audience wasn’t exactly welcoming. Around a half hour into Alexander’s talk, a heckler shouted “I don’t trust you” and “bullshit!” Another voice accused Alexander of lying to Congress, which he vehemently denied. The NSA director received applause of his own when he rebutted the hecklers and listed terrorist activities the NSA has foiled.
For the organizer of the failed egg plan, the audience’s unwillingness to even take an egg from his cartons shows just how deep the NSA’s influence runs within the U.S. security industry. “The crowd was sympathetic to the Alexander and the NSA, possibly because many of them work in that industry and have government contracts,” he says.
But he largely blames himself for failing to organize a more coordinate egging. Would he try the stunt again? “Sure,” he says. “But I’d do it differently.”
Take heed, General Alexander. In a dairy aisle somewhere in America, a carton of projectiles may still have your name on it.
-t