Former CIA director regales spy confab
Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the only person to head both the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, was watching TV in his home when President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden in May.
Hayden, head of the CIA from 2006 to 2009, listened with interest as Obama talked about the covert operation that led to the international news. The president recalled the terror nearly 10 years ago when planes were hijacked, the twin towers collapsed and nearly 3,000 lives were lost in attacks organized by al-Qaida. Obama talked about the decade-long efforts to hunt down bin Laden and the trails that had gone cold.
Hayden, the keynote speaker at the annual Raleigh Spy Conference on Friday, recalled looking at his wife when Obama said that shortly after taking office he directed Leon Panetta, current director of the CIA, “to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al-Qaida.”
“I kind of turned to her and said, ‘Oh man, why didn’t they tell me?’ ” Hayden said, a line that sparked laughter among the spy conference audience.
For nearly 45 minutes, Hayden, who also had made the capture or killing of bin Laden a priority during his tenure, talked about the pebbles that many in the agency had laid down that helped build the bridge to May’s death of bin Laden.