Warning to CIA nominee: No torture

Gina Haspel, President Trump’s nominee to lead the CIA, reportedly considered withdrawing from consideration because she didn’t want to become “the next Ronny Jackson.” That comparison is apt only in that she could and should face difficult questioning from the Senate, as Trump’s one-time nominee to lead the Veterans Administration would have. But the reasons for that are very different. Jackson was flagrantly unqualified to lead the secondlargest federal agency. Haspel, a 33-year CIA veteran with strong relationships within the agency, is unquestionably capable of stepping into the top job. Jackson faced character questions about his personal conduct and treatment of subordinates. Haspel does not.

The questions surrounding her nomination are more portentous . ... Whether Haspel was an enthusiastic proponent of what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as “enhanced interrogation techniques” or simply following along with tactics that the White House claimed at the time were legal ... . We need to understand not only what she did and why but what her views are on torture going forward.

Waterboarding is a form of simulated drowning that leaves no physical scars but has profound psychological effects on its victims, often lasting for years. It unquestionably is torture, and it is only one of a series of tactics the CIA used to interrogate prisoners suspected of having information about terrorist activities. Aside from the moral implications, its use at a time when the United States faced acute threats from an enemy that disregarded the rules of war was a major strategic blunder . ...

There is also little evidence that waterboarding and other forms of torture actually produced the intelligence the CIA sought. Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who was himself subject to torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, has ... pressed Haspel on her record. His vote — already questionable because his health issues might keep him away — is critical, given Republicans 51-49 edge in the Senate.

It’s important to know Haspel’s views on the Bush-era torture program and particularly to hear her side of the story on the destruction of videotapes of waterboarding. But most crucially, we need to hear her renounce the use of waterboarding and other cruel interrogation techniques because there is no reason to believe the president she would serve would shy away from pressing for their use.

We don’t prejudge Haspel’s fitness to lead the CIA, but we do have real concerns about the possibility that the agency could return to what McCain aptly described as one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history. This isn’t about politics. It’s about American moral leadership, and we urge the Senate to take its responsibility seriously.