The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald is “far more deserving” of the “co-conspirator” label than the Fox News reporter who was characterized as such by the Justice Department, former National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden wrote in an op-ed published Friday.
“The Guardian newspaper’s Glenn Greenwald, far more deserving of the Justice Department’s characterization of a co-conspirator than Fox’s James Rosen ever was, claims that Snowden has documents that comprise “basically the instruction manual for how the NSA is built. … [To prove] what he was saying was true, he had to take … very sensitive, detailed blueprints of how the NSA does what they do,” Hayden, the NSA chief under former President George W. Bush, wrote for CNN.com.
In its 2009 investigation of a national security leak related to North Korea, the Justice Department described Rosen as a potential “co-conspirator” in its affidavit. Greenwald, who reported on top secret NSA surveillance programs, wasted little time responding to the charge, arguing that Hayden should be behind bars for his role in warrantless wiretapping:
I’ve long thought Michael Hayden belongs in prison for implementing illegal warrantless eavesdropping at Americans https://t.co/f3Haz3du1n
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 19, 2013
