Man Live-Tweets as Ex-NSA Boss Bashes Obama

Let this one sink in, America: The guy who used to run the National Security Agency is such a careful, clever operative that he gives his secret phone conversations in public. Michael Hayden gave an "on background" interview yesterday while riding the train from New York to Washington, DC, unaware that former MoveOn.org director Tom Matzzie was sitting in front of him—and tweeting about the whole thing, Think Progress reports. Matzzie tweeted that Hayden was "bashing" the Obama administration, and that he insisted on being referred to as a "former senior administration official."

In another tweet, he said that Hayden "was bragging about rendition and black sites." Hayden eventually got a call alerting him that he was being outed, and confronted Matzzie. "Would you like a real interview?" he asked. "I'm not a reporter," Matzzie replied. "Everybody's a reporter," Hayden responded. They chatted for a bit about the Fourth Amendment, then posed for this photo. But later, Hayden told the Washington Post that the tweets were "bulls---," that Matzzie "got it terribly wrong," and that he "didn't criticize the president." Matzzie tweeted this rejoinder today: "People don't go 'on background' … in order to compliment somebody." (More Michael Hayden stories.)