'Bloody Gina' Should Not Lead the CIA
A 2017 photo of CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel, who joined the agency in
1985. (CIA via AP)
Editors note: John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer. He
served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush
administrations torture program.
President Trumps nomination of CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to be the
new director returns the country to the bad old days of torture and secret
prisons. Trump couldnt be any clearer that he has come down on the side of
the architects of the George W. Bush-era torture policy. Haspel was a
protégé of Jose Rodriguez, the CIAs notorious former deputy director for
operations and former director of the Counterterrorism Center (CTC), known
as the godfather of the torture program. Haspel served as Rodriguezs chief
of staff at CTC.
Haspel has been at the CIA for 33 years. Shes been described in the media
as a seasoned intelligence veteran, with an uncanny ability to get things
done and as someone who inspires those around her. Im sure thats true
for some. But many of the rest of us who knew and worked with Gina Haspel at
the CIA called her Bloody Gina.
The CIA will not permit me to talk about Haspels time overseas. Suffice it
to say that others already have, and her career has been well documented in
the media. Most importantly, it was Haspel whom Rodriguez ordered to destroy
videotaped evidence of the torture of Abu Zubaydah, who many of us believed,
incorrectly, to be the third-ranking person in al-Qaida. And that was after
the White House counsel told her to preserve everything. She never
apologized or even attempted to explain herself. Rodriguez called her a
patriot. I would say that she committed obstruction of justice, a felony.
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Haspels appointment as CIA director is wrong for a number of reasons.
First, just imagine the message this sends to the CIA workforce: Engage in
whatever war crimes or crimes against humanity you want, and there wont be
any repercussions. Dont worry about ethics. Dont worry about morality.
Well cover for you. And you can destroy the evidence, too.
What message does that send to other countries around the world? What do we
tell our allies, the same ones we criticize every year in the State
Departments annual Human Rights Report? We tell them: You know how we
always say that were a beacon of respect for human rights and the rule of
law? Well, thats nonsense. We say those things only when its expedient. Do
as we say, not as we do.
Our actions are also not lost on our enemies. A myriad of former
intelligence professionals will tell you that the torture program has been
the greatest recruitment tool terrorist groups around the world have ever
had. It has energized them. Its given them something to rally against. It
swelled their ranks. It was no coincidence that ISIS paraded its prisoners
in front of cameras wearing orange jumpsuits before beheading them. Gina
Haspel has to take responsibility for her role in that.
We should also ask ourselves who we want to be as Americans. Do we want to
be just another international rogue nation that tortures people? Do we want
to be the country that snatches people from one country and sends them to
another to be tortured and interrogated? Do we want to be the country that
cynically preaches human rights, then violates those same rights when we
think nobody is looking? Shouldnt we want to be that shining beacon, the
country that every other one looks up to?
Haspels nomination is also an insult to the likes of Sen. John McCain, the
one person on Capitol Hill with the greatest moral authority to weigh in on
torture. McCain knows that torture is an abomination. Its un-American. We
should listen to him. Haspels nomination is an insult to Defense Secretary
James Mattis, the retired four-star general who told Trump to his face
during the transition period that torture doesnt work, and to CIA Director
Mike Pompeo himself, who said in his confirmation hearings that he was
opposed to the torture program and would not reinstate it, even if the
president ordered him to do so.
There is some hope that the CIAs overseers on Capitol Hill will have the
sense to tell the president that this nomination is wrong. Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, D-Calif., the former chairman of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence (SSCI), in 2013 objected to Haspels temporary appointment as
director of the CIAs National Clandestine Service, the agencys operations
directorate, denying her the position on a permanent basis. Sen. Mark
Warner, D-Va., the SSCIs ranking member, said he wanted assurances that
Haspel intended to comply with the spirit and letter of the law banning
torture. She made no public response. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has already
said he will oppose her nomination.
If there was ever a time for Senate Democrats to stand together, it is now.
Our nation cannot afford to backslide into lawlessness. We cannot
countenance torture. We cannot look the other way. We cannot reward the
torturers. Gina Haspel more appropriately should be facing a judge to answer
to charges of war crimes. She ought not be in the directors office at the
CIA.
John Kiriakou
