Haspel says she won’t use CIA abuse tactics
WASHINGTON » In a contentious confirmation hearing that reopened the painful debate over CIA abuse of terrorism suspects, Gina Haspel pledged Wednesday she would not revive the use of secret prisons and harsh interrogations if she is confirmed to lead the nation’s premier intelligence agency.
The Senate Intelligence Committee hearing served as an uncomfortable public debut for Haspel, a veteran but controversial CIA officer who spent nearly all of her 33-year career recruiting and managing spies as an undercover operative in Africa, Europe and Central Asia as well as at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
She came under fire from Democrats and some Republicans clearly nervous about whether endorsing Haspel would amount to whitewashing what the CIA called enhanced interrogation tactics, and what critics called torture, after the Sept. 11 attacks. The practices are now banned.
In 2002, Haspel briefly ran the CIA’s then-secret “black site” prison in Thailand, where detainees were waterboarded and subjected to sleep deprivation, body slamming and other abuses. Her role there is still mostly classified, and protesters interrupted the hearing by chanting “Bloody Gina” and “Don’t reward torture.”
“I want to be clear,” Haspel told the committee. “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.”
Her testimony helped tipped one crucial Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, to offer support, a sign that her confirmation in the full Senate appears more likely.
Haspel tried to assure skeptical senators that she wants to leave the discredited program in the past even as she defended her career in the shadows and sought to protect other intelligence professionals who might face legal jeopardy after participating in authorized operations.
The balancing act meant her answers sometimes grew tangled under pointed questioning. She pledged to follow her “moral compass” in the future, but declined to say whether she believed previous CIA practices were immoral. She said she supports laws that outlaw torture, but said the harsh interrogations were permitted under legal guidance at the time.
“I’m not going to sit here, with the benefit of hindsight, and judge the very good people who made hard decisions in extraordinary circumstances,” she said.
She also pushed back at times, calling it a “tragedy” that the interrogation controversy had cast a shadow on the CIA’s efforts to prevent another mass casualty terrorist event while the nation was still reeling from the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Haspel has drawn unusual support from current and former members of the intelligence community — dozens have publicly endorsed her — as she seeks confirmation in the full Senate.
Supportive Republicans said the focus on a few episodes from Haspel’s long career was regrettable.
“Many want to make your nomination about one small piece of the agency’s past,” said Sen. Richard M. Burr, R-N.C., the committee chairman. He praised Haspel as perhaps “the most qualified nominee ever nominated for this role.”
Democrats said they targeted her role in the interrogations because Trump said last year that he would “bring back” waterboarding, a painful process that involves pouring water on a prisoner’s face to simulate drowning.
The Senate hearing was marked by sharp exchanges with the two California Democrats.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Haspel whether she had advocated for destroying videotapes of interrogations at the CIA site in Thailand. Haspel helped draft a memo in 2005 for a supervisor who then ordered officers to feed dozens of tapes into an industrial shredder. Subsequent internal and criminal investigations resulted in no charges.
“I absolutely was an advocate,” Haspel responded. She said she was motivated to protect the CIA officers who participated in the interrogations. “I never watched the tapes. But I understood that our officers’ faces were on them.”
Sen. Kamala Harris pushed her further. “The president has asserted that torture works. Do you agree with that statement?” she asked.
“I don’t believe that torture works,” Haspel said. But she added a caveat. “We got valuable information from debriefing of al-Qaida detainees, and I don’t think it’s knowable whether interrogation techniques played a role in that.”
At another point, Haspel sidestepped repeated questions from Harris about the morality of waterboarding and other now-banned tactics. “Do you believe in hindsight that those techniques were immoral?” Harris asked.
“I think I’ve answered the question,” Haspel responded.
“No, you have not,” Harris said.