by Mark Silva
`Former CIA Director Michael Hayden, who says he "marshaled'' arguments against the Obama administration's release of Bush administration memoranda detailing the extent of the harshest interrogation techniques employed in the "war on terror,'' maintains that their public disclosure makes "America less safe.''
In an interview on FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace today, Hayden says his successors didn't really solicit his advice on this question.
"I wasn't asked. We weren't asked,'' Hayden said. "We were informed as a courtesy by the agency that this was a pending decision, and all of us self-initiated, voluntarily, to call the White House and express our views."
Hayden was not alone among past CIA directors in advising against the move - "four previous predecessors all saying that those documents were appropriately classified, which means that they viewed the documents as -- the release of them would be a grave threat to national security
"I called the White House counsel, the national security adviser, the deputy national security adviser....I marshaled the arguments as to why I thought it would make America less safe,'' Hayden said. "At the tactical level, what we have described for our enemies in the midst of a war are the outer limits that any American would ever go to in terms of interrogating an Al Qaeda terrorist. That's very valuable information.
"There's a difference of leaks, and rumors, and rumors of this and that, and going out there and defining in an absolutely clear way what the limits are...
"That puts agency officers in a horrible position,'' he said. "The really dangerous effect of this, is that you will have agency officers stepping back from the kinds of things that the nation expects them to do...
"If you were to go to an agency officer today and say, "Go do this," and, "Why am I authorized to do this?" That agency officer's going to say, "Yeah, I know, but I see what's going on here now. Have you run it by the ACLU? What's the New York Times editorial board think? Have you discussed this with any potential presidential candidates?"... I am confident this is the thought process going on in the agency now."
Hayden says he had already had taken the most infamous of the interrogation techniques, "water-boarding'' off the table when he took over the agency.
"Water-boarding had not been using since the spring of 2003,'' he said. " Water-boarding was one of the techniques that I took off the table formally and officially when I became director and reshaped the program."
"I reshaped the program because the legal landscape had changed, the operational landscape had changed, and we knew more about Al Qaeda, all right, and the sense of threat under which we were operating had changed."
Hayden also suggested that the president's assurance that none of the operatives who carried out interrogations under the authority that the Justice Department had given them will be prosecuted is "not the end of it.''
"Oh, God, no, it's not the end of it,'' he said. "If you look at the letters that Director Panetta and Director Blair put out to the intelligence community workforce, near the end of both letters they make it very clear -- I mean, literally, explicitly say -- this is not the end of it... There will be more revelations. There will be more commissions. There will be more investigations."
Comments
The torture memos are going to do ore damage to America , than than The Bush Administration-
Another Obama faulty CHANGE.
Posted by: Inky | April 19, 2009 1:57 PM
Would some one at the RNC, let the boys and girls of the Party know, that the record has changed. We don't need more echoes of Cheney, lying to the nation, again !! One thing we do know, our enemies will not be predisposed to torturing our personnel, if they are ever captured. May that never happen !
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, America | April 19, 2009 3:21 PM
Everyone already knew this stuff was going on like Rahm stated this morning. Releasing these memos just shows that the administration thinks we are big boys and girls and can handle the truth. I think these old hacks forget that we are the ones who pay the government salaries and they are accountable to us.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | April 19, 2009 4:06 PM
"grotesquely irresponsible."??? Republican lawmakers ought to know. Sitting silently while The Bush Administartion twisted the law, ignored treaties, lied about evidence to bully the Congress into supporting an unnecessary war, insisting on deregulation of business while crippling government oversight so that that economy collapses, the environment gets more polluted, and food and drugs become more dangerous.
For Republicans to say that coming clean on the Bush Administration torture rules makes America less safe is like a sexually abusive Priest telling his victims to not talk about the abuse because it makes the Church look bad. What a load of cr*p!!
Why do Republicans hate America? Fear, Hatred, Distortion and Division. It's all they've got. Do they have any ideas for getting us out of the mess they've made? The silence is deafening.
Posted by: thebobbob | April 19, 2009 6:56 PM
The Obama administration should definitely look into the issue and not allow the defense of "I was just following orders" to be any form of a deterrent. To see my position discussed in further detail you can visit my blog at: http://www.ricoexplainsitall.com/politcs-economy/2009/4/17/obama-administration-should-investigate-cia-torture-under-bu.html
Posted by: rico | April 19, 2009 8:27 PM
Yeah, because 'terror' groups really need to be emboldened. As part of their recruiting effort now, they'll pass out a pamphlet that deals with US interrogation methods? That ought to get the brain-dead Allah follower to strap the velcro vest on for his 99 virgins?
How dumb do the WASP elite think the rest of the American public is?
More noise and distractions from the truth.
Posted by: karl | April 19, 2009 9:30 PM
Adolf Eichmann deserves a new trial.
He was just following the Wannsee Protocol.
Looks like Prof. Wu ,er, Doom, no that's Yoo, and his boss Bybee are in a spot of hot water.
As the investigation proceeds, be sure to ask for their memos on what to do with illegal aliens and what to do with muslim-americans.
Posted by: ornery | April 19, 2009 10:36 PM
Well yah, if you work for the CIA, you would be worried too. Your name might be published in public. That wouldn't be very pleasant to be known as the guy wearing the black mask with the axe. kinda like the cartoons. . .keep the mask on!
Posted by: Lou | April 19, 2009 11:30 PM
Hayden was interviewed at length, on CSpan, I believe.
Rather unnerving. He was a textbook case for some neurologist.
He exhibited more weird facial tics than Dr. Strangelove.
Posted by: ornery | April 20, 2009 7:25 AM
Waterboarding? Big deal-
If the tables had been reversed, this 7th-century savage would have been chopping our heads off while making a video of it.
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Water boarding is not a near-drowning technique. The subject is never in danger of drowning. And water boarding is not torture... no physical harm to the subject.
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Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed is a bad guy, and US interrigators obtained valuable info from him using this technique- who cares how many times it took? Water's cheap, lol.
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It was up to him how long before he decided to cooperate, didn't have to be this way necessarily- apparently he clung stubbornly to a bad decision.
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http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com
Posted by: Reaganite Republican Resistance | April 20, 2009 1:32 PM