Michael Vincent Hayden (born March 17, 1945) is a retired
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
general
A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry.
In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...
Director of National Intelligence
The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a Cabinet of the United States#Current Cabinet and Cabinet-rank officials, cabinet-level Federal government of the United States, United States government intelligence and security official. The p ...
George Mason University
George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...
– Schar School of Policy and Government and co-chairs the Bipartisan Policy Center's Electric Grid Cyber Security Initiative.
He was Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) from 1999 to 2005. There he initiated and oversaw the NSA surveillance of digital communications between persons in the United States and foreign citizens who allegedly had ties to
terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...
groups, which resulted in the NSA warrantless surveillance. On April 21, 2005, then Lt. Gen Hayden was confirmed by the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
as the first Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and awarded his fourth star, making him "the highest-ranking military intelligence officer in the armed forces".
On May 26, 2006, Hayden was appointed as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He retired from the Air Force in April 2008, after 41 years of service, while continuing to serve as Director of the CIA until February 12, 2009.
Early life and education
Michael Vincent Hayden was born on March 17, 1945, in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, to an Irish-American couple, Sadie (Murray) and Harry V. Hayden Jr., who worked as a welder for a Pennsylvania manufacturing company. He has a sister, Debby, and a brother, Harry.
Hayden attended St. Peter's Elementary School where, in 7th and 8th grade he played quarterback on the school football team and was coached by the late Dan Rooney, the son of the founder of the
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. Founded in 1933 P ...
. Hayden graduated from North Catholic High School. One of his first jobs was as an equipment manager for the Steelers. He went on to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where he earned a
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
in history in 1967 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He then attended graduate school at Duquesne for a
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
in modern
American history
The history of the present-day United States began in roughly 15,000 BC with the arrival of Peopling of the Americas, the first people in the Americas. In the late 15th century, European colonization of the Americas, European colonization beg ...
.
Hayden was commissioned through Duquesne University's Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps program,Ceremony program, Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Distinguished Alumni Induction, Maxwell AFB, Alabama, July 26, 2011, page 5. and entered active military service in 1969.
Career
Hayden worked at the U.S. Embassy in the then-People's Republic of
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
and in intelligence in
Guam
Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...
. He served on the
National Security Council
A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...
, Washington, D.C. and in senior staff positions for
Pentagon
In geometry, a pentagon () is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is 540°.
A pentagon may be simple or list of self-intersecting polygons, self-intersecting. A self-intersecting ...
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
, and then as deputy chief of staff for the
United Nations Command
United Nations Command (UNC or UN Command) is the multinational military force established to support the South Korea, Republic of Korea (South Korea) during and after the Korean War. It was the first attempt at collective security by the U ...
and U.S. Forces Korea, Yongsan Garrison. The general served as director of the Joint Command and Control Warfare Center, at Lackland Air Force Base.
From 1996 to 1997, Hayden remained at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, as commander of the
Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency
The Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency (Air Force ISR Agency or AFISRA) was until 29 September 2014 a :Field Operating Agency, field operating agency of the United States Air Force headquartered at Lackland Air Force ...
. AIA is staffed by 16,000 personnel charged with defending and exploiting the "information domain".
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
. He served in that capacity from March 1999 to April 2005. As the director of NSA and chief of CSS, he was responsible for a combat support agency of the Department of Defense with military and civilian personnel stationed worldwide.
Strategy for the NSA
Hayden came to the NSA at a time of upheaval in the agency. Internal government analysis indicated it suffered from a lack of quality management and outdated
IT infrastructure
Information technology infrastructure is defined broadly as a set of information technology (IT) components that are the foundation of an IT service; typically physical components (Computer hardware, computer and networking hardware and facilitie ...
. Soon after he came on board, a huge part of the NSA network system crashed and was down for several days. Part of his plan to revitalize the agency was to introduce more outside contractors, convince older managers to retire, and generally overhaul management structures. He also wanted to increase openness at the agency, as it had historically been one of the most secretive organs of government. He even allowed James Bamford access for his book '' Body of Secrets''.James Bamford, '' Body of Secrets'', Doubleday, 2001 Initially, Hayden was extremely concerned with following laws against domestic surveillance.
