Trump pick for CIA director Gina Haspel played role in torture

Trump pick for CIA director Gina Haspel played role in torture

Gina Haspel ran CIA's first 'black site' in Thailand and was involved in the destruction of videotapes of interrogations

18 Mar 2018 14:32 GMT

Clarification 18/03/2018:: A previous version of this article has been edited to reflect a correction issued on March 17 by ProPublica which stated they had inaccurately described Gina Haspel's role in the treatment of Abu Zubaydah.

Gina Haspel has been named by US President Donald Trump as new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, becoming the first woman to hold the post if confirmed by the Senate.

Trump announced last week that Haspel, currently the intelligence agency's deputy director, would be replacing Mike Pompeo, who was appointed the new secretary of state after incumbent Rex Tillerson was sacked on Tuesday. 

In a statement issued by Trump to the Washington Post, he said the nomination of Gina Haspel was "a historic milestone". Speaking to reporters, the president said Haspel is "an outstanding person".

But Haspel's career is a point of concern with many human rights advocates. Haspel became the US spy agency's second-in-command in February 2017, but joined the CIA as an intelligence officer in 1985.

Her former posts at the intelligence agency include deputy director of the national clandestine service for foreign intelligence and covert action.

The former Deputy CIA head has operated "black site" prisons and drafted orders to destroy evidence that would reveal torture.

"I think she's a particularly disastrous choice, being one of the principal actors" in the torture programme of former President George W Bush,  Alberto Mora, the former general counsel for the US Navy and a senior fellow at the Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy,

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