At the National Press Club on 1/23, Travis Morales, a World Can’t
Wait organizer, challenges General Hayden, former director of the NSA,
to a public debate on the NSA spy program and asks him whether the NSA
is spying on The World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime. Check
out the transcript below.
[LISTEN] to audio.
Excerpt from REMARKS BY
GENERAL MICHAEL V. HAYDEN
PRINCIPAL DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
AND
FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY
ADDRESS TO THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB
WHAT AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE & ESPECIALLY THE NSA HAVE BEEN DOING
TO DEFEND THE NATION
NATIONAL PRESS CLUB
WASHINGTON, D.C.
10:00 A.M. EST
MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2006
QUESTION: My name is Travis Morales. And we’ve read numerous
reports in the Times and other papers about massive spying by the NSA on
millions of people, along with reports of rendition, torture, et cetera. And I
attended Congressman Conyers’ hearings on Friday where a gentleman came from
South Florida talking about military intelligence went and infiltrated his
Quaker peace group, and that this — they later saw the documents detailing
that.
And my question — I guess I have
two questions for you. One is, as a participant in a group called, “The
World Can’t Wait: Drive Out the Bush Regime,” which is organizing for
people to drown out Bush’s lies during the State of the Union, and to gather on
February 4th demanding that Bush step down, my question is this: Are you or the
NSA — and when I say you, I mean the NSA in its entirety — is it intercepting
our e-mail communications, listening to our telephone conversations, et cetera?
Because as Bush has said, you’re either against us or you’re with us, and they
have asserted that whatever the president wants to do in time of war, whether
it’s holding people without charges or writing memos justifying torture, they
can do that.
My second question is this —
related to that. I publicly challenge you and the NSA to an open debate, a
public open debate that people can gather and listen to your responses, a
debate on this warrantless wiretapping and spying on millions of people that
have gone on across this country, because as the Reverend said, millions and
millions of people are outraged. That is why people are talking impeachment,
that is why people are demanding that Bush step down, because of this massive
spying, the torture, the rendition, and everything else. So I challenge you to
a public and open debate on these questions.
GEN. HAYDEN: What was the question?
(Laughter.)
QUESTION: Will you openly and
publicly debate us — myself — in a forum that’s open to the public, not
restricted, on the NSA spying scandal and defend what has been said, and
respond to the numerous reports about the NSA spying on millions of people?
That is one question. And the second question is: Are you spying on or intercepting
our communications, e-mails and telephone conversations of those of us who are
organizing The World Can’t Wait to Drive Out the Bush Regime?
GEN. HAYDEN: You know, I tried to
make this as clear as I could in prepared remarks. I said this isn’t a drift
net, all right? I said we’re not there sucking up coms and then using some of
these magically alleged keyword searches — “Did he say ‘jihad’? Let’s get
–” I mean, that is not — do you know how much time Americans spend on
the phone in international calls alone, okay? In 2003, our citizenry was on the
phone in international calls alone for 200 billion minutes, okay? I mean,
beyond the ethical considerations involved here, there are some practical
considerations about being a drift net. This is targeted, this is focused. This
is about al Qaeda.
The other request about a public
debate — as I mentioned at the beginning of my prepared remarks, this is a
somewhat uncomfortable position for someone in my profession to be in, laying
out details of the program. One way of describing what you have invited me to
would be, “Why don’t you come out and tell the world how you’re catching
al Qaeda?” And I can’t do that. That would be professionally
irresponsible.
QUESTION: No, I asked, are you
targeting us and people who politically oppose the Bush government, the Bush
administration? Not a fishing net, but are you targeting specifically political
opponents of the Bush administration? Because as Vice President Gore recently
said, “It is much worse than people realize.”