Free Republic

A former Fox News military analyst will not be booked on Fox Business again after saying that torture “worked” on Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). The network will not book Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney again, a spokesperson confirmed to The Hill. McInerney made the comment during an appearance on Fox Business to discuss President Trump’s CIA director nominee Gina Haspel, who McCain has fiercely opposed over her work at a CIA black site prison. "Sen. John McCain said he's not going to endorse Haspel also in part because she believes in torture, that she thinks it works, even though she laid...

Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) has announced he will support President Trump’s pick to lead the CIA, Gina Haspel, increasing her chances of being confirmed. Donnelly said in a statement Saturday he believes that Haspel “has learned from the past, and that the CIA under her leadership can help our country confront serious international threats and challenges.” The Indiana Democrat also pointed to Haspel's backing from former CIA directors John Brennan, Michael Hayden and Leon Panetta in explaining his support for her. Donnelly is the second Democrat to endorse Haspel’s nomination, joining Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who backed her earlier this...

On Thursday morning, a White House aide named Kelly Sadler joked about Arizona Sen. John McCain's opposition to CIA nominee Gina Haspel by noting that "he's dying anyway." It was the latest in a series of increasingly nasty comments about McCain: Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) called it "ridiculous" that McCain wasn't planning to invite President Donald Trump to his funeral while a retired general on Fox News on Thursday referred to a debunked conspiracy theory that McCain had informed on his comrades while a prisoner of war during Vietnam. There's no disputing the fact that McCain has terminal brain cancer...

Gina Haspel, President TrumpÂ’s nominee for Central Intelligence Agency Director, has earned the support of one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), but her nomination process is far from finished. And her confirmation is not yet certain. ItÂ’s quite possible that other red state Democrats who will be fighting for their political lives this season will follow suit. In the meantime, we have to choke on the bipartisan hypocrisy over her nomination. Haspel has had a lengthy and honorable career as an intelligence operative and official. SheÂ’s spent over thirty years at the CIA. SheÂ’s beyond qualified to lead the agency....

According to two White House sources, the staffer, Kelly Sadler, said of McCain, "It doesn't matter, he's dying anyway." White House sources said the joke at first elicited some nervous snickers. Afterward, though, the sources said many spoke to each other about being surprised by the "tasteless" remark. I believe Gina Haspel is a patriot who loves our country & has devoted her professional life to its service & defense. However, her role in overseeing the use of torture is disturbing & her refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality is disqualifying. https://t.co/ocDtdqU2Sx — John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) May 10, 2018 Sadler's comments...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney told Fox Business Thursday that he thinks the CIA should restart and improve on post 9/11-era enhanced interrogation programs. “If it were my call, I would not discontinue those programs. I'd have them active and ready to go,” he said. “And I'd go back and study them and learn." Cheney commented on the matter following a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Wednesday in which Trump’s nominee for CIA Director, Gina Haspel, said she would not have the CIA return to such programs. "Having served in that tumultuous time,” Haspel said of the post-9/11 techniques. “I can...

Washington (CNN)South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham announced Thursday he would vote "yes" for Gina Haspel to be CIA director, bucking the request of one of his closest friends in Congress, Sen. John McCain, who opposes Haspel's nomination. "I intend to support Gina Haspel to serve as the first female Director of the CIA," Graham said in his statement. "Ms. Haspel has rejected the interrogation policies of the past. She is fully committed to following the law that prevents future abuses. This law, among others, includes the Detainee Treatment Act which I helped author. Gina Haspel should be confirmed as...

During a discussion with host Charles Payne on Fox Business Network, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney was asked to opine on the criticism faced by Gina Haspel, who was grilled on Wednesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee in her pursuit of confirmation for the top job at the CIA. Having played a role in the CIA’s interrogation/torture program during the 2000s, Haspel waffled a bit as Democratic senators pushed her on the morality of the methods, which are no longer in force. McInerney was riding with Trump on this one: “It’s very simple to me, Charles. If we...

Simple no brainer here, any Senator that votes against the confirmation of Ms. Gina Haspel to head the CIA, belongs in GITMO for they are traitors and turncoats to the USA and the American people. I have notified both my Senators, Rubio & Nelson that they better vote for Haspel or I will do all I can to work to get them defeated. Rubio is no problem, he is a solid yes. Nelson is on the fence, but, he is frightened of losing his seat to Rick Scott (He will), so Nelson will indeed cast a yes vote to confirm...

American politics has become so toxic, so corrupt and so single-mindedly partisan on the part of the Democrats, as to border on treason It’s outrageous that the Democrats are attempting to enlist the assistance of Khalid Sheik Mohammed to attempt to block the confirmation of Gina Haspel, a 30-year career CIA agent, as Director of the CIA. It’s even more outrageous that the Senate Intelligence Committee would consider a submission by the mastermind of the 9/11 outrage that resulted in the death of 3,000+ Americans. Mohammed has asked a military judge at the Guantanamo Bay military prison yesterday to forward...

