CIA nominee to pledge not to restart detention, interrogation programmes

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s choice for CIA chief is privately assuring senators that she will not reinstitute a detention and interrogation programme and will make the pledge publicly at her May 9 confirmation hearing, two sources said on Friday.

Deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel plans to give the commitment in her “opening statement and she has been telling members that as well,” a congressional aide said on condition of anonymity.

Word of the pledge comes as Haspel’s nomination encounters opposition over her role in a nowdefunct programme in which the agency detained and interrogated Al Qaeda suspects in secret prisons overseas using techniques widely condemned as torture.

An administration official confirmed that Haspel has been pledging in private interviews with senators that she will never allow the CIA to revive a detention and interrogation programme.

She also is telling them that all US government agencies involved in interrogations should observe the standards set in a US Army field manual on interrogations, said the administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Daniel Hoffman, a former senior CIA official who knows Haspel well, said he believed she has learned valuable lessons from the aftermath of the harsh interrogation programme.

Trump named Haspel, the first woman tapped to head the agency, to succeed Mike Pompeo. — Reuters