Media outlets correct errors in stories about CIA nominee

CIA deputy director Gina Haspel ran a secret prison in Thailand in 2002. Although Haspel did run prison, it was after Al Qaeda suspect had been waterboarded there

NEW YORK— The news organization ProPublica issued a detailed correction of a story about Gina Haspel, U.S. President Donald Trump’s choice for the next CIA director, and the waterboarding of a detainee the year after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

It wasn’t alone: Other organizations, including The Associated Press, have issued their own corrections this week, illustrating the murkiness of reporting on the behaviour of official actions by public servants whose work, by its very nature, remains in the shadows.

The retraction and apology on Thursday by ProPublica, an organization of independent investigative journalists founded in 2007, was unusual in the amount of detail it offered about its reporting process. ProPublica concluded it was wrong last year in reporting that Gina Haspel was chief of a secret CIA “black site” in Thailand while suspected Al Qaeda detainee Abu Zubaydah was being interrogated there with waterboarding, a measure the UN regards as torture. That claim became relevant again this week with Trump’s proposed promotion of the longtime CIA official.

ProPublica also apologized for incorrectly saying that Haspel mocked Zubaydah’s suffering. The organization said it is now clear that Haspel was not in charge of the base until after Zubaydah’s interrogation was finished.

“We at ProPublica hold government officials responsible for their missteps, and we must be equally accountable,” wrote the site’s editor-in-chief, Stephen Engelberg. “This error was particularly unfortunate because it muddied an important national debate about Haspel and the CIA’s recent history.”

ProPublica said it was told by three former government officials, when Haspel became the No. 2 person at the CIA last year, that she had been head of the Thailand base at the time of Zubaydah’s waterboarding. The New York Times also reported that same detail last year.

But that was called into question this week, ProPublica said, when two of Haspel’s former colleagues said she did not arrive in Thailand until after Zubaydah’s interrogation. The site said its original story also relied on a book by James Mitchell, a CIA contractor who helped direct the waterboarding, and a faulty assumption made by the news site.

In his book, Mitchell at different times referred to the base’s chief as “he” or “she.” ProPublica said it assumed this was an attempt to conceal Haspel’s identity. But Mitchell told Fox News this week this wasn’t the case.

Engelberg wrote that the CIA declined to answer specific questions about Haspel before the story was written, although the agency said “nearly every piece of reporting that you are seeking comment on is incorrect in whole or in part.” ProPublica went ahead with the story, including that comment.

“The awkward communications between officials barred from disclosing classified information and reporters trying to reveal secrets in which there is legitimate public interest can sometimes end in miscommunication,” Engelberg wrote.

Other organizations similarly corrected the assertion that Haspel had been involved in Zubaydah’s interrogation.

The Atlantic cited ProPublica’s correction in updating its post, written by Ali Soufan, a former FBI official who said he participated in interrogation of Zubaydah without using any techniques regarded as torture. Soufan argues these techniques are not useful, and Haspel’s opinions should be an important part of her confirmation hearings. His original story stated Haspel was in charge of a prison where two detainees were tortured; it was corrected to say it was one.