In a speech given at the Telecommunciations Industry Association conference on Wednesday, Gen. Keith Alexander of the National Security Agency (NSA) criticized the media coverage and resulting public opinion of government surveillance programs, the Washington Post reported.

Alexander, director of the NSA, defended the surveillance initiatives as essential to national security by preventing terrorist attacks. However, once reports of the secret program were leaked by The Guardian and The Washington Post, he said the critical backlash negatively affected the program by slowing it's work and revealing vital information about the program to America's enemies.

He also said he agreed with remarks made by Andrew Parker, director of Britain's Security Service, who called the leaks "gifts" to terrorists.

"I think Andrew Parker's message is right," he said, calling the press leaks "irresponsible" and accusing the leaks of causing "irreversible damage to our nation." 

Alexander added the leaks "impacted that foundation of trust that industry has with NSA, and that the NSA has with the American people."  At the same time, they have given the NSA the opportunity to give information "available to the public so they know we're doing the right thing." 

He harshly condemned the critique of reporters who say the government misued data.

"We need to put the facts on the table, we need the American people to understand the facts, and it's got to start with what we're actually doing, not what we could be doing with the data," Alexander said. 

Given the heated public debate over the programs, he suggested to people in the audience to decide on their own if the government was doing the right thing, from a technical standpoint, by analyzing the official program documents.

In addition, ever since the demand for information on surveillance from media outlets has been building, Alexander said he feared of more intelligence being shared between public and private sectors.

"We're stuck," he said. "We can't do this mission without your help... to inform the American people and Congress about what we're doing."