Posted on 05/11/2018 4:33:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
Gina Haspel, President Trump’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. It’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. She’s spent over thirty years at the CIA. She’s beyond qualified to lead the agency. She’s a patriot and has done things to protect us all. That being said, she was nominated by Trump, so she’s the devil incarnate to the Left. If Obama had nominated her, it would be a watershed moment: the first woman director with impeccable credentials that’s a worthy chapter in the Lean In era of feminism and women in the workplace. But again, she’s a Trump nominee, so she’s not any of those things. Proof positive that to be considered even a woman in the ranks of the feminist left, you have to be a liberal and you can only work with liberals. I honestly have no clue what Haspel’s political views are and I don’t care. In this line of work, no one cares about your views of abortion, tax cuts, or gun rights, which makes feminist criticism of her nomination all the more maddening. It’s a clown show. It’s red meat to serve to the Democratic base—and it’s appallingly shameless.
MSNBC, which is not a friendly territory for this administration, even pointed this out this morning. Sen. Angus King (I-ME), who caucuses with Senate Democrats, said he would oppose Haspel. No legitimate reason was given, but one could conclude it’s because Trump nominated her. Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough asked if yesterday’s hearing was just a sideshow for the Democratic base because no one could be that stupid and not know what Haspel was going to respond concerning our waterboarding program.
MSNBC’s Scarborough Blasts Sen. King Over Haspel Hearing: “Was This Just A Sideshow For Your Base?”
JOE SCARBOROUGH: But Senator, Joe Scarborough here, when you were asking her that question, you knew the answer to that question, right?ANGUS KING: Well, I thought I did. But I wanted -- and I was sort of giving her an opportunity to answer it. And she – as you saw, I had to ask it three times. My impression was that she was making these decisions, but I sort of couldn't believe it.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. But you –
KING: I couldn’t believe it –
SCARBOROUGH: But, you also though – there’s also a lot of information that you could have gotten if the cameras were turned off and people were taken out of the room. I mean, it’s just like Diane Feinstein asked a question that she knew she could not answer in a public committee hearing, and also knew that if the room were cleared and the cameras were turned off, you all could get the information. Was this just a sideshow for your base?
KING: No, no, no.
MSNBC’s Barnicle Exposes Sen. King’s (I-ME) Hypocrisy In Opposing Gina Haspel
Guest co-host Mike Barnicle asked King if he thought Haspel was competent. King admitted she was.
“If not her, who,” replied Barnicle.
“Well, that’s a good question,” said King
Yeah, because the answer is it’s Haspel. Democrats really have no leg to stand on with this opposition campaign; they support John Brennan, who was a top CIA official under Bush and when the enhanced interrogation program was active. Virtually the entire Senate Democratic caucus backed him, so let’s take a trip down memory lane to his remarks about the program (via Politico c. 2014) [emphasis mine]:
During his February 2013 confirmation hearings to be CIA director, John Brennan told senators he had come to doubt his previously held view — formed as a top agency official — that brutal CIA interrogation techniques had yielded valuable intelligence.Brennan came to question that premise, he told the Senate Intelligence Committee, after reading an unreleased summary of the panel’s 6,000-page report on the question. The report “raises serious questions about the information that I was given” while at the CIA, Brennan said. That echoed the committee’s finding that the CIA had misled Bush White House officials and the public about the effectiveness of tactics like waterboarding.
“I do not know what the truth is,” Brennan said.
Now that he leads the CIA, Brennan has returned to his original conclusion: The truth is on his agency’s side. In a statement responding to the public release of the report’s official summary Tuesday, Brennan defended his agency — and the fruits of severe interrogation practices.
Enhanced interrogation techniques “did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists, and save lives, Brennan said, citing an unreleased internal CIA review.
“The intelligence gained from the program,” he added, “was critical to our understanding of al Qaeda and continues to inform our counterterrorism efforts to this day.”
Brennan’s strong defense of the agency put him at odds with many congressional Democrats, and even President Barack Obama, who issued a much tougher response. While Brennan’s statement euphemistically allowed that the agency “made mistakes,” it devoted more words to challenging the Senate panel’s findings and methods.
It is the latest twist in Brennan’s tangled history with the CIA’s enhanced interrogations. He has repeatedly disavowed any personal role in the harsh practices that occurred when he was a senior official at the agency in the Bush era. Questions about his knowledge and oversight of those practices dissuaded Obama from a plan to name Brennan as his first CIA director in 2009.
NY Post editorial board touched upon this hypocrisy as well, with an added zinger here:
…the CIA fully briefed Nancy Pelosi and other key Democrats in Congress on what it was doing in those scary early days of the War on Terror, and none objected.Haspel was plainly doing her job when (as chief of staff for the CIA leader who actually made the call) she played a role in destroying videos of interrogations in order to prevent them from being leaked (as similar info then was) and so endangering the lives of men and women who’d been trying to protect this country.
