Former CIA/NSA Director Michael Hayden Says The Republican Party Is The Most Dangerous Political Force He’s Encountered

Former NSA/CIA Director Michael Hayden talks during a Reuters CyberSecurity Summit in Washington, D.C., in 2014.(Larry Downing/Reuters)

FOX News: Former CIA Director Hayden agrees with journalist tweet labeling Republicans 'dangerous' and 'nihilistic' 

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden agreed Republicans more dangerous than extremist groups 

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden on Wednesday agreed with a British journalist’s contention that Republicans were more "nihilistic" and "dangerous" than extremists groups and dictatorships around the world. 

"I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career," tweeted Financial Times columnist Edward Luce on Thursday. "Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close." 

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Former CIA/NSA Director Michael Hayden Says The Republican Party Is The Most Dangerous Political Force He’s Encountered  

GOP Is Most 'Dangerous' Political Force in World, Michael Hayden Says -- Newsweek 

CIA director under Bush says today’s Republican Party is more ‘nihilistic and dangerous’ than terror groups -- The Independent  

Ex-CIA Director Claims Modern GOP Most Dangerous Political Force He’s Encountered -- National Review  

Ex-CIA director agrees GOP most ‘nihilistic, dangerous’ political force -- NYPost

Former NSA And CIA Director Michael Hayden: The ‘Golden Age Of Electronic Surveillance’ Is Ending

General (Ret.) Michael Hayden speaks at the National Security Law Journal (NSLJ) symposium on cybersecurity April 2, 2013, in Washington, D.C.

Recode: The ‘golden age of electronic surveillance’ is ending, says former NSA and CIA chief Michael Hayden

As the intelligence community shifts to new tactics, the Trump administration is creating an “age of lies.”

At America’s intelligence agencies, there are three ways to “steal secrets,” says former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden: Humans, signals and imagery. And for nearly two decades, signals were abundant as technology proliferated around the world.

“When I became the director of NSA in 1999, we were moving into the digital age,” Hayden said on the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher. “What we saw — and we said this to ourselves at NSA — ‘It’s going to be hard to keep up. It’s going to be really technically challenging, but if we do it even half well, this is going to be the golden age of electronic surveillance.’”

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WNU Editor: A ‘golden age of electronic surveillance’ .... I have no reason to believe there ever was a ‘golden age of electronic surveillance’.

FBI Investigated Former CIA And NSA Director Michael Hayden In 2012 For Leaking Secrets To The Press

Former CIA And NSA Director Michael Hayden (YouTube)

Kevin Poulson, Daily Beast: Exclusive: FBI Investigated Former CIA Chief Michael Hayden in Secret-Spilling Case

The targeting of Michael Hayden drives home how aggressively the Obama administration pursued leaks—following a relatively thin lead to a former spy chief’s private email account.

The FBI sought a search warrant for the email account of former CIA and NSA chief Gen. Michael Hayden in 2012, according to a newly unsealed court filing. The warrant application was part of a broader Obama-era investigation into a leak of classified information to the press. Another official later pleaded guilty in connection to the disclosure.

The targeting of Hayden’s AOL email account drives home just how aggressively the Obama administration pursued leaks, in this case following a relatively thin lead all the way to the private email account of a retired four-star general. Hayden served as director of the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005, and later led the CIA until his retirement in 2009.

Asked over email if he’d previously known about the search warrant, Hayden wrote, “I don’t think they announce them,” and added a smiley face emoji.

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WNU Editor:  He must have felt uncomfortable upon learning that he was a target of an investigation.

Two Former CIA Directors Support Athletes Taking The Knee When The Anthem Is Being Played

WNU Editor: The two former CIA Directors are Michael Hayden .... Former CIA Director: In Dispute With Trump, 'Put Me Down With Kaepernick' (Huffington Post), and John Brennan .... Former CIA Director John Brennan Stands By Athletes Taking The Knee (Huffington Post).

Former CIA-NSA Director: Millennials Leak Secrets Because Of 'Cultural Differences'

Snowden with Former CIA and NSA chief General Michael Hayden at a gala in 2011. Courtesy of Edward Snowden via Wired

The Independent: WikiLeaks CIA files: Former intelligence chief claims millennials leak secrets because of 'cultural differences'

Michael Hayden says young employees have 'different understandings of loyalty and secrecy'

The former director of the CIA has claimed millennials being employed by American security services are more likely to leak information because they are “culturally different” from their elders.

Speaking after WikiLeaks published thousands of documents appearing to reveal methods to access mobile phones, computers and event smart televisions from the world’s biggest technology brands, Michael Hayden said the need to hire young coders was part of the problem.

“In order to do this kind of stuff, we have to recruit from a certain demographic,” he told the BBC.