On 9/11, Hayden immediately evacuated all non-essential personnel from NSA headquarters. After 9/11, the agency greatly increased its activity. Many reports say that after 9/11, Hayden became increasingly concerned with stopping terrorism, and allegedly softened his stance against domestic surveillance. Hayden said that he believed everything the agency was doing was "effective, appropriate, and lawful". Details about the NSA's operations have been largely hidden, but it played a major role in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the War on Terror. One notable example is the NSA's relationship with the
unmanned aerial vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...
'drone' program.
Trailblazer
Hayden also championed the Trailblazer Project, a "transformation" effort to better apply information technology. The project was criticized internally by some NSA staff, for omitting privacy protections for United States citizens. Such omissions constituted a potential failure, subjecting the NSA to external critical feedback, including Diane S Roark, of the House Intelligence Committee. NSA employees Thomas Andrews Drake, William Binney, and J. Kirk Wiebe voiced similar concerns. Hayden rebuked these NSA staff and several resigned in protest. After investigation by the NSA inspector general, the DOD inspector general, and Congress, Trailblazer was shut down.
Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence
As part of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the CIA director would no longer run the intelligence community. Instead, a new office was created for this purpose: the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence
The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a Cabinet of the United States#Current Cabinet and Cabinet-rank officials, cabinet-level Federal government of the United States, United States government intelligence and security official. The p ...
(ODNI). General Hayden became the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence from May 2005 to May 2006 under the first Director, John Negroponte.
Civil liberties
On January 23, 2006, Hayden appeared at a news conference. A C-Span video was posted of Hayden telling reporters in attendance that "probable cause" is not required for all searches or seizures under the Fourth Amendment, claiming instead that the standard is whether the search or seizure is reasonable. "Probable cause" is required for all warrants, whether or not the search or seizure is deemed to be "unreasonable".
Director of the CIA
On May 8, 2006, Hayden was nominated by President George W. Bush to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency after the resignation of Porter J. Goss on May 5, 2006. Hayden was confirmed on May 26, 2006, as CIA director, 78–15, by full U.S. Senate vote.
Wiretaps of domestic communication
In May 2006, ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
'' reported that, under Hayden's leadership, the NSA created a domestic telephone call database. During his CIA director nomination hearings, Hayden defended his actions to Senator Russ Feingold and others. Hayden stated that he had relied upon legal advice from the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
, that warrantless surveillance would not have required a warrant from a FISA court. The stated purpose of the database was to eavesdrop on international communications between persons within the U.S. and individuals and groups overseas in order to locate terrorists.
Critics of the Hayden's nomination and his attempts to increase domestic surveillance included Senator Dianne Feinstein who stated on May 11, 2006, that "I happen to believe we are on our way to a major constitutional confrontation on Fourth Amendment guarantees of unreasonable search and seizure".
In 2007, Hayden pushed to allow the CIA to conduct drone strikes purely on the behavior of ground vehicles, with no further evidence of connection to terrorism.
Hayden has been accused of lying to
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
during his 2007 testimony about the CIA's 'enhanced interrogation program. Many critics of enhanced interrogation techniques maintain that they were
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...
and did not yield reliable information from CIA detainees. Hayden said the notion that enhanced interrogation never yields useful intelligence is not credible and is merely the opinion of "interrogation deniers". The 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture cited an email indicating that as CIA Director, Hayden instructed that out-of-date information be used in briefing Congress so that fewer than 100 Guantanamo Bay detainees would be reported.
In 2008 Hayden warned of the destabilizing consequences of
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
migration to Europe, and that it might cause mass outbreaks of
civil unrest
Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, civil strife, or turmoil, are situations when law enforcement and security forces struggle to maintain public order or tranquility.
Causes
Any number of things may cause civil di ...
.
