CIA Chief Nominee Says NSA's Spy Program Is Legal
Less than a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, Gen. Michael V. Hayden summoned 80 or 90 staff members to a conference room at the National Security Agency. President Bush had just approved the use of wiretapping on the international calls and e-mail of Americans without warrants, and the general, then leading the spy agency, was setting his troops in motion. As General Hayden recounted the meeting at his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday, he explained what the president had authorized and ended his remarks by saying, "We're going to do exactly what he said, and not one photon or one electron more."
Nominee Says N.S.A. Stayed Within Law on Wiretaps, New York Times, May 19, 2006.
