Stephen F. Hayes

Stephen F. Hayes is a columnist for The Weekly Standard, a prominent American conservative magazine. Hayes has been selected as the official biographer for Vice President Richard Cheney.

Before joining The Weekly Standard, Hayes was a senior writer for National Journal's Hotline. He also served for six years as Director of the Institute on Political Journalism at Georgetown University. His work has appeared in the New York Post, Washington Times, Salon.com, National Review, and Reason. He has been a commentator on CNN, The McLaughlin Group, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNBC, and C-SPAN.

A graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and DePauw University, Hayes was born and raised in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin in suburban Milwaukee County. He is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

Writings and political views

Foriegn policy writings

David Boaz called Hayes a "loyal amanuensis" of the Bush-Cheney administration. Hayes disputes this characterization, noting that he has "been a regular critic of the Bush administration" on issues such as overspending and North Korea.

He is well known for his writings postulating an operational relationship between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. He wrote, for example, "there can no longer be any serious argument about whether Saddam Hussein's Iraq worked with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda to plot against Americans." Hayes authored a book on this subject entitled: The Connection: How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein has Endangered America [ISBN 0-06-074673-4]. His major source for these claims was a leaked memo from Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith to the U.S. Congress on 27 October 2003.

Former head of the Middle East section of the DIA W. Patrick Lang told the Washington Post that the Weekly Standard article which published Feith's memo "is a listing of a mass of unconfirmed reports, many of which themselves indicate that the two groups continued to try to establish some sort of relationship. If they had such a productive relationship, why did they have to keep trying?" And, according to the Washington Post, "another former senior intelligence official said the memo is not an intelligence product but rather 'data points ... among the millions of holdings of the intelligence agencies, many of which are simply not thought likely to be true.'"

In a June 2, 2004 interview with writer Kathryn Jean Lopez, Hayes stated that his book's argument was backed up by a variety of public statements by people connected with the Defense Department, particularly by Democratic Party senior figures. He referenced Indiana Senator Evan Bayh's description of Iraq and al Qaeda as in a relationship of "mutual exploitation" and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman's comment that "There are extensive contacts between Saddam Hussein's government and al Qaeda." Hayes told Lopez, "Bin Laden has dissed Saddam several times. And I would certainly never argue that they were buddies. It was an on-again, off-again relationship based... on mutual exploitation and a common enemy." He said that he broadly accepted the Feith report, despite the inclusion of "old" and "raw" pieces of intelligence, because "most of the report tracks with what Tenet has said publicly" (the CIA director George Tenet).

Bill Moyers dispute

Hayes also gained some attention with a piece attacking former PBS host Bill Moyers whom he claims appeared on a television show with "Cornel West, O.J. Simpson attorney Alan Dershowitz, and Vagina Monologues playwright Eve Ensler." Bill Moyers replied in a letter to the editor, "He gets it right only once. I have never met or interviewed Alan Dershowitz or Eve Ensler." Moyers summarized the piece famously as "replete with willful misrepresentation, deceitful juxtaposition, and outright error, with a little hypocrisy thrown in for flavor."

Stephen F. Hayes replied:

"When I interviewed him, Moyers didn't deny, as he does now, that I was able to substantiate my source's gibe. Instead, he sought to draw a distinction between what he says on the air and the politically partisan red meat he serves up on the lecture circuit. In fact, when I asked him about the LBJ speech, he said "That's fair game, you've got it on the record there." Then he compared himself to conservative eminence and longtime Firing Line host William F. Buckley. "Bill Buckley used to make speeches all the time to Republicans and conservative audiences, even while he was conducting the longest-running show in PBS history. But did you find those things he said in his speeches in his show? Not necessarily." So much for what I "didn't" and "couldn't" substantiate."

Hayes further noted that Ensler and Dershowitz did appear on the September 20, 2001, PBS show with Moyers, and that his language came directly from a PBS press release about the program.

Published work

Bibliography

• Hayes, Stephen (2005). The Brain: Paul Wolfowitz and the Making of the Bush Doctrine. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060723467.
• Hayes, Stephen (2004). The Connection: How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein has Endangered America. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060746734.
• Hayes, Stephen (2007). Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060723467.

External links

• "The Mother of All Connections" by Stephen F Hayes The Weekly Standard July 18, 2005