Correcting the Rewritten Record

The former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and Air Force general Michael Hayden is by all accounts a good man and a good officer. He has certainly done yeoman’s work since leaving government in defending controversial Bush administration interrogation and detainee policies. He didn’t have to say one word and speaking out has not benefited him personally in any way—quite the opposite—so he deserves the nation’s thanks on that score and many more.

Nonetheless, his Washington Post piece today on the simmering controversy over the intelligence community’s handling of the Syrian nuclear reactor at al-Kibar does not add up.