CIA’s 1st woman director
From right, Vice President Mike Pence, along with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, swears in Gina Haspel as the first woman director of the Central Intelligence Agency during a ceremony Monday at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. More about the ceremony,
LANGLEY, Va. — New CIA Director Gina Haspel pledged to send more spies into the field during her swearing-in Monday as President Donald Trump offered up praise for the rank-and-file, who felt snubbed during his first visit to the headquarters of the premier U.S. intelligence agency.
“We must learn from the past, but we cannot dwell in the past,” said Haspel, whose ascent from undercover operative to the top job was challenged because of her role in a program to harshly detain and interrogate terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks.
Haspel, 61, succeeds Mike Pompeo, whom Trump tapped to become secretary of state.
Haspel, who has 33 years in the CIA, also pledged to boost foreign language proficiency and strengthen the CIA’s partnerships with intelligence agencies in the U.S. and abroad.
Trump struck a different tone than on his previous visit to CIA headquarters. He hailed the agency rankand-file, calling them the “most elite intelligence professionals on the planet” and promised them the “the tools, the resources and the support they need.”
When Trump visited the CIA headquarters in January 2017, one day after taking office, it was on the back of his repeated criticisms of the U.S. intelligence community over its conclusion that Russian had interfered in the presidential election, and many of his remarks were focused on settling scores with the media.
His comments raised the ire of former intelligence officials because he spoke in front of a wall marked with stars representing fallen CIA officers, which was viewed as disrespectful.