By all accounts, Ms. Haspel has been a brilliant clandestine operations leader and would probably be a highly competent CIA director. But, torture is simply wrong: on too many levels to count. I understand that the Nazis were also often highly competent, but for some reason history has not given them a pass…
She did promise never to reinstitute the interrogation program, but she is rather defensive and arguing on the basis of legal technicalities. In fact, she just said “We have decided we will now hold ourselves to a higher moral standard.” That does say something about what they did before.
Though the way we’re going you may not be able to say that in another few months.
Can she actually travel to Europe without fear of being arrested for war crimes? Or can she only work from home to engage with similar agencies there?
Frankly, given the clowns and grifters the Clown-in-Chief has appointed to other cabinet-level posts, at least she is objectively qualified for the job. I’d much rather have her as CIA Director than a dangerous ideologue like Tom Cotton, Dear Leader’s alternative choice.
And once the Dems take control back later this year, she knows they will be keeping a close eye on her.
Well, actually, many/most of the “bureaucratic” (not active military) Nazis were “de-nazified” (entnazifiziert) after the war because the occupying forces needed competent officials and beancounters to keep the wheels of (occupation) government turning. It was a pragmatic, but quite controversial decision. And, of course, those soldiers who survived and were not accused of war crimes also just got on with their lives (as much as one can having been through such a traumatic experience).
Same approach in Iraq, with de-Bathification.
Yeah and the same exact approach that Italy used during the Risorgimento with organized crime and that’s how the Italian government and organized crime got to be the bestest of friends forever.
She showed execrable judgement by torturing prisoners. There doesn’t seem to be any reason to believe that her judgement would be any better as CIA director. Reject!
Gina Haspel says that in hindsight it’s clear that the spy agency was not prepared and did not have the expertise to use techniques like sleep deprivation and waterboarding, which simulates drowning, to get terror suspects to talk.
I suppose, next time, we should address these deficiencies by contracting for training and oversight from our friends in Central Asia, Latin America and Africa.
She’s getting a bit heated under the collar by Wyden’s questions. Sort of, “We should have been heralded for our work and instead we got sullied by the concerns over torture.” These are my words but that is the attitude she in conveying. No regret about what they did and that makes me distrust her promise not to go back there again should Trump authorize it. (Maybe I’m reading things into her manner and words.)
Idiot neo-con should fuck off and disappear. You participate in that fuckery then you deserve prison not a fucking appointment to CIA Director.
Reason number 10003392 not to ever trust a thing a Republican says ever again.
?? Umm - didn’t the Bush administration totally f&*k that up? They basically dismissed most members of the Baath party and all the remaining soldiers without pay but with their weapons. (Who would have expected anything would go wrong with that?)
So yeah, just like “de-Nazification”, as in not at all like de-Nazification.
Her participation in the interrogation program basically shows one thing, she will defer to the President on anything. Bush and gang wanted “enhanced interrogations” and she gave it to them. They wanted a “black site” prison and she gave it to them. And compared to Trump and gang, Bush and his cronies were lightweights. If Trump wants a reporter assassinated will she say no? If Trump wants dirt on a competitor, or Mueller, will she say no? If Trump want a full scale domestic spying operation on Democrats in congress for “national security” reasons, will she say no? History says she will not.
Yeah, and thereby ensuring that all of those disgruntled ex-soldiers would find something else to do with their time and frustration.
Un-friggin-believable.
I wasn’t suggesting it was done well, just that it happened. No, it was a complete W screw-up.
When a regime has been dominant for a long time, you can’t just get rid of everyone who had anything to do with it. Someone has to be left to do the daily chores.
And denied it the entire time. I remember the lies. The constant lies that made me want to scream!
Don’t trust her. Full stop.
I don’t trust her either. . . . but she’ll get confirmation. I admit to being blind to her qualifications. She is still defending torture via legalities, and I can’t get past that.
Look, we have this thing with holding no one accountable for what they do in office from the Bush Admin. Bolton now in the inner circle. Even Libby gets pardoned for christmas sake. The weird nostalgia for/reclamation of GWB and those years is among the most despicable consequences of the Trump era. Putting this person in charge at the CIA, instead of keeping her in the shadows, or even firing her, just continues to take us backwards. She has shown she is spineless and knows no moral compass. We shouldn’t be surprised by anything that happens under her watch.