Haspel confirmed as new chief of CIA
Nelson, 5 Democrats join GOP on vote, despite her role in covert torture
WASHINGTON — Veteran spy Gina Haspel will become the first female director of the CIA after six Democrats joined Republicans in a Senate confirmation vote Thursday that overrode concerns about her role in the spy agency’s harsh interrogation program after Sept. 11.
The 54-45 vote split both parties, and the margin was the closest for a CIA nominee in the nearly seven decades that a nod from the Senate has been required.
Haspel, who has spent nearly all of her 33year CIA career in undercover positions, is the first career operations officer to be confirmed since William Colby in 1973.
Haspel, 61, is a native of Kentucky but grew up around the world as the daughter of an Air Force serviceman. She worked in Africa, Europe and classified locations around the globe and was tapped as deputy director of the CIA last year. She worked under former CIA Director Mike Pompeo
until President Donald Trump moved him to secretary of state.
She was backed by many in the CIA rank-and-file and was robustly supported by senior intelligence officials, including six former CIA directors and three former national intelligence directors, who said that Haspel had earned the chance to take the helm of the nation’s premier spy agency.
National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said she has integrity and both frontline and executive intelligence expertise. “We salute Director Haspel, a trailblazer who today becomes the first woman to lead the CIA,” he said.
Former CIA Directors John Brennan and Leon Panetta contacted at least five of the six Democrats who voted to endorse her bid to join Trump’s Cabinet, according to people with knowledge of the interactions.
Her opponents argued it was not right to promote someone who supervised a covert detention site in Thailand where terror suspects were waterboarded, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning. They said the U.S. needed to close what was one of the CIA’s darkest chapters that tainted America’s image with allies abroad.
Several senators said Haspel was not forthcoming in answering questions about her role in the torture program or the CIA’s decision to destroy video-taped evidence of the sessions. They also had questions about her rejection of the now-banned techniques.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a floor speech that Haspel “offered up almost the classic Washington nonapology.”
He asked how the Senate could take seriously Haspel’s “conversion on torture?”
Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., said the world was watching the confirmation vote, which he called a “referendum on torture.” He said the “enhanced interrogation techniques” the CIA used at black sites, including slamming detainees against walls and confining them in coffin-shaped boxes, amounted to “government-sanctioned torture.”
Haspel has vowed never to restart such a program and says her “strong moral compass” would prevent her from carrying out any presidential order she found objectionable.
That was enough to coax some senators into the “yes” column.
But Leahy said he still questioned her judgment and lamented that she has never publicly condemned torture as “immoral.”
He wondered aloud what Haspel would do if she’s asked to do something that goes against America’s core values. “Should we trust that she will have the moral compass to stand up and say N`o?’ ” he asked. “Based on what we’ve seen, I do not.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, DCalif., said the nomination was not just about Haspel, but the U.S. grappling with its past mistakes.
“The bottom line is this: No one has ever been held accountable for the torture program and I do not believe those who were intimately involved in it deserve to lead the agency,” she said before casting her vote against Haspel.
Since Trump nominated Haspel, her confirmation has been clouded by debate over the CIA’s former interrogation program.
A protester in the Senate visitor gallery briefly disrupted speeches ahead of the vote with shouts against the CIA.
Two Republicans voted against Haspel — Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who is battling cancer, opposed her but did not vote.
Six Democrats, however, were heartened by her vow to never restart harsh interrogation programs, even if Trump requested it. They said they voted for Haspel because they thought her experience was essential in confronting today’s threats from U.S. adversaries like Russia, North Korea, China and Iran.
Among Democrats supporting Haspel were several up for re-election this fall in states where Trump is popular, including Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Bill Nelson in Florida. Also voting yes were Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking member of the intelligence committee.
“This has not been an easy decision,” Warner said, adding that he’d met and talked with Haspel many times recently. He said he is convinced that Haspel would stand up to Trump, who has said “torture works.”
After the vote, human rights groups denounced the confirmation and the nowdefunct program.
“The Senate has now rewarded that atrocious conduct by promoting someone that reportedly administered it to lead one of the government’s most powerful agencies,” said Daphne Eviatar at Amnesty International USA.