Former CIA Director Michael Hayden, who led the National Security Agency (NSA) during the worst intelligence failure of the 21st century on 9/11, has some thoughts about extremism.
Last week, U.S. National Editor of the Financial Times Edward Luce fired off a tweet declaring Republicans the most dangerous political force to threaten the world in recent memory.
“I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career,” Luce wrote. “Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.”
Hayden quoted the post with his approval, saying, “I agree. And I was the CIA Director.”
Hayden, who just more than a decade ago was authorizing drone strikes to gun down violent extremists, is currently on the advisory board of a left-wing misinformation group that brands itself as a disinformation watchdog.
NewsGuard is a popular pro-censorship browser extension that’s being deployed in schools to indoctrinate students on acceptable news sources.
Hayden was also among the more than 50 former intelligence officials who signed a joint letter published with Politico to dismiss the Hunter Biden laptop as Russian disinformation in October 2020 despite early confirmation of the computer’s legitimacy. Even after Politico conceded the laptop’s authenticity 11 months later, Hayden doubled down on the false claim that its contents are instruments of a Russian disinformation campaign.
The erroneous assertions, however, appear to be guiding the credibility ratings NewsGuard force-feeds to K-12 classrooms. The media group continues to score legacy news outlets that botched the Hunter Biden story, including Politico, NPR, and the New York Times, with 100 percent accuracy. Outlets that got the story right, on the other hand, such as the New York Post and The Federalist, are rated with scores of 69.5 and 12.5 out of 100, respectively.
In a statement to The Federalist, NewsGuard CEO Gordon Crovitz said its board of advisors “play no role in the determinations of ratings or the Nutrition Label write ups of websites unless otherwise noted and have no role in the governance or management of the organization.”
This article has been updated since publication.
