Michael Hayden, who served in turn as director of the National Security Agency (NSA), principal deputy director of National Intelligence, and director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1999 through 2009, elicited laughs and a loud jeer of “No you’re not!” in response to his assertion Friday morning during a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) debate that he is an “unrelenting libertarian.”

It is hard to imagine a more preposterous assertion from Hayden who defends the United States government’s extensive torture program, many of the revolting details of which were recently revealed in a partially released Senate Intelligence Committee report, and oversaw the NSA mass spying program. Libertarians, of course, oppose such violations of individual rights.

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