CIA chief nominee Haspel rejects torture

DONALD TRUMP’S nominee to lead the CIA said she does not believe torture works and would refuse a presidential order she considered “immoral” even if it was legal.

Gina Haspel faces opposition from Democrats because of her role in waterboarding at a secret CIA prison in Thailand in 2002, and the destruction in 2005 of 92 tapes showing a detainee being waterboarded.

The career CIA officer sat calmly as her Senate confirmation hearing was twice interrupted by protesters, one in a suit, who were dragged away after shouting “Bloody Gina!” and “You’re a torturer!” Ms Haspel, 61, who would be the first female leader of the spy agency, said the years after the September 11, 2001 attacks had been a “tumultuous time”. She had been “in the trenches” in the fight against al-qaeda and was told by Washington that waterboarding was legal and approved by the US president.

During the 2016 election Mr Trump said he supported waterboarding and “a hell of a lot worse”. He was asked at the time by The Daily Telegraph what that meant but declined to elaborate.

Senators asked Ms Haspel if she would follow a direct order from Mr Trump that was legal, but that she found immoral. She said: “No. I believe CIA must undertake activities that are consistent with American values.”

Asked how she would respond to a direct order from Mr Trump to waterboard someone, she said: “We’re not in the business of interrogating detainees. I would not restart an interrogation programme at CIA under any circumstances.”