Former National Security Agency (NSA) Director Keith Alexander has held investments in a corporation that identifies itself as a "world leader in cloud solutions." And in a "data gathering and research" firm. And in a company that develops software that improves the quality of images captured by surveillance cameras. And in a radio frequency business that, among other things, manufactures amplifiers for air traffic control, radar, and surveillance.

The NSA once said that if revealed, this information [pdf below] would threaten national security.

The agency refused VICE News' July request for copies of Alexander's financial disclosure reports, which he is required to fill out annually under a federal law known as the Ethics and Government Act. The law also states that government agencies are required to release the files upon request.

But attorney Shadey Brown, who is the NSA's ethics officer, said in a July 23 letter that the NSA has routinely denied requests for copies of its officials' financial disclosure reports under the National Security Agency Act of 1959. That law authorizes the NSA to withhold virtually everything about the inner workings of the agency, including data about the names, titles, and salaries of people the agency employs.

Meet John Napier Tye, the US government's favorite whistleblower. Read more here.

Moreover, Brown cited a provision in the Ethics and Government Act that suggested President Barack Obama issued Alexander a waiver that authorized the withholding of his financial reports if disclosure would "compromise the national interest of the United States."

In a lawsuit against the NSA, attorney Jeffrey Light argued that the agency had misinterpreted the laws it cited to justify the ongoing secrecy. Earlier this week, before the case hit a courtroom, a government attorney turned over 59 pages of financial disclosure reports Alexander filed between 2009 and 2014. https://news.vice.com/article/these-are-the-financial-disclosure-forms-the-nsa-said-would-threaten-national-security