WASHINGTON, May 22 (UPI) -- Stephen Kappes and Sen. Arlen Specter will be crucial to Gen. Michael Hayden's success at the CIA.
If the four star U.S. Air Force general wins the backing of Senate Intelligence Committee members, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., the leading Republican critic of the domestic surveillance program that Hayden, as director of the National Security Agency, helped to create; and Stephen Kappes, a veteran CIA officer beloved by the career intelligence establishment, will be crucial to his success as the next director of the CIA, National Journal said Friday.
Hayden was quizzed in his confirmation hearings last week over a front-page story in USA Today reporting that telecommunications companies helped the NSA build a massive database of Americans' phone calls.
However, the article came as no surprise to many in Congress, several congressional aides told National Journal, because much of it had been reported months earlier by other news organizations.
"Certainly, no one was shocked" to read that phone companies were giving call data to the NSA, one Senate aide told the journal. The USA Today article created a new opportunity to grill the administration for details, but Hayden "was going to be asked questions about the program anyway," one senior Democratic staffer told National Journal.
No matter how hot the confirmation hearing, it seemed unlikely that any member of the Intelligence Committee would keep Hayden's nomination from a full Senate vote, the senior Democratic aide said.
Indeed, Democrats may not have to try to block Hayden; Specter has done most of the dirty work for those in both parties who either oppose warrantless eavesdropping altogether or who want the administration to come clean on how expansive the surveillance program really is, the report said.