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WNU Editor: As I have said more than once in this blog .... the culture has definitely changed. As to millennials leaking secrets .... I do not think they are solely to blame. The press that gives the OK to publish these leaks are staffed with people in their 40s and 50s.

Former CIA Chief: If Not Handled Properly, Relations With China Could Turn Into A Catastrophe

Former NSA/CIA Director Michael Hayden (Reuters / Larry Downing) / Reuters

The Guardian: America’s former CIA chief: ‘If we don’t handle China well, it will be catastrophic’

General Michael Hayden oversaw the NSA’s bulk surveillance programme and helped turn the CIA into a militarised force carrying out drone attacks. Why does he now think the obsession with counter-terrorism obscures more serious threats?

General Michael Hayden – the former chief of the US’s two most powerful and controversial intelligence agencies – is fearful of his legacy. The only person to head both the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA) now wonders if the US’s preoccupation with terrorism he helped shape since 9/11 has caused the country’s intelligence services to take their eye off more serious threats down the road. “The danger is we become so focused on the urgent that we don’t pay enough attention to the really important,” he says.

The urgent, says Hayden, is a terrorist trying to get a bomb on a plane. He understands the political imperative of throwing huge resources into preventing the next 9/11. But he says, carefully, that a terrorist attack “is not an existential threat to the United States”. What keeps him awake at night is what the CIA isn’t paying enough attention to.

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WNU Editor: Unfortunately, China is not helping the situation .... China able to project 'substantial offensive power' from Spratlys in months: U.S. (Reuters). What's my take .... Michael Hayden's concerns are justified, but China is going to do what they feel is critical for their national security and stability .... even if it means raising tensions with the U.S., and exacerbating relations with its neighbours. On a side note, Michael Hayden's remarks in the Guardian post on the rise of radical Islam raised my eyebrows.

Former CIA Director: Military Could Defy Donald Trump’s Orders

The Hill: Ex-CIA chief: Armed forces would have to disobey Trump

The former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency said Friday that if the military would have to disobey Donald Trump if he followed through on certain campaign promises as president.

Referring to Trump's suggestion to torture suspected terrorists and kill their families, Gen. Michael Hayden told TV host Bill Maher, “If he were to order that once in government, the American armed forces would refuse to act.”

“You’re required not to follow an unlawful order. That would be in violation of all the international laws of armed conflict," Hayden said. “I would be incredibly concerned if a President Trump governed in a way that was consistent with the language candidate Trump expressed during the campaign.”

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Update #1: Former CIA Chief Says Military Could Defy Donald Trump’s Orders -- WSJ
Update #2: Former CIA Head Explains Why Armed Forces Can't Legally Obey Trump -- Huffington Post
Update #3: Ex-CIA, NSA chief Michael Hayden: 2016 rhetoric 'scares me' (CNN)

WNU Editor: Gen. Michael Hayden seems very sure of himself.

Former NSA Director Michael Hayden Writes A Memoir

Image: Penguin Books

New York Times: Review: In ‘Playing to the Edge,’ Michael V. Hayden, Bush-Era Spymaster, Defends His Record

According to Michael V. Hayden, President George W. Bush personally intervened in 2005 to try to stop The New York Times from publishing an explosive scoop.

In one of his book’s most memorable moments, the paper’s Washington bureau chief, Philip Taubman; the executive editor, Bill Keller; and the publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., met with Mr. Bush in the Oval Office to hear his objections to The Times’s running a story about Stellarwind, a top-secret National Security Agency surveillance program. For several years, the program had been sweeping up telecommunications data for the National Security Agency without obtaining a warrant.

Mr. Sulzberger, the fourth-generational head of this publication and a man with a notoriously awkward sense of humor, joked to Mr. Bush that they both now worked in their father’s old office. “No ice was broken,” Mr. Hayden writes. The president argued that exposing Stellarwind, which was meant to intercept the communications of suspected foreign plotters, would invite another 9/11-style attack. If that happened, Mr. Bush told the Timesmen, they ought to be prepared to shoulder some of the blame.

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Update: Confessions From Bush’s NSA Spy Program (Shane Harris, Daily Beast)

WNU Editor: He is still peeved off at Edward Snowden .... Edward Snowden is a 'naïve, narcissistic and insufferably self-important defector', claims former NSA boss (IBTimes)

Former NSA Head: Impact Of Edward Snowden's Leaks On Data-Collection Efforts Have Been Minimal

WNU Editor: He is mocking the new restrictions that have been imposed by the US government on NSA data collection .... and he is correct .... the new restrictions are a joke. I also agree with his analysis on whether Edward Snowden was helped by an intelligence agency when he collected the data and made his leak public .... there is zero evidence that he was.

