The US Senate on Thursday confirmed Gina Haspel as the next CIA director, despite deep reservations among some lawmakers that her past involvement in the harsh interrogation of terror suspects was a red flag. A key US Senate panel on Wednesday greenlighted the nomination of veteran covert operative Gina Haspel to become director of the Central Intelligence Agency, despite her involvement in the torture of Al-Qaeda detainees in the early 2000s. It will make Haspel, a 61-year-old Russia specialist, the first-ever woman to lead the CIA, and the first director who spent an entire career in the agency’s clandestine services. Former CIA officials say Haspel oversaw a secret prison in Thailand run by the agency where Al-Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were water-boarded. “Gina Haspel is precisely the kind of truth teller you want in the room when important decisions are being made,” said former CIA director Michael Hayden.

Source: Punch May 17, 2018 20:03 UTC