Would Trump’s New CIA Director Reinstate Torture Program?

Guest Post by Ben Swann

The next director of the CIA might be one of the most controversial picks ever.

Gina Haspel not only helped to oversee the CIA’s torture program, but may have also destroyed evidence in an effort to hide torture techniques. And one CIA whistleblower says Haspel and those around her “tortured for the sake of torture.”

Is this really the person who should run the Central Intelligence Agency?

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Let’s give it a Reality Check you won’t get anywhere else.

Gina Haspel is making headlines as the newly nominated director of the Central Intelligence Agency. She’s been chosen to step in for outgoing CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who President Trump chose to become Secretary of State in place of outgoing Rex Tillerson.

Some of those headlines are for her being the first woman nominated to the top CIA post. But others are rightfully questioning her connections to the CIA’s failed torture program.

So who is Haspel?

Well, we know she’s been with the CIA since 1985 and was assigned to the Central European Division.

According to the New York Times, Haspel served “in Turkey and Central Asia, before ascending to station chief in New York, where she was posted when Osama bin Laden was killed and worked closely with the F.B.I. as the agencies combed through files taken from his compound.”

In her career, she’s also headed up the CIA station in London — twice — and served as the acting director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service in 2013.

But what’s troubling is her role in torture, and destruction of evidence of torture, dating back to 2002.

In October 2002, Haspel was placed in charge of the CIA “black site” prison named “Cat’s Eye” in Thailand. She arrived after Al Qaeda terror suspect Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded and tortured at the cite.

But, under her watch, another Al Qaeda suspect, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was waterboarded three times.

I’m sure you know what waterboarding is… it’s a torture technique that simulates a drowning sensation.

The CIA doesn’t like the word torture… instead, they call waterboarding one of 13 “enhanced interrogation techniques” used on detainees dating back to 2001.

Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who blew the whistle on the agency’s torture practices and went to prison for it, knew Haspel personally. Kiriakou had this to say about her in an interview on Democracy Now.

After the “Cat’s Eye” black site was closed in December 2002, Haspel went to work in the CIA’s National Clandestine Service in Washington, D.C under former director Jose Rodriguez.

This is where Haspel’s background becomes even more troubling.

According to the New York Times, Haspel encouraged her bosses at the CIA in 2005 to destroy video recordings of “enhanced interrogation,” including the tapes of Zubaydah’s waterboarding. Her direct boss, the head of the agency’s Counterterrorism Center, ultimately signed the order to feed the 92 tapes into a shredder.

The videotapes were destroyed just as debates heated up around the globe as to whether these techniques were illegal under U.S. and international laws. And yet, no one was charged in the destruction of what may have been evidence of illegal activity.

At the time the public did not know the extent to which these techniques were being used by our government on suspected terrorists. Candidly, we still don’t, but we did get a glimpse of the CIA torture and rendition program, and its failures, in 2014.

Back in 2012, the Senate Committee on Intelligence voted 9-6 to approve a 6,000 page report on a study of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program.

Just 525 pages of the full report have been declassified since December 2014, but it’s enough to show how mismanaged and ineffective the enhanced interrogation or torture program was in protecting Americans.

Ultimately the report found that the CIA’s torture techniques conducted at black sites did not help the agency get the cooperation of detainees or result in any actionable intelligence.

We know from the report that these CIA black sites were hotbeds for torture. Torture, including stress positions to sleep deprivation to waterboarding.

So why would Trump appoint someone with extensive connections to a secret torture program that failed to protect Americans?

Because Trump believes that the torture program wasn’t “tough enough.” He explained on the campaign trail.

And in an interview with CBS News, Trump further explained that he would want waterboarding to be the “minimum” when fighting terrorism.

What you need to know is that President Trump’s effort to bring waterboarding back to the CIA —if it ever actually ended—might backfire, because he’s putting Gina Haspel in the hot seat.

You see, Haspel’s hearing presents the first time the Senate has had an opportunity to question, under oath, someone directly involved in the CIA torture program. But it’s not just the program the public needs to know more about.

It’s the decision to act and then to destroy evidence of those actions that Haspel and others must be held accountable for.

If no illegal acts were committed, why destroy the evidence?

Reality Check here: Among senior officials, Gina Haspel’s acts are likely not the most egregious in the CIA when it comes to torture. In fact, her actions to carry out the CIA’s torture program, and her actions to help hide evidence of that program, again, among senior officials, is likely not unique. What is unique, is that we know about it.

