Glenn Greenwald to Face Off Against Former NSA Chief Michael Hayden

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Journalist Glenn Greenwald (left) will engage in a debate with former NSA director Michael Hayden on Friday.

Image: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images, Chuck France/Associated Press/Associated Press

By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai2014-05-02 22:00:56 UTC

Glenn Greenwald, one of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who worked with Edward Snowden to break the NSA leaks stories, will debate former NSA director Michael Hayden about state surveillance in person in Toronto, Canada, on Friday. Hayden preceded Keith Alexander, who stepped down from the position at the end of March, as director of the National Security Agency.

Greenwald will team up with Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian in a two-on-two debate with Hayden and Alan Dershowitz, a prominent lawyer and a professor at Harvard Law School. The debate will begin at 7 p.m. ET (see below for live stream).

See also: This Is How the NSA Is Trying to Win Over the Media

In the past, Dershowitz has harshly attacked Greenwald, with comments that have bordered on personal.

"He doesn’t like America, he doesn’t like Western democracy, he’s never met a terrorist he didn’t like," Dershowitz said during an appearance on CNN in December 2013. "So he’s a very far-left ideologue that uses this to service his political agenda, not simply to reveal information in a neutral way."

Minutes after the comments were brought to Greenwald's attention on Twitter, he dismissed them, saying Dershowitz "excels at discrediting himself."

Hayden has also repeatedly criticized Greenwald, saying he deserves to be jailed and calling him a "co-conspirator" in a CNN op-ed in July 2013. His words were later echoed by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, when he referred to journalists working with Snowden as his "accomplices."

Greenwald doesn't hide his feelings for Dershowitz and Hayden, either.

"I consider [them] two of the most pernicious human beings on the planet. I find them morally offensive," he told The Globe and Mail . "There’s an element of hypocrisy to being in the same room with them, treating them as if I have outward respect, because I don’t."

The debate is hosted by Munk Debates, a Canadian charitable initiative established by the Aurea Foundation.

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Topics: edward snowden, glenn greenwald, Media, Michael Hayden, NSA, privacy, surveillance, U.S., US & World, World