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THE US SENATE has confirmed Gina Haspel as the next CIA director, despite deep reservations among some lawmakers that her involvement in the torture of Al-Qaeda detainees in the early 2000s was a red flag.
President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency passed with a handful of opposition Democrats bucking their party and supporting the controversial Haspel’s nomination, while others warned the vote would signal the nation’s position on torture.
The 61-year-old Haspel, a Russia specialist who spent her career in the clandestine service, becomes the first woman to lead the agency, taking over from Mike Pompeo, whom Trump recently made his secretary of state.
Yesterday Haspel’s nomination was approved by the US Senate Intelligence Committee.
Republican Senator John McCain, who was tortured during years spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, led a push to reject Haspel after she refused to describe the interrogation methods used after the 9/11 attacks as “immoral.”
But she reiterated her opposition to the practice in a letter sent earlier this week to the committee’s senior Democrat, Mark Warner, persuading him to endorse her.
“With the benefit of hindsight and my experience as a senior agency leader, the enhanced interrogation program is not one the CIA should have undertaken,” she told Warner in the letter dated Monday.
Out of the shadows
After a lifetime spent in the clandestine service, almost nothing was known about Haspel, even what she looked like, until a sketchy official biography and a few photographs were released in the last two months.
She joined the CIA in 1985, a few years after graduating from a Kentucky university where she studied languages and journalism.
She joined the agency’s Counterterrorism Center on 11 September, 2001, the day when Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked and crashed four US airliners, leaving almost 3,000 dead.
It was that period, from 2001 to 2005, that has cast a shadow both on the CIA and Haspel’s resume.
Former CIA officials say Haspel oversaw a secret prison in Thailand run by the agency where Al-Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were water-boarded.
She has won praise from some for following orders; others criticise her for not refusing to do so. In her Senate confirmation hearing, she said agents were working under orders they understood were legal.
“We had been charged with making sure the country wasn’t attacked again,” she said.
Her nomination had strong support from inside the agency and across the intelligence community, where even strong opponents of Trump backed her.
“Gina Haspel is precisely the kind of truth teller you want in the room when important decisions are being made,” said former CIA director Michael Hayden.
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Show me a CIA director not involved in torture and I’ll show you a Kilkenny football Allstar
@Cathal Flood: ciaran
@DrRexButts: ciaran KILKENNY
@DrRexButts: Got me…so I will use Ciaran as an answer, thanks bmul.
Still looking for someone who worked in the Whitehouse and some who wore the black and amber !
2,996 people went to work on a beautiful Tuesday morning, never to return home to their spouses, mothers, fathers, and children many jumping to their deaths. All because of the actions of a few individuals. One these people was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The uncomfortable feeling of Waterboarding (the illusion of drowning) can never be compared to the pain and suffering he inflicted upon the human race.
I
@Daniel Carson: Let’s just dispense with morality altogether, then, shall we?
It has to be a matter of right against wrong; it can’t just be a matter of ‘us’ against ‘them’. Torture is barbaric.
@Brendan O’Brien: get a life..if a bit of waterboarding or sleep deprivation get Intel that saves innocent lives so be it.
@Frank Dubogovik: Torture doesn’t work, except in the imagination of sadists and fools.
@Frank Dubogovik: bit of sleep deprivation got confessions from the Guildford four
@Daniel Carson: Was there a point to it? was it revenge? was it a desire for information? would information obtained in this way be useful? How do they know he was involved in all the things you list? no court of law, no public hearings, all done in secret – why hide it all? lots of unanswered questions from the US head of terror tactics
@Brendan O’Brien:
1. Not torture. Just provides the illusion of drowning.
2. It worked. US received legitimate intelligence from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
@Austin Rock: There was no torture don’t you understand that? Simply an illusion of drowning. Pity he didn’t get worse.
@Daniel Carson: You clearly don’t understand what torture means.
Persistent illusion of drowning – Not torture? Light must bend around you if you are that dense.
No one was beheaded, crucified or torched in a cage. The U.S. does not use torture but we all know who does.
@Joe Caulfield: so everyone was wrong ? Why would they not do it on us soil ?
@Joe Caulfield: we all know? the secret service doesnt? are u 4real?
@bmul: Provide your real name and face and I will respond accordingly.
@gregory: Provide your real name and face and I will respond accordingly.
@DrRexButts: Provide your real name and face and I will respond accordingly.
@Joe Caulfield: didn’t no you set the rules
@Joe Caulfield: My name and face.(most of it anyways).. But I’ve read lots of your comments elsewhere on the journal and either you just spend time trolling or you should get help
@Joe Caulfield: OK go ahead tell us?
@Cathal Flood; I have never seen any of your comments before but based on the above it sounds like your the one who’s trolling.
@Austin Rock: ?
@Joe Caulfield: She admitted her involvement in black suits and torture, so saying the US does not use torture is incorrect. In fact it’s been proven more than once they do.
@Joe Caulfield: no Joe. Empty vessels make nose noise and you make alot
Defamation acts are pretty severe, hope journal can back up the headline
@techman: she admitted it
@techman: she was in charge and it was torture !
@bmul: I try not slander you use this language when debating politics but you are disusting
@bmul: I try not slander you use this language when debating politics but you are grotesque human being, sympathizing with terrorist.
@Daniel Carson: what are you on about I stated 2 facts
@Daniel Carson: please point out where I sympathize with terrorists
@Daniel Carson: LOL – You are about 16 Years old lad – wait until you at least grow up and see a bit of the world, experience it, then come back and debate politics,
you haven`t a clue young fella,
@techman: Well she apologised but CIA are brill at cover ups
@Daniel Carson: A Vote No profile pic and no grammar game? What a surprise!!
Well at least this will give torture that feminine touch .
@Clinton Baptiste: I also hope there’s no gender pay disparity .
@Clinton Baptiste: She may be gay BTW why the Journal feels the need to warn me “Likely to be perceived as toxic7.0/10″
@Austin Rock: My last comment dropped by 2 *toxic points* just by adding a full stop .
Is the toxic meter for everyone , or only a select few .
Isn’t there an EU wide arrest warrant for her if she sets foot on EU ground???
she’s a target now. big mistake after a long clandestine career..
The Journal. A cesspool of vile terrorist sympathizers
@Daniel Carson: you just said hopefully she becomes president and everyone else supports terrorists? Grow up.
@Daniel Carson: you are a family fool
Looks like Podge
@Brian Casey: More like Rodge.
@Brian Casey: Her and Trump , Podge and Rodge !
This may seem like a long shot, but I’m calling it for the record, potential future US Presidential candidate…
@David Van-Standen: Hopefully
She looks at least 71 not 61, must be all the enclosed spaces.
have your say