(CNN) -- On a hot summer day in early August, 2008, the secure Red Switch phone in my office at CIA was lighting up with calls from National Security Adviser Steve Hadley. The Russian Army had invaded the Republic of Georgia in the Caucasus mountain region. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was frantic about his country's safety and desperate for information on Russian forces and Russia's intent. I promised Steve some answers, hung up the phone and walked to my outer office to direct my executive assistants to "get our Georgia people up here right away." As they busily dialed phones and typed e-mails, I remember turning to my chief of staff and only half jokingly asking him, "We've got Georgia people, right?"
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Ex-CIA chief says some are urging CIA to get out of targeting terrorists
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He says the agency had to broaden its role after U.S. was attacked on 9/11
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Hayden says CIA also has a key role in analyzing world threats
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He says agency needs to fulfill roles of targeting and analysis
Some are now calling these actions a distortion of @placeholder intelligence, but none of these steps was inappropriate for the circumstances in which we found ourselves after 9/11.