By
DEB RIECHMANN | March 18, 2018 1:12 pm
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Gina Haspel’s long spy career is so shrouded in mystery that senators
want documents declassified so they can decide if her role at a CIA black site
should prevent her from directing the agency.
It’s
a deep dive into Haspel’s past that reflects key questions about her future:
Would she support President Donald Trump if he tried to reinstate waterboarding
and, in his words, “a lot worse”? Is Haspel the right person to lead the CIA at
a time of escalating Russian aggression and ongoing extremist threats?
Haspel’s
upcoming confirmation hearing will be laser-focused on the time she spent
supervising a secret prison in Thailand. The CIA won’t say when in 2002 Haspel
was there, but at various times that year interrogators at the site sought to
make terror suspects talk by slamming them against walls, keeping them from
sleeping, holding them in coffin-sized boxes and forcing water down their
throats — a technique called waterboarding.
Haspel
also is accused of drafting a memo calling for the destruction of 92 videotapes
of interrogation sessions. Their destruction in 2005 prompted a lengthy Justice
Department investigation that ended without charges.
“We
should not be asked to confirm a nominee whose background cannot be publicly
discussed and who cannot then be held accountable for her actions,” said Sen.
Martin Heinrich, who joined other Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee
in asking the CIA to declassify more details about Haspel. “The American public
deserves to know who its leaders are.”
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