My first thoughts..Why, and why NOW?
If the declassification depends on a demand and not on a schedule, the timing could be gamed. But the uproar about the more recent spying has pretty well had its 15 minutes of fame, the public has already yawned, so the Nat’l Security Archive folks would seem a bit slow on the draw.
Michael Hayden is NOT a stupid man. He presided over a major reorganiation and reorientation of NSA as it moved from the cold war mentality where Russia was the major target into the new reality of the worldwide war on terror. Given the absence of a serious terrorist attack between 9/11 and 2005 (when he left NSA), I think he must have been doing something right.
I strongly suspect that is an attempt to “encourage” some of the people involved to retire, and to send a message to the rest of the agency that they better toe the line are risk having their rogue actions exposed at some point in time.
I also supect the General has intelligence that a major war in the middle east is imminent; once that happens, this will quickly become “old news”.