Central Intelligence Agency nominee offered to withdraw over interrogation program

May 09 12:35 2018

King, who caucuses with the Democrats, says he had a good private meeting with Haspel to discuss her nomination – but has further questions for her.

There is evidence that Haspel was Chief of Base at Detention Site Green in late 2002 when ‘Abd al-Nashiri was subjected to the torture technique known as “waterboarding” – mock execution via interrupted drowning – and when he and fellow detainee Abu Zubaydah were subjected to enforced disappearance there. Waterboarding. Sleep deprivation. Confinement to unimaginably small spaces.

In 2005, Haspel drafted a cable, ultimately issued by her boss, ordering the destruction of almost 100 videotapes of the interrogation sessions.

According to a newly declassified CIA disciplinary review (“the Morell review”), a Justice Department criminal investigation identified two CIA officers it considered to be “directly involved” in a 2005 decision to destroy interrogation videotapes depicting torture at a CIA detention site three years earlier.

A WOMAN OF INTEGRITY: Current and former intelligence officials have attested that Haspel is “unfailingly honest”, “committed to the rule of law”, “professional”, and has a “high moral character”.

For lawmakers on the fence, Haspel’s willingness to answer questions about her past will be a major factor in whether she will be able to clinch Democratic votes.

Gina Haspel, a 33-year veteran of the CIA, is the first woman to be nominated to head the Agency, where she’s served as deputy director since February. And if Haspel wins, we will have the Democrats to thank for it.

Whether or not Haspel will be confirmed to head the Central Intelligence Agency remains unclear.

Former Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI): Haspel’s “commitment to the mission and rule of law are unparalleled”.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is backing the Senate intelligence panel’s Democrats prior to Wednesday’s hearing on whether to confirm the longtime CIA agent to lead the organization. She is facing tough questions from United States lawmakers on her stance on torture ahead of her confirmation hearing for the post of CIA Director.

Enforced disappearance has been recognized as a crime under worldwide law since the judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1946.

“While Gina has spent most of her career on the operations side of the intelligence business, the officials who strongly support her nomination come from all disciplines, to include analysis, administration, and technology”.

The run-up to today’s hearing has seen a concerted campaign within the corporate media to promote Haspel’s nomination. John Cornyn of Texas, lamented how Haspel’s nomination fueled a “toxic political environment”.

Gina Haspel, now the spy agency’s acting director, also told her Senate confirmation hearing she would not carry out any order from Trump that she found morally objectionable.

“Her confirmation is going to be interpreted not just as sweeping it under the rug”, he said Tuesday on a conference call organized by Human Rights First. “But it is not part of our future”, he wrote.

We all of us awoke on September 12 to a changed world. That comparison is apt only in that she could and should face hard questioning from the Senate, as Trump’s one-time nominee to lead the Veterans Administration would have. But she’s a Russian Federation expert.

Haspel’s leadership experience has left many in the GOP leadership confident she’ll get the job. He goes on to write that she collaborated closely with the British agency in staging the global provocation over unsubstantiated allegations of Russia’s involvement in the alleged poisoning of the ex-Russian-British double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England in March.

I have found no fault with the performance of Ms. Haspel. “Trump went along, in the toughest action against Russian Federation of his presidency”. For me, there is no better example of implementing lessons learned than what the agency took away from that program.

Olivier Douliery- Pool via CNP  Newscom

Central Intelligence Agency nominee offered to withdraw over interrogation program
 
 
  Categories: