Haspel: Torture doesn’t work for interrogation
CIA nominee decries tactics
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s CIA nominee said Wednesday at her confirmation hearing that she doesn’t believe torture works as an interrogation technique and that her “strong moral compass” would prevent her from carrying out any presidential order she found objectionable.
Under questioning by members of the Senate intelligence committee, acting CIA Director Gina Haspel said she would not permit the spy agency to restart the kind of harsh detention and interrogation program it ran at black sites after Sept. 11. It was one of the darkest chapters of the CIA’s history and tainted America’s image worldwide.
Senators asked how she would respond if Trump — who has said he supports harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding and “a hell of a lot worse” — ordered her to do something she found morally objectionable.
“I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if it was technically legal,” said Haspel, a 33-year veteran of the agency. “I would absolutely not permit it.”
Asked whether she agrees with the president’s assertion that torture works, Haspel said: “I don’t believe that torture works.” She added that she doesn’t think Trump would ask the CIA to resume waterboarding, which simulates drowning.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat who sits on the Senate intelligence committee, pressed Haspel on the moral implications of torture and asked her whether torture is “consistent with American values” and “what would you do if the president asked you to get back in that business?”
I would not restart under any circumstances an interrogation program at the CIA,” Haspel replied. “I believe every strongly in American values and America being an example to the rest of the world.”
Heinrich was one of six Democratic senators who sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday asking that a report written by U.S. Attorney John Durham, a former special prosecutor, regarding the destruction of videotapes by the CIA, known as the Durham report, be released to senators before they vote on Haspel’s nomination. The Democrats wrote that they “believe that no senator can consider Ms. Haspel’s nomination in good conscience without first reviewing this document.”
Heinrich has said he plans to vote against confirmation of the CIA nominee.
Haspel faces what will likely be a close confirmation vote in the full Senate. The CIA director position opened up after Mike Pompeo was named secretary of state. Haspel would be the first female CIA director.
Although she has deep experience, her nomination is contentious because she was chief of base of a covert detention site in Thailand where terror suspects were waterboarded. There also have been questions about how she drafted a cable that her boss used to order the destruction of videotapes of interrogation sessions conducted at the site.
Protesters disrupted the hearing, shouting, “Prosecute the torturers!” and “Bloody Gina!” Haspel remained stone-faced as police escorted them out of the room.
“I realize that there are strong disagreements on the effectiveness of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program,” Haspel wrote in answers to more than 100 questions submitted by committee members and released at her hearing.
She also said there is little question that the program harmed CIA officers who participated and that it damaged U.S. relations with allies.