photo: Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Former director of the CIA and NSA, General Michael Hayden, oversaw the early construction of the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping database of the telephone conversations of American citizens. He demonstrated his ignorance by arguing in a 2006 interview that the 4th Amendment of the Constitution did not mention “probable cause.” While Director of Central Intelligence he fought for a new rules of engagement for US drone operators that allowed them to shoot at vehicles based solely on the behavior of the drivers rather than any suspected association with terrorism. It is not known how many innocent people were murdered based on Hayden’s directions.
On Friday he penned an Op-Ed for CNN in which he argued that Guardian newspaper journalist Glenn Greenwald needed to go to prison for reporting information he was given by NSA leaker Ed Snowden on the massive NSA spying operations against innocent American citizens and those overseas. According to Hayden, “[t]he Guardian newspaper’s Glenn Greenwald [is] far more deserving of the Justice Department’s characterization of a co-conspirator than Fox’s James Rosen ever was…”
Greenwald responded by Twitter, stating, “I’ve long thought Michael Hayden belongs in prison for implementing illegal warrantless eavesdropping at Americans.”
So if ours is a free society based on the rule of law, press freedom, and the protection of innocent human life, who is it that needs prison time? Hayden or Greenwald?
