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Trump's Pick for New CIA Director Is Career Spymaster (bloomberg.com) 313

An anonymous reader shares a AP report: President Donald Trump's choice to be the first female director of the CIA is a career spymaster who once ran an agency prison in Thailand where terror suspects were subjected to a harsh interrogation technique that the president has supported. Trump tweeted Tuesday that CIA Director Mike Pompeo will replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and that he has selected Gina Haspel to replace Pompeo. Haspel, the current deputy CIA director, also helped carry out an order that the agency destroy its waterboarding videos. That order prompted a lengthy Justice Department investigation that ended without charges. Haspel, who has extensive overseas experience, briefly ran a secret CIA prison where accused terrorists Abu Zubayadah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded in 2002, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
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Trump's Pick for New CIA Director Is Career Spymaster

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  • by Toad-san ( 64810 ) on Tuesday March 13, 2018 @08:50AM (#56251867)

    Wasn't I married to her once?

  • Thanks CNN.
  • I didn't get that impression from his Wikipedia page.
  • I'm against torture, (however much people use weasel words to underplay whatever "enhanced interrogation techniques" were used).
    It brings us down to the level of those who seek to destroy our society and its hard-won liberties and values.
    (I'm certainly not against them in battle or cold blood if they're caught in the act...)

    I'm also against the increasing trend of leaking:

    according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

    WTF? Intelligence officials briefing the press? Prosecute them!

    • Sorry, should read "...killing them in battle..." of course

    • by hey! ( 33014 ) on Tuesday March 13, 2018 @09:46AM (#56252183) Homepage Journal

      Leaking is remarkably rarely prosecuted, especially given how much administrations complain about it. The reason that administrations don't pursue leaking more aggressively is that the people in the administration want to preserve their own ability to leak.

      Leaking is an essential part of the way government works. It's going over the head of the regular channels and appealing directly to the people. This can be done for both personal/professional reasons, and for patriotic reasons.

      There has only been one exception to this pattern I can remember: the Obama administration. Obama didn't complain much about leakers publicly, he just quietly went after them. Only 13 people have ever been prosecuted under the Espionage Act of 1917, and eight of those thirteen were on Obama's watch.

    • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

      I'm also against the increasing trend of leaking:

      according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

      WTF? Intelligence officials briefing the press? Prosecute them!

      You do realize a lot of "leaks" are actually supported or directed by the administration or upper leadership of an agency, right? It's used as a way to control narratives, refute information that is about to be released by a news agency, as a way to get out information without making a formal statement, or even just to maintain relationships with friendly media.

    • I'm also against the increasing trend of leaking

      Why? Information frees.

  • by Lisandro ( 799651 ) on Tuesday March 13, 2018 @09:27AM (#56252085)

    So, Trump fired Tillerson just hours after this: https://twitter.com/ZekeJMille... [twitter.com] . Delicious.

    • by Rakarra ( 112805 )

      So, Trump fired Tillerson just hours after this: https://twitter.com/ZekeJMille... [twitter.com] . Delicious.

      Yeah, but Tillerson already knew he was getting fired. The writing was on the wall, and he didn't really have anything to lose here.

      The usual pattern for folks in the WH: Trump makes denigrating tweets about you, and then you're out. Trump had already started the tweets, John Kelly called Tillerson at 2:30am in Egypt (the night after he arrived in Africa) warning him of upcoming Presidential tweets that concerned him. Tillerson clears his schedule the next day due to "illness," he cuts his trip short, arriv

  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13, 2018 @09:29AM (#56252091)

    The word and the action is "TORTURE"

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Shouldn't it be "Spymistress"?

    Or is that sexist?

  • Er (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Tuesday March 13, 2018 @10:10AM (#56252355) Journal
    Er, is being a career spymaster a bad thing for leading the CIA? Just wondering.
    • Re:Er (Score:5, Insightful)

      by fredrated ( 639554 ) on Tuesday March 13, 2018 @10:29AM (#56252473) Journal

      Perhaps the bad thing is participating in the secret torture of untried human beings and destroying evidence, you think?

    • So you the dood who has never read a newspaper over the past 30 years, huh??? CIA's got a great record, you believe? Drop much acid, bubba????
    • I don't think people object to her being career spymaster as the whole torture thing.
    • No not really (except the torture part). What's bad is appointing the current CIA director to the Secretary of State position, even though he himself was hardly a career CIA guy. Who the hell would want to do diplomacy with a man whose agency spied and likely performed covert ops against your country?

  • The list of people who have either quit or have been escorted out of the White House by security continues to grow. The Trump administration has broken all records in regard to staff turnover, and it's only been a year.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/t... [wsj.com]

    THE BEST PEOPLE

  • I don't really have an opinion on Haspel, I am just very encouraged that Trump appointed someone who seems qualified for the position.
    Given his track record, I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if he appointed the VP of marketing for Kraft foods the CIA director.

    Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?

  • Her travel in Europe is somewhat restrictive, though since certain countries there would arrest her on sight, given her background in running Thai torture houses.
  • What should be bothersome, esp to western allies, is that she is inept and only moved up by being part of the far right wingers. She is, for all intents and purposes, a far right fascists who does not care really about America, what we stand ( stood ? ) for, or even our Constitution.

"I've seen the forgeries I've sent out." -- John F. Haugh II (jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US), about forging net news articles

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