By MARSHA MERCER
As Gina Haspel tells it, her life was “right out of a
spy novel.”
Haspel, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the
Central Intelligence Agency, joined the agency in 1985 and worked undercover for
more than 30 years.
“From my first days in training, I had a knack for the
nuts and bolts of my profession,” she told senators Wednesday at her
confirmation hearing. “I excelled in finding and acquiring secret information
that I obtained in brush passes, dead drops or in meetings in dusty alleys of
third world capitals.
“I recall very well my first meeting with a foreign
agent. It was on a dark, moonless night with an agent I had never met. When I
picked him up, he passed me the intelligence and I passed him an extra $500 for
the men he led. It was the beginning of an adventure I had only dreamed of.”
It sounds like fiction all right, and that’s the way
Haspel, 61, wants it.
There’s much the public doesn’t know about her career because
the records are classified, and Haspel herself, as acting CIA director, decides
how much – or, in this case, how little -- to declassify.
Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who
have read the classified material about Haspel but can’t divulge what they’ve
read, are frustrated.
Sen. Mark Warner of
Virginia, the top Democrat on the committee, said Haspel has the knowledge and
experience for the job, but “many people – and I include myself in that number
– have questions about the message the Senate would be sending by confirming
someone for this position who served as a supervisor in the counterterrorism
center during the time of the rendition, detention and interrogation program.”
Haspel would be the first woman CIA director, and she
has bipartisan support from former CIA directors.
But more than 90 former U.S. ambassadors and
diplomats and more than 100 retired generals and admirals have signed letters,
raising concerns about her nomination and the extent of her role in “enhanced”
interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, as well as destroying
evidence of the activities many call torture.
Most Senate
Republicans support Haspel but Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who suffered
torture for five and a half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, issued
a statement Wednesday night urging the Senate to reject Haspel.
“I believe Gina Haspel is
a patriot who loves our country and has devoted her professional life to its
service and defense,” McCain said. “However, Ms. Haspel’s role in overseeing
the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge
torture’s immorality is disqualifying.”
In 2002, Haspel ran a CIA “black site” detention
facility in Thailand where at least one suspected terrorist was waterboarded
repeatedly.
In 2005, as Congress was about to launch an
investigation, she advocated destroying more than 90 videotapes of the
suspect’s interrogations. At the request of her boss, she drafted a cable
ordering the destruction. He sent the cable himself.
Haspel proved a wily witness at her confirmation
hearing. Often evasive, she repeatedly said she has a strong moral compass. She
dodged questions about her role at the detention center but insisted the
techniques were legal and approved by President George W. Bush.
She said she would not restart the “enhanced”
interrogation program, even if Trump, who said during the campaign he might
bring back waterboarding, ordered her to do so.
“We’re not getting back into that business,” she said.
The committee is expected to vote next week, with a
full Senate vote in a few weeks. It appears Haspel may squeak through.
Republicans hold a 51 to 49 Senate majority, but
McCain is battling brain cancer in Arizona. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of
Kentucky has said he will vote no. But Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West
Virginia will vote for confirmation, and a couple of other Democrats also
facing tough re-election bids may do the same.
Haspel portrayed herself as “a typical middle-class
American,” although one with no social media accounts.
It’s time she put more on the table than her spy novel
stories. Haspel needs to declassify records of her career, so everyone can
judge whether she’s fit for the job.
©2018 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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