from USNews:
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2008/12/5/president-elect-obama-may-keep-mike-hayden-as-director-of-the-cia.html
President-Elect Obama May Keep Mike Hayden as Director of the CIAAs President-elect Barack Obama continues to build his national security staff, now focused on intelligence, it is possible that he might ask CIA Director Mike Hayden to stay on for a while, intelligence sources say. Much of the speculation about the CIA job has been that Obama wants a change, in part because he disagreed with the CIA's detention policies. But officials are pushing back a little on that issue, suggesting that Hayden has been carrying out the policies backed by Congress and the president before he arrived at Langley, not freelancing on his own. "It's unfair to blame Hayden for things that occurred long before he took the job. But he deserves credit for standing up for the folks over there at CIA, even though a lot of the stuff he has dealt with didn't happen on his watch," said an intelligence official. "Administration policy and American law shape what the CIA does. If the president says he doesn't want something done, that's it. These are his programs," added the official.
What's more, intelligence officials say that the program has changed and that, for example, waterboarding—officially used on three detainees—ended three years before Hayden came aboard. Does he want to stay on? Officials won't be so blunt, but they do suggest Hayden would like continue working with his people. "If he were asked to stay on at CIA, that's something he would consider at the time. Mike likes the work, he has a high regard for the people over there, and he cares passionately about the mission. Those are the factors that he would consider," said an official. Publicly, spokesman Mark Mansfield told Whispers today: "As Director Hayden has said, with every transition comes all sorts of speculation about personnel changes across government. He has tried to ignore it. He understands that he serves at the pleasure of the president, and he is focused on running the CIA."
from ThinkProgress:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/08/hayden-record/The Hayden Record: Condoning Torture, Destroying Evidence, Misleading Congress»U.S. News is speculating that President-elect Barack Obama “might ask CIA Director Mike Hayden to stay on for a while.” CIA officials are advocating on his behalf:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/12/more-of-the-sam.html “It’s unfair to blame Hayden for things that occurred long before he took the job. But he deserves credit for standing up for the folks over there at CIA, even though a lot of the stuff he has dealt with didn’t happen on his watch,” said an intelligence official.
Former CIA analyst John Brennan was compelled to withdraw his name from consideration, after a number of bloggers, led by Glenn Greenwald, raised concerns that he had supported Bush’s interrogation policies. Hayden did one better than Brennan – he carried them out, defended them, and in some cases, lied about them.
On waterboarding, Hayden acknowledged to Congress that “it is not certain that that technique would be considered to be lawful under current statute.” And yet, he has refused to label the technique “torture,” dismissing it as an uninteresting “legal term”:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/31/hayden-waterboarding/ Well, first of all, we’re not talking about torture, all right? I mean, torture is a legal term. Now, there are some things that are illegal that are not, that are not torture. And so we cloud the debate when, when we throw the word torture out there, I think, in a far too casual way.
In 2004, CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson issued a report warning “that some C.I.A.-approved interrogation procedures appeared to constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as defined by the international Convention Against Torture.” In October 2007, Hayden “ordered an unusual internal inquiry” into Helgerson’s office, focusing on complaints that Helgerson was on “a crusade against those who have participated in controversial detention programs.”
When it was revealed that the CIA had destroyed tapes showing interrogations taking place, Hayden claimed that it was done to protect the identities of CIA interrogators. “You’d have to burn every document at the CIA that has the identity of an agent on it under that theory,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) of Hayden’s excuse. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) called the incident a “mockery of the rule of law.” Most disturbingly, Hayden claimed that videotaping of interrogations had stopped in 2002, even though evidence later came out suggesting that taping had continued.
Before arriving at the CIA, Hayden was director of the National Security Agency. In that position, he misled Congress about Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program. He told a committee investigating the 9/11 attacks that any surveillance of persons in the United States was done consistent with FISA. Of course, at the time, Hayden was operating an illegal spying program . . .
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
