Why Mike Hayden's right for the CIA: because he can smell a rat.

A few years ago, when Steven Vardy began receiving cryptic e-mails from the descendants of exiled African leaders who wanted to transfer millions of dollars into an American bank account and offered a big cut of the proceeds, he turned to a former student for counsel.

"I asked him 'what do you think of this?'" said Mr. Vardy, a distinguished professor of history at Duquesne University. "At first I thought they were terrorists, trying to transfer money."

Mr. Vardy's former student, who happened to head the largest electronic spying agency in the world, not only smelled a rat, but knew the breed.

Don't worry, Gen. Michael Hayden told his old professor. "He told me he knew about it and they weren't dangerous. They were just people trying to make a little money out of me," Mr. Vardy said.

You don't say.