The best CIA director in the last decade gives exit interview

NY Times, The Caucus:

Michael V. Hayden, the departing director of the Central Intelligence Agency, struck a defiant and occasionally combative tone on Thursday as he vigorously defended the C.I.A.’s network of secret prisons and its aggressive interrogation methods.

Giving no ground to critics who argue that the C.I.A.’s detention and interrogation program used torture and produced little information about the workings of Al Qaeda, Mr. Hayden credited the C.I.A. with striking repeated blows on the terror network, and said that any effort to investigate the past would breed risk aversion in the ranks of the clandestine service.

He dismissed congressional efforts to force C.I.A. interrogators to abide by the military’s interrogation rules, saying it was a “real shot in the dark” to expect that a slate of non-coercive interrogation methods would be effective against Al Qaeda’s senior leaders.

The C.I.A. years ago abandoned some of its most aggressive techniques, including “waterboarding.” But Mr. Hayden still defended the agency’s response in the weeks and months after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the now controversial decisions by senior C.I.A. officials “for whom doing nothing is an immoral choice,” he said.

...

It is too bad so much of the interview was taken up with gripes and whining by Democrats an not enough was spent on Hayden's significant accomplishments. Of all the directors under President Bush, Hayden appears to be the only one that was able to get the malcontents at the agency to quit complaining to the media. Then again, I can understand why the Times light like that conduct, but it was a serious problem for national security. Good riddance to the Wilsons and the Plames and their ilk.

It was also under the Hayden era that the US finally started taking effective action against al Qaeda ops in Pakistan. The Predator Hellfire strikes have been a game changer that has both al Qaeda and the Taliban fearful of being spotted. It is a real threat to their effectiveness as well as their command and control.

Hayden has clearly been the best director since the war with al Qaeda went public after 9-11. He will be missed. Panetta would be wise to follow Hayden's lead.

If the Democrats decide to not impose any discomfort on enemy operatives in custody to get information on the next attack, we are unlikely to get information we need and Americans will die as a result. Their blood will be on the hands of the Democrats who put the comfort of our enemies ahead of national security. It will be a political issue.