US Senate confirms Haspel to be first woman CIA director

US Senate confirms Haspel to be first
woman CIA director

The US Senate confirmed Gina Haspel on
Thursday to be director of the CIA, ending a
bruising confirmation fight centered on her
ties to the spy agency’s past use of
waterboarding and other brutal interrogation
techniques.
Haspel, who will be the first woman to lead
the CIA, is a 33-year veteran at the agency
currently serving as its acting director. The
tally was 54-45 in favour of her nomination in
the 100-member chamber, where a simple
majority was required for confirmation.
Six Democrats joined President Donald
Trump’s fellow Republicans in voting for
Haspel, and two Republicans voted no.
Haspel was approved despite stiff opposition
over her links to the CIA’s use of harsh
interrogation methods, including
waterboarding, a type of simulated drowning
widely considered torture, in the years after
the Sept. 11 attacks.
An undercover officer for most of her CIA
career, Haspel in 2002 served as CIA station
chief in Thailand, where the agency conducted
interrogations at a secret prison using
methods including waterboarding. Three years
later, she drafted a cable ordering the
destruction of videotapes of those
interrogations.
Republican Senator John McCain, who has
been away from Washington all year as he
battles brain cancer, urged the Senate not to
vote for Haspel. He did not vote on Thursday.
Tortured himself while a prisoner of war in
Vietnam, McCain said approving Haspel would
send the wrong message, and the country
should only use methods to keep itself safe
“as right and just as the values we aspire to
live up to and promote in the world.”
Haspel also had strong support from Trump’s
administration, many current and former
intelligence officials and a wide range of
lawmakers, including Democrats.
Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the
Intelligence Committee, which oversaw the
nomination, supported Haspel.
“I believe she is someone who can and will
stand up to the president, who will speak truth
to power if this president orders her to do
something illegal or immoral, like a return to
torture,” he said in a Senate speech before
the vote.
Rights groups quickly condemned the vote.
Laura Pitter of Human Rights Watch called it
“the predictable and perverse byproduct of the
US failure to grapple with past abuses.”
Trump nominated Haspel, then deputy director,
in March to succeed Mike Pompeo as CIA
director. Haspel became acting director after
Pompeo was confirmed as secretary of state.