Obama May Keep CIA Chief Hayden (Ugggh) and the Never-Ending 9/11 Propaganda

Wired's Danger Room:

U.S. News says that team Obama might ask CIA chief Michael Hayden to stay on for a while. Let's hope not. Not only does the man have a history of condoning torture and misleading Congress, as Think Progress notes. But, in his role as head of the National Security Agency, he made a pair of titanic blunders.

Before 9/11, Hayden shut down virtually all of the domestic eavesdropping efforts -- even though he could have gotten warrants to do so from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Efforts to snoop on known Al Qaeda operatives, like 9/11 hijackers Khalid al-Midhar and Salem al-Hazmi, were cut short. "Hayden's decision to secretly turn a deaf ear to nearly all international conversations entering and leaving the U.S. -- even when they involved known terrorists with the country -- would have momentous consequences," NSA-watcher James Bamford writes in his latest book, The Shadow Factory.

Then, after the 2001 terror attacks, Hayden pulled a 180. At his direction, his agency began a widespread, multi-faceted operation to monitor all kinds of domestic phone calls and e-mails. This time, he ignored the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court entirely. "I think there was a degree of overcompensation, from performing too carefully before 9/11 to trying to make up for it by going to the opposite extreme and eavesdropping without warrants, doing whatever the administration asked," Bamford told Danger Room in October.

As TalkLeft notes, that warantless wiretapping was one of the reasons Senator Barack Obama voted against Hayden's confirmation as CIA director in 2006.

[Photo: CIA]

Obviously, depressing, but not too surprising if Hayden stays on. Obviously he's one of the many Bushco war criminals that Obama should be prosecuting but clearly wants to have nothing to with that.

But beyond this-- does anyone believe this "pair of titanic blunders" line? As IF the NSA weren't spying all the time- and that they had no idea about 9/11 well before the attacks!!!

Criminy, the propaganda never ends!

Speaking of propaganda-- there's the new "confession" the 5 Gitmo 9/11 plotters/conspirators want to give. As if anyone in their right mind would EVER believe anything that comes from these mentally-abused and tortured prisoners.

The four besides Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (the "mastermind") are "Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, Tawfiq bin Attash and Ammar al-Baluchi, also known as Ali Abdul Aziz Ali."

Some of the 9/11 families got to see the hearing at Guantanamo-- a nice touch.