Trumps New CIA Pick, Gina Haspel, Ran a Laboratory for Torture

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EssenViews/Commentary @essenviews 33m33 minutes ago

Trump’s CIA Pick Gina Haspel Ran a Laboratory for Torture. And that history makes Haspel ‘unsuitable to serve as CIA director,’ a top Democratic senator says… via @thedailybeast

____Gina Haspel, whom under Pompeo became the agency’s deputy director, briefly ran the off-the-books prison in Thailand used as a torture laboratory for the earliest detained terrorism suspects. There, in 2002—including while Haspel ran the so-called black site—the man known as Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times; stuffed into a wooden box barely bigger than a coffin; had his body shackled in painful contorted positions; and had his head slammed into walls.

“If Ms. Haspel seeks to serve at the highest levels of U.S. intelligence, the government can no longer cover up disturbing facts from the past,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), a member of the intelligence committee who opposes her nomination, told The Daily Beast in a statement Tuesday.

“Ms. Haspel’s background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director. Her nomination must include total transparency about this background,” Wyden added.

___ Haspel drafted an instruction to CIA officers in the field to destroy videotapes of torturous interrogations at the site. Though the Justice Department later declined to bring charges, the destruction of the tapes was widely considered in human-rights circles to be a key moment in covering up the torture—and it prompted the Senate intelligence committee’s landmark 2014 investigation, which occurred amid the backdrop of the agency spying on the work product of the Senate investigators...

"Gina Haspel was a central figure in one of the most illegal and shameful chapters in modern American history. She was up to her eyeballs in torture: both in running a secret torture prison in Thailand, and carrying out an order to cover up torture crimes by destroying videotapes,” said Christopher Andrews, the deputy director of the ACLU’s Washington office.

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[workinclasszero]

1. I just read about this person

She will fit right in with Shitler.

[Barn Owl]

2. This is the only nomination

From the Trump administration I agree with!! I know that will not play well but please hear my reasoning!

She is not a politician like every other CIA Director in history was. She is actually from the operation side of the house and knows the situation on the ground and does not care about politics over her people on the ground.

This lady I will give a fair and honest chance to do good!!
She I think is direction the CIA needs to move, away from poliricians and to the operators on the ground!

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3. lolok, same things they said about Trump - even some Dems

...knowing what a rat he was, all of the evidence laid out in living color.

Same with this lady. Her abuses aren't even in dispute.

Being a decades-long career agent, she's less a leader, than someone who obsequiously follows orders. Perfect for this megalomaniac and his drive to destroy democracy as we know it.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. Pretty sure there are qualified candidates with operations experience who aren't torture apologists.

[jalan48]

6. She oversaw a torture program. What else do we need to know?

I think if she had been brought before the World Court in the Hague she would probably be in prison now.

[LanternWaste]

7. What specifically leads you to believe that?

"She I think is direction the CIA needs to move, away from poliricians (sic) and to the operators on the ground!"

What specifically leads you to believe that?

Calling someone a politician, in and of itself, is neither a pejorative nor a compliment, any more than calling someone a Xerox Copier Technician is.

Nor does her past career in operations ensure, or even validate in any way, the sentiment she cares more for people than politics. Indeed, that very same career illustrates that there are in fact, some people she cares so little about as to both manage and rationalize their torture.

[IronLionZion]

13. James Clapper said something similar

along with his expectation that she won't last long in that job and will be replaced with an unqualified Trump crony sooner or later

The public doesn't know much about her other than the torture. Maybe she's done good things that are still classified?

[IronLionZion]

20. That link doesn't work

[bigtree]

22. you're right

...just my own claptrap about Clapper.

Not worth much. Sorry for the broken link.

[ADX]

14. I agree...

Intelligence operations very often involve dirty, nasty, treacherous work and we need people who understand and accept that at the helm. This woman has been in the business for more than half her life, spent most of it in an operational capacity and knows what the fuck she's doing.

[Demsrule86]

5. Isn't she wanted in Europe for crimes against Humanity?

[former9thward]

17. Wanted by who?

This is similar to the posts claiming Bush and Cheney are wanted for "something" by "somebody". But when pressed no one comes up with an actual answer involving a legal authority.

[bigtree]

21. here

https://www.ecchr.eu/en/our_work/international-crimes-and-accountability/u-s-accountability/germany.html

Not clear if a warrant was actually issued.

[former9thward]

23. Yes, but this is like the rest of them.

Requests by non-governmental organizations. That are never acted on. It would be like DU requesting an arrest warrant. Nice, but no one would act on it.

[bigtree]

24. nice qualification

...'low likelihood of arrest for war crimes when traveling abroad.'

[Demsrule86]

25. If she goes to Europe and Bush also... they would most likely be arrested and they should be.

[former9thward]

26. No they would not be.

There are no warrants for either one by any legal jurisdiction. Laws matter...

[comradebillyboy]

8. And she's still better than Tom Cotton!

We dodged a bullet there.

[bigtree]

9. this is where we are. Hanging hope on a lesser authoritarian

...not knowing, of course, whether she's better than Tom Cotton.

[DeminPennswoods]

10. Nance and Price on MSNBC

gave the Nuremberg "just following orders" defense for her actions. I wasn't surprised since both are former CIA employees and I'd expect them to defend her, but she certainly doesn't get a pass from me nor should she get one from US Senators. She was responsible for and oversaw war crimes. She needs to go to The Hague to stand trial, not get a peachy promotion.

[bigtree]

11. good to see the initial pushback from Sen. Wyden

...many of the anti-torture folks still in the Senate to challenge her confirmation.

[Solly Mack]

12. and got away with her crimes

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15. shielded by a previous president's inaction on crimes outlined in the torture report

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/statement-attorney-general-eric-holder-closure-investigation-interrogation-certain-detainees

[maxrandb]

16. Mark my words

Dems won't make that mistake again.

Some of these Donnie Short Fingers fuckers are going to Federal "Pound me in the Ass" prison, as they said in Office Space.

[Solly Mack]

19. Yes.

We were a sick country before Trump was in office. He is yet another symptom of that sickness.

I think it's all related - what a person accepts...if you can accept torture and the lack of action against the guilty suggests acceptance of torture, as well as the "debates" about torture - showed an ability to overlook and accept the egregious, no matter how damaging...
(and for what? a "better" country? Snort)...I wasn't shocked by Trump's emergence or the actions since nor the actions it took to get him there.

To me, it's all related. It all shows an almost straight line progression of the sickness we've long been infected with as a country.