Director of the National Security Agency on September 11, 2001; subsequently Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President George W. Bush. Per John Kiriakou's relay of NSA whistleblower Tom Drake, on the morning of 9/11 Hayden told NSA personnel the agency had been 'waiting for a 9/11 so that they could implement the bigger program and grab everybody's electronics' — despite the agency's founding charter forbidding it from intercepting the communications of U.S. persons.
General Michael V. Hayden was the Director of the National Security Agency on September 11, 2001, and subsequently became Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President George W. Bush.[1]
”Waiting for a 9/11”
Per John Kiriakou — relaying NSA whistleblower Tom Drake — Hayden on the morning of September 11, 2001 told NSA personnel that the agency had been “waiting for a 9/11 so that they could implement the bigger program and grab everybody’s electronics.”[1]
Kiriakou’s framing: “Not only is it illegal for NSA to intercept the communications of American citizens or U.S. persons, which is anybody in the country legally on a green card — it is a part of NSA’s founding charter forbidding them from intercepting the communications of Americans or U.S. persons. And they just say, ‘Tough. 9/11. National security. What are you going to do? You got to start from scratch.’”[2]
