Gina Haspel
[7] Between October and December 2002, Haspel was assigned to oversee a secret CIA prison in Thailand Detention Site GREEN, code-named Cat's Eye, which housed persons suspected of involvement in Al-Qaeda.[13][14] Haspel has attracted controversy for her role as chief of a CIA black site in Thailand in 2002 in which prisoners were tortured[15][16][17] with so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques", including waterboarding.[24][25] She worked at a site that was codenamed "Cat's Eye", which would later become known as the place where suspected al Qaeda terrorist members Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah were detained and tortured with waterboarding.[25][27] In August 2018, cables from the site, dating from November 2002 and likely authorized by if not written by Haspel, were released due to a Freedom of Information lawsuit, and described the torture of Nashiri in detail, including slamming him against a wall, confining him to a small box, waterboarding him, and depriving him of sleep and clothing, while threatening to turn him over to others who would kill him.[25][30][31] A partially-declassified CIA document shows that the instruction for a new method of record keeping at the black site in Thailand, re-recording over the videos, took place in late October 2002, soon after Haspel's arrival.[34] On June 7, 2017, the ECCHR called on the Public Prosecutor General of Germany to issue an arrest warrant against Haspel over claims she oversaw the torture of terrorism suspects.[35][36][37][38][39] On May 1, 2018, Spencer Ackerman, writing in The Daily Beast, reported that former CIA analyst Gail Helt had been told some of the controversial torture recordings had not been destroyed, after all.In his memoir, Rodriguez wrote that Haspel had drafted a cable in 2005 ordering the destruction of dozens of videotapes made at the black site in Thailand in response to mounting public scrutiny of the program.I join their request.On February 15, 2017, Spencer Ackerman reported on psychologists Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, the architects of the "enhanced interrogation" program that was designed to break Zubaydah and was subsequently used on other detainees at the CIA's secret prisons around the world.Jessen and Mitchell are being sued by Sulaiman Abdulla Salim, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, and Obaid Ullah over torture designed by the psychologists.[49][50] On March 13, 2018, President Donald Trump announced he would nominate Haspel to be the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, replacing Mike Pompeo—whom he tapped to become the new Secretary of State.[63][64][65] In April, a group of 109 retired generals and admirals signed a letter expressing "profound concern" over Haspel's nomination due to her record and alleged involvement in the CIA's use of torture and the subsequent destruction of evidence.[73] Paul and Jeff Flake of Arizona were the only Republican nays, and six Democrats — Donnelly, Manchin, Warner, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Bill Nelson of Florida, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire — voted yes.On January 29, 2019, during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Haspel reported that the CIA was "pleased" with the first Trump administration's March 2018 expulsion of 61 Russian diplomats following the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.
Director of the Central Intelligence AgencyDonald TrumpVaughn BishopMike PompeoBill BurnsDeputy Director of the Central Intelligence AgencyDavid CohenDirector of the National Clandestine ServiceBarack ObamaAshland, KentuckyUniversity of KentuckyUniversity of LouisvilleNortheastern UniversityPresidential Rank AwardIntelligence Medal of MeritU.S. secretary of stateUnited States Air ForceUnited KingdomBachelor of ScienceFort Devensstation chiefAl-Qaedaextraordinary renditionSeptember 11 attackswaterboardinginterrogation of Abu ZubaydahAbd al-Rahim al-NashiriCarol RosenbergMiami HeraldGuantanamo Military CommissionKhalid Sheikh MohammedGuantanamo Bay Naval Stationblack siteThailandtorturedenhanced interrogation techniquesBush Administrationset of secret, now-rescinded legal opinionsexecutive authorityFreedom of InformationGeorge Washington UniversityNational Security Archivecablesal QaedaterroristAbu ZubaydahProPublicatorture of Zubaydahdestruction of 92 interrogation videotapesEuropean Center for Constitutional and Human Rightsnon-governmental organizationPublic Prosecutor General of GermanySpencer AckermanThe Daily BeastGail HeltThe New York TimesNational Resources DivisionJose Rodriguezthe destruction of dozens of videotapesJohn BrennanNational Clandestine ServiceDianne FeinsteinHouse Permanent Select Committee on IntelligenceDevin NunesSenateintelligence committeeSheldon WhitehouseRon WydenMartin HeinrichBruce JessenJames MitchellMohamed Ahmed Ben SoudJames CotsanaMeroe ParkRobert BaerRand PaulJohn McCainSenate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torturegenerate positive coveragedirectors of national intelligenceLeon PanettaMichael MorellMichael HaydenJames ClapperFairness and Accuracy in ReportingThe Washington PostJoe DonnellyJoe ManchinSenate Intelligence CommitteeMark WarnerJeff FlakeHeidi HeitkampBill NelsonJeanne ShaheenPresidentJohn BoltonDan Coatsfirst Trump administrationpoisoning of Sergei and Yulia SkripalTreasury DepartmentRussian oligarchOleg DeripaskaVladimir Putinrecent relationsNorth KoreaKim Jong-undeath hoaxserver farmFrankfurtfact-checkingJoe BidenWilliam J. BurnsKing & SpaldingUnited States ArmyAshburn, VirginiaCriticism of the war on terrorExtrajudicial prisoners of the United StatesThe AustralianMyre, GregCBS NewsPoliticoCentral Intelligence AgencyNewsweekGoldman, AdamMcClatchy News ServiceGuantanamo