Ex-CIA Chief Blasts Obama For Trying To Get Us All Killed
Ex-CIA chief: Obama risks national security
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A former head of the CIA slammed President Obama on Sunday for releasing four Bush-era memos, saying the new president has compromised national security.
Former CIA chief Michael Hayden said Sunday it is wrong to make interrogation methods public.
Former CIA chief Michael Hayden said Sunday it is wrong to make interrogation methods public.
Michael Hayden, who served as former President Bush’s last CIA director from 2006 to 2009, said releasing the memos outlining terror interrogation methods emboldened terrorist groups such as al Qaeda.
“What we have described for our enemies in the midst of a war are the outer limits that any American would ever go to in terms of interrogating an al Qaeda terrorist. That’s very valuable information,” Hayden said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”
“By taking [certain] techniques off the table, we have made it more difficult — in a whole host of circumstances I can imagine — for CIA officers to defend the nation,” he said.
But Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, and Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said certain techniques should not have been allowed in the first place. McCaskill called them “a great recruitment tool for those who want to do harm to our country.”
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel dismissed Hayden’s assertion that releasing the memos had undermined U.S. intelligence efforts by giving al Qaeda critical new information.
“One of the reasons the president was willing to let this information out was that already the information was out,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“Go get the New York Review of Books. It’s there.”
Hayden said he called several senior White House officials to express his opposition before the president released the documents. Hayden also noted that four previous CIA directors, as well as current agency director Leon Panetta, opposed the release.
The memos said, among other things, that interrogation tactics such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation and slapping did not violate laws against torture absent the intent to cause severe pain.
Obama prohibited the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” such as waterboarding shortly after taking office in January.
Such techniques “undermine our moral authority and do not make us safer,” he said Thursday, when the White House released the memos.
The Obama administration has said it won’t pursue charges against CIA officers who used those tactics against prisoners in their custody. And Emanuel told ABC that the people who crafted the policy “should not be prosecuted either.”
But in a sharply worded editorial Sunday, The New York Times called for the impeachment of Jay Bybee, a federal appeals court judge who was a Justice Department official when he wrote one of the memos that authorized those techniques.
“These memos make it clear that Mr. Bybee is unfit for a job that requires legal judgment and a respect for the Constitution,” the newspaper editorialized. The memos “were written to provide legal immunity for acts that are clearly illegal, immoral and a violation of this country’s most basic values,” it stated.
Asked about that call on “Fox News Sunday,” McCaskill said: “I think we have to look at it.”
McCaskill, a member of the Senate’s standing investigative subcommittee, said the Obama administration made the right decision by agreeing not to prosecute intelligence officers. But she added: “A lawyer that’s responsible for this kind of advice that clearly went too far in terms of stretching what our law is — it worries me that he’s sitting on the federal bench right now.”
Graham, however, said seeking to punish lawyers who advised the Bush administration “is a very bad precedent.”
“I think it would be disaster to go back and try to prosecute a lawyer for giving legal advice that you disagreed with to a former president,” said Graham, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a lawyer in the Air Force reserve.
Hayden said the administration’s decision to release the Bush administration memos will make CIA officials less willing to engage in interrogation tactics now sanctioned by the federal government.
“The basic foundation of the legitimacy of the agency’s action has shifted from some durability of law to a product of the American political process. That puts agency officers in a horrible position,” he said.
“The really dangerous effect of this [decision] is that you’ll have agency officers stepping back from the kinds of things that the nation expects them to do. … You’re going to have this agency — on the front line of defending you in this current war — playing back from the line,” he said.
Hayden also said that, contrary to the assertions of many critics, the interrogation techniques in question had forced suspected terrorists to reveal valuable information and made the country safer.
He predicted that the release of the memos would be “just the beginning.”
“There will be more revelations, more commissions, there will be more investigations,” Hayden said.
McCaskill told “Fox News Sunday” that the United States will be better off in the long run by clearly prohibiting interrogation techniques such as waterboarding.
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And Graham said that while he was concerned that the release of the memos was a “huge tactical and strategic mistake done for political reasons,” the decision to allow certain enhanced interrogation techniques was a mistake as well.
Graham added that he always thought waterboarding “was a procedure that would come back to haunt the country, and quite frankly it has.”