In his memoir, Leon Panetta said that Hayden had hoped to be retained as CIA director by the Obama administration. Panetta was appointed instead. In conversations with Panetta, Hayden encouraged him to advise the president to protect the CIA's right to engage in
enhanced interrogation techniques
"Enhanced interrogation techniques" or "enhanced interrogation" was a program of systematic torture of detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and various components of the U.S. Armed Forces at ...
as well as to avoid suggesting that CIA officers had ever tortured terrorists.
Post-CIA years
In September 2013, Hayden stressed the indisputable legality of "what the NSA is doing" and called
Edward Snowden
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs.
Born in 1983 in Elizabeth ...
a "troubled young man" and "morally arrogant to a tremendous degree".
In December 2013, after the P5+1 reached a nuclear agreement with Iran, Hayden said, "We have accepted Iranian uranium enrichment."
Hayden worked for a number of years as a principal at the Chertoff Group, a security consultancy, but left at the end of 2022. He serves on the board of directors of the
Atlantic Council
The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosp ...
During his tenure as director, Hayden oversaw the controversial NSA surveillance of technological communications between persons in the United States and alleged foreign
terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...
groups. Numerous commentators have accused Hayden of lying to congress, and breaking the law. Hayden misled Congress in his 2002 testimony, when he testified that any surveillance of persons in the United States was consistent with the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA, , ) is a Law of the United States, United States federal law that establishes procedures for the surveillance and collection of foreign intelligence on domestic soil.warrantless surveillance of domestic calls unless approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court under FISA. In '' United States v. Moalin'' (2020), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the NSA program of mass surveillance of Americans' telephone records violated FISA and possibly the Fourth Amendment.
Political activities
On 20 August 2020, Hayden, a political independent, along with over 130 former Republican national security officials, signed a statement that asserted that President Trump was unfit to serve another term, and "To that end, we are firmly convinced that it is in the best interest of our nation that Vice President Joe Biden be elected as the next President of the United States, and we will vote for him."
In early October 2020, he endorsed
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
in the presidential election.
In response to a request made by future Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Hayden was one of the 51 former U.S. intelligence officials who signed an October 19, 2020, letter that said the Hunter Biden laptop story "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."
In October 2023, Hayden posted on social media that Senator Tommy Tuberville, who had been delaying certain military promotions in the Senate, should be "removed" from the human race. Hayden's comments were perceived by the news media as an apparent threat to and possible call for Tuberville's assassination. Later, Hayden appeared to double down on his comments on Tuberville being "removed" from the human race, saying that "MAGAnuts had lost their mind" over his
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
posts. In reaction, General Michael Flynn said that Hayden should be arrested.
Tuberville reported Hayden to the United States Capitol Police for the comments, saying that Hayden had called for his "politically motivated assassination".
On January 20, 2025 President Donald J. Trump revoked the security clearances of Michael Hayden rendering him excluded from the U.S.A. Intelligence Services for what the President described as "willfully weaponizing the gravitas of the Intelligence Community to manipulate the political process and undermine our democratic institutions."
Personal life
Hayden is married to the former Jeanine Carrier. They have a daughter Margaret and two sons, Michael and Liam. Hayden continues to be an avid fan of his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers, traveling with his wife to several games a year.
In November 2018, Hayden was hospitalized after suffering a stroke. He recovered, but now suffers from
aphasia
Aphasia, also known as dysphasia, is an impairment in a person's ability to comprehend or formulate language because of dysfunction in specific brain regions. The major causes are stroke and head trauma; prevalence is hard to determine, but aph ...
as a result.
Military career
Awards and decorations
Effective dates of promotion
Honors
In 2007, Hayden received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 2008, in his native Northside neighborhood, the city of Pittsburgh named a part of a street going past Heinz Field in his honor.
On July 26, 2011, Hayden was inducted into the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Distinguished Alumni in a ceremony at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, officiated by Lt. Gen. Allen G. Peck, commander, Air University. He serves as a member of the board of advisors of the Military Cyber Professionals Association (MCPA)