You're using public sources of information to refute theories of where a highly-secret and officially-denied program might operate. That makes no sense.

Whatever office, department, or contractor does the NSA's package intercepts, all public sources will describe it as something innocent and unrelated.

The guy I responded to is using that some information to try to support the theories. Either the info is good, or it's not.

I have no particular objection to saying, "this stuff would be secret so of course there would be no information on it". Oddly, nobody has actually tried that.

However, that still goes back to the point I raised: why Alexandria? It's not particularly convenient to the NSA. It's not convenient to shippers. It doesn't have anything special in the way of infrastructure. So it would be quite an odd choice. Possible, but it's not the smoking gun the article makes it out to be.

I specifically stated that I was just trying to point out that, despite your claim, there's something interesting in Alexandria.

There's no point in debating speculations beyond that because we don't have any information for or against.

It's just me stating "hey, it's possible" and refuting your suggestion that there isn't anything in Alexandria that could cause concern. I'm only answering a question you asked.

Did you actually read the three paragraphs on the first linked page?

The ones that say their research activities occur in California and New Jersey?

Yes, one part of what they do is in NJ/CA. Alexandria is where they're based. I'm not leaping to any conclusion; it just seems remotely possible and they're based there. You're the one saying there's nothing interesting in Alexandria.

Given what the company researches, their history and mission, it seems like exactly the sort of place where this wild theory suggested by the OP could be a reality.

The headquarters of a company like this isn't interesting. Headquarters are administrative centers. It's not where you send a laptop to have a bug installed.

A bug is only one of many possibilities for what they could want with that keyboard.

The people in that building are highly trusted whereas the NSA has good reason not to trust the brilliant geeks working for their contractors.

Huh? Those people are contractors.

I'll have to be explicit since this seems hard to understand:

You're the NSA. Who do you trust more: A) (Perhaps the) CTO of a defense contractor that only works for you that you've had a 20 year working relationship with? B) The bright eyed young scientists working for that contractor in a building 3000 miles away?

Or put another way, despite the Snowden leak, I'll bet you any amount of money that the NSA is still in "really fucking tight" with Booz Allen Hamilton.

Or: duh OPSEC.

You're right, it is pretty hard to understand.

In one paragraph, you seem to be saying that the NSA wouldn't trust the employees of contractors. In the next paragraph, you tell me that the NSA is still "really fucking tight" with Booz Allen. These two ideas seem completely contradictory.

But I think you might be suggesting that the NSA has given up on the low-level employees, and is now having the executives of these companies do the work directly. Which seems completely ludicrous to me, as no C-level at a company like this (even the CTO) is going to have the requisite skills, and even if he did he's not going to have the time.

You think along the narrowest lines of anyone of anyone I've ever held a conversation with.

Not executives specifically but somebody trusted. That's more likely to be in the building where administration is done than anywhere else. Also you want to separate research from implementation. Your narrow refusal to even consider that there might be an interesting place for an agency to ship a laptop component to in Alexandria has taken this exercise way further than it needs to be to demonstrate the point.

What you see of narrow thinking is just complete disagreement on how companies like this are structured.

For example, I live a couple of miles from the headquarters of Exxon Mobil. Yet it's about the last place I'd look if I wanted to find a trustworthy person to drill an oil well or build a gas pipeline.

Also, I'm not refusing to consider that Alexandria might be a viable destination for this. I merely think it's unlikely, especially compared to the "military and intelligence belt" language used in the post.