Former NSA Director Hayden: Snowden a 'Defector'

On Sunday, former director of the NSA and CIA retired Gen. Michael Hayden called NSA leaker Edward Snowden a “defector,” explaining that legally speaking, Snowden was not a “traitor.” He stated, “We used to have a word, for somebody who stole our secrets, who got the job to steal our secrets, and then he moved to a foreign country with those secrets and made them public. It wasn’t ‘whistleblower.’ It was ‘defector.’ And I actually think that’s a very good word for him.”

Hayden said that Obama would not be changing the NSA program in any operational way, stating, “frankly some steps to make Americans more comfortable will make Americans less safe.”