Responding to aggressive questioning from This Week guest host Martha Raddatz, Michael Hayden, CIA director from 2006 to 2009, tried to clarify both the facts surrounding enhanced interrogation techniques and the stakes at the time of their use, following the release last week of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s so-called torture report.
The techniques “were successful,” Hayden said. “That’s a historical fact. Do I support them? With regard to waterboarding, I have made it very clear that I thank God that I didn’t have to make that decision. I had easier circumstances when I was director.”
Parrying Raddatz’s protestation that he was avoiding the question, Hayden said any determination of techniques depends on “the totality of circumstances at the time”:
Here, Martha, we’re making a choice between two very bad, very difficult choices. If we had not done this, and a subsequent attack would have taken place, what would today’s conversation be like?
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