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WASHINGTON (AP) - Senator Rand Paul has ended his filibuster blocking Senate confirmation of President Barack Obama's CIA nominee, nearly 13 hours after he began.

Paul, a Kentucky Republican and tea party favorite, stopped his self-described filibuster early Thursday morning. Paul had been blocking confirmation of John Brennan to lead the CIA. GOP colleagues who were listening to Paul's closing statement applauded as he yielded the floor.

Paul, a critic of Obama's unmanned drone policy, started just before noon Wednesday by demanding the president or Attorney General Eric Holder issue a statement assuring the unmanned aircraft would not be used in the United States to kill terrorism suspects who are U.S. citizens.

The Obama administration has said the federal government has not conducted such operations inside U.S. borders and has no intention of doing so.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's choice to head the CIA faces a Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing just hours after lawmakers are expected to receive a classified report providing the rationale for drone strikes targeting Americans working with al-Qaida overseas.

The White House counterterrorism chief, John Brennan, is Obama's nominee to run the nation's spy agency. He helped manage the deadly drone program.

Brennan's confirmation hearing today sets the stage for a public airing of some of the most controversial programs in the covert war on al-Qaida, from the deadly drone strikes to the CIA's use of interrogation techniques like waterboarding during the George W. Bush administration.

The Senate committee's chairman, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, said the secret legal opinion about drone strikes would be provided to her committee by this morning.