Holding Hayden Accountable

Holding Hayden Accountable

May 18, 2006

The Senate Intelligence Committee this morning began hearings on the nomination of Gen. Michael Hayden to become director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Hayden headed the National Security Agency (NSA) from 1999 to 2005, and by directing a program of electronic surveillance within the United States he orchestrated a shift in the historic role of the NSA itself, which has always been limited to carrying out surveillance outside the U.S. — one that occurred without any meaningful national debate or congressional oversight. Today’s hearings are an opportunity to gather more information about Hayden’s view of Congressional oversight, the law and the relationship between the CIA and the executive branch.

• Hayden needs to clarify the legal foundation for the NSA program and his role in it. The hearings provide an opportunity for Hayden to discuss the NSA program and the legal questions surrounding it. In prior statements, Hayden has demonstrated an "astounding lack of knowledge" about his job as an intelligence official, fundamentally misunderstanding constitutional protections. He also seemed to believe quite strongly that the Fourth Amendment did not contain the phrase “probable cause.” (Read the full text of the Fourth Amendment here.)
  
  
• The new head of the CIA must have intelligence independence. Resigning CIA Director Porter Goss pledged in his confirmation hearings to strictly avoid even the appearance of politicization. Then, once installed, he carried out efforts to "purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush," including getting rid of "liberals" and others who were perceived as "obstructing the president's agenda." Gen. Hayden has yet to prove that he can provide the necessary independence the agency needs. After the exposure of the NSA domestic wiretapping program, Hayden spearheaded a media blitz "aggressively promoting the alleged benefits of the program” (PDF) to the public while keeping key elements of the program hidden from Congressional leaders.
  
  
• Hayden needs to explain his misleading statements under oath. As ThinkProgress first documented, Hayden misled Congress about warrantless domestic surveillance in October 2002 while serving as NSA director. In sworn testimony before the Joint Select Intelligence Committee, Hayden stated that any surveillance of persons in the United States — including surveillance related to known terrorists — was done consistent with FISA. At the time of his statements, Hayden was not only aware that the presidential order to conduct warrantless domestic spying was issued the previous year, he in fact ran the program — but he spread false information anyway.