Michael Hayden

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Trump Formally Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

18 House Republicans send letter to prize committee

(Newser) - Republican lawmakers have nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Eighteen House members penned a letter Wednesday to the Nobel Prize Committee praising the president’s efforts to broker peace in the Korean Peninsula, reports the Hill . "President Trump has worked tirelessly to apply maximum pressure on North...

Ex-CIA Chief: US Troops Could Ignore President Trump

Hayden says if he ordered waterboarding once in White House, troops obligated to not obey

(Newser) - If a President Trump ever got serious about bringing back waterboarding or some of his more dire policies, he's got at least one former director of the CIA saying he'd have a hard time doing it, reports Politico . "I would be incredibly concerned if a President Trump...

Man Live-Tweets as Ex-NSA Boss Bashes Obama

Michael Hayden's interview overheard on train

(Newser) - Let this one sink in, America: The guy who used to run the National Security Agency is such a careful, clever operative that he gives his secret phone conversations in public. Michael Hayden gave an "on background" interview yesterday while riding the train from New York to Washington, DC,...

Terrorists Totally Into Gmail, Says Former NSA, CIA Boss

Michael Hayden: 'it's free, it's ubiquitous'

(Newser) - When it comes to email, terrorists have a clear favorite, says the former head of both the NSA and CIA: Gmail. Michael Hayden called it "the preferred Internet service provider of terrorists worldwide," though he appeared to mean email service rather than ISP, the Washington Post notes. "...

54 Countries Aided CIA in Post-9/11 Interrogations

US helpers ranged from UK to Syria: report

(Newser) - The US was far from alone in its controversial counterterror practices after 9/11: More than a quarter of the world's countries helped the agency, a new report says. Some partners hosted secret interrogation prisons; some arrested suspects; others let the CIA refuel its planes at their airports, the New ...

Bush's CIA Chief: We Ruled Out Iran Strike

Michael Hayden says it would have backfired then, and would now, too

(Newser) - George W. Bush's administration pondered an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and ultimately rejected it, says former CIA and NSA chief Gen. Michael Hayden. He and others concluded that an attack on Iran's nuke factories "would guarantee that which we are trying to prevent—an Iran...

CIA Chiefs Ask Obama to Scrap Interrogation Probe

Disclosure of CIA methods will help the enemy, decrease national security, former directors warn

(Newser) - Seven former CIA directors—appointees of both political parties—are calling on the Obama administration to call off the Justice Department’s investigation of Bush-era interrogation practices, the Hill reports. The probe, ordered by AG Eric Holder, will reveal too much about the CIA’s methods in an environment where...

Mock Executions Among CIA Torture Tactics

(Newser) - A report long suppressed by Bush administration officials set to be released next week says the CIA used mock executions as part of post-9/11 interrogations, Newsweek reports—though federal law prohibits threatening prisoners with “imminent death,” and the practice wasn’t authorized by the Justice Department, unlike other...

Summers: End of Cuban Embargo 'Way Down Road'
 Summers: End 
 of Cuban Embargo 
 'Way Down Road' 
TALK SHOW ROUNDUP
Apr 19, 2009 9:42 AM CDT

Summers: End of Cuban Embargo 'Way Down Road'

Economic adviser says Obama acting out of 'morality'

(Newser) - The US trade embargo against Cuba won’t be ending anytime soon, President Obama’s economic adviser insisted today. “That’s way down the road, and it’s going to depend on what Cuba does going forward,” Lawrence Summers told NBC’s Meet the Press, saying Obama’s...

Bush AG, CIA Chief Slam Obama on Torture Memos
Bush AG, CIA Chief Slam Obama on Torture Memos
OPINION
Apr 17, 2009 7:48 AM CDT

Bush AG, CIA Chief Slam Obama on Torture Memos

(Newser) - Barack Obama made a dangerous mistake in yesterday releasing Justice Department memos about interrogation techniques from 2005, say former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and former CIA Director Michael Hayden. By releasing the details of these methods, Obama is eliminating a crucial intelligence tool—not just for his own administration but...

