Michael Hayden: Congress Was Informed About Surveillance Program

[babylonsister]

Deny! Deny! Deny!

Michael Hayden: Congress Was Informed About Surveillance Program

PAMELA HESS | July 11, 2009 04:30 PM EST | AP


WASHINGTON — Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden angrily struck back Saturday at assertions the Bush administration's post-9/11 surveillance program was more far-reaching than imagined and was largely concealed from congressional overseers.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Hayden maintained that top members of Congress were kept well-informed all along the way, notwithstanding protests from some that they were kept in the dark.

"One of the points I had in every one of the briefings was to make sure they understood the scope of our activity 'They've got to know this is bigger than a bread box,' I said," said Hayden, who also previously headed the National Security Agency.

"At the political level this had support," said the one-time CIA chief, jumping foursquare into an escalating controversy that has caused deep political divisions and lingering debate on the counterterrorism policies of an administration now out of power.

Hayden was reacting to a report issued Friday by a team of U.S. inspectors general which called the surveillance program in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks "unprecedented." The report also questioned the program's legal rationale and the excessive secrecy that enshrouded it.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/11/michael-hayden-congress-w_n_230066.html

[spanone]

1. me thinks mr hayden doth protest too much

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[kentuck]

3. Hayden is up to his eyeballs in this crap...

and I sense, he is getting just a little paranoid that it might get close to him?

[babylonsister]

8. Appears that way to me also. nt

[jwirr]

4. Either KO or Rachel were talking to a guest who explained how congress

is "informed". The CIA walks up to them when they are alone and tells them the secret which they cannot talk to anyone else about due to the present laws. Thus it is guaranteed that it will be kept a secret. This is the stupidest oversight rules I have ever heard of.

[kentuck]

6. They need to at least double the number in Congress for oversight

and access to the 'secret" information. They seem to have learned how to manipulate and control a small number of Congressmen and women.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. People on both sides of the aisle trust Michael Hayden.

:rofl:

[kentuck]

7. Pamela Hess?

About time for another appearance on C-SPAN Washington Journal? She is too tight with these folks. It clouds her judgement and her reporting.

[droidamus2]

9. The next question and answer will be

Questioner : Mr Hayden who specifically was at those meeting and what specifically was discussed.
Mr Hayden : That is all classified I can't discuss that but rest assured the top people knew and we told them everything. Trust me.

[DURHAM D]

10. Hayden is the idiot who argued that the 4th Amendment to the Constitution

does not contain the words "probable cause" as regards search and seizure.

That should pretty much tell you everything you need to know about his veracity.

[ProSense]

11. " It was a mistake to confirm General Hayden"

05/26/2006

Statement by John Kerry on the Confirmation of General Michael Hayden as CIA Director

“I opposed the nomination of General Michael Hayden to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Circumstances make him the wrong nominee in the wrong place for the wrong job.

“The abuse of the CIA by the Rumsfeld Pentagon and the Cheney White House has hurt our credibility with unfounded claims of ‘slam dunk’ evidence of mythical weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I don’t think General Hayden is the person best equipped to restore the CIA’s independence and credibility. It’s not just that he comes from Secretary Rumsfeld’s Pentagon, but because he was the Administration’s principal spokesperson and defender of an illegal domestic spying program.


“We are all committed to destroying terrorists and preventing terrorist attacks before they happen. But this vote was a test of this Congress’s willingness to restore the Founding Fathers’ checks and balances and stand up to a government run by people who hold themselves above the law. How many times will government secrecy shield decision-makers from any kind of accountability? It was a mistake to confirm General Hayden.”

Yes, it was.

[Double T]

12. When a government spies on its citizens with total disregard for privacy rights.........

that government should no longer be in power.

[struggle4progress]

13. bushbot. nuf sed