Following the announcement of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report detailing the CIA’s alleged missteps when torturing detainees, former CIA Director Michael Hayden criticized the validity of the report, adding that he did not lie to the committee in 2006.
“No, would be the straightforward and simple answer … first of all, it’s a felony [to lie],” Hayden told Newsmax TV host Steve Malzberg.
“I don’t know why I would go there to try to be inaccurate, incomplete or deceptive in front of my oversight committee,” said Hayden. “I can tell you that what I laid out is what the agency believed to be true and let me add, what I laid out is what the agency will say was true in its report today.”
Hayden directly shot back at Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committee’s chairwoman, saying that while she is not lying in her accusations that Hayden and the CIA mislead the public, she is indeed “incorrect.”
“I’ll go so far as to say she’s incorrect,” said Hayden. “Lying is intentionally, intentionally misleading someone, alright. Let me make another distinction, telling people something they don’t want to hear is not the same thing as telling people something that is untrue,” he said.
The former CIA and NSA director also fired back at the report in whole, openly questioning the validity of the report, saying only one side’s point-of-view is presented.
“It is a one-sided prosecutorial brief against he men and women of the CIA,” Hayden told Malzberg. “It is a trial and a verdict rendered in absentia since the agency’s folks did not have a chance to talk to anyone who formed the committee report.”
“They were denied defense…and no one could challenge the alleged evidence,” Hayden added.
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