Trump's Pick for New CIA Director Is Career Spymaster (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader shares a AP report: President Donald Trump's choice to be the first female director of the CIA is a career spymaster who once ran an agency prison in Thailand where terror suspects were subjected to a harsh interrogation technique that the president has supported. Trump tweeted Tuesday that CIA Director Mike Pompeo will replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and that he has selected Gina Haspel to replace Pompeo. Haspel, the current deputy CIA director, also helped carry out an order that the agency destroy its waterboarding videos. That order prompted a lengthy Justice Department investigation that ended without charges. Haspel, who has extensive overseas experience, briefly ran a secret CIA prison where accused terrorists 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.

Comments

Re: Explain to me please

[Anonymous Coward]

that and torturing people

Nothing to do with Russia - at all

[Lisandro]

So, Trump fired Tillerson just hours after this: https://twitter.com/ZekeJMille... . Delicious.

Stop saying "Harsh interrogation"

[Anonymous Coward]

The word and the action is "TORTURE"

Re: "harsh interrogation technique"

[RazorSharp]

He tried and congress would not let him. At one point he even said his inability to close Gitmo was one of his greatest failures as president.

Re:Explain to me please

[havill]

the type of person that is attracted to terrorist organizations has never, ever believed that the U.S. was part of the "good guys"... regardless of the existence of waterboarding methods. Just like you can't convince a truther than 9/11 wasn't a conspiracy, a birther that obama is an american, a fookooshimar that fukushima will kill every single person in japan and then some, a typical terrorist has an image of the West that does not need to be based in reality or fact.

Re:Some questions

[PopeRatzo]

1. Is waterboarding torture?
2. Has waterboarding ever extracted useful information?
3. What great harm does waterboarding do to those performing it? Please provide some factual info, not just your opinion

1) Yes
2) No
3) See below

http://trauma.blog.yorku.ca/20...

https://www.psychologytoday.co...

https://www.law.utah.edu/effec...

"In 1986, psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton interviewed Nazi doctors who participated in human experimentation and mass killings. Lifton concluded that after years of exposure, many of the doctors experienced psychological damage similar in intensity to that of their victims. Anxiety, intrusive traumatic memories, and impaired cognitive and social functioning were all common consequences."

Re: "harsh interrogation technique"

[RazorSharp]

I think he genuinely wanted to, but I also don't believe he resorted to a broad use of executive power lightly. The Affordable Care Act was his great congressional push and after that he lost congress. There are certain things the executive branch can act on and certain things it cannot. Selective enforcement, which is basically what he did with the immigration problem, has long been an area where the executive branch has great latitude. Moving a military base/prison isn't the same thing. As a Constitutional scholar, I'm sure Obama was aware that he would not win in court if he attempted to shut Gitmo down without congressional approval.

Re:No chaos. You're the chaos.

[PopeRatzo]

Whether or not your a Trump supporter, isn't a large number of firings exactly what's to be expected if he's "draining the swamp"?

He's firing people that he hired. So, if that's "draining the swamp" then it means that he brought the swamp with him in the first place.