Gen. Hayden on 5 of today's biggest issues

A new book, global security concerns, Apple’s dispute with the FBI, and the 2016 election have all pushed General Michael Hayden, former director of both the NSA and the CIA, front and center. The only man to have ever led both of the nation’s premier intelligence organizations, Gen. Hayden has been all over the news lately, commenting on the year’s biggest stories:

On the 2016 campaign, to CNN’s Michael Holmes
"We have taken ... very complicated, serious issues and we've pushed them down to the level of bumper stickers. That scares me and I'm sure it scares a lot of the rest of the world."

On the FBI/Apple squabble, to NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook
“ … I think American security is better provided by not allowing the government to have exceptional or extraordinary access to otherwise unbreakable devices. Breaking through a wall with heavy encryption is very difficult, sometimes impossible. If you create a doorway … That doorway or pathway will attract bad actors to try to get through there, as well.”

On social media, to American Thinker
“Individuals are liberally giving up their privacy, you know, sometimes wittingly and sometimes unwittingly, as they give information to companies or to sales reps. Or they go out on Facebook or the various social media. They don't realize though that they are then making themselves vulnerable to exploitation.”

On cyber security, to the WSJ
“Look, your armed forces view cyber as a domain. Land, sea, air, space, cyber. It’s a new domain … This is the largest ungoverned space in recorded human history. There is no rule of law up here.”

On American intelligence, to Bloomberg Business
“To be perfectly candid, we’re better at stealing other people’s secrets than anyone else in the world. But we self-limit. We steal secrets to keep our citizens free and safe. We do not steal secrets to make them rich. That makes us one of maybe four or five countries on the planet that limit themselves in that way.”

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