WILLIAM and KATHY CHRISTISON
William Christison was with the CIA for 27 years, retiring when he was director of the CIA’s Office of Regional and Political Analysis; Kathy Christison is a former CIA political analyst.
William Christison said today: “Much of the current discussion focuses on internal squabbling between various factions around Goss, Hayden, Rumsfeld, Negroponte, Cheney and so on. The bigger problem is that all these are beholden to George W. Bush. They should be beholden to nobody to the extent possible; they should be beholden to telling the truth — that’s what we need from our intelligence agencies. Unfortunately things are going in the opposite direction. Stansfield Turner [CIA director during the Carter years] tried to maintain some independence from the White House, but it lost him some access. Bush should not be allowed to use Goss as a scapegoat for various policies now that he is leaving.”
More Information
CHRISTOPHER H. PYLE
Michael Hayden was head of the National Security Agency when its warrantless wiretapping program was reportedly initiated and he was a leading defender of it when its existence became public.
Professor Pyle is co-author of the book The President, Congress, and the Constitution and author of the book Military Surveillance of Civilian Politics.
He said today: “I doubt that a general who does not understand the Constitution and has violated the FISA statute — which is a felony — should be appointed director of the CIA.”
Pyle continued: “Gen. Hayden says he is bound only by half of the Fourth Amendment — the requirement that searches be reasonable. He ignores the second clause, which requires warrants based on probable cause. He ignores the FISA statute, which requires probable cause and says that judges, not generals, decide when probable cause exists. The general admits that he disregarded the FISA law and the FISA court, which is a felony.” In 1970, Pyle disclosed the U.S. military’s surveillance of civilian politics and worked as a consultant to three Congressional committees, including the Church Committee — which wrote the FISA statute. Pyle is currently a professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College.
More Information
For more, see the IPA news release (Jan. 24, 2006) “Does Gen. Hayden Know What the Fourth Amendment Says?” Transcript and video of a January 2006 news conference with Hayden focusing on the FISA statute are available at DNI’s website and at Democracy Now!.
More information on Hayden is available at Wikipedia and Source Watch.
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
