REASONABLE people can disagree about Gina Haspel’s fitness to lead the CIA. On the one hand, Ms Haspel, who has been nominated for the position by President Donald Trump and was grilled by the Senate Intelligence Committee on May 9th, has been a highly regarded member of the agency for 33 years. She would also be the first women to lead it. On the other hand, her post-9/11 role managing a secret prison in Thailand where “enhanced interrogation” techniques such as waterboarding were used on an al-Qaeda prisoner recalls a bleak episode. She was also controversially involved in destroying evidence of those interrogations. Yet Ms Haspel’s confirmation hearing was less an honest airing of this dilemma than a partisan mud-wrestle.
In her opening remarks, she sought to head off the coming Democratic assault on her interrogation record. “Having served in that tumultuous time,” she said, “I can offer you my personal commitment, clearly and...Continue reading
Source: United States https://ift.tt/2rB36OI
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