RETIRED 4-STAR GENERAL WHO WAS DNSA AND DCIA AND DEPUTY DNI SAYS OBAMA IS BLOWING IT AND MAKING US LESS SAFE

NOBODY HAS DONE MORE IN THE CLANDESTINE INTELLIGENCE ARENA OR DONE MORE TO PROTECT US THAN MICHAEL HAYDEN.

AND HE SAYS OBAMA IS BLOWING IT, BIG-TIME. THIS IS AN AUTHORITATIVE KNOCKDOWN. EXCERPTS:

Two days after his inauguration, President Obama issued an executive order that limited all interrogations by the U.S. government to the techniques authorized in the Army Field Manual. The CIA had not seen the final draft of the order, let alone been allowed to comment, before it was issued. I thought that odd since the order was less a legal document -- there was no claim that the manual exhausted the universe of lawful techniques -- than a policy one: These particular lawful techniques would be all that the country would need, at least for now.

A similar drama unfolded in April over the release of Justice Department memos that had authorized the CIA interrogation program. CIA Director Leon Panetta and several of his predecessors opposed public release of the memos in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit on the only legitimate grounds for such a stand: that the documents were legitimately still classified and their release would gravely harm national security. On this policy -- not legal -- question, the president sided with his attorney general rather than his CIA chief.

In August, seemingly again in contradiction to the president's policy of not looking backward and over the objections of the CIA, Justice pushed to release the CIA inspector general's report on the interrogation program. Then Justice decided to reopen investigations of CIA officers that had been concluded by career prosecutors years ago, even though Panetta and seven of his predecessors said that doing so would be unfair, unwarranted and harmful to the agency's current mission.

In November, Justice announced that it intended to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and several others in civilian courts for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The White House made clear that this was a Justice Department decision, which is odd because the decision was not legally compelled (other detainees are to be tried by military commissions) and the reasons given for making it (military trials could serve as a recruitment tool for al-Qaeda, harm relations with allies, etc.) were not legal but political.

... Some may celebrate that the current Justice Department's perspective on the war on terrorism has become markedly more dominant in the past year. We should probably understand the implications of that before we break out the champagne. That apparently no one recommended on Christmas Day that Abdulmutallab be handled, at least for a time, as an enemy combatant should be concerning.

... In August, the government unveiled the HIG for questioning al-Qaeda and announced that the FBI would begin questioning CIA officers about the alleged abuses in the 2004 inspector general's report. They are apparently still getting organized for the al-Qaeda interrogations. But the interrogations of CIA personnel are well underway.

THIS IS A DEVASTATING INDICTMENT OF OBAMA.

OBAMA HAS MADE US LESS SAFE BY GIVING THE ENEMY MORE RIGHTS THAN THEY DESERVE AND OUR AGENTS LESS.

WHOSE SIDE IS HE ON!?

IF OBAMA REALLY WAS A CRYPTO-MUSLIM AND RADICAL LEFTIST WHO HATED THE USA AND WANTED TO DESTROY US WOULD HE DOING ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY?

NOPE.