Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said Tuesday that President Donald Trump's directive to begin extreme vetting was a "natural reaction" to the New York City terror attack that killed eight people and injured as many as a dozen others.
"It may have more political content than strategic content," Hayden, who also headed the NSA, told Anderson Cooper on CNN.
"What we're going to learn about this guy, and warnings of future people like this, is far more likely to come from local communities — and in this case, it means local Islamic communities."
Trump tweeted late Tuesday that he had directed the Homeland Security Department to implement extreme vetting for people seeking visas to enter the United States.
The suspect in the attack, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, 29, reportedly lived in Paterson, New Jersey, which has a large Islamic population.
He was arrested with a license that had an address in Tampa, Florida, and Saipov moved to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010, according to news reports.
Hayden underscored the importance of enlisting Islamic communities in the fight against terrorism.
"We need to be careful with regard to our national policies that we don't alienate these very communities on whom we're going to have to depend for the key intelligence we need."
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