Yeah, like that sentiment matters. Apparently General Michael Hayden is cruising toward confirmation by the Senate. Spencer Ackerman lays out why it shouldn’t happen ($ required, I think).
There’s been justified talk that it’s inappropriate for a military man to head the CIA. What really began to baffle me was why Hayden insisted on facing the Senate committee in uniform. David Ignatius of the Washington Post tries to enlighten us:
And I think that the fact that he’s a military officer, that you saw him in uniform, he’s saying in a sense that he wants CIA to be viewed by the country the same way the military services are. You know, we don’t kick around the uniformed military. There really is a recognition these people are serving the country, they’re taking a risk. We’ve got to kind of respect what they do.
That has not been extended to CIA, to intelligence officers. It’s a mystery why that’s so, but it’s clearly been the case. And I think he was saying I wants to take the “kick me” sign off the backside of this agency so that it can do its job better, and I think that’s an important part of it.
Now, it’s important to get the context right — the “kicking around” of the CIA has been a project of the ultra-hawks of the Pentagon, and I think that’s what Ignatius is referring to. However, I’m not comfortable with the slippage between Ignatius’s remarks and Hayden’s own:
Accountability is one thing, and a very valuable thing, and we will have it, but true accountability is not served by inaccurate, harmful or illegal public disclosures.
I will draw a clear line between what we owe the American public, by way of openness, and what must remain secret, in order for us to continue to do our job. CIA needs to get out of the news, as source or subject, and focus on protecting the American people by acquiring secrets and providing high-quality all-source analysis.
Getting the CIA “out of the news” sounds like a recipe for unaccountability — exactly the sort of thing that gave us the NSA warrantless wiretapping and phone log abuses. Hayden headed the NSA when those programs were put in place.
Finally, a big Bronx cheer to Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, who said this at the hearing:
Through very effective and highly classified intelligence efforts, we have stopped attacks. The fact we have not had another tragedy like 9/11 is no accident. But today in Congress, and throughout Washington, leaks and misinformation are endangering our efforts. Bin Laden, Zarqawi and their followers must be rejoicing.
This demagoguery not only paints intrepid journalists as terrorist allies, it ignores persuasive arguments from experts that data-mining is a stupid way to prevent terrorist attacks.
I invite Senator Roberts to stand with me on the subway platform at Times Square and see how easily someone could board a train strapped down with 20 pounds of TNT. A Verizon phone log is not going to prevent that. What data mining will do, however, is set a dangerous precedent, allowing the government to use information not just for counterterrorism, but for any purpose it pleases. And we’ll never know about it if Hayden succeeds in getting intelligence agencies “out of the news,” and if Senator Roberts successfully browbeats journalists into submission.
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