George W. Bush, Gen. Michael Hayden, former National Security Agency Director under George W. Bush, praised the Obama administration’s transparency regarding the NSA’s surveillance of phone records.“The Obama administration was more transparent .. than we were in the Bush administration,” Hayden told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday. “They made this metadata collection activity available to all the members of Congress, not just all the members of the intelligence committees.
Hayden’s comments come after current NSA Director Keith Alexander defended the NSA program in a Senate Appropriations Committee earlier in the day, saying that it has prevented “dozens of terrorist events.”
Hayden said the same was true during his time at the NSA.
“We did have a whole series of intelligence reports that came out of that program that would not otherwise have been available,” Hayden said of what is now called the Terrorist Surveillance Program, the equivalent policy during his tenure.
Hayden went on to criticize leaker Edward Snowden, saying that to be a true whistleblower, “you need to raise your hand within the institution.”
He also said that he understands the privacy concerns over the NSA’s surveillance programs. “I’m an American too,” Hayden said. “I come from the same bloodline as the folks who are concerned.”
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