Bin Laden Isolated, Struggling: Hayden

CIA: He's forced to move from place to place, isolated from his terror network

(Newser) - Seven years after 9/11, terror chief Osama bin Laden remains alive and free, but he's struggling, CIA director Michael Hayden said in a speech yesterday: "He appears to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of the organization he nominally heads." Hayden said bin Laden spends much of...

Missile Strikes Are Learning Tool: CIA

Chief says agency 'tickles' terrorist enemy to gauge reaction

(Newser) - The CIA purposely uses missile strikes to "tickle" enemy groups, often by targeting a single person, to learn from their responses, agency chief Michael Hayden said today. Hayden also told a gathering of Air Force members the CIA has "picked up insights" from working alongside the military, the...

CIA Chief: Tide Turning Against Al-Qaeda

Hayden says terrorists are all but defeated in Iraq, Saudi Arabia

(Newser) - Al-Qaeda is "near strategic defeat" in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and the tide is turning against it elsewhere, CIA chief Michael Hayden says in a surprisingly upbeat Washington Post interview today. In contrast to a  reports of an al-Qaeda resurgence a year ago, Hayden now cites “significant setbacks...

Confessions From Torture Must Be Tossed
Confessions From Torture Must Be Tossed
OPINION
Feb 17, 2008 1:57 PM CST

Confessions From Torture Must Be Tossed

Ex-Guantanamo prosecutor condemns waterboarding pleas

(Newser) - So-called “confessions” obtained by waterboarding should be tossed out of court, Guantanamo's ex-chief military prosecutor writes in the New York Times. Morris Davis quit over the practice last year and regrets that the Pentagon is allowing waterboarding evidence to prosecute six 9/11 suspects. "Military justice has a proud...

Waterboarding Is Illegal: Justice Dept.

Legal expert to tell House committee it's no longer acceptable

(Newser) - A top Justice Department official will declare to a House subcommittee today that waterboarding is no longer legal—a day after Congress defied President Bush's veto threat to explicitly outlaw the controversial interrogation tactic. "The set of interrogation methods authorized for current use is narrower than before, and it...

Waterboarding Violates UN Torture Law

Official urges nations to prosecute, but doesn't point finger

(Newser) - A top UN official said today that CIA waterboarding constitutes a war crime, but she stopped short of accusing Washington directly. "I would have no problems with describing this practice as falling under the prohibition of torture," Louise Arbour said. Her comment comes days after CIA chief Michael...

Cheney Touts Harsh Interrogations
Cheney Touts Harsh Interrogations
Feb 8, 2008 5:20 AM CST

Cheney Touts Harsh Interrogations

As CIA boss concedes tactics may be illega

(Newser) - Dick Cheney yesterday defended the use of controversial interrogation techniques, crediting them with possibly “foiling an attack against the US," just as the director of the CIA was conceding to a congressional committee that waterboarding may be illegal. The VP defended the use of  “a tougher program...

CIA Acknowledges Waterboarding 3 Suspects

Senate committee hears specifics, warning of possible Al-Qaeda spread

(Newser) - The CIA used waterboarding three times following the 9/11 attacks, the agency's current director testified today. Interrogators used the method on suspected attack planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two top al Qaeda members, Reuters reports. Michael Hayden's statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee marks the first time a US official...

Musharraf Nixes Greater CIA Role in Pakistan

In secret meetings, US spy chiefs sought larger combat role

(Newser) - Washington's top two intelligence officials made a secret trip to Pakistan this month "to convince Musharraf that time is ticking," the New York Times reports, quoting senior officials. DNI director Mike McConnell and CIA chief Michael Hayden sought greater latitude for the CIA to operate in Pakistan's near-lawless...

CIA Chief Names Groups Behind Bhutto Assassination

Pakistani militants, al-Qaeda blamed

(Newser) - The CIA director blames a cooperative effort by al-Qaeda and a group of Pakistani militants for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the Washington Post reports. The conclusion jibes with the explanation Pervez Musharraf has offered, though some Pakistanis still suspect the president and his government had a hand in the...

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