On Thursday, Trump named Gina Haspel his deputy CIA director, agency head Mike Pompeo, saying: “Gina is an exemplary intelligence officer and a devoted patriot who brings more than 30 years of agency experience to the job. She is also a proven leader with an uncanny ability to get things done and to inspire those around her.”
“We are fortunate that someone of her intellect, skill, and experience will be our deputy director. I know she will do an outstanding job, and I look forward to working with her closely in the years ahead.”
She’s a modern-day Ilse Koch, wife of Karl Koch, Buchenwald concentration camp commandant from 1937—1941. Known as “the witch of Buchenwald” and similar pejoratives, survivors called her the camp’s “murderess,” notorious for sadistically abusing prisoners, taking pleasure in inflicting extreme cruelty.
Haspel is a career intelligence officer, the first woman to be named deputy CIA director. She ran an agency black site in Thailand, notorious for using torture during interrogations.
Post-9/11, she was instrumental in launching global black site torture prisons. Reportedly she was involved in destroying incriminating videotapes, showing torture at the facility she ran along with others.
Like all CIA operatives involved in torture, including top agency officials, she remains unaccountable for high crimes, rewarded instead of being prosecuted.
Candidate Trump said he’d “bring back waterboarding, and . . . a hell of a lot worse than this technique . . . You have to fight fire with fire,” he blustered.
He should know by now that torture violates international and constitutional law. Besides, it doesn’t work, used more for control and punishment than to obtain information.
Defense Secretary Mattis earlier said he “never found it to be useful.” Trump said he’ll let him decide, explaining his view on torture hasn’t changed.
Does appointing Haspel deputy CIA director mean he intends authorizing torture as official administration policy, whether or not it’s used?
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” Visit his blog at sjlendman.blogspot.com . Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.
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Torture prison head named deputy CIA director
Posted on February 6, 2017 by Stephen Lendman
On Thursday, Trump named Gina Haspel his deputy CIA director, agency head Mike Pompeo, saying: “Gina is an exemplary intelligence officer and a devoted patriot who brings more than 30 years of agency experience to the job. She is also a proven leader with an uncanny ability to get things done and to inspire those around her.”
“We are fortunate that someone of her intellect, skill, and experience will be our deputy director. I know she will do an outstanding job, and I look forward to working with her closely in the years ahead.”
She’s a modern-day Ilse Koch, wife of Karl Koch, Buchenwald concentration camp commandant from 1937—1941. Known as “the witch of Buchenwald” and similar pejoratives, survivors called her the camp’s “murderess,” notorious for sadistically abusing prisoners, taking pleasure in inflicting extreme cruelty.
Haspel is a career intelligence officer, the first woman to be named deputy CIA director. She ran an agency black site in Thailand, notorious for using torture during interrogations.
Post-9/11, she was instrumental in launching global black site torture prisons. Reportedly she was involved in destroying incriminating videotapes, showing torture at the facility she ran along with others.
Like all CIA operatives involved in torture, including top agency officials, she remains unaccountable for high crimes, rewarded instead of being prosecuted.
Candidate Trump said he’d “bring back waterboarding, and . . . a hell of a lot worse than this technique . . . You have to fight fire with fire,” he blustered.
He should know by now that torture violates international and constitutional law. Besides, it doesn’t work, used more for control and punishment than to obtain information.
Defense Secretary Mattis earlier said he “never found it to be useful.” Trump said he’ll let him decide, explaining his view on torture hasn’t changed.
Does appointing Haspel deputy CIA director mean he intends authorizing torture as official administration policy, whether or not it’s used?
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” Visit his blog at sjlendman.blogspot.com . Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.