Being the first woman nominated to head the CIA will be overshadowed by her role in one of the darkest chapters of the intelligence agency in the use of torture to interrogate prisoners.
"I voted against Mr. Pompeo's nomination to be CIA director because he failed to express moral opposition to torture, but Ms. Haspel has done much worse," said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill, a veteran of the Iraq conflict.
"I voted against Mr. Pompeo's nomination to be CIA director because he failed to express moral opposition to torture, but Ms. Haspel has done much worse," said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill, a veteran of the Iraq conflict.
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| Gina Haspel |
"Not only did she directly supervise the torture of detainees, but she also participated in covering it up by helping to destroy the video evidence," Duckworth said. "Her reprehensible actions should disqualify her from having the privilege of serving the American people in government ever again, but apparently this president believes they merit a promotion."
Other Senate Intelligence Committee members reacted more mildly, raising concerns over Haspel’s background but indicating they would let her explain herself in a hearing. “Senator Harris takes her role in confirming a president’s cabinet very seriously,” said a spokesman for Sen. Kamala Harris, D-CA.
Other Senate Intelligence Committee members reacted more mildly, raising concerns over Haspel’s background but indicating they would let her explain herself in a hearing. “Senator Harris takes her role in confirming a president’s cabinet very seriously,” said a spokesman for Sen. Kamala Harris, D-CA.
“She plans to critically evaluate Ms. Haspel’s full record, including troubling press reports on her involvement with torture programs.”
Republican Senator John McCain, an ardent opponent of torture, said in a statement that he expects Haspel “to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA’s interrogation program during the confirmation process.” He called that program “desperately misguided” and said that “any nominee for Director of the CIA must pledge without reservation to uphold” the U.S. ban on enhanced interrogation techniques. Trump has said that torture “absolutely works.”
Haspel was in charge of CIA torture for three years, starting in 2002, reports the New Yorker. She ran the R.D.I. program, Rendition, Detention and Interrogation.
She ran a black site in Thailand where prisoners were often revived for more torture, stripped, placed in coffins, slammed against walls, drugged, and endured repeated water boarding.
Republican Senator John McCain, an ardent opponent of torture, said in a statement that he expects Haspel “to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA’s interrogation program during the confirmation process.” He called that program “desperately misguided” and said that “any nominee for Director of the CIA must pledge without reservation to uphold” the U.S. ban on enhanced interrogation techniques. Trump has said that torture “absolutely works.”
Haspel was in charge of CIA torture for three years, starting in 2002, reports the New Yorker. She ran the R.D.I. program, Rendition, Detention and Interrogation.
She ran a black site in Thailand where prisoners were often revived for more torture, stripped, placed in coffins, slammed against walls, drugged, and endured repeated water boarding.
She also carried out the orders to destroy the tapes of the prisoners being tortured.
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, a Berlin-based NGO, has called for Haspel's arrest for her role in the torture of detainees.
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, a Berlin-based NGO, has called for Haspel's arrest for her role in the torture of detainees.
Haspel spent most of her 33-year career at the CIA undercover. For her service, she was promoted to Deputy Director of the CIA early February.
CORRECTION: 8:30 a.m. March 16: Earlier versions of this blog attributed ProPublica, which reported in 2017 that Gina Haspel supervised the torture of Abu Zubaydah, has retracted its report. From the site:
Those assertions based on ProPublica's initial reporting have been removed from the Views From the Edge.
ProPublica says its original report that Haspel was involved in the destruction of video recordings depicting Zubaydah’s torture was correct, and that she did supervise the waterboarding of a suspect who was not Zubaydah.
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CORRECTION: 8:30 a.m. March 16: Earlier versions of this blog attributed ProPublica, which reported in 2017 that Gina Haspel supervised the torture of Abu Zubaydah, has retracted its report. From the site:
The story said that Haspel, a career CIA officer who President Trump has nominated to be the next director of central intelligence, oversaw the clandestine base where Zubaydah was subjected to waterboarding and other coercive interrogation methods that are widely seen as torture. The story also said she mocked the prisoner’s suffering in a private conversation. Neither of these assertions is correct and we retract them. It is now clear that Haspel did not take charge of the base until after the interrogation of Zubaydah ended.ProPublica writes that it made errors determining who was being referred to as “chief of base” in “declassified agency cables and CIA-reviewed books which referred to the official overseeing Zubaydah’s interrogation at a secret prison in Thailand.”
Those assertions based on ProPublica's initial reporting have been removed from the Views From the Edge.
ProPublica says its original report that Haspel was involved in the destruction of video recordings depicting Zubaydah’s torture was correct, and that she did supervise the waterboarding of a suspect who was not Zubaydah.
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