Posted on 03/14/2018 10:35:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
President Donald Trump's pick to replace Mike Pompeo as director of the Central Intelligence Agency has a controversial past at the CIA that will likely resurface during her confirmation hearing in the Senate.
Trump announced Tuesday that he has chosen Deputy Director of the CIA Gina Haspel to be the next director of the agency. If confirmed by the Senate, she will become the first woman to lead the CIA.
When Trump first selected Haspel to the position of deputy director of the CIA, the move was met with opposition by some lawmakers because of her involvement in the CIA's "extraordinary rendition program" under President Bush under which al Qaeda captives were handed to foreign governments and held in secret prisons and "tortured" by CIA personnel.
That position didn't require a Senate confirmation, but her promotion to CIA director will, and Haspel's role in running the CIA's first overseas detention site in Thailand is sure to come up.
“The torture of detainees in U.S. custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history," Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in a statement Tuesday. "Ms. Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA’s interrogation program during the confirmation process.”
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden also blasted Trump's pick on Tuesday.
Snowden wrote in another tweet that Haspel "probably can't travel to the EU to meet other spy chiefs without facing arrest due to an @ECCHRBerlin complaint to Germany's federal prosecutor," in reference to a complaint filed by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.
Wikileaks made the same point:
Haspel's nomination, however, received mostly praise from lawmakers and current as well as former intelligence officials.
Former CIA Director John Brennan praised Haspel's "wealth of experience" while acknowledging her controversial role managing a "black site" prison.
"She was involved in a very, very controversial program, and I know that the Senate confirmation process will look at that very closely, but Gina Haspel has a lot of integrity," Brennan told MSNBC. "She has tried to carry out her duties at the CIA to the best of her ability even when the CIA was asked to do some very difficult things in very challenging times."
Gina sounds like a TOUGH BIRD!! GOOD!!! GREAT!!
Fantastic!
They say that like it’s a bad thang......................
I find that a plus.
I was concerned when he picked a woman, but having someone with experience is a positive.
Much better than a communist muslim like Brennan.
She knows what she’s doing and the progs don’t like her
Excellent choice
Senator Cotton is from Arkansas, not Oklahoma.
It's a point in her favor.
How do we know McCain issued this statement. Has anyone seen him? It sounds stupid enough that he would write this but he hasn't been seen in D.C. for months?
Trump’s Pick to Replace Pompeo as CIA Director Ran Controversial ‘Black Site’ Prison in Thailand>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
And the intelligence information she produced saved thousands of American lives.
She is a heroine, and its past time we had one.
She will be easily confirmed. No lefty Senator will be able to touch her without losing a whole hand.
McCain never criticises when his buddies in ISIS torture and kill Christians
Sounds goid! ( and any such facility or program was funded by congress to begin with)
FakeNews again calling waterboarding controversial. It is fine for terrorists.
‘We’ are at the stage where if PDT had picked ‘Jesus Christ’ the LIBS would attack him/us as being into Voodoo since he ‘fed a multitude’ with one fish and a glass of wine, his ‘people’ parted the oceans to allow others to escape, was to dumb to learn how to swim, hung around the desert with 12 comrades and (supposedly) was ‘straight’, had no ABSOLUTE of who his parent(s) were, lied about his birth etc etc.
Yet, they could nominate G Khan, A T HUN, Vlad The Impaler, and claim they were humanitarians because they killed scores rather than watch them starve to death.
I certainly hope this Lady is the Ball Buster ‘they’ claim she is...
Take off the Gloves MR PRESIDENT, I was wrong, TWEET your heart out - it really keeps ‘them’ off guard, RUN the country like one of your Construction Companies or Projects - sure YOU were born with the Silver Spoon in your mouth and lost it going for the gold, NOW you worked your way up to Owning the MINE and all the GOLD IN IT.
YOU have proven yourself now it is time for you to be sicced on these idiots and MAGA....
THEY already call you ‘The Donald’ why not change your name to DONALD THE TRUMP and you could join past great leaders (for one reason or the other) whose MIDDLE name is THE.....
Sen. Linda Graham as usual is getting his pink panties tied in a knot. Putin must get a big kick out of this.
Senator Linda is worrying about being too tough on terrorists who would saw off the good senator's head in a Mecca minute and throw his carcass off the top of a building. How did we become such a nation of girl-men?
Gina Haspel has more balls than the whole US congress combined.
“And the intelligence information she produced saved thousands of American lives.
She is a heroine, and its past time we had one.
She will be easily confirmed. No lefty Senator will be able to touch her without losing a whole hand.”
WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!
No one wants to recall that dark torture chapter in our nation’s history, it is a HUGE EMBARRASSMENT AND SHAME. I taught Geneva and Hague Conventions as a JAG Officer in the Army and all of us were mortified when the so-called lawyers in the Justice Department authorized torture. Torture DOES NOT produce reliable information and puts the lives of US personnel at risk for HORRENDOUS treatment not to mention that torture is NOT LEGAL!
I have already sent an email to the White House stating that this twisted sadist is not an acceptable nominee.
THAILAND?
Good she’ll be well prepared to build more of them.
I guess diplomatic immunity only applies to 3rd world UN types. If she is confirmed and then later arrested overseas, then start throwing every POS foreign diplomat, their staffs, and other busting dignitaries in GITMO.
Democrats are always pushing for women to be strong, and tough, yet when the first woman, who is obviously strong and tough is nominated to be CIA Director, they choose to reject her.
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