Former CIA - NSA Head: This Is How China Will Use The Latest Cyber Hack To Recruit Spies In the U.S.

The Hill: Ex-CIA head: ‘Shame on us’ for allowing government hack

The historic theft of millions of government workers’ data was “honorable espionage work” and a “legitimate foreign intelligence target,” according to former CIA Director Michael Hayden.

“This is not ‘shame on China.’ This is ‘shame on us’ for not protecting that kind of information,” Hayden, who also previously served as head of the National Security Agency, said at The Wall Street Journal’s CFO Network meeting in Washington on Monday evening.

WNU Editor: He makes sense.

Former NSA Director General Hayden: U.S. Air Strikes Against The Islamic State Are Like Casual Sex

Retired Gen. Hayden Warns: Airstrikes Can Be Like ‘Casual Sex’ Without Commitment -- Washington Times

Retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden used a recent conference call with reporters to warn about the dangers of relying on air power to attain military objectives in the Middle East. The former director of both the CIA and the National Security Agency also raised eyebrows when he likened the temptation to lean on air power to casual sex.

“The reliance on air power has all of the attraction of casual sex: It seems to offer gratification but with little commitment,” said Gen. Hayden, U.S. News and World Report reported Thursday. “We need to be wary of a strategy that puts emphasis on air power and air power alone.”

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More News (And Comments) On Former NSA Director General Hayden Remarking That U.S. Air Strikes Against The Islamic State Are Like Casual Sex

RETIRED GENERAL: The President's ISIS Strategy Is Like 'Casual Sex' -- Business Insider
Ex-NSA chief: Airstrikes like ‘casual sex’ -- The Hill
Retired Gen. Hayden Compares U.S. ISIS Strategy To 'Casual Sex' -- NPR
WATCH: Hayden defends comparing U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State to 'casual sex' -- Haaretz

A Former CIA Director Provides A Critical Assessment Of Preisdent Obama's Foreign Policies

Photo: Michael Hayden, CIA official portrait. Wikipedia

HAYDEN: Iran ‘Within Sprinting Distance’ Of Nuclear Bomb -- Michael Hayden, Washington Times

I hope I’m wrong, but like a lot of other folks, I’m seeing a pattern here. The lodestar of current American security policy seems to be to reduce our burdens and minimize our involvement — often in the face of hard evidence pointing toward alternative options.

No one who has seriously advised a president on intelligence matters would claim that his briefing had an exclusive claim on determining the executive’s decision. Other matters, not least of which are the president’s visions and priorities, carry great import. He is, after all, the one who was elected.

The best that an intelligence officer can hope for is to set the reasonable right- and left-hand boundaries of rational policy discussion, the broad limits within which policy deliberations should flow. The fact-based, world-as-it-is intelligence specialist owes that to the vision-based, world-as-we-want-it-to-be policymaker.

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My Comment: What is my assessment .... in these situation I always say the same thing .... elections have consequences.

Former NSA Director Hayden Overheard Bashing The Obama Administration And Tweeted Live To The World

Tom Matzzie and former NSA Director Michael Hayden

The Acela Is a Great Place to Stalk or Overhear Government Officials -- National Journal

A former NSA director isn't the only person to have some issues with being overheard on a train.

Note to reporters with some gumption: Ride the Acela, you'll get scoops.

Note to highly recognizable, but private, former government officials: Avoid the Acela.

Thursday afternoon, Tom Matzzie, a clean-energy entrepreneur (per LinkedIn), and sometime Huffington Post blogger sat behind former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden. The spy was talking to a journalist, who remains unknown, and requested anonymity as he supposedly bashed the Obama administration—which, even for the onetime head of the world's most cloistered agency, is a lot easier to do behind the moniker "Former Senior Administration Official."

Those tweets, and the subsequently amazing picture (which Hayden's office apparently authorized), are here:

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More News On Former NSA Director Hayden Overheard Bashing The Obama Administration And Tweeted Live To The World

Former NSA chief learns the other side of eavesdropping thanks to a Twitter user -- Washington Post
Ex-reporter takes page out of NSA playbook by eavesdropping on former spy chief's conversation and live-tweeting his Obama bashing -- Daily Mail
Former spy chief overheard giving off-the-record interview from Acela train -- The Guardian
Ex-snooper in hotseat Michael Hayden gets snooped on in train, tweeted to world -- Sydney Morning Herald
Former NSA director Hayden gives background interview, but in public -- Reuters
Tom Matzzie on Why He Live-Tweeted a Former CIA Director's Private Conversation, and Whether That Made Him Nervous -- New York Magazine

My Comment: So much for an off-the-record conversation.