People have a right to privacy, but they also have a right to live. Fundamentally, we need cybersecurity and need to secure communications as well.
Michael HaydenRead
Presidents get to decide how their intelligence is served up to them, and it's the job of intelligence to adjust.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the dynamic relationship between intelligence-gathering and presidential decision-making.
Michael Hayden emphasizes that presidents have the authority to determine how intelligence information is presented and utilized. This implies that intelligence agencies must remain adaptable and responsive to the preferences and needs of the leaders they serve, reflecting the complex interplay between governance and information management.
Themes
IntelligenceLeadershipDecision-MakingAdaptabilityGovernance
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the importance of adjusting information flow in government.
More from Michael Hayden
All quotes βAl Qaida changes; Al Qaida adapts. We have to adapt as well. We rely on resources to do that. Reducing resources beyond a certain point will make us less able to adapt as our enemy adapts.
Michael HaydenRead
Global security can be formed or threatened by heads of state whose wisdom, folly and obsessions shape global events. But often it is the security practitioners, those rarely in the headlines but whose craft and energy quietly break new ground, who keep us safe or put us in peril.
Michael HaydenRead
The question is how much of your privacy and your convenience and your commerce do you want your nation's security apparatus to squeeze in order to keep you safe? And it is a choice that we have to make.
Michael HaydenRead
American political elites feel very empowered to criticize the American intelligence community for not doing enough when they feel in danger, and as soon as we've made them feel safe again, they feel equally empowered to complain that we're doing too much.
Michael HaydenRead
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