What Trump likes about Gina Haspel, first woman CIA chief
When you’re the president of the world’s largest economy, your words and actions make a difference to billions. Yet, you are judged by different standards than, say, the presidents of Russia and China. Unfair, don’t you think? You are expected to protect human rights, spend freely on your allies and partners, and rush to the aid and defence of peoples in distress while eschewing your domestic and political interests.
Since he is of democratic stock, the president of the United States has been constrained by a curious historical burden, a trap, of being the nicest guy on the planet, who is expected to spout noble things, even to enemies who could range from despots to terrorists.
The US president’s security and intelligence chiefs’ careers should be spotless and above board even while extracting confessions from mass murderers. So, waterboarding as a means of gaining vital information that could foil a terror plot is ruled out. No torture. Period. How about a spoonful of sugar, wise guy?
But America’s new external spy chief, Gina Haspel, finally made it as head of the Pentagon after facing several hurdles, including charges about her character. She allegedly presided over the torture of suspects in the 9/11 attacks under former president George W. Bush. She had no choice but to do what she was told by her bosses in the CIA. Some bad and some not-so-bad guys got hurt in the process. They were taken to distant lands, thousands of miles away from their families and civilisation, under a covert programme called ‘renditions’. The information gleaned from suspects prevented future attacks, but others were false alarms.
Haspel, a career spy, was directly responsible for running such a facility in Thailand, and her role during that turbulent period when the ‘war on terror’ was at its peak, came in for all-round scrutiny.
However, Haspel’s hearings were a breeze in the end. She “sailed through”, showed grit under pressure to become the first woman CIA director, a tribute to an operations officer who rose through the ranks. US President Donald Trump has often been slammed for placing loyalty over merit but to his credit, merit won this time.
“Our enemies will take note. Gina is strong, she is tough, and when it comes to defending America, Gina will never, ever back down,” said Trump of his choice for the top job. Spycraft can be tricky business where the lines between morality, security and compassion blur. But when it comes to a choice between the three, leaders will not hesitate to pick security, for defending a country’s interests is sacrosanct. It’s something they cannot turn their backs on. Checks and balances are built into the American system, which makes a show of transparency by parading its top intelligence official to the public, which is unheard of in other countries.
Yet, we have been swept into servitude by the sound of sweet-sounding words from Presidents like Barack Obama, who elevated teleprompting into an art form. Why, some people even expect rectitude of lofty heights, and soulsearching of unfathomable depths. They forget that have elected a politician, a mortal with failings.
And the democratic process which gets him there constitutes deal-making with political power-brokers, being funded by corporates and citizens while roping in some shady friends and family to reach out to the masses.
The process has never been clean, or transparent, right from the time of George Washington, the first president of the most resilient democratically elected presidential system. Early Presidents like Thomas Jefferson allegedly sired children from slaves and concubines.
Personal accountability and morality in the White House reached a nadir from 1961-63, during the short-lived term of John F. Kennedy. Affairs, call-girls and a certain Norma Jean were the toast of the presidential circuit. Those were the days, old-timers would say, the swinging sixties was a period of rebellion, of liberation, and JFK, as he was fondly called, could be forgiven his trespasses.
Now, there are black clouds over the White House, an ogre walks its hallowed portal, the liberal media drones on. I am tired of hearing the refrain that the administration of Donald J. Trump is in meltdown, that it lacks transparency and decency, that the choices it makes puts the world order in peril (as if it already isn’t). Trump loves loyalty more that merit, is another of their favourite lines.
I don’t hold a torch for the 45th President of the United States. Trump’s picks for top posts have been disastrous, or maybe they simply couldn’t didn’t get along with the big man. Failed liberals feel he is unconventional, unpresidential and uncouth. But the good news is that even with his aura of unpredictability, he has delivered.
The US economy has returned to the top of the global competiveness rankings, unemployment is at a new low and Trump is defying the odds and pundits who thought they knew it all. “The economy’s comeback was mainly driven by economic performance, government efficiency, capital provision and digital infrastructure,” said the authors of the study compiled by Swiss Business School IMD.
Sure, the presidency should be questioned for its excesses and its revolving door policies (22 top officials have left the administration in 16 months), but what roils me is that the battle between mainstream media, which Trump disparagingly calls ‘fake news media’, has become intensely personal and so spiteful that I fear it has reached a point of no return.
His actions, appointments and statements goad them into posing more questions derived from anonymous sources than finding answers to the problems confronting the profession that is losing its voice to corporate interests and Big Tech like Amazon.
The media needs to introspect and the president needs to improve his perception index. Gina Haspel’s elevation could be a nice place to start.