Hayden puts a new spin on: 'just following orders'

[Ichingcarpenter]

The interview with politico

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/12/torture-report-michael-hayden-not-sorry-113450_Page2.html#ixzz3LTpY2jc9









He basically says, If Congress said I lied to them, that’s not true, because I was just communicating what subordinates had told me, so it’s really their fault. It’s like a twisted, reverse Nuremberg defense — instead of just following orders from above, the claim is that you’re just passing along information from below.






Salon's and Greenwald's take on it

http://www.salon.com/2014/12/11/exclusive_corrupt_toxic_and_sociopathic_glenn_greenwald_unloads_on_torture_cia_and_washingtons_rotten_soul/


Tech Dirt take:.....

Former CIA Director Hayden: We Didn't Lie About Interrogation Program. Torture Report: Yeah, You Did. REPEATEDLY.



from the I-swear-I-thought-you'd-never-find-out! dept

Former CIA director Michael Hayden warned anyone who would listen that the release of the Torture Report would turn our enemies against us… or further against us, or something. He also claimed that he and the CIA had been generally forthright and open about this program over the past several years.

"To say that we relentlessly, over an expanded period of time, lied to everyone about a program that wasn't doing any good, that beggars the imagination," Hayden said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Well... Prepare to have your imaginations beggared! Here's Michael Hayden's relentless lies, told over an expanded period of time, about a program that wasn't doing any good, as documented in the Senate Committee's report. [pdf link]

Briefings to the full Committee beginning on September 6, 2006, also contained numerous inaccuracies, including inaccurate descriptions of how interrogation techniques were applied and what information was obtained from CIA detainees. The CIA misrepresented the views of members of Congress on a number of occasions. After multiple senators had been critical of the program and written letters expressing concerns to CIA Director Michael Hayden, Director Hayden nonetheless told a meeting of foreign ambassadors to the United States that every Committee member was "fully briefed," and that "[t]his is not CIA's program. This is not the President's program. This is America's program." The CIA also provided inaccurate information describing the views of U.S. senators about the program to the Department of Justice.

--- none of that true

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141209/14122029374/former-cia-director-hayden-we-didnt-lie-about-interrogation-program-torture-report-yeah-you-did-repeatedly.shtml

[hobbit709]

1. If he didn't do anything wrong why is he actively trying to cover his ass?

[Trillo]

2. Thanks for putting his picture up.

I remember that guy from my TV watching days, more than 8-10 years ago. He was particularly irritating when it came to the 4th Amendment when it was being discussed in the context of surveillance and mass collection of data. No matter how many times he was asked, he didn't seem to process the phrase "probable cause".

Just another one of Washington's endless sales and marketing persons who habitually avoids directly answering the questions asked.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. I liked the picture

Cause it he reminds me of old NAZI photos.......

Don't forget he also ran the NSA and the CIA



sort of like this guy did in his time

[hobbit709]

4. They even look similar with the same facial features.

[GeorgeGist]

5. He rectal feeds himself ...

so that's not an option.

[Skidmore]

6. The spin that he's tried to put which greatly angers me is the one

I heard on a clip from an interview yesterday. He said that they were just doing what they thought the American people wanted them to do. I haven't heard any pushback on that one at all.