Michael Hayden

Notable Quotes



Al Qaida changes; Al Qaida adapts. We have to adapt as well. We rely on resources to do that. Reducing resources beyond a certain point will make us less able to adapt as our enemy adapts.

From Michael Hayden

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.

From Michael Hayden

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.

From Michael Hayden

As much as we might look for opportunities to keep Iraq together, we need to be prepared for the reality that it's not going to stay together.

From Michael Hayden

In my heart of hearts, I don't think it's a good position to say that Guantanamo is not an acceptable answer for anyone we might capture now or in the future.

From Michael Hayden

We're an organization with a clear objective: to protect the American people. We have a number of missions that feed into that, to protect America, and one of those missions we share with the council, which is to help our policymakers make sense of global events.

From Michael Hayden

Our nation counts on us to have the expertise and the insight to flag the risks and the opportunities that lie ahead, and to keep our eye on all the critical international concerns that face our nation right now.

From Michael Hayden

Renditions before and since 9/11 share some basic features. They have been conducted lawfully, responsibly and with a clear and single purpose: Get terrorists off the street and gain intelligence on those still at large. Our detention and interrogation programs flow from the same inescapable logic.

From Michael Hayden

Responsibility demands action, and dealing with the immediate threat must naturally be a top priority.

From Michael Hayden

What Edward Snowden did amounted to the greatest hemorrhaging of legitimate American secrets in the history of my nation.

From Michael Hayden

Authors with Similar Views

Barton Gellman

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Edward Snowden

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John O. Brennan

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Leon Panetta

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John le Carre

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Authors with Opposing Views

Dorothy Denning

2 perspectives

Jesse Ventura

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Katie Jacobs Stanton

2 perspectives

Noam Chomsky

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Abraham Joshua Heschel

1 perspectives