New CIA Director Gina Haspel had leading role in torture

[octoberlib]

A few paragraphs from a 2017 article about Haspel


WASHINGTON — As a clandestine officer at the Central Intelligence Agency in 2002, Gina Haspel oversaw the torture of two terrorism suspects and later took part in an order to destroy videotapes documenting their brutal interrogations at a secret prison in Thailand.

Over the past eight years, C.I.A. leaders defended dozens of agency personnel who had taken part in the now-banned torture program, even as they vowed never to resume the same harsh interrogation methods. But President Trump has said repeatedly that he thinks torture works. And the new C.I.A. chief, Mike Pompeo, has said that waterboarding and other techniques do not even constitute torture, and praised as “patriots” those who used such methods in the early days of the fight against Al Qaeda.

Ms. Haspel, who has spent most of her career undercover, would certainly fall within Mr. Pompeo’s description. She played a direct role in the C.I.A.’s “extraordinary rendition program,” under which captured militants were handed to foreign governments and held at secret facilities, where they were tortured by agency personnel.


https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/us/politics/cia-deputy-director-gina-haspel-torture-thailand.html

[Iliyah]

1. I fear the USA's national security is going down the rabbit hole . . . much

faster.

[Lars39]

2. Im sure she has Kelly approval.

[kentuck]

3. She was probably an acquaintance of General Kelly....

...from the time he was in charge of the prisoners at Guantanamo?

That would be my guess.

[Javaman]

4. so now we have the ex-head of the CIA as SOS and a torturer as head of the CIA...

what could go wrong?

[oasis]

5. It was either GH or John Bolton. With her, a lesser degree of shitty.

Maybe.

[Achilleaze]

6. "Please make republicans halt their evil cult of torture" - Jesus Christ

[OregonBlue]

7. She is beyond scary. She is evil. Read her WIKI page.

Service with CIA

Haspel ran a "black site" CIA prison located in Thailand in 2002.[5][6] The site was codenamed "Cat’s Eye" and held suspected al Qaeda members Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah for a time. The Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture specifies that during their detention at the site they were waterboarded and interrogated using no longer authorized methods.[7][8] Declassified CIA cables specify that Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in a month, was sleep deprived, kept in a "large box", had his head slammed against a wall and he lost his left eye. Zubaydah was deemed, by the CIA interrogators, to not be in possession of any useful intelligence (Interrogation of Abu Zubaydah).[9]

Haspel later was the chief of staff to Jose Rodriguez, who headed the CIA's Counterterrorism Center. In his memoir, Rodriguez wrote that Haspel had "drafted a cable" in 2005 ordering the destruction of dozens of videotapes made at the black site in Thailand.[8]

In 2013, John Brennan, then the director of Central Intelligence, named Haspel as acting Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service, which carries out covert operations around the globe.[10] However, she was denied the position permanently due to criticism about her involvement in the Rendition, Detention and Interrogation program.[11] Haspel has also served as the Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action.[5]

Haspel is the recipient of the George H. W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism, the Donovan Award, the Intelligence Medal of Merit and the Presidential Rank Award.[1]