Haspel Likely To Be Confirmed After Telling Them What They Wanted To Hear Repudiating C.I.A. Torture
Gina Haspel, President Trump’s nominee to lead the C.I.A., appeared on Tuesday likely to be confirmed after she declared that the agency should not have undertaken its interrogation program in which Qaeda detainees were tortured after the Sept. 11 attacks — a condemnation she refused to make at her confirmation hearing last week. In
a letter to the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, Ms. Haspel said one of the “hard lessons since 9/11” was the costs of the agency’s use of torture, which she called “enhanced interrogation.”
“While I won’t condemn those that made these hard calls, and I have noted the valuable intelligence collected, the program ultimately did damage to our officers and our standing in the world,” she wrote. “With the benefit of hindsight and my experience as a senior agency leader, the enhanced interrogation program is not one the C.I.A. should have undertaken. The United States must be an example to the rest of the world, and I support that.”
After receiving the letter, Mr. Warner announced on Tuesday afternoon that he would support her confirmation. Minutes later, another Democrat, Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, said she, too, would vote for Ms. Haspel.
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