McNeal Participates In Rare Briefing At NSA

From the Pepperdine University news story:

Professor Gregory S. McNeal and eight other experts in national security, technology, and privacy recently attended a series of unprecedented briefings at the headquarters of the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Md. The briefers included the most senior leaders, technicians, and lawyers in the NSA. During the briefings, participants discussed the law and policy of intelligence gathering, signals intelligence history and process, cybersecurity, the NSA’s relationship with Congress, and the impact of recent media leaks on the NSA. The briefings were off the record, which allowed for a frank and candid discussion about the agency and its tactics. The NSA is one of the world’s most secret intelligence gathering organizations, responsible for conducting electronic surveillance, cryptology, and cyber warfare. Its core missions are to protect U.S. national security systems and to produce foreign signals intelligence information.

The briefings will help to enhance McNeal’s teaching, research, and public commentary which focus on national security law and policy. He previously served as Assistant Director of the Institute for Global Security, co-directed a transnational counterterrorism grant program for the U.S. Department of Justice, and served as a legal consultant to the Chief Prosecutor of the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions on matters related to the prosecution of suspected terrorists held in the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He is a contributor to Forbes, where he writes a column about law, policy and security.