CIA files handed to panel
Democrats: Lift Haspel-data veil
WASHINGTON — The CIA hand-delivered classified documents related to Gina Haspel’s bid to become the agency’s director to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday, as the panel’s top Democrat excoriated the nominee for a “lack of transparency” in refusing to make records about her career publicly available.
“By failing to declassify much about your work at headquarters, including decisions that could be relevant to the nomination, the Agency has opened itself up to the criticism that it is only releasing favorable materials while suppressing related items that could reflect negatively,” committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., wrote in a letter Monday to Haspel, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. In it, Warner pointed out that as acting director, Haspel could herself order the declassification of materials senators wanted released.
The latest clash between committee Democrats and Haspel came just two days before she is scheduled to face the full panel in an open session Wednesday for a nomination hearing that is expected to be so contentious that Haspel recently contemplated withdrawing her nomination.
President Donald Trump offered support Monday for Haspel, dismissing concerns about her role in interrogations of terrorist suspects that prompted her offer to withdraw last week.
“My highly respected nominee for CIA Director, Gina Haspel, has come under fire because she was too tough on Terrorists,” the president wrote on Twitter. “Think of that, in these very dangerous times, we have the most qualified person, a woman, who Democrats want OUT because she is too tough on terror. Win Gina!”
On Friday, Haspel sought to drop her nomination after some White House officials worried that her role in the interrogation of terrorist suspects could prevent her confirmation by the Senate, according to four senior U.S. officials.
Haspel told the White House that she was interested in stepping aside if it avoided the spectacle of a brutal confirmation hearing and potential damage to the
CIA’s reputation and her own, the officials said.
She was summoned to the White House on Friday for a meeting over her history with the CIA’s controversial interrogation program — which employed techniques such as waterboarding that are widely seen as torture — and signaled that she was going to withdraw her nomination.
In late 2002, Haspel oversaw a secret CIA detention facility in Thailand, where one al-Qaida suspect was waterboarded. Another detainee also was waterboarded before Haspel’s arrival.
By Saturday, however, she decided to stay the course and testify this week.
Haspel would not want to stay in “if she felt her nomination would be a problem” for the CIA, but the White House has complete confidence in her, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday.
Haspel is likely to field questions about the roles she played in the CIA’s controversial enhanced interrogation program, including drafting a memo ordering the destruction of videotaped evidence of such measures being used. And many of her answers will be broadcast live.
Should she perform well, it is possible that she could clinch the nomination: Republicans are generally supportive of her candidacy, and a handful of Democrats — such as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. — have sounded positive notes about their most recent interactions with her.
Haspel probably needs at least some Democrats to support her confirmation, as not all Republicans in the 5149 split Senate have pledged to support her nomination.
Haspel was on Capitol Hill on Monday for a series of meetings with senators on the panel whose potential support is in doubt. It is the latest phase of an all-out
campaign to bid up her candidacy that has accelerated in the past few weeks. Senior intelligence figures — such as former CIA Director Leon Panetta, according to a congressional aide — were dispatched to persuade skeptical senators to support her nomination.
Asked if there was any chance she would withdraw, Haspel told reporters, “Looking forward to Wednesday,” as she entered Manchin’s office.
But Warner’s letter suggests that the campaign has not been altogether successful. He joins the ranks of several committee Democrats who have been openly critical of Haspel’s tenure and the CIA’s reluctance to declassify documents that would detail her 33-year career at the agency, 32 of them spent in clandestine operations.
The CIA’s delivery of additional, classified materials to the committee Monday — most of which were related to her biography at the CIA, and most of which panel members already had access to, according to an aide — was seen as unlikely to satisfy those frustrations.
“As acting Director Haspel promised, CIA delivered a set of classified documents to the Senate today so that every senator can review acting Director Haspel’s actual, and outstanding record,” said CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani on Monday.
“These documents cover the entirety of her career, including her time in CIA’s Counter Terrorism Center in the years after 9/11. We encourage every senator to take the time to read the entire set of documents.”
Some lawmakers have read the 6,000-page still-classified report on the detention and interrogation program that the Senate intelligence committee issued in 2014.
“I believe what we have here is a cover-up from A to Z,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who contends the administration has only selectively declassified material and has waged a public influence campaign that has clouded the nomination process.
“I believe that it is possible to declassify much of it without in any way compromising the security and well-being of the American people,” Wyden said in an interview. “And I do believe that if the American people could see what I’ve seen I believe they would be calling their senator and urging their senator to vote against the nominee.”
Last month, the CIA declassified an internal review that cleared Haspel of any wrongdoing in the 2005 decision to destroy videotaped evidence of interrogation techniques being employed, noting that Haspel was only following the orders of her boss in drafting the relevant memo. A few days later, the agency told senators that it would not declassify any more materials related to Haspel’s tenure at CIA, prompting accusations that the agency was attempting to politically influence the nomination process.
Using extreme interrogation techniques to pry information from detainees currently is against the law, but some lawmakers worry that Trump will try to reinstate it and will get Haspel to go along.
Trump has talked about toughening the U.S. approach to fighting extremists, including waterboarding and a “hell of a lot worse.”
In private meetings with senators, Haspel has vowed to stand firm against any effort to restart the harsh interrogations, but it’s unclear if that pledge will be enough to reassure wary Democrats.
“She’s a professional,” said Manchin, who hasn’t yet said how he’ll vote. “She deserves the right for us to open-mindedly — and in a very open way — listen to her, letting her explain herself and the job that she’s done for her country.”