General Michael Hayden: Military Will Not Commit War Crimes
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - In a recent interview, former Director of the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, General Michael Hayden rejected assertions from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that the military should target civilians in the war against terrorism.
Hayden joined Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT to further discuss his comments and reiterated that the military would not execute orders from anyone, including the President, that are illegal.
"The armed forces of the United States will not carry out orders that are so obviously illegal and in violation of the laws of armed conflict. Their oath to themselves, their families, their country and their God would prevent them from doing that...We tried a whole generation of German officers whose defense was simply, I was just following the orders of the state. We held that to be totally insufficient in terms of self defense for these officers"
He dismissed the idea that the military would even consider enacting such a strategy.
"Are you actually suggesting that our problem in the current war against terror is we're not killing enough people? And is somebody holding out the hope that if we just would kill non-combatants, America would just be a safer place? Even at the level of operations, that defies logic."
Hayden also addressed the recent development regarding the investigation into former Secretary of State and current Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's private email server where the FBI has granted immunity to a former State Department employee who set up the server, saying he believes it was probably compromised.
"This seems to be a significant step. We'll see where it leads. I have the greatest confidence in [FBI Director James] Comey. He will let the facts take the Bureau where they will...I would lose respect for dozens of security agencies around the world if they hadn't accessed the server."