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Lindsey is a girls name isnt it?
isnt it!
Yes, Grizz it is. And whats more, not only does (s)he have a girls name, (s)he act like one too. We have a Government of pussies, fags and fools.
Disclaimer: I in no way intend to demean the patriotic girls who visit/commment on, this website. You all display greater ‘intestinal fortitude’ individually, and collectively than any of the f*ckin weenies in our so-called Government. I admire and respect you all. Godspeed,
P.F.
PF:
The type of women who frequent this site would not be upset by your assertion. ^___^
Lindsey Gramnesty is such a pussy, just like the rest of the libutards. This country needs an extra strength vinager and bleach douche.
if waterboarding is torture what the fuck is beheadings
wow i had a hard time getting through this… i had to stop midway to avoid having a blood vessel pop..wtf is happening to this country
Slapping and sleep deprivation are now torture? Can I get the SERE instructors and pretty much every instructor or superior who has kept me up later than my body would like prosecuted?
Fucking pussies.
I had to stop midway from throwing up….makes me wonder if the majority of people really voted for this usurper and the pussies in office…or was it the liberal ass main stream media pushing the numbers in order to force/convince the populous to accept the win….along with the paid off electorates!….makes me wonder!!!
-aTb
Wonder what the 3000+ from 9/11 and all the KIA from the sand pile would think of us trying so hard to play “fair”.
Can you imagine this sort of thinking back in WW2? Good Lord,what has happened to this country? This president is WORKING FOR THE OTHER SIDE harder and harder every day. He is a plant.To say it has become obvious is the understatement of the century!! Why does the media support this monster so? Why do these ass wipe liberals still look upon thier savior with shinning eyes? Doomsday will not play favorites.
The Geneva convention is IRRELEVANT when someone is trying to kill me or my family!
OBAMA
IS THE BIGGEST TRAITOR THIS COUNTRY HAS EVER SEEN, WAIT AND SEE !!!! 
Hawk, you are right! But the longer we wait, the more damage this assclown will do. EVERYTHING this man has done since being sworn in has been to tear down this Once Great Nation…God Help Us All.
Just hang on folks…..soon we will see the results of this kind of spineless governance. McCaskill is a moonbat and an idiot. We will be providing our own security in the very near future. These people throw out the rule of law for the rule of relativity. If their reasoning is correct then why do we have law enforcement at all? If we follow their reasoning to the end then any efforts at law enforcement just creates more criminals. What they are trying to do is frightening. Will this country survive their assault?
This just ramped up my committment to getting my country back.
Now I know how Israel feels. We’re on our own.
HE IS CORRECT, WE ARE IN MORE DANGER
This country is run by pussys. Im disgusted. Let the people who actually know a thing or two about war do what they do best.
It is such a challenge for me to restrain myself and not write what I would really like to say about this…
A whole lot of people in our government now, from the very top on down to the most obscure of bureaucrats, have ‘earned’ the imposition of the most severe of penalties justice can impose on quisling turncoats!
It makes me sick to think that the only real motivation for releasing these documents was to allow pursuit of the former administration on charges of war crimes. The Libiots (Liberal Idiots) are so frothed up about trying to prosecute Bush and Cheney that they will risk the life of every member of the armed services and every citizen of this country to get to that end goal
The release of these in and of itself is a war crime against all of our troops and each citizen of this country. May they all rot in hell with extra BBQ sauce.
I want to see Obamas Birth Certificate and College papers. Do you think He will release those documents?
Maybe WE SHOULD JUST TAKE THEM?
Torture is four years of this shit, well and the six years I was married to “Hurricane Patty” but you get the picture.
“Obama prohibited the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” such as waterboarding shortly after taking office in January.
Such techniques “undermine our moral authority and do not make us safer,” he said Thursday, when the White House released the memos.”
Hey Barry, you ass-wipe, since when does al Qaeda give a crap about your moral authority
Your moral authority is not going to give you actionable intel or save your sorry ass from the next big terrorist event that comes along. God help America, and all the rest of us too 
I watched the Hayden interview once on television and twice on You Tube. What General Hayden said is absolutely correct. Over lunch I watched that Ding Dong Press Secretary try to justify this release, which further makes the release highly suspect in its intent.
