Former CIA and National Security Agency director Michael Hayden has long been the face and voice of the growing security state within the United States. While many of his representations have been challenged, he continues (like Dick Cheney) to create his own reality to justify powers viewed as authoritarian and unlawful. Now, with the approaching release of a comprehensive report on the torture program, Hayden is out in the press denying the findings of the report that torture did not result in any meaningful new intelligence and that the CIA tortured people who were already cooperating with conventional (and legal) interrogations. Hayden took to the airways to champion torture by attacking the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D, Cal.) and said that she was just being “emotional” and should not be involved in such a serious debate.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Hayden cited comments Feinstein made last month that the report would “ensure that an un-American, brutal program of detention and interrogation will never again be considered or permitted.” That was just Feinstein being “emotional” Hayden insisted: “That sentence — that motivation for the report — may show deep, emotional feeling on the part of the senator, but I don’t think it leads you to an objective report.”
It was an ironic moment since Feinstein has been widely denounced by civil libertarians for her blind support for the intelligence community, including her campaign against Edward Snowden and her defense of massive surveillance programs targeting the entire population in meta data collection. When she was granting the security agencies their every wish, she was pragmatic and powerful. However, once she allowed an investigation into torture, she became emotional and incompetent. Of course, under Hayden’s approach, the United Nations, various countries, numerous human rights organizations, and former government officials are equally blinded by their emotions in denouncing the torture program — and our failure to prosecute former Bush officials.
It is equally telling that Hayden views the condemnation of torture to be a purely emotional response. Torture is a war crime as well as a domestic crime. It is like saying that a prosecutor is a bit too emotional in denouncing murder. Normal people tend to have a certain emotion over torture. We had some pretty powerful emotions when we tried Japanese officers for water boarding our POWs. Hayden made his career by dismissing questions of illegality as emotional tripe.
Ironically, Hayden is my neighbor down the street from my house. The few houses that separate us are nothing like the “emotional” divide over war crimes. I still strongly oppose the record of Feinstein in the expansion of national security powers in this country. However, having Michael Hayden as a critic on the subject of torture is a good step toward redemption.
Source: Washington Post
Folks, I am glad that you’all are willing to give these people a fair trial before you hang them. In my lifetime I have never seen people condemn people as criminals (war criminals specifically) without trial, so fast.
Delivered a request to the Public Corruption Task Force in Los Angeles
on December 7, 2007
In March 2008 – the Public Corruption Task Force was SHUT DOWN
(see L.A. Times “Shake up roils federal prosecutors).
Career federal agents were threatened to keep their mouths shut on the closing
Senator Feinstein sent a letter to then (Acting) U.S. Att. General MuKasey
Never heard a word since!
I agree with rafflaw, Hayden is a war criminal. His thoughts on his war crimes and the war crimes of others should be heard in a court of law. Otherwise, they are irrelevant to anything.
What some see as humor, others see as immaturity and a complete lack of class.
You are welcome, ap.
raff, No personal attack on anyone here. He does look like a penis head. I have every right to say he looks like a penis head. I used no profanity[Has anyone noticed I hardly swear anymore]. Lighten up, in our quest for civility we don’t want to become humorless, do we?
Blatantly sexist. He would never have called Ron Wyden “emotional”. Let’s get all sociopaths out of government.
oxa – are you saying that men are incapable of being emotional? I seem to remember the left going after a male Republican politician who cried in public.
“ensure that an un-American, brutal program of detention and interrogation will never again be considered or permitted.”
Yeah right. As long as this country continues its massive program of attacking defenseless people in other countries to take control of valuable resources, there will be a great deal more random torture, carnage, and destruction.
What rafflaw said, in both comments.
Thanks for the great links this morning, Swarthmore mom.
Mr. Hayden is a war criminal and why should we be listening to a war criminal?
Nick,
The last comment was unnecessary.
Feinstein doesn’t want Jonathan or any blogger to have journalistic protections under the Constitution. She is just fine w/ the NSA. She is trying to regain some credibility and folks are buying it. This woman is a lightweight and always has been.
“The Military-Industrial Complex can always look to the former head of the CIA, Michael Hayden as their go-to guy to defend them at every turn. On Fox News Sunday, he took it to a new disgusting level when he claimed that a statement made by Senator Diane Feinstein on the CIA’s torture program made her too emotionally unstable to render an objective decision. Maybe it’s just her time of the month?
Former CIA and National Security Agency director Michael Hayden suggested Sunday that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) might have compromised the objectivity of a report on CIA interrogation techniques because she personally wants to change them.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Hayden cited comments Feinstein made last month in which she said declassifying the report would “ensure that an un-American, brutal program of detention and interrogation will never again be considered or permitted.”
Hayden suggested Feinstein feels too strongly about the issue on an “emotional” level.
“That sentence — that motivation for the report — may show deep, emotional feeling on the part of the senator, but I don’t think it leads you to an objective report,” Hayden said.
I thought having strong feelings about information a senator receives during an investigation makes them a better senator, silly me. Why should facts of unspeakable horrors be treated with a sociopath’s mindset? You know Dexter wouldn’t be so “emotional” by a little waterboarding. Didn’t General Michael Hayden have strong feelings regarding the CIA when he ran things and obviously he knew all about the torture program?
And what on earth was the Democratic Party thinking putting a woman on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence? Don’t they know that’s where real men make the grown up decisions and all women belong in the kitchen cooking Michael Hayden his breakfast and then giving him a rubdown?
It couldn’t possibly be the fact that the CIA torture program was so horrible it disgusted her? And maybe it was the fact that the CIA repeatedly lied to Congress and to the American people about how ineffective and brutal it was?” crooks and liars
Our fathers and grandfathers fought and some died to lead us to Nuremberg and the prosecution of war crimes including various forms of water torture.
Hayden’s frivolous and sexist accusation shows he has no arguments worthy of consideration and deserves our contempt.
Document war crimes and prosecute war criminals now.
http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/04/03/thanks-to-dianne-feinstein-and-mark-udall-for-seeing-torture-report-through/
At least he didn’t say “hysterical”. Hayden is the poster boy for everything that is wrong with the military when it comes to mysoginy and he is the leader of an organization that sees no problem with shredding the Constition. What about that oath he gave to “protect and defend the Constituion from all enemies foreign and domestic”? Sounds to me like he should be taking some action against himself.
When one has nothing to say that is substantive one always trying to deman ones adversary. He should be fired and throw out of the military he is a disgrace.
Nancy Grace – former prosecutor who is too emotional by far. Feinstein is an accidental Senator. If Harvey Milk had not been assassinated, she would be nothing. Personally, I have always found her an odd duck on the Intelligence Comm. If there was a leak from the Comm. I would suspect her office first. Still, Hayden’s opinion is his opinion. Having watched her in public hearings, I can see where he is coming from.
The only response Hayden draws out of me is outrage and disgust. A pathetic small time imitation of Cheney who should be swept from the public stage.
Mr. Hayden is fast becoming the face of American war crimes (supplanting former VP Cheney).
Every time I hear Mr. Hayden (calling him general debases an honorable title) speak, I feel disgust and anger that he continues to avoid prosecution.
Good post. You’re being rational and fair again, so stick to these subjects.