Haspel vows not to allow torture if confirmed for CIA
Trump official dismisses McCain’s objections, says ‘he’s dying anyway’
WASHINGTON— Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the CIA, defended the agency’s torture of terrorism suspects as her confirmation hearing Wednesday served as another reckoning of the extraordinary measures the government employed in the frantic hunt for the Sept. 11 conspirators.
Haspel, a 33-year CIA veteran who oversaw a secret prison in Thailand in 2002 while an Al Qaeda suspect was waterboarded there, said she and other spies were working within the law. Though the CIA should never resume that type of work, she said, its officers should also not be judged for doing it.
“I’m not going to sit here with the benefit of hindsight and judge the very good people who made hard decisions, who were running the agency in very extraordinary circumstances,” she told the Senate intelligence committee.
She vowed that she would not start another interrogation program like the one developed under president George W. Bush.
Democratic senators peppered her with confrontational questions from the outset. They repeatedly asked for details on Haspel’s role in some of the most notorious episodes of the interrogation program, including her conveyance of an order from her superior to destroy videotapes documenting 92 of the interrogations.
“I did not appear on the tapes,” she said.
At least one influential Republican, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, was unconvinced by Haspel’s assurances and dealt a symbolic blow to her nomination. In a statement Wednesday night, McCain, a former prisoner of war and the chairman of the Senate’s armed services committee, said “her refusal to acknowledge torture’s immo- rality is disqualifying,” and he urged his colleagues to vote against her.
Kelly Sadler, a special communications assistant to the president, dismissed the view expressed by McCain, saying Thursday that “it doesn’t matter” because “he’s dying anyway,” two people in the room told The Associated Press.
The White House did not dispute the remark, made in a closed-door communications staff meeting.
In a statement, the White House said, “We respect Senator McCain’s service to our nation and he and his family are in our prayers during this difficult time.”
The 81-year-old senator was diagnosed in July with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. He left Washington in December and underwent surgery last month for an infection.