Outside intelligence - Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA

Six months after stepping down as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), retired US Air Force General Michael Hayden continues to focus on areas of potential threats to national security, ranging from the porous border with Mexico to tracking suspected terrorists.

In particular, he is watching the possible development of a nexus between drug traffickers, arms dealers and potential terrorists in Mexico, the home of several violent and powerful criminal cartels. The goal of the union, he said, is to allow terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda to use well-established drug smuggling routes to illegally transport their operatives and weapons into the United States.