Gina Haspel tells Senate she won’t let the CIA resume torture program
WASHINGTON — Under fire for her still-murky role in the CIA’s imprisonment and torture of terrorism suspects after the 9/11 attacks, Gina Haspel pledged Wednesday that she would not allow the spy agency to restart the troubled program if she is confirmed as director.
“I want to be clear,” Haspel told the Senate Intelligence Committee at her confirmation hearing. “Having served in that tumultuous time, I can offer you my personal commitment, clearly and without reservation, that under my leadership CIA will not restart such a detention and interrogation program.”
After a 33-year career spent almost entirely undercover, Haspel pitched herself to the committee as an intelligence veteran who has the loyalty of the CIA workforce and the knowledge to run its espionage and other operations around the globe.
“I know CIA like the back of my hand,” she said.
Haspel’s confirmation is expected to hinge on how she answers questions about counterterrorism operations after the al-Qaida attacks of 2001, including her role running a then-secret CIA “black site” prison in Thailand in 2002 where suspects were waterboarded.
Pressed by the committee, Haspel addressed another controversial episode in her career — her participation in the destruction of dozens of videotapes of harsh interrogations at the facility in Thailand.
Haspel confirmed that she drafted a cable for a supervisor who ordered the videotapes to be shredded in 2005. She cited a 2011 memo, which the CIA released prior to the hearing, that concluded she did not break agency rules.
She said senior CIA officials were worried that the videos could be used to identify undercover CIA officers who took part in the waterboarding and other abuses.
“There was a great deal of concern about the security risk posed to CIA officers” if the tapes were made public or fell into the wrong hands, Haspel said.
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the committee chairman and a supporter of Haspel, tried to separate the dispute over what the CIA called its enhanced interrogation tactics, which critics called torture, from the question of whether Haspel should be confirmed.
“Some may seek to turn this nomination into a trial about a long-shuttered program,” he said. “This hearing is not about programs already addressed by executive order, legislation and the court of law,” a reference to how the CIA now is required to use the same interrogation tactics as the U.S. military.
Burr said Haspel has “acted morally, ethically and legally.”