Sunday, September 15, 2013

NSA's Fort Belvoir and Star Trek

This is an example of how my experiences with the NSA jar with the press's reporting. An article in Foreign Policy Review claims that General Alexander hired a Hollywood set designer to make his command center at Fort Belvoir look like the bridge of the Enterprise. That's not the story I heard.

I visited Fort Belvoir around 2003 (I forget the exact timeframe). The story I was given is that the Hollywood set designer was a relative, of the head himself or one of his underlings, and that the set designer provided his services for free. Rather than a passion for Star Trek, the situation was more about taking advantage of the opportunity. Whether they spent a ton of money, or got free services, seems to me to be a critical part of the story.

Also, it's not just Federation. The exterior doors have interlocking swords like the Klingon High Council Chamber.

I point this out to show how the press creates a narrative, in this case of Keith Alexander being a "cowboy", and ignores things that don't fit their narrative. I'm on the front lines calling the NSA evil and Orwellian, but at the same time, I don't trust the press, either.




4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ive also visited the ops floor in question. There is no way to deny that a large amount of money was wasted on design rather than functionality.

Anonymous said...

Klingons are our enemies, if he is a Klingon, this is even more worrying.

שחר said...

Think the ops floor was a waste? You should have seen the 30-ft warp core lava lamps in the restrooms.

Anonymous said...

Even if the design work was free, building this absurd playroom for a dangerous military psychopath still cost millions.

But I doubt even this is the case, becasue the architecture firm DBI Architects is showcasing it on their website as one of their premier interior design projects. Their formerly little-viewed website was down all day due to the traffic - now it has been taken down and replaced with a placeholder web page.

Good to see one more way the USA is becoming the hated laughingstock of the world.