WaPo | Former CIA director Michael Hayden believes there is a legitimate
possibility that the U.S. military would refuse to follow orders given
by Donald Trump if the Republican front-runner becomes president and
decides to make good on certain campaign pledges.
Hayden, who also headed the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005, made the provocative statement on Friday during an appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
Trump, fresh off a string of primary victories, has yet to secure his
party’s nomination, but Hayden said the candidate’s rhetoric already
raises troubling questions.
“I would be incredibly concerned if a
President Trump governed in a way that was consistent with the language
that candidate Trump expressed during the campaign,” Hayden said during the interview with Maher.
Earlier this month, Trump told a South Carolina retirement community
that he supports waterboarding and similar interrogation techniques
because “torture works” when it comes to extracting vital information
from terrorists.
Deeming waterboarding “torture,” President
Obama’s administration discontinued its use during his first term in
office. Proponents of the controversial practice, as The Washington Posts Jenna Johnson noted,
avoid labeling it as torture, which would violate various international
laws and treaties. Trump, meanwhile, has not only pledged to reinstate
waterboarding, but also introduce other methods of interrogation that
are “so much worse” and “much stronger.”
“Don’t tell me it
doesn’t work — torture works,” Trump told the Sun City retirement
community. “Okay, folks? Torture — you know, half these guys [say]:
‘Torture doesn’t work.’ Believe me, it works. Okay?”
Trump has also said on multiple occasions that the United States should kill the family members of terrorists.
“That
will make people think. Because they do not care very much about their
lives, but they do care, believe it or not, about their family’s lives,”
Trump said during a debate of Republican presidential candidates in
December.
Politifact has pointed out that targeting terrorists’ family members is barred by the Geneva Conventions.
During
his appearance on “Real Time,” Hayden cited Trump’s pledge to kill
family members as being among his most troubling campaign statements.
“That never even occurred to you, right?” Maher asked.
“God,
no!” Hayden replied. “Let me give you a punchline: If he were to order
that once in government, the American armed forces would refuse to act.”
