For an Audio Version of this article click here:
Gina Haspel is the first woman to be tapped as head of the Central Intelligence Agency, but it is likely to be a rocky confirmation if the left has anything to say about it. A CIA veteran who has been with the agency since 1985, Ms. Haspel is not without controversy. Thus, swishy progressives are already gunning for her head on a platter.
As is the CIA’s wont for their people, Ms. Haspel isn’t all that well known except for her role in the National Clandestine Service where she is said to have participated in waterboarding and other niceties that come with the job. Naturally, the howling from the left has already begun in earnest. The Washington Post (surprise, surprise) quoted the former legal director of the ACLU Jameel Jaffer as saying Haspel is “quite literally a war criminal.”
But Steven Meyer, Dean of the Daniel Morgan Graduate School, which trains young people to work in the National Security field tells Liberty Nation, “Gail Haspel is a well-thought of, long-serving CIA officer. She came up through the ranks, is smart, well-spoken and professional. If Trump will listen to her, she will be a star.”
Will the Real Gina Haspel Please Stand Up
It’s unclear whether Ms. Haspel or the actual black site she worked at was codenamed the “Cat’s Eye.” But either way, it does seem she has the stomach for the job. Haspel apparently ran the Thailand operation that didn’t exactly treat its occupants with caviar and Champagne. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah were two al Qaeda members who were subject to Ms. Haspel’s largesse at the CIA’s hotel. Let’s just say it didn’t go well for them. But then again, al Qaeda is such a friendly group that when you get on their wrong side, they’ll take a machete to your head and post it on Facebook.
James N. Glerum, former CIA senior officer for the Central Intelligence Agency told Liberty Nation that he, “cannot imagine anything more irrelevant for the media to be dwelling on than her overseeing the interrogation of al Qaeda prisoners by totally accepted practices approved at the time by the CIA and Justice Department. Just because the media and others, after the fact, judged the practices not in keeping with our country’s standards, that opinion does not make the practices any less legal.”
Good point, Mr. Glerum.
Any way you cut it, the CIA is not for the faint of heart, and clearly, Ms. Haspel has excelled in this uncommon arena. In fact, she’s been highly decorated in her time at The Agency as a recipient of the George H. W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism, the Donovan Award, the Presidential Rank Award and the Intelligence Medal of Merit. Not too shabby for the old resume. Of course, these commendations aren’t handed out like candy on Halloween in the Intelligence community. Suffice it to say this is one tough broad.
Most of Haspel’s CIA time though has been down in the trenches doing undercover work all over the face of the earth. She is, quite simply, the consummate spy and the fact that she is an “insider” rather than a political appointee will be applauded by those at Langley. Being well respected by one’s colleagues counts for something, and that should bode well for her running of the CIA.
But first, she needs to get past the leftist loonies who will be spouting chapter and verse of her clandestine activities. Well, it’s not just the left who is ready to throttle her. Enter Senator John McCain (R-AZ) who said in a statement:
“The torture of detainees in U.S. custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history. Ms. Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA’s interrogation program during the confirmation process. I know the Senate will do its job in examining Ms. Haspel’s record as well as her beliefs about torture and her approach to current law.”
One can certainly understand Senator McCain’s personal aversion to torture, but for someone with an “R” after his name, he certainly does have a knack for saying something, “devoid of reason and realism” as written by Liberty Nation’s Graham Noble.
One thing is certain – Gina Haspel has no illusions about the CIA. She is part and parcel of its covert and clandestine activities, and perhaps that’s just the ticket for being top-dog at the Central Intelligence Agency.
