Michael Hayden: Deadly Terror Attacks on US Soil Are 'New Normal'
Tuesday, 02 Jun 2015 07:54 PM
America is experiencing "a new normal" with deadly plots hatched by homegrown, self-radicalized lone wolves, Gen. Michael Hayden told Newsmax TV Tuesday.
In a chilling interview with "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth, the retired Air Force general and former NSA and CIA head said attacks like that in Garland, Texas, last month and the the fatal shooting Tuesday of a man in Boston who'd been under 24-hour surveillance by anti-terrorism authorities should serve as warning of what lies ahead.
"This is another example of the new normal," he said of the latest case. "I'm afraid we're just going to have to get used to this a bit. We're entering into a bit of a difficult period, a period of at least slightly increased danger."
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He also decried that such homegrown terrorists are "using an ISIS narrative" for their violence.
"What ISIS has done has created a narrative that there is unrelenting hostility between Islam and the West, between Islam and Christianity," he said. "What we're now seeing are some folks isolated, depressed, otherwise lacking meaning in their lives, grabbing onto that narrative and using that ISIS narrative, unrelenting hostility between Islam and the West to explain their own situation and perhaps to motivate their own actions."
"We're entering into a period in which we're going to see, unfortunately, more of these kinds of events," he predicted.
Hayden also warned that America is "stepping into the unknown" with passage of the USA Freedom Act Tuesday, which reverses security policy that's been in place since shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks.
"So what I hope is that we keep a careful watch on how good plan B is," he said.
The new law would require telephone companies to collect and store telephone "metadata" the same way that they do now for billing purposes. But instead of routinely feeding U.S. intelligence agencies such data, the companies would be required to turn it over only in response to a government request approved by the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
"It remains to be seen if the phone companies will keep the data, how long they will keep it, and how easy or difficult it will be for NSA to query it under these new circumstances," Hayden said, adding he hopes the intelligence community, once the new law is up and running, will give Congress and the public "a candid view."
Hayden also weighed in on a new report that the Iranian stockpile of nuclear fuel has actually increased 20 percent over the last 18 months, saying it reflects an unhealthy dynamic in play with talks underway to keep Iran from making a nuclear bomb.
On "the political level," he said, "we may want to deal more than the Iranians want to deal. At a tactical level … I fear we've gone from that old mantra where we used to say, no deal is better than a bad deal, to a circumstance now where any deal is better than no deal."
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© 2015 Newsmax. All rights reserved.In a chilling interview with "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth, the retired Air Force general and former NSA and CIA head said attacks like that in Garland, Texas, last month and the the fatal shooting Tuesday of a man in Boston who'd been under 24-hour surveillance by anti-terrorism authorities should serve as warning of what lies ahead.
"This is another example of the new normal," he said of the latest case. "I'm afraid we're just going to have to get used to this a bit. We're entering into a bit of a difficult period, a period of at least slightly increased danger."
Story continues below video.
"What ISIS has done has created a narrative that there is unrelenting hostility between Islam and the West, between Islam and Christianity," he said. "What we're now seeing are some folks isolated, depressed, otherwise lacking meaning in their lives, grabbing onto that narrative and using that ISIS narrative, unrelenting hostility between Islam and the West to explain their own situation and perhaps to motivate their own actions."
"We're entering into a period in which we're going to see, unfortunately, more of these kinds of events," he predicted.
Hayden also warned that America is "stepping into the unknown" with passage of the USA Freedom Act Tuesday, which reverses security policy that's been in place since shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks.
"So what I hope is that we keep a careful watch on how good plan B is," he said.
The new law would require telephone companies to collect and store telephone "metadata" the same way that they do now for billing purposes. But instead of routinely feeding U.S. intelligence agencies such data, the companies would be required to turn it over only in response to a government request approved by the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
"It remains to be seen if the phone companies will keep the data, how long they will keep it, and how easy or difficult it will be for NSA to query it under these new circumstances," Hayden said, adding he hopes the intelligence community, once the new law is up and running, will give Congress and the public "a candid view."
On "the political level," he said, "we may want to deal more than the Iranians want to deal. At a tactical level … I fear we've gone from that old mantra where we used to say, no deal is better than a bad deal, to a circumstance now where any deal is better than no deal."
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