Gina Haspel is the Right Spook at the Right Time for the Job of CIA Director

Flopping Aces ^ | 05-09-18 | Wordsmith

[Starman417]

“And if they don’t want to do, that’s fine. If they do want to do,
then I will work toward that end. I want to do everything within the bounds of what you’re allowed to do legally.
But do I feel it works? Absolutely, I feel it works,” - President Trump

Gina Haspel is probably in for a fight. But I believe she will achieve confirmation. Why? Because after all the partisan hysteria is said and done, she appears to be the most qualified candidate to lead the CIA forward; and the one who really should have the most bipartisan appeal.

For the Republican base:

She reportedly gets along well with Trump.

She was "tough on terror", as President Trump might Tweet. Simply by virtue of the fact that she had a hand of involvement in the CIA RDI program by having been in charge of Detention Green Site in Thailand at some point after Zubaydah had EITs approved and applied to him. No one (yet) knows the extent, degree, and manner in which she had involvement. For the torture alarmists with their fevered imaginations though, she personally waterboarded hundreds and oversaw and ordered torture and the illegal destruction of 94 CIA torture porn tapes. This is delusional. But those are the kind of hyperbolic and hysteria-driven comments that are being fueled by the critics of CIA "torture". And a number of journalists writing articles who haven't been paying attention and doing due diligence of fair and accurate reporting are still citing bad/wrongful information that spread through the media, even though ProPublica had made retractions over a month ago.

But having been involved in the CIA program puts her at the business-end tip of the spear; and so even if she wasn't an interrogator herself, her involvement is a plus for pro-GWoT conservatives who appreciate that America is able to sleep peaceably at night because rough....er....persons stand at the ready to do CIA swim lessons on its behalf.

For Democrats:

She's a woman.  Do they not like pushing women to be in charge?  Oh, right...just not conservative women.  The thing is, her politics are unknown.  Mike Morell has said that if he had to hazard a guess, even he couldn't determine which way she leans, politically.

Diane Feinstein- the architect of the 2014 highly partisan, ideologically-agenda-driven, selectively cherry-picked, half-truth-telling SSCI Study on the CIA RDI program- said of Haspel when Trump announced her nomination,

"To the best of my knowledge she has been a good deputy director."

Word is that she will testify at her confirmation hearing today that she will not be bringing back CIA swim lessons:

During her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, President Trump's pick to lead the CIA, Gina Haspel, plans on testifying that she will not reinstate waterboarding as a means of gathering intelligence.

Well, duh.  It's a moot issue.  It's been dead since 2006 (Mike Hayden as acting CIA Director reviewed the program over the summer of 2006 at a time when the program had self-suspended itself due to rising uncertainty in the wake of public scrutiny and changing legislation such as the 2005 DTA, 2006 MCA, and Rumsfeld v. Hamdan, bringing into question current legality) when Mike Hayden deemed the CIA interrogation program important enough that he restarted it, minus 2 or 3 of the original 13 DoJ-approved EITs.  This included waterboarding.  He decided it was too controversial and a political albatross; and no longer necessary (EITs in general were less commonly needed by 2006, when over half of what we learned about al Qaeda came out of the interrogation of high value terrorists.  In the early two years after 9/11, we knew very little about how al Qaeda worked- its financing, operatives, courier system, training, objectives, future plots, etc.  This at a time when there was a great deal of intell buzz regarding a second wave of attacks coming).  Only 3 HVD were ever even waterboarded:

Zubaydah, 83 pours/splashes.

al-Nashiri 3 times (it's unclear to me if this is 3 sessions or 3 pours).

KSM, 183 pours/splashes over apparently 15 sessions (5 sessions by KSM's account).   KSM proved to be resilient against CIA waterboarding.  He even figured out the limitations and time constraints that CIA interrogators operated under and would count off the seconds on his fingers.

KSM was the last to be waterboarded in March or April of 2003.  2003!!!!

All of this political brouhaha and moral posturing over 3 HVD, less than 2 years removed from 9/11, and over 15 years ago! (Issue of waterboarding and black sites first creeped into the public consciousness in 2005, after a WaPo issue broke rumors).  It's beating the ghost of a dead horse.

Incidentally,

This week, he [KSM] asked a military judge at Guantánamo Bay for permission to share six paragraphs of information about Ms. Haspel with the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Nothing quite like giving the mastermind of 9/11 a public platform to speak truth to power, right?  [/sarcasm]

From the same link:

“She has indicated to the senators she has met with, and will reaffirm tomorrow, her commitment never to restart such a C.I.A. detention and interrogation program,” he said on Tuesday. “She remains fully committed to the U.S. laws and Army Field Manuals that govern interrogation — the legal framework in place today.”

And that's to be expected.

This is not much different than how John Brennan had walked back his views on the CIA interrogation program when he was being confirmed by the Senate Intelligence Committee.  Being the #4 guy at the CIA during the height of EIT usage, I don't recall this level of opposition to his nomination prior to his hearing than Haspel has experienced, having served in a much lower position on the CIA totem pole at the time.  Why so much scaremongering and scrutiny?  Oh, yeah....Trump bad.  Obama good.  Politics and partisanship as usual.

Jack Devine:

“I mean, really. Much of the commentary about Gina is a distortion of her role at the time,” says CIA veteran Jack Devine, pointing out that she was not the “architect” of the Enhanced Interrogation program.

“At that point, she would have been equivalent to a major in the army, not a lieutenant colonel or one-star general, let alone a five-star general.”

John Yoo explaining how the legality issue wasn't in Haspel's paygrade, for those who criticize her for "just following orders".

[rktman]

So, how come all the opposition by the assclowns that are always whining about glass ceilings and women’s rights? Oh, that only applies to liberal women. Conservatives need not apply.

[bigbob]

Since we can’t have Dr. Irene Kennedy, I want Gina Haspel!

[Lopeover]

Feinstein is the real witch that deserves a bucket of water thrown on her!

[4Runner]

Just listened in to Haspel’s testimony on the Hill this morning. Questioned by Senator Mark Warner who asked her if the President gave an order for the CIA to act illegally would she obey the order?

Haspel said she would not, that the CIA is held to a much higher moral standard because we are the United States and we already have laws prohibiting torture and she would not allow the agency to act immorally for ANY reason.

Earth to Gina—the rest of the world does NOT play by Marquis of Queensbury rules. You need a history lesson!

This is the “same old same old” restrictive leftist Democrat rules of engagement which have hamstrung our military for years since Vietnam and have endangered the lives of our military forcing it to play nicey nicey when faced with the demonic insanity all around us.

Anyone remember the “stand down” order which was given by State or CIA to personnel at Benghazi by someone in DC? Did we ever identify the POS who gave that order? And how many died because of it?

She wants the job so bad she’d sell her Momma and kneel before the treasonous and seditious U.S. Senate just to get it.

This woman is a joke.

I don’t get what the White House saw in her that it raced out in the dead of night to PERSUADE her at the last minute to accept the nomination—after she claimed she didn’t want it.

(Okay, go ahead and flame away.)