General Hayden Is “Stunned” Trump Watches TV For Military Advice. On The Iran Deal: “This doesn’t solve the Iranian nuclear problem”
Former Director of the National Security Agency & the CIA, retired US Air Force General Michael Hayden, called into Kilmeade & Friends to talk about Donald Trump watching TV for military advice, Iran and Hillary Clinton’s e-mails.
Listen here:
Trump watching TV for military advice:
“I was a bit stunned, like you were, that he watches shows to shape his military thinking.”
Are you surprised Donald Trump is leading the polls?
“Yeah, I have no particular expertise in that but I think like most of America, I too am surprised.”
On President Obama comparing republicans opposed to the deal to hardliners in Iran:
“That was a superficial comparison…and frankly, not very useful for the president’s own objectives. To delegitimize those people in opposition, I think does a disservice not just to his argument but to his office.”
What bothers you most about the Iran deal?
“I am really skeptical about several elements in the deal…..I think about it in three parts. You got the deal the president wants us to concentrate on and he actually said ‘measure me on what this does to the Iranian nuclear program in the next ten years’, and frankly, I will admit that’s part of the whole package because it does put inspections in the known sites, it does limit their activity, it does limit their centrifuges. You and I can spend the rest of our time this morning, Brian, poking holes in that zero to ten nuclear question but it’s the best part of the deal. There are other things too, there are the immediate by products of the deal that Iran and terrorist supporting Hezbollah, that state that sued to be isolated and poor, is now going to be integrated and rich. And finally Brian, what happens after year ten? This doesn’t solve the Iranian nuclear problem. It parks it and after year ten, by the president own admission, they are going to go a point where they have an industrial nuclear base in which there is zero time for having enough nuclear material for a nuclear weapon.”
What concerns you most about the Russians selling missile defense systems to Iran?
“Tactically, it does give the Iranians greater military firepower to protect their airspace if we or someone else in the future believes there is an ultimate need to, as we sued to say in government, ‘go kinetic’, with the Iranian nuclear program.”
Iran intimidating the IAEA weapons inspectors:
“That is very troubling. There are also rumors in this country of defunding the inspectors. I don’t think that is a very good idea. I think we ought to strengthen the inspectors to buck them up with all the means at our disposal, but you’re right, the Iranians are claiming the right which nationalities are allowed to be inpsectors. One of the most troubling parts of the deal is the English word ‘access’, as in access to suspect sites. It isn’t the common understanding of the word access, which you and I would believe means you get to go in, that is not what this word means in this agreement. The IAEA is not going to be able to physically enter many Iranian nuclear facilities.”
Hillary saying she had no idea if her servers are wiped:
What matters most to you about her server being wipes and what could be retrieved?
“The most important thing is the original sin that allowed the secretary to co-mingle her personal and private e-mails in one system and then put that system on a non-government server.”
“To answer your second question, the NSA and FBI are very good at recovering material that has theoretically been wiped from servers. Frankly, I think it’s quite possible they will be actually be able to retrieve data.”
What is the difference between what Hillary did and General Petraeus did?
“General Petraeus had information that was not marked secret, David had notebooks, he took notes on everything, including his classified briefings, without signifying what was and wasn’t classified. There is a strong parallel there. General Petraeus then shared it with someone who wasn’t authorized to receive it even though his biographer did have a security clearance, he just didn’t safeguard the information.”
