Feinstein won’t back CIA pick
She joins McCain, others critical of Haspel’s links to torture
WASHINGTON — The author of the Senate’s comprehensive review of CIA interrogation practices formally announced Thursday that she would oppose Gina Haspel as the agency’s new director, arguing that confirming someone so closely tied to the program would in effect be telling the world that the United States endorses torture.
“This nomination is bigger than one person,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who released the 2014 torture report as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote in a statement. “For the Senate to confirm someone so involved with the program to the highest position at the CIA would in effect tell the world that we approve of what happened, and I absolutely do not.”
Feinstein’s declaration comes on the heels of a similar message from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who stated Wednesday night that while Haspel’s 33-year record of service at the CIA is impressive, her refusal to denounce her past involvement with the interrogation program as immoral disqualifies her as a potential director.
“Ms. Haspel’s role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality is disqualifying,” wrote McCain, who endured years of torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. “I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination.”
McCain’s decision will certainly influence the debate, but it may not block Haspel’s confirmation. The 81-year-old senator was diagnosed in July with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. McCain left Washington in December and hasn’t yet been able to return.
A White House official said Thursday at a staff meeting that McCain’s opposition “doesn’t matter” because “he’s dying anyway,” two people in the room told The Associated Press.
Kelly Sadler was discussing McCain’s opposition to Haspel when she made the comment, according to the two people, who described feeling shocked and stunned by the remark. They spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting of the communications staff.
The White House did not dispute the remark. In a statement, it said, “We respect Senator McCain’s service to our nation and he and his family are in our prayers during this difficult time.”
The Hill newspaper first reported the comment.
McCain led efforts during the George W. Bush administration to end the CIA’s harsh interrogation techniques.
“Like many Americans, I understand the urgency that drove the decision to resort to so-called enhanced interrogation methods after our country was attacked,” McCain said Wednesday.
Haspel, he said, was offered an opportunity to explain her involvement and “account for the mistakes the country made in torturing detainees.”
McCain said he remained unsatisfied with Haspel’s responses. “As I have argued many times, the methods we employ to keep our nation safe must be as right and just as the values we aspire to live up to and promote in the world,” he said.
Haspel’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday went fairly smoothly, as she sought to persuade senators that she would under no circumstances restart the CIA’s interrogation program, and that she would disobey any potential order from President Donald Trump to have the CIA do something she deemed to be either immoral or against American values.
But Haspel refused to disavow her past actions related to the program, arguing that she had been led to believe they were legal at the time.
In late 2002, Haspel took over a secret CIA prison in Thailand where detainees had been subjected to interrogation practices. Then, in 2005, she drafted a cable ordering the destruction of videotaped evidence of interrogation sessions on the orders of her superior — an episode for which she was internally cleared of any wrongdoing, but that has nonetheless haunted her candidacy to be CIA director.
Feinstein is one of several Democratic senators who also called on Haspel to declassify documents related to her mysterious career, so that they can be shared with the public. Most of those Democrats have pledged to oppose her nomination — though panel vice chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., who called the lack of transparency “unacceptable” in a letter to Haspel earlier this week, has yet to decide how he will vote.