Mike Hayden

MICHAEL HAYDEN: Drones work — ask al Qaeda

President Obama reflected personal and national distress when he announced the inadvertent deaths of two hostages last week.

April 30, 2015

MICHAEL HAYDEN: State Department tweet on Iran nuclear deal misleading

It's not often that I'm the subject of tweets from the State Department, but late last week spokeswoman Marie Harf tweeted that "Former @CIA Director Mike Hayden says he's 'heartened' by details of Iran deal; 'no good alternatives' to diplomacy." Well, not exactly.

April 6, 2015

MICHAEL HAYDEN: Ignoring religious roots of terrorism risks victory

Not long ago I testified before the House Homeland Security Committee on what the Committee called "Islamist terror." The Committee, unlike the Administration, chose to align that adjective (Islamist) with that noun (terror) in defining a global problem.

March 31, 2015

MICHAEL HAYDEN: A ‘reasonable’ view of privacy, security

I recently debated Fox News commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano on the National Security Agency's 215 program, the massive metadata trove of American calling records used to quickly detect if suspected terrorists have contacted anyone inside this country.

March 18, 2015

MICHAEL HAYDEN: Benjamin Netanyahu’s Iran nuclear problem has no solution in sight

The United States is fast closing in on a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The signs are multiplying.

March 2, 2015

MICHAEL HAYDEN: Farewell to Mark Mansfield, a ‘happy warrior,’ CIA spokesman

Mark Mansfield died last week. I doubt that many readers of the news, even intelligence devotees, knew about Mark. Writers of the news, however, — especially intelligence beat reporters — knew him well. He was, in a phrase he once dubbed the ultimate oxymoron, "the CIA spokesman" and — in one way or another — served the public affairs needs of nine CIA directors.

January 28, 2015

MICHAEL HAYDEN: Democrats politicize CIA torture report

This is not about defending torture. It's about defending history.

December 15, 2014

MICHAEL HAYDEN: State Department gives U.N. panel tools for CIA’s fall

In September 2009, a Polish newspaper headline screamed, "Stabbed in the Back." The occasion was the United States announcing the cancellation of a plan to install ground-based interceptor missiles in Poland — an effort the Poles had undertaken in good faith on American advice and at some risk, now canceled without consultations and announced with incredible insensitivity on the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland.

November 17, 2014

MICHAEL HAYDEN: The downside of ‘immaculate’ data collection

Not long ago Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper bared a bit of his soul before a friendly audience of intelligence professionals and contractors. Mr. Clapper said he was facing a demand for exquisite intelligence that he had to collect without risk, without embarrassment and without threat to anyone's privacy or commercial bottom line.

November 12, 2014

Obama’s intel reading prevents needed debate

Intelligence has once again been front and center in the news this past week, and that's hardly ever good news for the intelligence community.

October 2, 2014

HAYDEN: Privacy, diversity and cybersecurity take center stage in new intel strategy

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper will roll out a National Intelligence Strategy this week. This will be the third such document, after reports by John D. Negroponte in 2005 and Dennis C. Blair in 2009.

September 17, 2014

HAYDEN: Obama moves to put boots on the ground in Iraq

Pretty historic moment: A president personally committed to, and heretofore politically rewarded for, ending wars and reducing American involvement abroad gets his own "My fellow Americans" moment.

September 10, 2014

HAYDEN: Democrats ‘shaping’ attack on CIA interrogation program

It goes by a variety of names: Shaping; Intelligence Preparation of the Battle Space (IPB); Operational Preparation of the Environment (OPE). These are the first steps in any campaign and they are designed to maximize the chances of success before the campaign even begins — or at least before everyone recognizes that it has begun.

August 25, 2014

HAYDEN: ‘Security fatigue’ on the rise as public feels safer

For folks like me, a highlight of summer is the annual Security Forum put on the by the Aspen Institute. This year was no exception as current and former officials, academics, journalists and policy wonks of various types gathered for three days of panels, interviews and countless sidebar conversations.

August 7, 2014

HAYDEN: Intelligence, evidence and the case against Russia

Speaking last week on the South Lawn of the White House about the actions of Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists around the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, President Obama leveled the question: "What exactly are they trying to hide?"

July 25, 2014

HAYDEN: Some of the best intelligence is no secret at all — it’s social

It's not that secrets won't matter, but in an information age, a larger percentage of the knowledge required for wise policymaking will not have to be stolen. It will be generally available.

July 9, 2014

HAYDEN: Sarajevo, black swans and today

During a recent walk down Piccadilly in central London, I was struck by two things: that there still exist massive bookstores with paper books and, based on the books prominently displayed in those stores, that this summer marks the centenary of the start of WWI.

June 25, 2014

HAYDEN: A pattern in Obama’s foreign: Baghdad, Benghazi, Bergdahl and the bomb?

I hope I'm wrong, but like a lot of other folks, I'm seeing a pattern here. The lodestar of current American security policy seems to be to reduce our burdens and minimize our involvement — often in the face of hard evidence pointing toward alternative options.

June 10, 2014

HAYDEN: Questions NBC can ask of Edward Snowden that still puzzle me

NBC News will air Wednesday an hourlong special with anchor Brian Williams in Russia interviewing former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. I'm not exactly enthused by the prospect, but I am hoping that Mr. Williams asks some tough questions.

May 27, 2014

HAYDEN: Freedom vs. security debate with Greenwald like Hockey Night in Canada

It was billed as a debate, but even with the Maple Leafs out of the NHL playoffs, my recent evening in Toronto felt a lot more like Hockey Night in Canada: There was slashing, high sticking and the gloves came off before the first puck was dropped!

May 13, 2014