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overthecliff
overthecliff

Of course Trumps CIA director would use torture if it suited his purposes. No matter what they say, they have never stopped using torture when it was useful and will continue to use torture. Torture works and those that say it doesn’t are bullshitting themselves.

diogenes
diogenes

Grill the bitch!

Southern Sage
Southern Sage

Let me be blunt. The American military, law enforcement and civilians have used torture throughout our history, albeit unofficially, from the day the first white settlers set foot on this continent. That is a fact. It is ugly, yes, but for any number of reasons men at different points in time thought it was justified. Maybe they were wrong, maybe they were right. I try not to judge people unless I have at least some familiarity with the situations they have faced.

After 9/11 it fell to the CIA to ensure that there would be no second, worse attack. Thanks to the utter incompetence of men like George Tenet, appointed by Clinton and confirmed by that moron George W. Bush, our intelligence community dropped the ball on the entire thing (I will not even discuss even more sinister explanations).

Ordinary CIA officers – the vast majority of whom are dedicated professionals and patriots – were ordered to get vital information out of captured terrorists and get it fast. The program, called enhanced interrogation, was approved by the Attorney General of the United States in a desperate effort to protect American lives. The CIA officers followed what they were assured were legal orders. The methods were not pretty but, contrary to what treasonous Democrats say, huge amounts of vital information was squeezed out of these murderous terrorist bastards. Was it torture? Compared to what terrorists and Communist thugs have put our captured people through it was child´s play. Study what the Iranians did to the CIA Station Chiefkidnapped in Lebanon in the early 1980´s.
Had I been in charge I would never have approved this program. I would have turned this scum over to the Egyptians. The terrorists would have talked, and pronto. Or I would have simply lined them up and started shooting them until the rest talked. No torture!
As for “If there was no crime why destroy the evidence?” I can tell you exactly why. I know Jose Rodriguez. A better man and more loyal officer never served. Anybody who asked why he destroyed the tapes does not know how Washington works. Those tapes would have been leaked and the officers involved would have been crucified for doing what they were ordered to do by the president, under the most extraordinary circumstances. After that, what CIA (or military officer) would have been willing to carry the fight to the enemy? Nobody, that´s who. Jose had seen his own officers persecuted, fired, demoted, and humiliated by an out of control, lying pack of leftist congressmen before. He was not about to let it happen again.

Ugly things are part of the cost of doing business in this world. If you can´t handle it, get thee to a convent.

Platoplubius
Platoplubius

Sickening, apologist who watched too much 24 and drank the Jack Bauer kool aid!
That’s ok…the CIA was way ahead of us, coining the term “blowback!”

CCRider
CCRider

Great news SS. Will you then admit the notion that the u.s. is ‘exceptional’ is just another load of self serving and delusional bullshit we let our rulers blow up our asses to anesthetize us from reality? America might have qualified at one time but the u.s. has become fucking common. Thanks for pointing that out.

MadMike
MadMike

I’m tired of the PsyOps torture I’m subjected to when I listen to a politicians bullshit.
No way they will stop that.

whiskey tango foxtrot

Reinstate? Stop it. You’re killin’ me.

Martel's Hammer

Why get your panties in a wad over torture. So what……skin the enemy alive if would be helpful to get information….then when they are utterly played out…put them on ice in Gitmo to see if new information needs verification. It is so cowardly to outsource torture…..that just makes us look weak, not good in the ME/Islamic culture. If you are squeamish….then be thankful that hard men are there to do the work you cannot. Torture saves lives, torture shortens wars and we gain advantages…..of course we do it.

This of course is in no way an endorsement of the Catholics in Action pre/post 9/11 more a wake up call for the couch ninjas. What exactly do you think is going to happen in any conflict on US soil? Bosnia X’s Rwanda X’s 320M people……..that’s a lot of torture and heinous treatment of other human beings.

overthecliff
overthecliff

Governments always have used torture. Governments always will use torture. ( at least until they have a mind reading machine) That’s the way it is, deal with it.

Macumazahn
Macumazahn

When you need to extract information from a moslem, use that idiot moslem crap against him. No need to actually injure him. Just piss on him, or strip him and let a dog lick his balls; there’s a million ways to use the myriad prohibitions of islam to make these scumbags talk.

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