Getting Even More Interesting - 'Ex-NSA Chief (Hayden) Calls For Obama To Reject Recommendations'

[WillyT]

Ex-NSA chief calls for Obama to reject recommendations
Susan Page, USA TODAY
4:43 p.m. EST December 30, 2013



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WASHINGTON — Retired general Michael Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, called on President Obama Monday to show "some political courage" and reject many of the recommendations of the commission he appointed to rein in NSA surveillance operations.

"President Obama now has the burden of simply doing the right thing," Hayden told USA TODAY's Capital Download. "And I think some of the right things with regard to the commission's recommendations are not the popular things. They may not poll real well right now. They'll poll damn well after the next attack, all right?"

Obama, who received the report from the five-member advisory committee just before he left to vacation in Hawaii, has promised to make "a pretty definitive statement" in January about its 46 recommendations. He appointed the panel in the wake of a firestorm over disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about surveillance of all Americans' telephone calls and spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other friendly foreign leaders.

The commission, led by former acting CIA director Michael Morell, said the recommendations were designed to increase transparency, accountability and oversight at the NSA.

Hayden, who headed the super-secret agency from 1999 to 2005, oversaw the launch of some of the controversial programs after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001. He defended them as effective and properly overseen by congressional intelligence committees and a special court.

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Link (w/Video): http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/12/30/gen-michael-hayden-urges-obama-reject-nsa-commission-recommendations/4249983/

[WillyT]

1. Just To Put A Finer Point On It...

"President Obama now has the burden of simply doing the right thing," Hayden told USA TODAY's Capital Download. "And I think some of the right things with regard to the commission's recommendations are not the popular things. They may not poll real well right now. They'll poll damn well after the next attack, all right?"

Is he warning us, or threatening us?