Rand Paul will OPPOSE new CIA chief over torture

Republican Sen. Rand Paul has vowed to vote against President Trump’s pick to lead the CIA, suggesting she’s too torture-happy. 

On Tuesday President Trump nominated Gina Haspel to lead the spy agency, shuffling the CIA’s current head, Mike Pompeo, to the State Department on the heels of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s firing.

Because of her links to an agency prison in Thailand where terror suspects were subjected to Bush-era harsh interrogation techniques, Paul charged that she showed ‘joyful glee at someone who is being tortured.’

Republican Sen. Rand Paul has come out against the nomination of Gina Haspel (pictured) for CIA director because of her links to Bush-era enhanced interrogation techniques. Paul claims that she showed 'joyful glee at someone who is being tortured'

Republican Sen. Rand Paul (left) has come out against the nomination of Gina Haspel (right) for CIA director because of her links to Bush-era enhanced interrogation techniques. Paul claims that she showed ‘joyful glee at someone who is being tortured’ 

Simulation: Some of the 'enhanced interrogation techniques' used at the CIA 'black site' run by Trump's pick to direct it were shown on Zero Dark Thirty, the movie about the hunt for bin Laden

Simulation: Some of the ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ used at the CIA ‘black site’ run by Trump’s pick to direct it were shown on Zero Dark Thirty, the movie about the hunt for bin Laden

'Gina, by the way, who I know very well, who I've worked very closely with, will be the first woman director of the CIA,' Trump said as he departed the White House Tuesday

‘Gina, by the way, who I know very well, who I’ve worked very closely with, will be the first woman director of the CIA,’ Trump said as he departed the White House Tuesday

Real-life: Gina Haspel's clandestine career will inevitably see her compared to Claire Danes' Homeland character Carrie Mathison

Lost an eye: Abu Zubaydah was one of those subjected to 'enhanced interrogation techniques' which critics called torture. He was waterboarded 83 times and lost an eye

Real-life: Gina Haspel’s clandestine career will inevitably see her compared to Claire Danes’ Homeland character Carrie Mathison but it will be her oversight of the detention of Abu Zubaydah when he lost an eye and was waterboarded 83 times in a month which will dominate her confirmation hearing

 ‘I find it just amazing that anyone would consider having this woman at the head of the CIA,’ Paul said, according to the Hill newspaper.  

The Kentucky Republican said he would also vote down Pompeo’s nomination, complaining that the current CIA chief doesn’t believe ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ are torture. 

Paul also didn’t like how Pompeo and Haspel supported the Iraq War.  

 ‘I’m perplexed by the nomination of people who love the Iraq War so much that they would advocate for a war with Iran next,’ the Republican lawmaker charged. ‘I think it goes against most of the things President Trump campaigned for.’  

Trump insisted throughout the 2016 campaign that he had always been against the Iraq War, though some earlier statements he made indicated that his position may have evolved. 

Standing in contrast to Paul, Trump has repeatedly said he supports waterboarding. 

Besides being linked to the Thailand prison, Haspel, the 61-year-old deputy director of the CIA, also helped carry out an order that the agency destroy its waterboarding videos.  

Protest: CIA leaker Edward Snowden tweeted his disgust from Moscow, where he is in exile to avoid charges for stealing the agency's dark secrets

Protest: CIA leaker Edward Snowden tweeted his disgust from Moscow, where he is in exile to avoid charges for stealing the agency’s dark secrets

That order prompted a lengthy Justice Department investigation that ended without charges.

Beyond Paul’s protest, her nomination is already drawing opposition from Democrats, due to her role overseeing the torture of two terror suspects at a secret CIA prison in Thailand.

Haspel, who has extensive overseas experience, is likely to be compared by supporters to Carrie Mathison, the CIA spy playedon hit Showtime series Homeland by Claire Danes for her clandestine career.

But the role which may dominate her future is when she briefly ran a secret CIA prison where terror suspects Abu Zubayadah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded in 2002, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

She also played a role in ‘extraordinary rendition’ where terror suspects were handed over to foreign governments.

Both policies were extremely controversial during the George W. Bush administration, and became issues during her confirmation. 

Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 time during his interrogation. 

Later, her name was on the order to carry out the destruction of videotapes of the interrogation, the New York Times reported, although the agency said her superior, Jose Rodriguez, head of the clandestine service, had made the decision.

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden called her an ‘unsuitable’ nominee immediately after Trump announced his decision.

‘I think with respect to Miss Haspel in particular, the Trump administration is engaged in an out-and-out cover-up to keep the American people from knowing about her professional background,’ he charged, following up his initial comments with an interview Wednesday on CNN. 

‘As you know there are many public stories linking her to torture,’ the Oregon Democrat added. 

He said that he and Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico were teaming up to try and get Haspel’s background declassified. 

‘I can tell you that there’s absolutely no reason why a significant amount of her background couldn’t be declassified without harming American national security,’ Wyden said. 

The president called her by her first name Tuesday morning in comments to reporters, and praised her. 

‘Gina, by the way, who I know very well, who I’ve worked very closely with, will be the first woman director of the CIA,’ Trump said. ‘She’s an outstanding person.’

‘I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next director of the Central Intelligence agency,’ Haspel said. ‘If confirmed, I look forward to providing President Trump the outstanding intelligence support he has grown to expect during his first year in office.’ 

NSA leaker Edward Snowden also blasted the choice.

‘The new CIA director was a key part of the torture program and its illegal cover-up. Her name was on the Top Secret order demanding the destruction of tapes to prevent them being seen by Congress. Incredible,’ Snowden wrote on Twitter.

But former CIA director John Brennan, who served during the Obama administration, defended her integrity in carrying out the program.  

‘She was the acting director for operations when I arrived, and she has a wealth of experience and background, and she has more than three decades experience abroad as well as at headquarters,’ said Brennan, saying she enjoyed ‘tremendous respect’ in the agency. 

‘Gina Haspel has a lot of integrity,’ told MSNBC. ‘She has tried to carry out her duties at the CIA to the best of her ability even when the CIA was asked to do some very difficult things in very challenging times.’ 

More than a decade after waterboarding was last used, the CIA is still haunted by the legacy of a tactic that the U.S. government regarded as torture before President George W. Bush’s administration authorized its use against terror suspects. 

There is no indication that Trump’s pick signals a desire to restart the harsh interrogation and detention program.

Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985, has been chief of station at CIA outposts abroad. In Washington, she has held several top senior leadership positions, including deputy director of the National Clandestine Service and deputy director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action.

When she was picked as deputy CIA director, her career was lauded by veteran intelligence officials, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who recently retired. 

But it also upset the American Civil Liberties Union and other rights advocates who found it unsettling that Trump would choose someone who was involved in the harsh interrogation program.

‘No one who had a hand in torturing individuals deserves to ever hold public office again, let alone lead an agency,’ Human Rights First’s Raha Wala said Tuesday. 

‘To allow someone who had a direct hand in this illegal, immoral and counterproductive program is to willingly forget our nation’s dark history with torture.’



Read more at DailyMail.co.uk