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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.

9 of 313 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Explain to me please by cmaurand · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Only if she's complicit in destroying criminal evidence.

  2. Re:"harsh interrogation technique" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Typical Internet slander from the alt right. Post a big fucking lie 50,000 times and people get confused, start thinking "Well, maybe... who knows what Obama did or didn't do."

    In fact Obama was extremely vocal against waterboarding. He banned that practice of the Bush administration.

    Cheney was the one who kept calling it "enhanced interrogation techniques" while insisting it wasn't torture.

  3. Re: Explain to me please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    that and torturing people

  4. You're for treating women unequally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So you're saying we should treat women differently and shouldn't be outraged that she destroyed video documentation to hide torture and approves of harsh methods as we would even if it were a man doing the same thing?

  5. Re:Explain to me please by XXongo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So it's OK for her to be the Deputy director, but once she gets to climb one rung of the ladder that's a big problem?

    It's not OK for her to be either Deputy Director or Director, but it is nearly impossible to pull out the bad ones who are already in place.

    Waterboarding by the CIA was something that helped terrorists. Our doing it gave a powerful recruiting tool to terrorist organizations: it allowed them to show that the U.S. are not the good guys. This was a stupid stupid thing to do, and we should object to her being Director because we should not reward people for doing stupid things in their job.

  6. Stop saying "Harsh interrogation" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The word and the action is "TORTURE"

  7. Re: Explain to me please by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Terrorists are murdering innocent people and she's torturing murderers. Murderers don't care about the people they murder so why should we care about them?

    Because torture does not work and it ultimately does great harm to the torturers. I would cite moral reasons, but I get the impression from your question that morality is not an issue with you.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  8. Re:Explain to me please by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, but until you torture and kill my father, brother or child, I could at least be indifferent to you.

    After you do, I want you dead. You. And your father, your brother and your child.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  9. Re:Some questions by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Informative

    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."

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.