Hayden Says They Did Surveillance In A 'Madisonian' Way

from the floundering-father? dept

By now you probably know the name Michael Hayden. Former NSA and CIA Director Hayden now seems to focus all his time on pimping the security state to the American public. He steadfastly claims that all negative impact and lawlessness on the part of the spy agencies is fiction, and that state secrets and your privacy are ironically equal . He also enjoys the occasional wistful guffaw at the notion of assassinating Edward Snowden. When it comes to dealing honestly about the spying state of our nation, he's the kind of man you could fit into briefcase if you gave him an enema.But, look, he's a professional spy, which means he's a professional liar about spying. That's what they do. But onthis Sunday, he decided to expand the lying to envelope some of the much-smarter founding fathers that I happen to love. Here's a clip of his interview:



In case you can't watch the clip, here are some highlights with some minor, ahem, commentary after them.

"I didn't see the excesses. I saw the potential for problems. There is no abuse. Oh, and by the way, I don't see any unlawfulness either."

"This was all done according to the Madisonian formula. President authorized, the legislature legislated and the courts oversaw."

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In other words, true to Hayden's form, the blatant abuse by the NSA of spying on Americans that was uncovered, and to which the NSA themselves admitted minor problems, never happened. It must be very nice to live in a world where you get to pretend to be a Monty Python Black Knight. We've abused you! No you haven't, it's just flesh wound. Brilliant.If you have studied even the barest basics of the American government in history, you'll recognize the "Madisonian Model" as the separation of powers. However, Hayden is oversimplifying things here to the absolute extreme. The entire concept behind James Madison's model was about restraining the Presidential office to nominating judges, signing bills, negotiating treaties and commanding the nation's troops. It takes some serious logical gymnastics to claim that the massive spying done by the alphabet agencies at the behest of the past two presidents would fit within Madison's vision.Still, I don't mind seeing Hayden come on programs like this and spout this kind of nonsense, either about the abuses of the NSA in general or his lack of historical knowledge more specifically. That's because he comes off purely as a smarmy, lying, self-serving blowhard without an ounce of credibility. Nothing will bury the NSA spying program more quickly than its proponents, if they keep this up.

Filed Under: james madison, michael hayden, nsa, separation of powers, surveillance