Lopsided vote in US Senate to confirm NSA spy chief to head CIA

As former head of the National Security Agency (NSA), Hayden was the principal architect of the recently exposed spying program initiated shortly after 9/11, under which the NSA has been secretly, without court warrants, tracking the telephone calls of over 200 million Americans. As reported by USA Today earlier this month, the dragnet has amassed a huge database of telephone records handed over to the NSA by the largest US telecommunications companies.

Last December, the New York Times reported on another NSA program to secretly eavesdrop on the phone calls of US citizens without a warrant. Both of these programs, put into operation under Hayden’s watch, had been hidden from the American people for more than four years. They stand in flagrant violation of constitutional safeguards against government invasions of privacy as well as federal laws governing telecommunications and domestic surveillance.

Democratic leaders indicated from the start of the confirmation process that they would not seek to block Hayden’s nomination. A 12-3 vote on the Senate Intelligence Committee last Tuesday set the stage for Friday’s easy confirmation by the full Senate. Four Democrats joined the eight Republicans on the committee to recommend Hayden’s approval. (See “Democrats ensure confirmation of NSA spy chief to head CIA”)

The vote to confirm Hayden shows the support among leading Democrats for the buildup of police-state measures against the US population. It underscores the existence of a consensus within the American ruling elite as a whole for the assault on democratic rights being pursued by Bush administration in the name of the “war on terror.”

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/may2006/hayd-m29.shtml