Hayden worked at the U.S. Embassy in the then-People's Republic of
Bulgaria and in intelligence in
Guam. He served on the
National Security Council, Washington, D.C. and in senior staff positions for
Pentagon,
U.S. European Command headquarters in
Stuttgart, and then as deputy chief of staff for the
United Nations Command 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. AIA is staffed by 16,000 personnel charged with defending and exploiting the "information domain".
National Security Agency In February 1999 Hayden was nominated by President Bill Clinton be the director of the NSA and chief of the
Central Security Service at
Fort George G. Meade,
Maryland. 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 Internal government analysis indicated it suffered from a lack of quality management and outdated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. 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. 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. 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 '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. 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 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, 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". Hayden was accused of lying to
Congress during his 2007 testimony about the CIA's 'enhanced interrogation program. Many critics of enhanced interrogation techniques maintain that they were
torture 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". In 2008 Hayden warned of the destabilizing consequences of
Muslim migration to Europe, and that it might cause mass outbreaks of
civil unrest. 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 as well as to avoid suggesting that CIA officers had ever tortured terrorists. 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, and co-founded the
Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security. Hayden is currently on the advisory board of
NewsGuard. == NSA spying scandal ==