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American Intelligence
in the Age of Terror
Michael Hayden
Penguin Press
Feb. 23, 2016/ ISBN 9781594206566
Non-Fiction / History / National Security / Terrorist
Reviewed
by Elise Cooper
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Playing
To The Edge,
written by former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden, offers
insight into many of the programs under his responsibility.
He discusses NSA’s data collection, the enhanced interrogation
program, relations with Congress and the media. It also delves
into the political, legal, defense, technical and budget restrictions
he faced during his tenure as a director of the NSA and CIA
Hayden told blackfive.net he wrote the book “to pull back
the veil to give Americans a better understanding of what the
intelligence community does for American security. Despite its
great importance, it is highly misunderstood.” The book
highlights NSA data collection, and Hayden makes a very good
point, that much of the fear is rooted in misunderstanding.
He clearly explains how Stellarwind, the Metadata program, became
an enormously useful way to track who foreign terrorists are
talking to in the United States without sacrificing any significant
measure of privacy. Readers will understand that those in the
intelligence community and the Bush Administration were not
focused on world domination, and had no interest in listening
to a person’s phone calls, unless they were speaking with
a terrorist.
It becomes evident after reading the book and talking with General
Hayden that intelligence operates in a universal gray area,
where there is a need to balance freedom and security. He explained,
“We put together with Stellarwind a massive file of the
history of American phone calls. But the files were accessed
only with strict and limited circumstances. For example, if
you pick up a phone never seen before, associated with terrorism,
you can ask the database if the phone’s history has ever
been in contact with anyone in the US. The database is accessed
by an intelligence professional that thinks they have a reasonable
suspicion that a particular phone number is connected with terrorism.
In order for John Doe to be triggered he would have to be in
touch with either, directly or indirectly, a phone number overseas
that is believed to be terrorist related.”
Hayden basically agrees with John Brennan, the current CIA Director,
who said in an interview, “individuals are liberally giving
up their privacy, you know, sometimes wittingly and sometimes
unwittingly as they give information to companies or to sales
reps. Or they go out on Facebook or the various social media.
They don't realize though that they are then making themselves
vulnerable to exploitation.”
But more importantly what Hayden wants to focus upon is that
America should be “capturing terrorists and detaining
them for interrogation. How we get to that point is to elect
another president. This President grabs someone only if he can
put them in an article III court, instead of treating them as
enemy combatants.”
Congress and this administration have shown a betrayal of trust
where the CIA is concerned; yet, has done nothing regarding
Hillary Clinton’s emails. Hayden noted, “I have
not seen the emails. But, once you set up a private server it
can’t go to a happy place because it is unprotected. As
a former Director of the NSA if a potential adversary of the
US had done this I would have moved heaven and earth to see
the information. It was imprudent and I cannot understand why
the folks at the State Department did not say to her she could
not do it. The explanation she gives is incoherent for anyone
who was in government.”
The book further explains the Hayden Doctrine. When asked about
it, he directly commented to blackfive.net, “Balancing
openness with the need for secrecy is a condition to be managed,
not a problem to be solved. We should lean forward as far as
possible in telling our story. If we do not do this other people
will, without being as accurate or as favorable. We need to
communicate to the broader society what we do and the reasons
behind it. Because too much information is classified this breeds
carelessness in protecting what is really secret. But we have
to be open internally as well. I created a program, ‘Email
The Director.’ Something seemed to be working because
by 2008 we were only in the press because of Congress.”
In Playing To The Edge Michael Hayden shows how important
intelligence is to America’s security. People might not
always agree with him, but one thing is for certain he believes
in the Constitution, is a patriot, and his only agenda is to
protect his fellow citizens. Americans should thank him for
his service and consider him a true American hero who stepped
up to the plate to defend the homeland.
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