A 30-year veteran already serving as acting CIA chief, Haspel would be the first woman to lead the agency and the first director in decades who’s spent her entire career there. She has the enthusiastic support of pretty much anyone who’s ever worked with her, including several top Obama officials who are now loudly anti-Trump.
Any Democrats voting against her, especially those who voted to confirm Brennan, ought to give a good explanation why. They could cite the statement opposing her from 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed…
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
Opposition to Haspel has now become bipartisan with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) urging the Senate to reject her nomination over enhanced interrogation. He also voted for Brennan. Democrats have long tried to shed the reputation that they’re weak on defense and national security. They still are, but they’re now taking it a bit further: they’re willing to put America at risk because they lost an election.
I am in favor of Haspel. But I wonder how many equally or better qualified men are being passed over because they are men.
Let’s suppose you have twenty years in at the company where you work. You have been doing the bosses’ job along with your own for the last eighteen months because he has been having heart problems. You are working seventy and eighty hour weeks. The boss retires. The company puts a woman or a black in his place, not because they are better qualified, but because they are a woman or a black. The company feels it needs to have a woman or a black in a high position. I was victim of this perceived racial need at my final company.
Has anyone asked her about Russian collusion yet?
Its not about her; its about obstructing Trump even if that means harming the country.
For these people, Trump is the enemy and if involves leaving the CIA without a director so be it.
Haspel had no role in the enhanced interrogation program. Yet McPain saw fit to slander her and advise his colleague to reject her on the basis of an outright lie.
He and the Democrats should be ashamed of themselves.
it works, just John McCain...
The RATS have chosen a hill to die on. It is a hill in the middle of a wasteland, observed by no one and desired by no one.
When their bleached bones are discovered, by some wanderers of the future, they will scratch their heads and ask themselves, “Why here?”
All are hypocrites, but McCain roars past hypocrite and achieves bitter old man giving Trump the finger status.
It’s all about his hurt feelers.
What a nimrod.
Yesterday we had to listen to the adulterous Kamala Harris try to skewer Haspel over morality
In this case it has been Haspel doing the job for 20 years and carrying the water for several past directors- seems a natural to become lead dog
My only reservation is that she worked for John Brennan
“My only reservation is that she worked for John Brennan”
I have worked for a few bad bosses and one outright crook. Working for the crook and not getting involved or enmeshed in his schemes was difficult. But I managed it by always anticipating what he’d want and having an answer or solution in the pipe that took away his first impulse to lie and cover up. Once, he demanded that I simply close out a military failure analysis with a lie. I replied, “I’ve been running a reliability test for three days. In twenty-four hours we will know the real cause and that answer will make you a hero as it will save lots of money.” He gave me this “look” as he was smart and knew what I was doing, but I again got my way and didn’t lie. I think he was a guy who just enjoyed his power and lying came easily for him. Lies had gotten him into the corner office so why change now?
Kamala Harris wants “yes” and “no” answers because those are the only ones that air-head can understand. She is Exhibit #1 for the failure of Affirmative Action.
Haspel is a career civil servant.
She’s not a political appointee. I can’t think of anyone more qualified to run the CIA.
Diversity is our strength?
This is the pertinent "Cliff Note". Some women are more equal than others?
“Diversity is our strength? “
One of those godawful motivational posters on the wall read, “Diversity is our goal.” Another read, “Strength and joy through diversity.” (That poster had a ring of dancing Gumby-like featureless “people” whose color represented every race except Caucasian.) They reminded me of updated versions of the Nazi and Communist propaganda posters. They came from a subscription and tithing arrangement with a company that supplied diversity training. Having a contract with that company checked a block on our government contracts for having a diversity training program.
“I am in favor of Haspel. But I wonder how many equally or better qualified men are being passed over because they are men.”
Oh Lord . . . why do we have to go there on this? SHE’S HIGHLY QUALIFIED. PERIOD.
Just awful crap. I'm sorry that people like us were 'bumped' because white males have lost favor in today's America. I wish someone were leading a charge against such bias, but we're shattered and demoralized, not to mention leaderless. My white g'sons are about to be screwed and there is very little I can do about it. Not enough people seems to care.
Manchin will posture so as to be to the right of Goldwater this year, since it’s a reelection year. The usual six year cycle when the Dims and Repukes from a conservative state have to pretend they are onboard with the voters.
I too have been caught in that mess. Affirmative Action is the worst kind of racism. It literally blocks the hiring of white men.
I know you just want to ask a stupid question, just to get your 2¢ in
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