These people knew exactly what they were doing and the damage that would result in its release, therefore am confident the element of criminal intent is indeed present, with a FOIA request being used as cover inasmuch as the limp “transparency” excuse.
My opinion when this happened was that the release of this information is indeed espionage if you read 18 USC 793, and it has caused exceptionally grave damage to national security.
Very plainly, and legal sufficient is an article Laws and Leaks of Classified Intelligence The Consequences of Permissive Neglect James B. Bruce a CIA publication located at url https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/docs/v47i1a04p.htm Here is a quick quote from there: “…Classified intelligence disclosed in the press is the effective equivalent of intelligence gathered through foreign espionage. Importantly, more than just Russian intelligence officers understand this. Key adversaries of the United States, such as China and al-Qaida, derive a significant amount of their information on the United States and US intelligence from the media, including the Internet. What we need to understand are the legal implications of this key principle…”
The very disclosure and then corroboration of the existence of the Waterboarding program is constructive espionage which has also caused exceptionally grave damage to national security.
Lastly, I often wonder what Wild Bill Donovan would do today especially after this war we fought was danced with all during Clinton. I am confident these memos would never have been released and waterboarding would have been conducted to this day. Here is a quote from General Donovan and it makes me wonder why these people are in my government in the first place: “Espionage is not a nice thing, nor are the methods employed exemplary. Neither are demolition bombs nor poison gas…. We face an enemy who believes one of his chief weapons is that none but he will employ terror. But we will turn terror against him….”
Dios Y Patria
Vince
This is more than a valid concern–ultimately, the danger that could stem from releasing these memos. Americans are right to be concerned over the country’s security and welfare, but I also wonder if there should not be some amount of transparency between the government and the people as well. This is a multi-faceted issue with numerous questions, details and exceptions. I watched an interesting video on all of this earlier today at newsy.com. It asks questions about torture/terrorism policies in this country, citing a few different opinions. Take a look:
http://www.newsy.com/videos/making_sense_of_the_memos/
I didn’t bother to even look at this video… and now I will tell you why.
This is not a “multi-faceted issue” - WE ARE AT WAR, a nation at war must have secrets that it keeps from everyone! Congress has not voted to rescind either of the AUMF resolutions so we are, in fact, still at war. The prior ‘leaks’ to the press about this and other secret ‘things’ by government officials - undoubtedly with security clearances - were criminal acts of high-treason!
Screw this [censored] “transparency” shit… it doesn’t apply here!
This is the same thing that was done to Bush by the MSM for 8 years, now the insiders can do the dirty deed. With so many traitors of this country to hang when the party starts, I hope I’ll be there to piss on them. I want to be in the 1st column that rights this ship.
Ahhhhhhhhh…traitors swingin from the gallows…the Flag blowin in the breeze and eatin c-rats on the whitehouse lawn….makes an old jarhead kinda misty…
KtD: This all has become buizzarre entertainment with a slant of dignified speaking truth to power, a demented and sick false concern about oversight of government operations in a free society. What we are now is basically on auto-pilot for the ememy. We out ourselves, have an imposed sense of self-guilt and psychologically believe what the media has programmed within us. We do not care about what has happened to our countrymen, or what the future treachery poses for a very inept and military advwerse administration.
There is not will to fight, and it it titilating, amost a high school clique thing a badge of courage to protest government action and scrutinize every step the government takes and the military employs to protect this country.
Suicide amongst soldiers is huge. Does anyone know this? Does the media give a shit? Don’t dare make a connection between the successful psychological games the left has played, how Bush and Rumsfeld have been demeaned or how the refusal to fight this war rages here at home. Then they threaten medical care, disclose deeply egregiously damaging classified information in the interest of transparency.
We have become the enemy. We are doing the enemy’s work for them.
there is just one problem, that you speak, its all about the self haters, and there are no self haters here. WE do not have much in common with those folks and they seem to be librials.
Vince, the one thing I have noticed since comming to Pats site is this… The people who come here understand it is the Constitution that makes this Country Great, and these same people KNOW that without it, America is Dead. I’m here because I care, about my children, the Constitution and all the people who believe in it. Dont lose Faith, God is on OUR Side.