Brian Lehrer leads the conversation about what matters most now in local and national politics, our own communities and our lives.
https://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl
Former Head of NSA and CIA, No Second-Guessing
Recently, Trump backed down on his original comment that he would order U.S. military personnel to break the law by torturing or killing terrorist's family members.
And part of why he backed down was because retired United States Air Force four-star general and former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden publicly commented on Trump's statement.
"It's offensive on its face," said Hayden. "And frankly, I thought I was pointing out one of Newton's laws of physics...I thought I was pointing out the obvious...The American armed forces will not follow an unlawful order, and intentionally killing noncombatants is an unlawful order."
Hayden, now with The Chertoff Group and the author of Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror (Penguin Press, 2016), also discussed his book, in which he makes no excuses for how the U.S. responded to the threat of terror attacks following 9/11, from rendition to targeted killings, to surveillance.