A story about Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency.

The Cowboy of the NSA

Amidst the Tl;dr discussion of Alexander and the NSA, there’s this:

When he was running the Army’s Intelligence and Security Command, Alexander brought many of his future allies down to Fort Belvoir for a tour of his base of operations, a facility known as the Information Dominance Center. It had been designed by a Hollywood set designer to mimic the bridge of the starship Enterprise from Star Trek, complete with chrome panels, computer stations, a huge TV monitor on the forward wall, and doors that made a “whoosh” sound when they slid open and closed. Lawmakers and other important officials took turns sitting in a leather “captain’s chair” in the center of the room and watched as Alexander, a lover of science-fiction movies, showed off his data tools on the big screen.

“Everybody wanted to sit in the chair at least once to pretend he was Jean-Luc Picard,” says a retired officer in charge of VIP visits.

Sadly, the article does not include photos of said Enterprise-like “Information Dominance Center.” Fortunately, the architects who built it have a website that *does* have photos of said sci-fi environment:

I leave it as a discussion topic whether:

A: Does this really look like the bridge of the Enterprise?

B: *Should* this look like the bridge of the Enterprise?

C: So, how about that wacky NSA, huh?