Michael Hayden also criticizes columnist Glenn Greenwald for his role in the story. Ex-CIA boss slams Snowden

Former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden is out with an op-ed Friday calling Edward Snowden ”the most costly leaker of American secrets in the history of the Republic.”

Hayden decries the NSA leaker as in a class of his own when it comes to America’s history, saying Snowden goes beyond Benedict Arnold, Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg and WikiLeaker Army Pfc. Bradley Manning.


“Snowden fled to China with several computers’ worth of data from NSANET, one of the most highly classified and sensitive networks in American intelligence. The damage is potentially so great that NSA has taken one of its most respected senior operations officers off mission tasks to lead the damage assessment effort,” Hayden wrote on CNN.com

( PHOTOS: 20 places Snowden wants to go to for asylum)

Hayden also criticizes Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald for his role in the story, saying he’s “far more deserving of the Justice Department’s characterization of a co-conspirator than Fox’s James Rosen ever was.”

Read the full opinion piece on CNN.com.