Retired Air Force general Michael Hayden ran the National Security Agency from 1999-2005. Then he was the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for a year. And then he was CIA director, taking over after former CIA agent and former Congressman Porter Goss was ushered out the door under somewhat mysterious circumstances, from 2006 until a few days after the Obama administration came in. And now he works for former Deputy US Attorney General and Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff’s security consulting firm.
He had a very busy day today. First he was answering tough questions from the Washington Post, and then he was on CNN facing the awesome inquisitorial wrath of Candy Crowley.
He told the Post, in response to the Dana Priest et al series on the intelligence community, that everything is fine but if he told us why, he would have to kill us.
Then he went on TV and told Candy Crowley that the possibility of a US attack on Iran was looking more and more attractive.
My personal view is that Iran, left to its own devices, will get itself to that step right below a nuclear weapon, that permanent breakout stage, so the needle isn’t quite in the red for the international community. And, frankly, that will be as destabilizing as their actually having a weapon.
When I was in government, what we would used to mystically call “the kinetic option” was way down on our list. In my personal thinking — in my personal thinking; I need to emphasize that — I have begun to consider that that may not be the worst of all possible outcomes.
So we have a former long-time multi-agency spook who was also a high-ranking officer in the armed forces branch that specializes in bombing people and places, and who now works for a company that may well have a commercial stake in the fate of Iran—along with the consulting racket, Chertoff is also on the board of directors of British war industry giant, BAE (maker of environmentally friendly bombs)—and he’s talking up the likelihood of an attack.*
He also gives Mexico a shout-out, but in the which-one-gets-bombed-first sweepstakes proposed by former homeland insecurity director M. Bouffant, Iran clearly has the edge.
Does anyone know what happened to the 2007 National Intelligence Assessment on Iran which said the country had halted nuclear weapons development in 2003? It seems to have been Zieglerized on the down low, dropped down the memory hole, George Bailey-ized, and etc.
In any event, this could be Barack Obama’s chance to have his very own brand new “war,” instead of having to content himself with the Bush administration’s frayed hand-me-downs. Yay!
*To clarify: I should note that Chertoff and Hayden and others in their positions will prosper as much and possibly more amid uncertainty about Iran’s fate than in the event of an actual US attack. Chertoff won’t be making any more money as a BAE director if we attack Iran with BAE aircraft or bombs (unless he’s working on commission), but the more chatter there is about an attack on Iran, the more likely it is that corporations will want Chertoff or someone else in that business to help them respond to the possibility.
Which is to say that Hayden was out drumming up business and CNN was happy to help. You can be sure that when he went on TV as a government official that it was to sell the company line, and the same is true now; it’s just a different company, at least to some degree.
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[...] interview. And last weekend, retired Air Force General and former NSA and CIA head, Michael Hayden, told CNN’s Candy Crowley that an attack on Iran “may not be the worst of all possible outcomes.” My personal [...]