Who could have guessed that Joe Manchin would be the first Democrat to flip and support Gina Haspel? Come on, man. Manchin was practically sending up semaphores even before making this announcement: “I have found Gina Haspel to be a person of great character,” Manchin said in a statement. “Over her 33 year career as a CIA operations officer, she has worked in some of the most dangerous corners of our world and I have the utmost respect for the sacrifices she has made for our country. She has earned the trust of her colleagues in the intelligence community...

President Trump's pick to lead the CIA, Gina Haspel, was adamant throughout her confirmation hearing on Wednesday that she would not restart previous "enhanced interrogation" techniques used by the Agency in the aftermath of the attacks on 9/11. But in questioning from various senators, Haspel would not explicitly say if those past techniques were immoral or wrong. "My parents gave me a moral compass, I would never ever take CIA back to an interrogation program," she told the committee. Under questioning by California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, Haspel again would not explicitly say if past techniques at the CIA were...

Gina Haspel refused to say Wednesday during her confirmation hearing to be CIA director if she oversaw the waterboarding of terrorism suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in 2002. Haspel reportedly became chief of base at a CIA black site in Thailand in October of that year. Nashiri arrived in November and was waterboarded at least three times before being transferred in December to a different facility, according to a Senate Intelligence Committee report. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who was influential in drafting an intelligence committee report partially released in 2014, asked Haspel to give a "yes or no" answer to whether...

The alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, like the Senate intelligence panel's Democrats, has come out against President Donald Trump's nomination of Gina Haspel to lead the CIA. Both Mohammed and the Democrats question whether Haspel, a longtime CIA agent, is fit to run the agency given her involvement in the torture of prisoners following the attacks in 2001. Haspel is due to appear Wednesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee for her confirmation hearing. The Al-Qaeda leader, who was captured in March 2003 and was reportedly tortured, asked a military judge Monday at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,...

President Trump’s nomination of Gina Haspel to lead the C.I.A. has revived debate over the agency’s post-Sept. 11 interrogation program and still-murky questions about her involvement. Now, on the eve of her Senate confirmation hearing, a striking voice is trying to join that fray: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Mr. Mohammed, the principal architect of the Sept. 11 attacks, was captured in March 2003 and tortured by the C.I.A. This week, he asked a military judge at Guantánamo Bay for permission to share six paragraphs of information about Ms. Haspel with the Senate Intelligence Committee. Ms. Haspel ran a black-site prison in...

Trump’s nominee Gina Haspel Is it true that Democrats are anti-women? It certainly appears that way. Doesn’t sound like a winning formula to me, but then TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) turns otherwise rational folks into delusional idiots. The Democrats do not want a woman to be in charge of the CIA; they are poised to resist the selection of President Trump’s nominee Gina Haspel for that job. She would be the first female to head the CIA and Democrats are opposed to her, even though she is eminently qualified.

An attorney for the only terrorism suspect known to have been waterboarded during Gina Haspel’s time leading a secret CIA facility in Thailand is blasting her “failure to stand up for what’s right,” just ahead of her confirmation hearing to be CIA director. Navy Lt. Alaric Piette, a military defense attorney representing Guantanamo Bay inmate Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, emailed the statement to the Washington Examiner ahead of Haspel’s Wednesday confirmation hearing, where she is likely to be grilled on her post-9/11 actions. "I was an enlisted sailor during 9/11 and I understand the impulses that led people to want to...

After weekend reports that President Donald Trump's nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel, was considering withdrawing her name from consideration, Jeremy Bash flatly refuted those talking points on Kasie DC. He had a pretty decent source on the subject, too. It was Ms. Haspel herself. Bash told viewers at he had just got off the phone with Haspel and that she was "full steam ahead" and will be at her confirmation hearing Wednesday morning. Furthermore, on the call she emphasized that her lengthy career of more than 30 years and seven overseas tours provided her with the key experience needed for...

The White House is ramping up an 11th-hour effort to build support for President Trump’s pick to lead the CIA, just days before she is scheduled to face a grilling from the Senate Intelligence Committee over her role in the agency’s controversial detention and interrogation program. For weeks, the CIA has led the charge on promoting now-deputy director Gina Haspel—a forward-leaning PR campaign that some critics have said is inappropriate for the clandestine agency. Only late last week did the White House stand up the kind of broad-based press campaign typical of other high-stakes nominations, issuing a swath of laudatory...

The White House is highlighting support for Gina Haspel among former spy chiefs, particularly those opposed to President Trump, ahead of Haspel’s Senate confirmation hearing next week to be CIA director. The strategy to woo Senate Democrats was rolled out in a Wednesday email blast, followed by a conference call. White House officials cited the backing of former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former acting CIA Director Michael Morell. “We’re not looking to only get the support of people who are complimenting the administration, we want to make sure we’re getting the support...