Gina Haspel. the nominee to head the CIA, attends the ceremonial swearing-in of Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state on Wednesday in Washington. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Washington Post: Gina Haspel, nominee to head CIA, sought to withdraw over questions about her role in agency interrogation program
Gina Haspel, President Trump’s nominee to become the next CIA director, sought to withdraw her nomination Friday after some White House officials worried that her role in the interrogation of terrorist suspects could prevent her confirmation by the Senate, according to four senior U.S. officials.
Haspel told the White House she was interested in stepping aside if it avoided the spectacle of a brutal confirmation hearing on Wednesday and potential damage to the CIA’s reputation and her own, the officials said. She was summoned to the White House on Friday for a meeting on her history in the CIA’s controversial interrogation program — which employed techniques such as waterboarding that are widely seen as torture — and signaled that she was going to withdraw her nomination. She then returned to CIA headquarters, the officials said.
Taken aback at her stance, senior White House aides, including legislative affairs head Marc Short and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, rushed to Langley, Va., to meet with Haspel at her office late Friday afternoon. Discussions stretched several hours, officials said, and the White House was not entirely sure she would stick with her nomination until Saturday afternoon, according to the officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
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WNU Editor: Many in the intelligence community support her. Some in the military do not .... More Than 100 Retired Military Leaders Raise Concerns About CIA Nominee Gina Haspel (Time). The main stream media is mostly voicing their opposition in the opinion pages .... We should oppose Gina Haspel's CIA nomination because of her torture record (The Hill). The administration is calling Democrats hypocrites for rejecting the first female CIA Director nominee .... Sarah Sanders says Democrats who support women, don't vote for new CIA director are 'hypocrites' (ABC New). As to what is my take .... I want to know if can she do the job? Being there for almost 33 years tells me that she probably does know what she is doing .... and more to the point .... knowing what everyone else is doing. She is also 61 .... which tells me that this will be her last post in the CIA.
